urts.
They've been trying for years to get it settled between them, but the
courts haven't decided yet, and they may not for a long time."

"And meantime no one can use it?"

"That's it. It seems silly, doesn't it? If the courts take so long to
decide it must mean, I should think, that both sides were partly right,
and I should think they'd want to settle it between themselves, and so
each get some use out of the land. There's an old house, more than a
hundred and fifty years old, in the woods, too."

"Doesn't anyone live in it?"

"No one now. Tramps go there sometimes, I've heard, because it is so
lonely. Some people say it's haunted, but I guess the tramps played
ghost, just so that people would stay away and let them alone."

"Gee, if there's a ghost around, I hope he stays in when we're passing.
I'm afraid of them!"

"Why, how could a ghost hurt you, Tom? Anyhow, you don't need to worry
about ghosts in the daytime. They only come out at night."

"It's pretty dark in here, Jack. The woods are mighty thick."

"I believe you _are_ scared, Tom," said Jack, laughing. "Well, don't
you worry! I'm pretty sure that if anyone ever did see a real thing
here that he thought was a ghost it was a tramp in disguise. And I
don't believe you're afraid of a tramp--though I'd rather meet a ghost,
myself, than a vicious tramp."

"Gee, that railroad train's whistle sounds good," said Tom, a few
minutes later. "That must be at the crossing."

"Yes. It isn't much further now. And the house is near the crossing,
too. I believe the people who lived in it made a great fuss when the
railroad went through, and that was about the time when the quarrel
started. They said it would spoil their property to have the station
so near them--instead of which, if they could only see it, it's made it
a whole lot more valuable."

Suddenly Tom, who was walking as fast as he could and was ahead of
Jack, stumbled and fell against a root. When Jack got beside him he
was white with pain.

"I guess I must have twisted my foot pretty badly," he said. "I don't
believe I can stand on it for a while."

He put a hand on Jack's shoulder and tried to walk, but found the pain
too great.

"Here, let me see it," cried Jack. "I may be able to do something to
make it better."

Tenderly he removed Tom's shoe, and turning the stocking back from the
injured ankle, rubbed and examined it thoroughly.

"I may hurt you when I rub it around,