It's not long since we came here and Mrs.Packard don't approve of our gossiping with the neighbors.

But I think the people have mostly been driven away by strange noises and by lights which no one could explain, flickering up over the ceilings from the halls below.

I don't want to scare you, Miss--" "Oh, you won't scare me." "Mrs.Packard wouldn't like me to do that.

She never listens to a word from us about these things, and we don't believe the half of it ourselves; but the house does have a bad name, and it's the wonder of everybody that the mayor will live in it." "Sounds ?" I repeated.

"Lights ?"--and laughed again.