"What did you hear, Ben?"
Before Ben could answer Dave's question a blood-curdling scream rent the air. It was followed by another and then another.
"My gracious! is that a ghost?" queried Sam Day.
"It's somebody in trouble perhaps," came from Roger.
"Of dot peen a ghost I dink I go me pack to der Hall alretty now!" said Carl Sultzer, in alarm.
"There are no ghosts," said Dave. "All so-called ghosts are make-believes—humbugs, in fact."
"Which puts me in mind of a story," said Shadow, as the crowd came to a halt, listening to a repetition of the cries. "A lot of college students wanted to play a joke on their professor, so they put together the body of one bug, the wings of another, the legs of another, and the horns of another. Then they went to the old professor and said: 'Here is a wonderful new bug we have found. What family does it belong to?' The old professor looked the thing over for a minute. 'A well-known family,' he said. 'A very large family.' 'What?' asked the students, all ready to laugh at the old fellow. 'The family of humbugs,' answered the professor."
"That's all right," said Roger, laughing, while the others joined in.
"Say, vot has dot hum-pug to to mit dot ghost?" asked Carl, innocently. He had been the only one unable to appreciate the joke.