The boys were up very early.  They knew that they had along day ahead of them planting all the trees.  They got dressed, putting on their work overalls, had breakfast and quickly cleaned up the kitchen and house.   Locking the door they headed down the trail to Amanda’s house.  When they got to Amanda’s she was already waiting on her porch, sitting next to a big blue and yellow cooler.

“What’s in the cooler?” Billy asked.

“I packed us some lunch. I made lots of sandwiches and cold drinks, and of course lots of chocolate chip cookies for Brownie,” Amanda replied.  

The boys grabbed the cooler and they headed down the trail to The Hollow where they were to meet everyone else.  Everyone was already at the Hollow when they got there.  

“It’s about time you lazy bones showed up,” Raymond said to Bobby.

 “We had something very important to do,” Bobby told Raymond.  

What was so important, some of their friends asked.

“Well,” Billy replied, “We helped Amanda bring lunch.”

A quiet fell over The Hollow, no-one said anything; they just looked at each other until Brownie broke the silence.  

“Yes!” That’s important,” he said, “no-one works well on an empty stomach.”

Everyone laughed, the boys were right lunch was important.

Just then Mr. Hoggs pulled up in his truck with the back loaded with hundreds of young trees ready to be planted.  The Professor explained to Mr. Hoggs where he wanted the trees dropped off, and as Mr. Hoggs dropped the trees by the many burnt out areas everyone started planting them.  Edward, Edmond and Elizabeth were in charge of watering all the trees that were planted.  By the afternoon the job was done and all the areas that the fire had destroyed now had new trees growing.  Everyone headed back to The Hollow where they all took a refreshing dip in the pool before they headed home.

It was now getting late in the afternoon and the sun was getting closer to the mountain tops.  Billy, Bobby and Amanda said goodbye to everyone and started up the trail towards their homes.   As they walked up the trail Billy stopped and walked over to the edge of the path.

“What’s the matter?” Amanda asked.

“Come over here,” Billy responded, “There’s something strange here.”

Bobby and Amanda walked over to where Billy was staring into the woods.

“What do you see?” asked Bobby.  

“Look over there,” Billy said, pointing to two old brick gate posts, and an old iron gate sitting in the middle of no where.

“What do you think it is?” asked Amanda.

 “It’s an iron gate,” Billy answered, “but I don’t know why its here.”  Billy pushed his way through the brush to get to the gate.

“Why do you think it’s here?” Amanda asked Bobby.  

“I don’t know, but someone put it here for a reason,” Bobby replied.

As Amanda and Bobby were talking Billy was pushing the dried leaves out of the way and found a brick walkway heading up the hill through the woods.

“Where do you think it goes?” Amanda asked Billy.

“I don’t know,” Billy replied, “but I’m going to find out.” Billy always liked adventure and started up the walkway with Bobby and Amana right behind him.

“You know it’s starting to get dark,” Bobby pointed out to Billy,

“I know” Billy replied, “I just want to see where the path goes.”  Just as Billy said that, there in the shadows at the top of the hill was a large house, which was covered with vines and hidden in the trees. 

“What’s that doing there?” Amanda asked the boys.

“I don’t know,” replied Billy. “I didn’t know it was there.”

Bobby told Billy that it was getting dark fast and that they better get home before it gets too dark and they get lost in the woods.  Billy agreed, but told Bobby that after dinner he was going to come back with a flashlight and explore the old house.

They walked Amanda home. As they got to her house Billy asked her if she was going to go exploring the old house with them after dinner.  She told them that she would love to go with them but she had a lot of things that she had to get done and she would see them tomorrow.  The boys said good night and started to walk away when Amanda called out to them.

“Come back later and tell me if you find anything interesting” she called out.

“We will,” Billy replied, as the boys headed towards their cabin.

Billy made dinner while Bobby got two flashlights,

“Make sure the batteries are good,” Billy called out from the kitchen.

It was starting to get windy and it was also getting colder so Bobby got some warm jackets for them to wear.

“Dinners ready,” Billy called out from the kitchen, just as Bobby was walking into the room.  

The boys sat down and ate dinner, Billy was very excited about exploring the old house and told Bobby that they could wait and do the dishes after they got back.  Knowing that Billy was anxious to get exploring he agreed.  They locked the door to their cabin and started down the hill to the brick path.

As they walked up the path to the old house Bobby stopped, staring at the house that was now almost invisible in the dark.

“What’s the matter?” Billy asked.

Bobby just stood there pointing at the house.

“Do you see that?” Bobby asked.

“See what?” Billy inquired.

Bobby was pointing to the tower at the front of the house. Billy looked up.

“Do you see the light coming from that window up there?” Bobby asked.

Billy stood there for a second staring at the red light coming from the tower window.  

“Do you think someone’s in there?” Bobby asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Billy, “but let’s go and find out.”

The boys walked up onto the porch and were surprised to find the front door open.  Billy slowly pushed the door open, and the scary squeaking sound it made gave them both goose bumps.  The boys slowly walked in to the entry hall. The floor boards squeaked with each step they took.  

“This house is real spooky,” Bobby said.

Laughing, Billy asked Bobby if he was afraid of ghosts,

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Bobby nervously responded to the question, “at least I don’t think there are any ghosts.” He added.  

The boys walked from room to room on the first floor.  They found nothing but some old furniture covered with some dusty old bed sheets and an old piano. The wind was starting to grow stronger and the old house creaked in the wind. The creaking sounds that the house was making made it sound like it was alive, and now even Billy was getting a little nervous.  The boys reached the second floor and like the first floor the rooms were almost empty.  The wind was blowing through some of the broken windows.  The curtains hanging by the windows in the dark looked like things flying around the rooms.  Billy turned to Bobby and told him to relax that they weren’t ghost’s just curtains blowing in the wind.

The boys started up the stairs to the tower.  Bobby stopped and tugged on Billy’s sleeve. “Do you really think we should go up there?” Bobby asked.

“It’s the only way to find out who was shining the light out the window,” Billy replied.

The boys got to the top step and looked around the small tower room.  The room was empty.  

“There’s no-one here,” bobby said sounding very relieved seeing the empty room.

“Well it looks like we have a mystery on our hands” Billy said with a smile on his face. Billy loved mysteries.  

The boys sat on the stairs wondering how someone could get passed them and out of the house without them seeing them come down the stairs.  As the boys sat and talked a strange moaning and howling sound, softly at first then getting louder and louder started to fill the house.  Billy’s and Bobby’s hearts started beating faster.

” What’s that?” Bobby asked Billy.

“I don’t know,” Billy said, “and I don’t think I want to find out, so let’s get out of here.”

The boys hurried down the stairs and out on to the porch.  Getting out of the house made them feel a little safer.  As the boys started to walk down the path Billy stopped to look back at the house, and looked up at the tower.  Cold chills ran down his back, the red light was back in the window.

Billy grabbed Bobby’s arm, “Look”, he said pointing at the window.

Bobby turned and seeing the light pulled on Billy’s arm.

“Let’s get out of here now,” he said as he picked up the pace.  

The boys reached the trail to their cabin before they stopped to talk.

“Well do you think it’s haunted?” Bobby asked.

“I don’t know but let’s go tell Amanda what we found,” Billy replied.

The boys got to Amanda’s house, and the three of them sat on her porch. Amanda listened as Billy told her about what happened at the old house.  When he finished the story he asked her what she thought. “Do you think the house is haunted?”

“Well” she replied,” I think we should tell The Professor what you found at the old house.”  

Bobby agreed that it would be a good idea to see what The Professor thought about what happened at the old house.  The boys and Amanda went to The Professor’s house, and rang the bell.  The Professor came to the door.  He was surprised when he saw Bobby, Billy and Amanda standing at his door.  He invited them in and they sat down.  Billy told the story to The Professor.

“The story sounds very interesting,” The Professor told them, but never having seen a ghost he couldn’t say if the house was haunted or not.  He suggested that everyone go home and get a good night sleep and that they could investigate the strange happenings in the morning.  Amanda and the boys said good night to The Professor and headed off home with their heads full of questions that needed answers.  Billy and Bobby walked Amanda home, said good night and went home.  Walking into the cabin the boys were greeted by a sink full of dirty dishes.

“You wash I’ll dry,” bobby said looking at the pile of dirty dishes.

Billy looked at the dishes, “That’s a deal” he said,” but next time we do the dishes right after dinner.”

The boys cleaned the dishes and the kitchen and being exhausted from a very long and busy day it wasn’t long before they both were sound asleep.