All at once Tommy gave a shout and pointed.
“A house!”
It was indeed! And the queerest little house that ever was. It had no door and the roof sloped nearly to the ground. None of them had seen it before although it must have been there. A house couldn’t move. And yet this house seemed to have appeared by magic.
“Maybe it’s growing up out of the ground and isn’t all up yet,” Muffs said in a whisper.
“It looks that way,” Tommy agreed, “’specially the window.”
“It’s the Bramble Bush Man’s house!” exclaimed Mary. “Didn’t I tell you there could be a really-and-truly Bramble Bush Man?”
“You didn’t believe it yourself when you said it.”
“Well, now I do,” she answered and turned again to look at the house that couldn’t be a house at all. It kept right on growing out of the ground as they walked toward it. Now they could see all of the window. A long, narrow walk went up to and right through it. Certainly nobody on earth except the Bramble Bush Man would live in a house without a door.
“He might be a burglar,” said Muffs in a whisper. “Then he’d be used to going in windows.”
Mary thought he was either a giant or a college professor but Tommy still insisted he was the Guide. Whatever he was, they were curious and kept on. If they paused it was only to wonder something else and soon all three of them were walking along the plank. It tilted this way and that and felt something like standing up on a see-saw. They found the window halfway open and it was easy to crawl through. Mary went first and Muffs and Tommy followed her. They were dragging the poor Guide after them. He made a scraping sound of protest as he slid over the window sill. “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!” he kept repeating but he had been silent all afternoon so now the children wouldn’t listen.