Ralph Henry Barbour

“ Aunt Myra has such old-fashioned notions, you see. Of course, after that the House in the Hedge soon got the name of being haunted, and the next summer Larry and I used to prowl around it in the evenings, daring each other to look in the windows, and all the time keeping our ears and eyes wide open in case a “hant” should grab us. ”

“ That night Aunt Myra saw personally that all the doors and windows were locked, and that all the chain-bolts were put up. She declared that she didn't expect to sleep a wink, while Elise was so nervous that we let her sleep in the front of the house in the Major's room. My room is on the side toward the House in the Hedge, and after I had put my light out, I went to the window and looked across. All the windows in the cottage were dark, except those of the lower front room, and the next morning Aunt Myra told me that the light had burned there all night. ”

“ Aunt Myra had managed to sleep some, after all; by fits and starts, as she put it; while, as for Elise, I had the evidence of my own ears to assure me that she had not been very wakeful. I never slept better in my life, although I was conscious of having had a dream, in which the impassive man, who had captured Fairfax in the station, figured in some way. Peter had more news for us when he retured from the depot with the mail.
“They made a change yesterday next door,” he announced. “One of the women folks went away and a man came. They say she looked like she might be a nurse.” ”