HALLOWE’EN
Before many days the winds finished what work Jack Frost didn’t attend
to himself. The leaves were neatly whisked from all the trees except the
oaks and the evergreens. Oaks are cold trees. They keep most of their
leaves on all winter and let them drop only when Spring sends word that
she is on the way with a new gown for each. Such pretty secrets some of
the trees revealed! Who suspected birds’ nests until the boughs were bare?
In the gutters of the Westmore streets lay drifts of leaves through which
the children loved to rustle on their way to school. The autumn air was
full of the pleasant smell of their burning.
About the farms on the outskirts of town, cabbages were piled in green
or purple heaps. Ears of corn dangled from barn rafters, drying for seed
next year. In rows on the piazzas sat pumpkins.
Lucy and Dora greatly wanted pumpkins because in a few days it would
be Hallowe’en. On that evening the Westmore children dressed up and
pretended to be goblins and ghosts. Every respectable ghost lighted its
way with a pumpkin lantern.
The children consulted Father. He asked Mother if the pumpkins could be
made into pies after they had been lanterns. Mother thought a moment and
said she could use them.
Father bought two small pumpkins. Lucy wanted to make her own lantern and
so did Dora, but they found the shell much harder than they expected.
Mother was so afraid they would cut themselves that she would not let
them take the sharpest kitchen knife. When Father came home from work
both little girls were glad to let him help them.
Father did not find it hard to cut off the top of each pumpkin, but
Mother let _him_ have a sharp knife. Lucy and Dora scooped out the soft
part with the seeds, and Father cut eyes and a nose and a mouth in each
lantern. Lucy’s had teeth with sharp points, which made it look cross,
but Dora’s had a smooth, curved, smiling mouth.
Mother found a bit of candle for each, and they lighted them and turned
down the gas to see how they were going to look. They looked decidedly
spooky.
The last day of October was windy and cold, but when the sun went down
the wind went with it. This was lucky, because if it had not stopped, the
policemen would not let the children build bonfires.
Directly after supper Lucy and Dora began to dress as ghosts. Each wore
an old pillow-case in which Mother said they might cut holes for eyes and
noses and arms. Mother tied the points so they looked like ears. She also
tied tapes around their necks to make the cases fit better. Then their
eye-holes would not slide about.
“I declare!” she said when they were dressed. “I wouldn’t like to meet
you in the dark myself!”
Lucy and Dora jumped up and down with delight. If Mother felt that way,
mere strangers would be terribly scared.
Father lighted the lanterns. He told them to be very careful not to set
themselves on fire, and not to go near any burning leaves.
Mother told them not to go down into the square because big and rough
boys might be out. She told them to keep in their own part of town and
to ring door-bells only where they knew the people who lived in the
houses.
The children said they would remember and skipped happily away.
Underneath the pillow-cases they wore warm sweaters. First they rang the
Bakers’ bell and Marion rushed to the door. She stopped short when she
saw the two white figures with their lanterns.
“It is Lucy and Dora!” she exclaimed. “I am almost ready to come out.
Which way are you going?”
They told her and ran off to make another call. The grown people in
Westmore were very patient with the children that evening. They opened
their doors when the bells rang and spoke pleasantly to the little
ghosts. Some of them pretended to be afraid and most of them admired the
sweet smile of Dora’s lantern. One gentleman gave them each a chocolate
cream.
“Being a spook must be hungry work,” he said. Lucy and Dora told him that
it was.
Only a few houses kept their porch lights burning and wouldn’t give the
children the fun of having the door opened for them.
Lucy and Dora went to call at Miss Page’s home on the hill. Miss Page
seemed to be expecting visitors, for she came to the door herself,
screamed loudly and then guessed that the ghosts were Alice and Grace.
The ghosts giggled and shook their heads.
“Iris and Mary,” suggested Miss Page, and she did not guess Lucy and Dora
until she had named all the girls in her Sunday-school class. When the
ghosts took little leaps she knew she had guessed correctly.
She gave them each a wee cake with pink icing and told them not to fall
down the front steps and to be careful of their lanterns.
Next to Miss Page’s home stood Mr. Harper’s big house.
“Let us go in here,” said Lucy when they had untied the tapes on each
other’s masks, eaten the little cakes, and then tied the tapes again.
“Alice will be out with the others,” said Dora.
“I know it, but there are some people at home. I can see her father
sitting by the fire in the room where the curtain is up.”
Very softly the children crept on the porch and found the electric bell.
In a minute they heard steps in the hall and the porch light came on.
They did not run but stood in silence, holding their grinning lanterns.
Mr. Harper opened the door and when he saw them he looked for a second
and then threw his arms up into the air.
“Help, Mamma!” he shouted. “Ghosts, Mamma! Come and save me!”
Lucy and Dora couldn’t help giggling. They had not expected him to act
like that. They didn’t think Mrs. Harper would come, but she did.
“Goodness!” she said. “What shall we do, James? Ghosts! and not an inch
of mosquito netting in the house!”
This was too much for Dora. She was so interested that she forgot she was
a spook.
“Don’t ghosts like mosquito netting?” she asked.
“No, indeed!” said Mr. Harper. “It gives them hay fever. Harriet,” he
said to his wife, “how _could_ you let the mosquito netting run out?”
Lucy began to think Mr. Harper was crazy, but Dora knew he wasn’t. Uncle
Dan talked in just that way. She laughed and so did Mrs. Harper.
“Come in, won’t you?” asked Mr. Harper, opening the door wider.
“No, thank you,” said Lucy. “We have a great many other calls to make.
But is Alice at home?”
“She is out being a goblin,” said Mrs. Harper. “I think you will find her
on School Street. Could you each eat a caramel?”
The ghosts needed no second invitation. They thanked Mrs. Harper. “Do you
know us?” Dora asked as they were going.
Mrs. Harper smiled. “Yes, I know you, Dora,” she said. “Mrs. Merrill’s
little girls are ladies even when they wear pillow-cases.”
“What did she mean?” Dora asked Lucy as they went down the steps. Lucy
didn’t know, but when they asked Mother, she seemed to understand, though
she didn’t tell them.
[Illustration: “GHOSTS, MAMMA! COME AND SAVE ME!”—_Page 173._]
After they had called on all the people they knew in that part of town
they went to Olive’s house, but she was out, having a Hallowe’en frolic
herself.
Next, the children joined one of the groups in the street. It was holding
hands and dancing around a bonfire. The fire was right in the centre
where one street crossed another and the automobiles could not pass. The
automobiles did not like it at all, but there stood Mr. Waterman, the
tall policeman, and he made them all go around another block. This night
belonged to the children.
Lucy and Dora danced for a time and then began to feel rather tired. The
fire was dying down and Mr. Waterman yawned behind a veil of smoke.
Before they reached home they met Father, who seemed to be out for a
walk. He did not _say_ he was looking for them, but it was not usual for
him to walk about the streets at night unless he were going to church or
to a lecture or to his lodge-meeting.
Father offered to carry their lanterns and both were willing to let him.
Even small pumpkins grow heavy when carried around for an hour and a half.
The front porch was peppered with beans which boys had blown through
air-guns. Mother thought it wrong for them to waste food in that way.
“Did you have any callers while we were gone?” Lucy asked.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Ten different ghosts have called on me. I gave
each an animal cracker and they went away at once. One ghost said that
elephants didn’t agree with him, so might he have a lion.”
“Did you change it for him?” asked Dora.
“I did,” said Mrs. Merrill.