"Um—um, this is good," said Betty, biting off the end of a delicious morsel. "Why didn't you buy three boxes while you were about it, Roy?"
"That's all you get——" Roy was beginning, when Mollie interrupted him, speaking dreamily.
"Wasn't he a funny old man, Roy?" she said—"the one who sold us the candies, I mean."
"Yes, I guess he must have been in his dotage," Roy agreed. "In five minutes he told us all his life's history and then some."
"That's pretty good," said Allen with interest, while he dangled his marshmallow perilously near the leaping flames. "I bet you couldn't do as well."
"I know I couldn't," Roy answered modestly. "That old chap was a past master all right. Some of the things he said were interesting, though. Weren't they, Mollie?"
"Very," said Mollie, while she stared fixedly at the fire. "Interesting and—a little creepy," she added.
The girls started and leaned forward eagerly, Mrs. Irving and the boys evincing equal interest.
"Creepy!" Amy repeated, in awed tones. "Oh, Mollie, what do you mean?"
"Just that," said Mollie, enjoying the sensation she was making. "He was an awfully wizened old man, and when he heard we were from Pine Island—well, he told us some mighty queer things."