“Thank you, no.  I’m only going to stay a few minutes, Mr. Ford,” she answered.  “I feel almost like calling you Grandpa Ford myself,” she added.  “You look just like a grandfather I used to have.”

“Call me that as much as you please,” laughed Grandpa Ford.  “But what shall I call you?  I don’t remember meeting you before.”  And he led her horse to a hitching post, where he tied the animal fast.  By this time the loud-banging new automobile had rolled around the corner into the next street, luckily without making any great noise.

“I am Mabel Ripley,” said the young lady.  “You called to see my father, the other day, about the Great Hedge place he sold you, but Daddy was out.  However, he got the message you left, and he sent me over to-day with an answer.  It’s about the gh——­”

“Ahem!” loudly and suddenly exclaimed Grandpa Ford.  “I rather think, Miss Ripley, you had better come into the house where you can talk to me alone,” he said, with a quick glance at Russ and Laddie.  “Little pitchers have big ears, you know.”

“Oh, yes, I understand!” exclaimed the pretty young lady.  She, too, looked at Russ and Laddie in a strange way, smiling the while.  “You don’t want the little pitchers to know anything about it?” she asked.

“Not yet,” answered Grandpa Ford.  “It’s a sort of secret, you know.  I think it will all be easily explained, but I wanted to ask your father about it, since, as he sold me Great Hedge, he would know more about the house than I do, he having lived there so long.”

“I lived there, too,” said Miss Ripley with a smile.  “Well, as long as the banging auto is gone, I think my horse will stand all right, so I’ll come in and tell you all I know, and all my father knows, about the place, and the strange things you heard.  I’ll go in where the little pitchers can’t be filled up,” and again she smiled at the two boys.

“Is that a riddle, Grandpa Ford?” asked Laddie, as Miss Ripley started toward the front porch.

“Is what a riddle, Laddie boy?”

“About little pitchers and big ears.”

“Oh!  No, not exactly a riddle.  I’ll tell you about it some other time.  Here is five cents each, for you and Russ.  Run along now while I take Miss Ripley into the house.”

“Will you tell me one thing before you go in?” asked Laddie, as he slipped into his pocket the nickel his grandfather had given him, while Russ did the same.

“If your question isn’t a hard riddle I’ll try to answer it,” said Grandpa Ford.  “Let me hear it.”

“It’s about kites and tails and cats,” explained Laddie.  “Isn’t there a cat that hasn’t a tail, and isn’t it a Banks cat?” asked Laddie.  “I made up a riddle why is a cat like a kite because it has a tail.  And some kites haven’t any tails, Russ says.  But mother showed me a picture of a Banks cat.  And don’t they call ’em that because maybe they live in banks and haven’t any tails so they won’t get shut in a door?  Will you answer that question, Grandpa?”