"So do I," agreed the mother. "This is not a very comfortable hotel, especially as we are all tired out from a day's journey."
"What was that?" asked Bert, as a strange sound, like a howl, was heard.
"A dog," lightly answered the father.
"I don't think so," said Bert. "Listen!"
"Oh!" cried Flossie, starting up and clinging closer to Mrs. Manily,
"I'm just scared to death!"
"Dinah, I want to go home," cried Freddie. "Take me right straight home."
"Hush, children, you are safe," insisted their mother. "The stage driver will be back in a few minutes."
"But what is that funny noise?" asked Freddie. "It ain't no cow, nor no dog."
The queer "Whoo-oo-oo" came louder each time. It went up and down like a scale, and "left a hole in the air," Bert declared.
"It's an owl!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, and she was right, for up in the abandoned hay loft the queer old birds had found a quiet place, and had not been disturbed before by visitors.