“Maybe it’s somebody down cellar,” said Calvin, and taking Pointer with him, went down. Tom followed him. But there was no sign of anyone down there. Pointer ran around with his nose to the ground as if he were smelling for footsteps, but his tail kept wagging all the while. They were all familiar footsteps he scented. Nothing was out of place in the cellar except that a basket of potatoes was thrown over and the potatoes had rolled out on the cement floor. The boys noticed this without thinking anything of it. The mystery of the well digger’s ghost remained unsolved.
In the cool of the early evening after her guests had departed, Migwan wandered down into the garden to look at her various plants and flowers. It occurred to her that she had not paid her Titania Gloria a visit for several days. But what a sight met her eyes when she reached the spot where the precious thing had been planted! Not a single bit was left. The clean cut stalks showed where they had been clipped off close to the ground. Migwan started up with a cry of dismay which brought the other girls running to her side. “My Titania Gloria!” gasped Migwan. “Look! The mysterious visitor has been at work again!” And she told them about the valuable cuttings that had disappeared so uncannily.
“We never hear that ghost but what something happens after it!” said Gladys, in an awestruck tone. The girls peered apprehensively into the shadows of the tall trees surrounding the garden.
“What’s up?” asked Hinpoha, joining the group. Migwan pointed to the devastated bed. “What’s the matter with it?” asked Hinpoha.
“My Titania Gloria!” said Migwan. “It’s been clipped off at the roots.”
“Your what?” asked Hinpoha. Migwan explained about the rare plant Farmer Landsdowne had given her. Hinpoha gave a sudden start and exclamation. “What did you say it was?” she asked.
“A Titania Gloria,” answered Migwan.
“Well, girls, I’m the guilty one, then,” said Hinpoha, “for I cut those plants off thinking they were mint. That was what I decorated the platters with this afternoon. Do anything you like with me, Migwan, beat me, hang me to a tree, put my feet in stocks, or anything, and I’ll make no resistance.” She was absolutely frozen to the spot when she realized what she had done.
Migwan, grieved as she was over the loss of her cherished Titania, yet had to laugh at the depths of Hinpoha’s mortification. “You old goose!” she said, putting her arms around her, “don’t take it so to heart! It’s my fault, not yours at all, because I didn’t tell anyone what that plant was. And the leaves do look just like mint.” Thus she comforted the discomfited Hinpoha.
“Migwan,” said her mother, when they had returned to the house, “where did you get that iodine with which you painted Hinpoha’s wrist this afternoon?”