The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde

"The Canterville Ghost"

Most grand old houses have a family ghost of some kind. Sometimes it is a quiet and kindly ghost, and sometimes it is a noisy one, always banging doors and crashing about in chains.

The ghost at Canterville Chase is one of the noisy kind, and the family can't get any sleep at night. So Lord Canterville sells the house to Mr Hiram B. Otis, who is an American and not all worried about ghosts. In fact, Mr and Mrs Otis and their children - Washington, pretty Virginia and the twins, two noisy little boys - are very happy to live in a house with a ghost.

But the ghost is not happy. His job is to frighten people, and the Otis family aren't frightened by any of his best tricks. Their hair doesn't turn white, they don't run away in terror, they don't faint - they don't even scream! And the Otis twins know more tricks than the poor ghost will ever know.