Tabitha's Vacation, page 109 by Ruth Alberta Brown
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don't blame a ghost for walking there."
"Why, Billiard McKittrick, what do you mean?"
"Did you ever see a lonesomer place on earth than the Silver Bow graveyard?" demanded Billiard. "Why, it's the worst looking cemetery in the country, I believe,--just heaps of rocks and wooden sticks to show where folks are buried. Tabitha says they blast out the graves with dynamite, six at a time, and fill them up with people as fast as they die. Would you rest easy if you were planted in that style? Wouldn't your ghost want to get out and walk?"
"Billiard McKittrick!" Toady looked positively shocked. Then after a moment, as the older boy made no reply, the younger one continued thoughtfully, "Maybe that's what is the matter with the ghost in the haunted house."
"Oh, pshaw, Toady, I tell you there ain't such a thing as a ghost!"
"I'll stump you to go down to the haunted house some time and find out."
"All right, come along!"
"Not during daylight. It must be after dark. Midnight is the best time, Susie says."
"Bother Susie! Why don't you get her to go with you?"
"You are afraid to go!" jeered Toady.
"Am not!" retorted Billiard angrily.
"Then why don't you take my dare?"
"It's all tommy-rot," insisted Billiard, with a fine show of scorn.
"'Fraid cat!"
"Oh, I'll take you up," cried the other, stung into recklessness by Toady's taunts. "We'll go to-night."
"To-night?" stammered Toady, much abashed at his brother's sudden acceptance of the dare.
"Yes, to-night!"
"What's your hurry?"
"Who's the 'fraid cat now?" taunted Billiard.
"Not me! To-night's the time. We'll set the alarm-clock for half-past ten."
"Suppose it wakes the rest of the bunch?"
"They'll think it's a mistake, and in a few minutes will be asleep again, and we can steal outside without their hearing us at all."
So it was decided, and though each boy, deep down in his heart, hoped that the other would