e I cannot tell; he must have sheltered somewhere to get out of the
snow and the cold. Later this morning I walked on to the Grange, and,
hearing from Ruth Atkins of your fright and her own, I put 'two and two
together,' and I think the result quite explains the noises you heard.'

"'Quite,' we both said; 'and we thank you so much for coming to tell us.'

"'It was certainly the very least I could do,' he said; 'and I thank you
very much for forgiving poor old Captain.'

"So we left East Hornham with lightened hearts, and, as our new friend
was travelling some distance in our direction, he helped us to accomplish
our journey much better than we could have managed it alone. And after
all we _did_ get back to our parents on Christmas day, though not on
Christmas eve."

Aunty stopped.

"Then you did take the Grange, aunty?" said the children.

Aunty nodded her head.

"And you never heard any more noises?"

"Never," said aunty. "It was the pleasantest of old houses; and oh, we
were sorry to leave it, weren't we, mother?"

"Why did you leave it, grandmother dear?" said Molly.

"When your grandfather's health obliged him to spend the winters abroad;
then we came here," said grandmother.

"Oh yes," said Molly, adding after a little pause, "I _would_ like to see
that house."

Aunty smiled. "Few things are more probable than that you will do so,"
she said, "provided you can make up your mind to cross the sea again."

"Why? how do you mean, aunty?" said Molly, astonished, and Ralph and
Sylvia listened with eagerness to aunty's reply.

"Because," said aunty,--then she looked across to grandmother. "Won't you
explain to them, mother?" she said.

"Because, my darlings, that dear old house will be your home--your happy
home, I trust, some day," said grandmother.

"Is my father thinking of buying it?" asked Ralph, pricking up his ears.

"No, my boy, but some day it will be his. It is your uncle's now, but he
is _much_ older than your father, and has no children, so you see it will
come to your father some day--sooner than we have thought, perhaps, for
your uncle is too delicate to live in England, and talks of giving it up
to your father."

"But _still_ I don't understand," said Ralph, looking puzzled. "Did my
_uncle_ buy it?"

"No, no. Did you never hear of old Alderwood Grange?"

"Alderwood," said Ralph. "Of _course_, but we never speak of it as 'The
Grange,' you know, and I have never seen it. It has always b