“Well, don’t let it bite you,” murmured Billie.

“Wait till you hear and you won’t be so sarcastic,” retorted Laura.  “I’m sure I have just the very person that we want.”

“Oh, who?” cried Violet.

“Maria Gilligan, our housekeeper,” Laura announced, and then sat back with an air that said just as plainly as words:  “There! how’s that for an inspiration?”

“Maria Gilligan, your housekeeper?” Billie repeated.

“I think it’s a rather good idea, Laura,” said Violet.  “Isn’t Mrs. Gilligan the one who is always playing jokes on her husband?”

“Yes, she’s the funniest thing you ever saw,” Laura answered, her eyes beginning to twinkle at the memory of some of Mrs. Gilligan’s escapades.  “Why, one April Fool’s Day she set the clock back an hour and Mr. Gilligan got up grumbling that it was awfully dark for six o’clock.  Then when he was all ready and was starting out to work she told him about it.”

“What did he do?” asked Violet, interested.

“I know what I’d have done if I’d been in his place,” sniffed Billie.  “I’d have tied her in a chair and gagged her and left her there all day.”

“Billie! how barbaric!” cried Violet.  “What would you have done that for?”

“Just so she could have thought over her sins,” said Billie with a chuckle.  “I never did believe in practical jokes.”

“And then another time,” said Laura, her eyes twinkling, “she was upstairs straightening up the store-room when she pretended to have a tumble.  You know she weighs about two hundred pounds—­”

“At a rough guess, I should say three hundred,” murmured Billie, for Billie was in a very contrary mood that day.

“And she came down with a thump that shook the chandeliers,” Laura went on, ignoring the interruption, “and when Mr. Gilligan—­you know he weighs only a hundred and fifty and is about half her size—­”

“Now I know she weighs three hundred,” interposed Billie again.  “It’s just a matter of arithmetic.”

“There she was with her head in her hands,” went on Laura, too much amused by her story to notice the interruption, “sobbing as if her heart would break.  And when he got down on his knees to comfort her, she just looked at him with a grin and said:  ‘April Fool.’”

“Well, I should say he was,” said Billie, with another sniff.  “And not only an April Fool, either.  She would try a trick like that just about once with me.”

“Well, anyway,” Laura concluded, “I think she would be just the one to take on our trip with us.  She’s jolly and full of fun and yet she’s old enough and fat enough to please our fathers and mothers.  What do you say?”

“Do you suppose she’s fat enough to scare away the ghosts?” asked Billie, with a chuckle.

“My, but I’d be sorry for any mistaken ghost that tried to have a set-to with her,” laughed Laura.  “She’d just laugh at them and say:  ’Shoo, ghost, don’t bodder me.’”