painfully empty. In one of the stalls the hay purchased for our
recently acquired Jersey cow gave off a pleasant odor. Over in one
corner, in a neat, clean, orderly array, were Schmetz's tools. A
little farther on was our chicken feed, in covered barrels.

We went from empty stall to empty stall, to reassure the women;
there wasn't so much as a cobweb in any of them. All the down-stairs
windows were heavily barred with iron and further protected, like
the doors, with heavy oaken shutters studded with iron nail-heads.
The two small rooms in the rear had once been used as a jail for
recalcitrant slaves; they held now nothing deadlier than Schmetz's
flower pots and seedlings. Every shutter was closed, and the iron
bars looked reassuringly strong; also, the walls are three feet
thick.

"You were dreaming, you silly women! I told you you were dreaming!"
said I, and had turned to go, reassured and relieved, when Alicia's
nose wrinkled. I could hardly keep from sniffing, myself.

In the carriage-house was a faint, indeterminable scent, the ghost
of the ghost of fragrance, so elusive that one sensed rather than
smelled it, so pervasive and haunting that one could not miss it.
And it certainly had nothing to do with the wholesome odor of hay
and cow feed, or the smell of whitewash and oiled tools.

"Yes, you were dreaming." Alicia began to edge the colored women
toward the doors. "But as you've had a scare," she added pleasantly,
"I'll give you a new lace collar, Queenasheeba, and you a red
ribbon, Fernolia, to wear to church next Sunday, just to prove to
you that being awake is heaps better than having nightmares."

We padlocked the big doors after us, and went through the rooms
up-stairs. They, too, had been freshly cleaned and calcimined. And
they, too, were quite empty.

Despite which, Fernolia and Queenasheeba were firmly, tearfully,
shiveringly certain they had seen nothing less than ol' Mis'
Scarlett's ha'nt. They had the worst possible opinion of ol' Miss
Scarlett: she had been bad enough living--but as a spook! We had to
let them lug their bedding over and sleep in the room next to ours;
we had to give them sweet lavender to quiet their nerves. I am sure
they would have bolted incontinently if they hadn't been too scared
to venture outside.

"If I could catch that ghost I'd shake it!" declared Alicia. And we
went back to our figuring, with a sort of desperate courage. "_Now_
will you get those clothes, Sophy