"You'll have to get up a 'visitor alarm,' I guess, Nat," said Joe, noting Tavia's plight and Nat's embarrassment. "If we had heard the dump-cart on the drive we would not have kept her so long out in the cold."
"That's right," answered Nat; "we will surely have to rig up something to send signals from the gate."
"Like the coal office scales," suggested Roger. "When any one stepped on a platform at the gate the clock would go off in the house."
"Say," interrupted Tavia, "I'm not a regular circus. Suppose you let me get my things off and give us all this signal business later."
"Great idea," acquiesced Nat, being glad of the chance to change his own costume.
"Come, now, drink this beef tea," commanded Dorothy, as she brought from the pantry a steaming cup of the fragrant beverage. "You must be perished inside as well as out."
"Oh but you should have seen me in that cart!" began Tavia as she sipped the tea. "You know—I——"
"Missed the train," broke in Ned, who had been just a little joyful that all his predictions had turned out to be correct.
"Never," replied Tavia; "I was on the 4:10, but I stayed on it."
"Why?" asked Dorothy in surprise.