ndividual,"
patting the head against her shoulder.

"Oh, I like _some_ girls!" Carl conceded graciously.

"I wish there would be a little girl for me to play with," remarked
Helen plaintively, for it was the trial of her life that she was
considered too little to be made a companion of by the other children
except on special occasions.

"It is a fortunate thing that the house is to be occupied," said Aunt
Zelie, "for Mr. Jackson, the agent, told Frank that it looked as if
some one had been camping out in the garden. The grass was trampled
down and I don't know what damage done."

If she had not happened to be looking across the street she would have
seen some guilty faces. Bess grew red, Louise opened her mouth and
shut it again without saying anything, Carl drummed on the back of his
chair with an air of extreme indifference which Ikey tried to copy,
and Helen looked from one to the other with very big eyes.

The Fords' tea bell, rung at the front door for Ikey's benefit,
relieved the strain. Then presently Louise saw her father and baby
Carie coming up the street, and the Brown house was not mentioned
again.

As Aunt Zelie was on her way upstairs that night she was waylaid in
the dimly lighted hall by three ghostly figures.

"What are you doing out of bed?" she exclaimed.

"Oh, auntie, we want to tell you something! It is about the Brown
house. We have been playing Robin Hood in the garden."

"It was a lovely place, and we didn't do any harm, really."

Aunt Zelie listened with just a little bit of a smile till she had
heard the whole story. It had been great fun, there could be no doubt
of that.

"Was it wrong?" asked Bess anxiously.

"We did not hurt anything, not one bit," Carl insisted.

"Why did you keep it such a secret?"

"That was part of the fun; but I wish we had told you," said Louise.

"Yes, it is nicer to have you know things;" and Bess sighed, relieved
now that confession was made.

"It is too late to discuss it to-night, but I want you to think about
it and decide for yourselves whether or not it was right."

"Did you know it before we told you?" Carl asked suddenly.

"I only guessed it to-day," she replied, smiling.

CHAPTER II.

IN THE STAR CHAMBER.

There never lived a more genial, kindly man than old Judge Hazeltine,
and the house he planned and built reflected, as perfectly as a house
could, the character of its owner.

"The front door looks like the Judge," peop