The account he gave was briefly this: Himself and several other youths, sons of very strict parents, who proscribed ninepins with other games, had, out of some old timber and furniture left of O'Donnegan's old ninepin alley, that had been taken down and carried away, fitted up the old, disused cellar for their games. They had played there recently every night, with no other intention than that of amusing themselves, and of keeping their game concealed--with no thought of enacting a ghostly drama, until, to their astonishment, they gradually learned that these revels were mistaken for ghostly orgies, and had given the house its unenviable reputation of being haunted--a joke much too good for human nature, and especially for boys' human nature, not to carry out. Everything favored their concealment. The cellar was reputed to be half full of water, and was long disused, and every cellar window, except the narrow, hidden one that they had turned into a door, was nailed up. Besides, the front division of the cellar was really two feet deep in water, and when there was any great risk of discovery they had a means of letting it in to overflow the back division, so that their fixtures were all covered. Thus for months they had played the double game of ninepins and of a ghostly drama! Need I say more? Will was let off with a lengthy lecture, which I have reason to believe did him a vast deal of good, as he is now the staid father of a family, and pastor of a church. Mrs. Hawkins was for the next nine days the wonder of the neighborhood for having so valiantly exorcised the ghosts. And we settled down in perfect content in the fine old house, to which we possessed the double right of rental and of conquest. THE END. THE GILBERTS; OR, RICE CORNER NUMBER TWO. CHAPTER I. THE GILBERTS. The spring following Carrie Howard's death Rice Corner was thrown into a commotion by the astounding fact that Captain Howard was going out West, and had sold his farm to a gentleman from the city, whose wife "kept six servants, wore silk all the time, never went inside of the kitchen, never saw a churn, breakfasted at ten, dined at three, and had supper the next day!"