Ned White thought he knew all the roads about Ferndale and the Birchlands, but on this afternoon he stumbled with his party into a strange byway. It did not seem to lead to any place in particular, but was one of those roads cut through private property and public places alike, without regard to direction or terminus.  
This meant that the Fire Bird was lost—couldn't tell which way to fly, and its driver did not know which way to direct the big red machine.
 
"Where in the world is this?" asked Tom, noting Ned looking from one side to the other in a puzzled sort of way.
 
"Well, if it is only in this world we are lucky," answered Ned. "I rather feared we had slipped off into another planet."
 
"It's cold, too," murmured Joe, for as the afternoon sun slowly set the winter day hastened forward in all its bitterness.
 
"What time is it, anyway?" asked Roland of Ned.
 
"Four, and going to get dark in an hour. Jingo! I wish we had found some greens. The girls want to get the wreaths made up to-morrow."
 
"Why didn't we go to Tanglewood Park?" asked Roger. "There were plenty of nice there."
 
"Yes, why didn't we? That's the question. Let's try this road," and Ned turned into a branch of the highway he was driving on. "Perhaps we may get out there yet."
 
"Now, see here," interrupted Roland. "I've got a dinner date to-night. Sort of a 'return of the prodigal,' you know. I can't be late. So please don't go too far from Mother Earth. If necessary we can get the greens some other day."
 
"All right," agreed Ned. "If we can't make the park in half an hour we'll turn back. But I wonder some of you smart ones did not think of it before. There certainly were plenty of green bushes out there."
 
The turn brought our friends out on the road they had been looking for, and it took but a short time to reach the lane to Tanglewood Park.
 
Under the heavy trees it was almost like night, and it was not an easy task to distinguish one bush from another, especially as Roland kept hurrying everybody, in his anxiety to be on time at the dinner party.
 
Joe and Roger secured some fine branches of the spruces that Dorothy had wished for, Ned got quite a supply of pine branches, which he declared, "could go up just as they were," while the other boys themselves to the laurel hunt. Finally a large hedge of this all-winter green was discovered, and in a short time the Fire Bird was loaded up with a splendid supply of Christmas evergreens.
 
"I guess that will do," announced Nat, as the little boys piled in their armfuls. "We have to sit some place, you know."
 
"What's that?" asked Ned as something along the path.
 
"A lady!" almost whispered Roland, as if fearful that they might be blamed for their .
 
At that instant a small woman hurried down the other branch of the path, and called lightly to some one on the roadway.
 
She evidently did not see the Fire Bird party, for she was on an opposite path, with a deep hedge between them and her.
 
"The ghost!" whispered Roger, all eager for some new excitement.
 
"Sure as you live!" answered Nat. "That's not human—it's too flimsy and—flighty."
 
It did seem that the person flitted about in a strange sort of way, first calling, then whistling.
 
But there was some one waiting.
 
"There's a carriage," said Joe, crawling under a bush to get a better view of the other path.
 
The boys held their breath. What if this might be the owner of the park, who would object to their taking the evergreens?
 
It was well the had been left in a spot. Perhaps the woman would go off without discovering them.
 
A light carriage entered the driveway. The woman stopped to give some directions. The driver seemed to hesitate. She was urging him to go toward the castle, and he evidently wanted to go out on the main road.
 
"That driver's old Abe," declared Roger, "the fellow from the station."
 
"It sure is," answ............