wish-bone," said Rose, "and I was just
going to wish that I'd find the ghost when, all of a sudden, I heard
it!"

"Now see here, you two!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker, speaking to Russ and
Rose, while Laddie and Vi, with Mun Bun and Margy, were still at their
game. "You mustn't be talking about such things as ghosts. There isn't
any such thing, and you may scare the younger children."

"How did you hear about a ghost at Great Hedge?" asked Grandpa Ford
curiously.

Russ and Rose looked at each other. The time had come to tell of their
listening under the window, and they felt a little ashamed of it. But
they had been taught to tell the truth, no matter how much it hurt, and
they must do it now.

"How did you know about a ghost?" asked Mother Bunker.

"We--we heard you and Grandpa Ford talking about it--the time he came
to our house," confessed Russ. He felt that he, being the oldest, must
speak first.

"We listened under the window," added Rose. She wanted to do her share
of the telling.

"That was very wrong to do," said her mother. "But, of course, I know
you didn't mean to do wrong. Still, as it happened, no great harm was
done, but you should have told me about it at the time. It was not right
to be so mysterious about it, nor to have it as a secret. You two
children are too small to have secrets away from Father and Mother,
unless they are little ones, like birthday surprises and the like. Now,
don't listen under windows again."

"We won't," promised Russ and Rose, who then told the whole story.

"But is there a ghost?" asked Russ, as the strange noise sounded again.

"No, of course not," said Daddy Bunker. "But, since you have heard part
of the story, you may as well hear all of it."

Seeing that the four smaller children were busy at their play, and would
not listen to what he said, Daddy Bunker drew Russ and Rose up on his
lap and began:

"You remember when Grandpa Ford came to see us, he said he wanted to
take us back with him, and, if we could, have us help him find out
something queer about Great Hedge, which he had bought from Mr. Ripley.
The 'something queer' was that, every now and then, noises, such as you
heard just now, sound through the house. Grandpa Ford and Grandma Ford
couldn't find out where they came from, and neither Mr. Ripley nor his
daughter knew what made them.

"Of course," went on Daddy Bunker, "some people, when they hear a
strange sound or see a strange sight, think it is a gh