“Well! I am glad you have come home, Ruth,” Agnes began, impulsively. “The most mysterious things happen around this house——” “Hush!” commanded Ruth. “What is it now? You come up stairs to our room and tell me while I change my clothes. You little ones stay down here till sister comes back.” Agnes had stopped at her warning, and meekly followed Ruth up stairs. In their room the older girl turned on her and demanded: “What did you see, Aggie?” “I didn’t—it was Tess saw him,” replied Agnes, quickly. “_Him?_” gasped Ruth. “Yes. Of course, it’s foolish. But so many strange things happen in this old house. First, you know, what Eva Larry told me about the ghost——” “Sh! you haven’t seen it?” “The ghost!” squealed Agnes. “I should hope not. If I had——” She signified by her look and manner that such an apparition would have quite overcome her. “It was Tess,” she said. “She hasn’t been to the garret?” “Of course not! You believe in that old ghost, after all, Ruth.” “What nonsense!” “Well, if it wasn’t a ghost Tess saw, it was something like it. The child is convinced. And coming on top of those vanishing kittens——” “For mercy’s sake, Aggie Kenway!” screamed Ruth, grabbing her by the shoulders and giving Agnes a little shake. “_Do_ be more lucid.” “Why—ee! I guess I haven’t told you much,” laughed Agnes. “It was Tess who looked out of the kitchen window a little while ago and saw Tommy Rooney going by the house—on Willow Street.” “Tommy Rooney?” “Yes. Tess declares it was. And she’s not imaginative like Dot, you know.” “Not Tommy Rooney, from Bloomingsburg?” “There isn’t any other Tommy Rooney that we know,” said Agnes, quite calm now. “And if _that_ doesn’t make a string of uncanny happenings, I don’t know what _would_. First the ghost in the garret——” “But—but you haven’t seen that?” interrupted Ruth, faintly. “No, thank goodness! But it’s _there_. And then the vanishing kittens——” “Has Spotty gone?” “No. But Sandy-face has, and has been gone ever since you went out, Ruth. I don’t think much of that mother cat. She doesn’t stay at home with her family hardly at all. “Then this boy who looks like Tommy Rooney,” concluded Agnes. “For of course it can’t really _be_ Tommy any more than it can be his spirit.” “I’m glad to see you have some sense, Ag,” said Ruth, with a sigh. “Now let’s go down to the other girls, or they will think we’re hiding something from them.” Ruth carried down stairs in her hand the envelope Mr. Howbridge had given to her. The sisters gathered in the dining-room, and Agnes picked up Spotty to comfort him while his mother was absent. “Poor ’ittle s’ing!” she cooed over the funny little kitten. “He don’t know wedder him’s got any mudder, or not.” “It seems to me,” said Dot, gravely, “that Sandy-face must be hunting for her lost children. She wouldn’t really neglect this poor little Spotty for any other reason—would she?”