Off on the trip

The girls stared blankly at one another.  The boys frankly winked at each other, clearly unbelieving.

“Haunted?” Betty finally gasped.

“A ghost?” echoed Amy, falteringly.

“What—­ what kind?” Grace stammered.

“Why, the usual kind, of course,” declared Will.  “A ghosty ghost, to be sure.  White, with long waving arms, and clanking chains, and all the accessories.”

“Stop it!” commanded his sister.  “You’ll scare Paul,” for the child was looking at Will strangely.

“Oh, it’s white all right,” put in Mr. Lagg, “and some of the fishermen around here did say they heard clanking chains, but I don’t take much stock in them.  Tell me,” he demanded, helping himself to another slice of cheese, “tell me why would anything as light as a ghost—­ for they’re always supposed to float like an airship, you know—­ tell me why should they want to burden themselves with a lot of clanking chains—­ especially when a ghost is so thin that the chains would fall right through ’em, anyhow.  I don’t take no stock in that!”

“But what is this story?” asked Betty.  “If we are thinking of camping on Elm Island, we do not want to be annoyed by some one playing pranks; do we, girls?”

“I should say not!” chorused the three.

“Well, of course I didn’t see it myself,” spoke Mr. Lagg, “but Hi Sneddecker, who stopped there to eat his supper one night when he went out to set his eel pots—­ Hi told me he seen something tall and white rushing around, and making a terrible noise in the bushes.”

“I thought ghosts never made a noise,” remarked Grace, languidly.  She was beginning to believe now that it was only a poor attempt at a joke.

“Hi said this one did,” went on Mr. Lagg, being too interested to quote verses now.  “It was him as told me about the clanking chains,” he went on, “but, as I said, I don’t take no stock in that part.”

“I guess Hi was telling one of his fish stories,” commented Frank.

“Oh, Josh Whiteby seen it, too,” said Mr. Lagg.  He was enjoying the sensation he had created.

“Is he reliable?” asked Will.

“Well, he don’t owe me as much as some,” was the judicious answer.  “Josh says he seen the white thing, but he didn’t mention no chains.  It was more like a ‘swishing’ sound he heard.

“Dot any more tandy?” asked Paul, and the laugh that followed in a measure relieved the nerves of the girls, for in spite of their almost entire disbelief in what they had heard, the talk bothered them a little.

“There are no such things as ghosts!” declared Betty, with excellent sense.  “We are silly to even talk about them.  Oh, there is something I want for my boat,” and she pointed to a little brass lantern.  “It will be just fine for going up on deck with,” she proceeded.  “Of course the electric lights, run by the storage battery, are all right, but we need a lantern like that.  How much is it, Mr. Lagg?.”