Part 1 (1/2)
The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House.
by Ross Kay.
PREFACE
In almost every rural community in the older parts of our country there is a house which some of the country folk have believed to be ”haunted.”
As a rule this house is old and perhaps has fallen into partial decay.
The children pa.s.sing on the country road move to the opposite side when they draw near the building. Stories are current of scenes which have been witnessed and sounds heard in the vacant dwelling. Perhaps even the older people have not altogether outgrown their feeling of timidity when they are near it. How baseless all such stories are and how easily most of the unusual sights and sounds can be accounted for is of course clearly understood. In this story I have tried to interest my young readers in the attempts of four normal, go-ahead boys to solve the mysteries connected with a venerable house near the home of one of them, which was shunned by many of the simple country people. I have endeavored to avoid all sensationalism and yet to interest the boys and girls in a stirring story of the experiences of my heroes. I am not without hope that the final solution of the mystery of the old Meeker House may help my young readers a little more courageously to face other problems, perhaps equally mysterious or perplexing, which may be presented to them in other forms. At all events I sincerely hope that the spirit and determination of the Go Ahead Boys will remain in their minds after the story itself shall have long been forgotten.
--Ross Kay
CHAPTER I-THE OLD MEEKER HOUSE
”Do you see that house?”
”You mean that low, old house on the corner of the road?”
”Yes.”
”What of it?”
”Well, that's one of the oldest houses in this part of the country.”
”It looks the part. How old is it?”
”It's at least one hundred and seventy-five years old.”
”It's old enough to look better, then. Is that one of the houses that Was.h.i.+ngton slept in?”
”I guess so.”
”It must be, from the stories you have told me since I have been here.
How old was Was.h.i.+ngton, anyway, when he died?”
”He was in his sixty-eighth year.”
”I think there's some mistake about that.”
”No, sir. Those are the correct figures. He was born in 1732 and he died in 1799.”
”I'm not going to dispute you, George. I'll take your word for it, but it always seemed to me that Was.h.i.+ngton's age must have been a good deal greater than the histories say it was.”
”Why?”
”Because he slept in so many houses. I have figured it up and if he had spent about a quarter of an hour in every one of the houses that you say he slept in, it will figure out that he was a good deal more than sixty-seven years old. Indeed, I have begun to think that Methuselah was an infant-in-arms compared with George Was.h.i.+ngton, if ten per cent of the stories you have been telling us are true. By the way, how old was Methuselah, anyway?”