“Don’t you know that it has no owner?” Charley asked, in some surprise. “I’ve heard my father say that there has been a sign with ‘For Sale’ on it swinging there for twenty years. It’s such a crazy wreck that no person will rent it; and I guess by this time it is a heap of ruins, and not worth tearing down and carting away. There is only half an acre of ground belonging to it, and likely that is full of great weeds. The man who owns the place has more property, and he lets this go to ruin without remorse; but every year he comes along and picks the ten or twelve apples and pears off the old trees in the yard. He doesn’t care any more for it, and the house has been empty so long that it’s called ‘Nobody’s House.’ No one cares to live in such a place, so lonesome and gloomy, and with those ghostly fruit-trees and the neglected fence, all looking like spectres. In fact, there is a story that the place is haunted!”
“You seem to know all about it, Charley,” said Steve. “I’ve seen it a long way off, and I’ve heard that it is haunted, but that is all.”
“Yes, I asked pa to tell me about it, for I want to go and explore the place some day,” Charles replied. “And it seems to me that it would be fun for us all to go some day. What a hubbub there would be if we all got there together! And I’m certain the ‘owner’ wouldn’t care, if we tear the old ruin all to pieces.”
“That’s a good idea!” said Steve, with sparkling eyes.
“Don’t you see, we might even take up our quarters there, it’s so far out of the way,” Charles continued. “No one would come to molest us; for more people than you suppose, believe the house is haunted, and never go near it.”
“I see what you’re thinking of,” said Steve. “You mean to bring that old ghost back to life!”
“Well, that might be done for a little by-play, but that isn’t what I meant,” Charley returned. “I know that boys in stories try to raise a ghost or two sometimes, when everything else fails them, but it wouldn’t be a profitable business for us. We don’t want to copy after such vagabond heroes; let us strike out in another line.”
“Well, if you have laid any plot, tell us what it is,” Stephen said impatiently.
“Boys, I want to hatch a plot, with that shell of a house for our head-quarters; but I want your help, for I don’t know how to go to work. As I said before, I haven’t thought of any thing yet.”
“Don’t tell us what you ‘said before,’ Charley;” said Will. “It sounds too much like a lecturer reminding the people of what he has said, just as if he thought they didn’t pay attention enough to him to remember a word of his speech.”