"I should say it is,--and yet you like this room."
"Yes, Nell, I do, and I'm going to find out what or who does this. Maybe it's Paulina."
"For half a cent I'd like to see if she is in her room. Don't you suppose she heard that moaning?"
"I don't see how she could help it, and with our putting on and off lights all around, too."
Jannet had scarcely stopped speaking when there was the sound of an opening door. The light went on in the hall again. "Girls," said Paulina, "did you hear it?"
Jannet almost laughed out, for Paulina in her long muslin gown looked so funny. She had thrust her feet into immense woolen slippers, wore the little shoulder shawl, and--of all things--a night-cap,--over her hair!
"Yes, Paulina, and we almost lost the coverlid, as I lost the blue comforter one night."
"What?" asked Paulina, "that blue comforter that I put on your bed?"
"It's in the closet. I thought that you put it there."
Jannet and Paulina eyed each other. Nell laughed. "It was us in the hall, with the lights on, Paulina."
"I thought so. It was _Her_ in your room, then, I suppose."
"Who is she, Paulina?" asked Jannet. "Not Mother, of course."
"No. Ask your Uncle Pieter who cries and sobs and goes through walls. Go to bed. There'll be nothing more to-night. I'll not call you early."
"Thank you, Paulina. I'm going to leave on one little light."
Paulina made no reply to this remark, but went off in the sudden fashion she had, and the girls heard her door open and close.
The human contact, and the assurance of "Old P'lina" that there would be no further disturbance, relieved the situation for the girls. Nell, with a sigh of relief, crawled between the sheets. "Ghost or no ghost, I'm going to sleep, Jannet."
"So am I. But the next time, I'm going to '_yell_' for Paulina, and not try to see it through myself. Who do you suppose she meant when she told me to ask Uncle Pieter?"
"His wife, I suppose. But there is a lots older ghost than she is, and I 'spect P'lina's mad at your Uncle Pieter about something. She's terribly queer herself, you know."
"I'm going to get acquainted with Paulina and find out all about the family history. I've been afraid to ask her so far. I'm so sorry, Nell, for all this. I hope that you will sleep now."