t
talked 'bout. I don't run and tell all I sees and hears."

"Jis' confide in my buzzom," said Dolf, tenderly.

"Men is so duberous, 'specially dem as brags 'bout der mean white blood,
which comes out coppery any how," said Clorinda.

"Yer knows I'se de most faithful and constance ob my sect," cried Dolf.
"Yer may speak freely to me."

"I 'spose yer'd say de same to Vic."

"Neber, Miss Clorindy! What, dat silly, giggling girl--don't tink it!"

His persuasions met with their reward at last; he pleaded again:

"Jis' tell me what yer means 'bout de tree bein' haunted?"

She yielded to his flattery and her feminine desire to tell all that she
had seen or imagined about the old cedar.

"Mebby 'twas two months 'fore you came back," she said, in the tone of a
person trying to be exact in her recollection of events.

"What was?" cried Dolf, impatiently, "de hauntin'?"

"Ef I'm gwine to tell you my story I'll do it in my own way," said
Clorinda, majestically.

"In course, in course," returned Dolf. "I begs pardon for de 'ruption.
Jis' go on, sweetest Miss Clo'."

"I tells yer dar's been somethin' agoing on in dis house," pursued
Clorinda. "Dat ar bracelet losing was all of a piece wid what went
afore. Missus was awful mad at me for saying so, but I don't care. She's
queer--stuck up like. There's Miss Elsie, sweet allers as a young
kitten!"

"Yes, yes," Dolf said, ready to agree with anything in order to get at
the heart of Clorinda's mystery.

"Afore ever dat ring was lost I seed a man in de house in de dead ob de
night--a man and a woman!"

"Good gracious!" cried Dolf.

"I'd had de toothache, and ben down to de kitchen fire a smokin'
pennyryal, and awful sick it made me. I was gwine up de back stairs,
when I heard steps in de hall. I looked in and I seed a man and woman
plain. I had de candle in my hand. I screeched right out, and shut my
eyes, and let de candle fall. When I opened 'em again missus had come
out of her room, wid a shawl over her and a lamp in her hand.

"'What yer doin' dar?' says she.

"I up and telled her 'bout de man and woman, and she larfed in my face.

"'Whar be dey?' says she. 'Dar's nobody here but us.'

"'Twarn't no use to say nothin', she flew off into one o' her tantrums,
and scolded me like all possessed. I don't like her, anyhow, and dat's
all 'bout it!"

"But is dat all?" questioned Dolf, in a disappointed tone.

"No, it ain't all; jis' wait and don't go off de handle a