to have given me
the use of it. And you're going to stay out if I have to put a padlock
on the door. You've got all outdoors to play in--can't you find
something pleasant to do?"

"Betty! Roddy!" called Nellie Yarrow from her side of the hedge.
"Betty! Come on out, I want to tell you something."

Brother and Sister ran toward the door.

"Wait a second!" shouted Jimmie. "Turn around."

They looked back at him. He was smiling.

"No hard feelings?" he suggested.

Sister dimpled and Brother laughed.

"No hard feelings," they chuckled and ran on down to the hedge.

That was the way the Morrison family always smoothed out their
disputes. There was so many of them that they really could not be
expected to be always pleasant and never quarrel, but every
disagreement was, sooner or later, sure to end with the cheerful
announcement, "No hard feelings."

"I suppose they ought to have a place of their own to play in," said
Jimmie to himself when the children had gone. "I wonder if--"

He had an idea which for the present he meant to keep to himself.

CHAPTER X

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

"Hello!" Nellie Yarrow greeted Brother and Sister. "What do you think?"

"What?" asked Sister, apparently unable to think.

Nellie Yarrow pointed her finger as one having important news to tell.

"The haunted house is rented!" she said, excitedly.

The "haunted" house was an object of curiosity to every child in
Ridgeway. It was a small, shabby brown shingled dwelling on one of the
side streets, and it was whispered that a man had once seen a "ghost"
sitting at one of the windows. That was enough. Ever after no boy or
girl would go past the house at night, if it were possible to avoid it,
and the more timid ran by it even in the day time. Of course they
should have known there are no such things as "ghosts," but some of
them didn't.

"Who is going to live in it?" asked Sister curiously. "Don't you
suppose they will be afraid?"

"Well, I wouldn't live in it," declared Nellie positively. "Some folks
don't care anything about ghosts, though. Let's go down and watch 'em
carry in the furniture."

Not many new families moved into Ridgeway during the year, and a June
moving was something of an event. The children found a little group of
folk watching the green van backed up to the gate. Two colored men were
carrying in furniture, and an old lady with her head tied up in a towel
was sweeping off the narrow front porch.

"Gee, s