The Little Brown Dog
a Tale from Yorkshire, England
Eva was a very old woman who had no family or
friends. She only had her little brown dog, Chester, who went everywhere with
her.
Unless it was really cold, when Chester would
sleep by the fire, the dog always slept right beside Eva's bed. If Eva was
frightened or was having a nightmare, she would put her hand down and Chester
would lick it.
One night it was dark and very cold.
Eva put logs on the fire, turned out the lights,
and tried to sleep. But she was shivering and couldn't stop thinking about a
scary murder she had read about in the newspaper.
She reached down to where Chester slept. Sure
enough, a warm wet tongue licked her hand.
As she started to fall asleep, she opened her
eyes and looked through the door into the living room. There, in front of the
fireplace, was Chester looking right at her. Down beside her bed, something was
licking her hand.
Never Mind the Gummy Bears
based on an Alabama ghost
story
Sam
didn't believe in ghosts. Not one bit. All her friends knew the old log cabin
in the woods was haunted, but Sam just laughed whenever her friends talked
about it.
One Halloween, her friends dared her to spend the night in the haunted cabin.
If she stayed until morning, her friends would give her all of their Halloween
gummy bears. Sam was delighted. Gummy bears were her favorite candies.
Sam went into the old cabin, sat on the floor, and started to read her book.
Soon she heard a creaking sound. Looking up, she saw a creature with glowing
red eyes, a long tail, and two horns on its head, claws, and sharp teeth that
poked right through its large lips.
Sam's heart nearly stopped with fright. She jumped to her feet and ran right
out the door. But it wasn't long before she heard the creature with the red
eyes behind her.
"You run pretty fast for a girl," said the creature to Sam.
"Oh, I can run much faster than this!" cried Sam.
Sam took off like a bolt of lightning. As she ran past her friends she shouted,
"Never mind the gummy bears!"
Sam ran all the way home and hid under her bed for the rest of Halloween night.
After that, she was a firm believer in ghosts, and she refused to go anywhere
near that old cabin.
The Halloween Skeleton
based on a New Mexico ghost
story
One
Halloween night, a boy got lost and had to spend the night in an empty old
house. He fell asleep and woke up suddenly when he heard a thump on the roof
and a voice calling out, "I'm falling down!"
The boy ran out of the way just as an arm bone came crashing to the floor. Then
another arm landed - then a leg, a skull, and a second leg. Before he could
count to ten, a complete skeleton was standing there.
The boy did not want to show his fear. The skeleton was impressed with the
boy's spirit and said, "You have courage. Are you brave enough to wrestle
me?"
The boy was very afraid, but he dared not refuse this strange ghost. He
remembered a trick his brother taught him. He twisted suddenly and threw the
skeleton onto the ground.
"You win!" said the skeleton. "Your courage deserves a reward.
Open that door in the floor and promise me that you will share the reward that
you will find."
The boy agreed to do what the skeleton asked. He opened the door and saw a room
filled with gold coins and jewels.
The skeleton laughed, said "Happy Halloween," and then began to
disappear, piece by piece, until he was gone.
The boy did as he promised, and his family and many others in his village lived
in comfort all of their days.
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