mother wouldn't like it if she knew how much you sat in Angeline's lap
and talked about ghosts. _I_ don't want to see any or hear any."

"I do, though!" cried Dotty. "I shouldn't be afraid--the leastest
speck. I'd go right up to 'em, and, said I, 'How do you do, sir?' And
then they would melt like a wink. It blows 'em right out the moment you
speak."

"Does it, though?" said Johnny, who had been listening at the door. "You
don't say so! Call me when you see your ghostses, and let me talk to 'em
too."

"And _me_! What _is_ um?" said wee Katie, toddling in with her mouth
full of candy.

"There, there!" cried Dotty Dimple, "you've been a-listening, Johnny
Eastman."

"Don't care! 'Tisn't so bad as being a tell-tale, Miss!" said Johnny,
ending the sentence in a naughty tone.

"Why, Johnny, you mus'n't say that!"

"Why, Johnny," echoed Katie, "you _musser_ say _that_!"

"Say what?"

"Say _Miss_."

The children all laughed at this.

"Come, little ones," said Mr. Parlin, appearing at the door, "put on
your hats; we are ready to start."

Prudy clapped her hands--an action which cousin Percy did not consider
very polite.

"It shows," said he, "how glad you are to leave us."

"O, but we are going _home_, you know, Percy! Only think of having a
home to go to!"

"It isn't the burnt one, though," remarked Dotty, as she danced off the
door-step; "and I 'spect I'll never see that darling little tea-set any
more."

The new house was not in the least like the old one. Susy was always
bewailing the contrast. She did not like the wallpaper; the carpets
were homely; the rooms were, some of them, too large, and the door-yard,
certainly, too small.

"But it's better than nothing," said Prudy, who, for one, was heartily
tired of visiting.

"I think," said Mrs. Parlin, smiling, "this is a very good opportunity
for my little daughters to learn to make the best of everything. We
cannot have the old house, so we will try not to long for it. We never
wish for the moon, you know."

"Katie does," laughed Susy.

"We cannot have the old home again, so we will make the new one as happy
as we can. Isn't that the best way?"

"Of course it is, mamma," replied all the children.

"'Course, indeed, it is!" said Katie, trying to pull up the carpet in
her search for a lost three-cent piece.

"I'm glad father's dressing-gown and slippers didn't get scorched," said
Prudy; "and the piano sounds as sweetly as ever it did. It sounds