Halloween Ghosts

Title

Halloween Ghosts

Year

1940

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

October, 1940 THE YOUNG CITIZEN 371 LITTLE STORIES FOR LITTLE PEOPLE HALLOWEEN GHOSTS ADAPTED By PANCITA FLORES. "I SAW some ghosts once,'' Daniel remarked one morning when the children were all in the schoolyard waiting for the bell to ring. "Oh, ghosts!" laughed Jo. "There's no such thing as a ghost." "You don't believe there is?" asked Daniel. "Well, wait and see!" "Where dld you see any?" .asked Coy. "I'm not going io tell you,'' said Dan. iel, "but I am going to tell Miss Flores." Everyone laughed. Then Nita, Jo's sister, said, "There aren't, any ghosts, are there, Jo?" "No," answered Jo. "Daniel is just trying to fool us." At recess time Daniel didn't go out to play, and when, at the close of recess, the children heard Miss Flores say, "Why, Daniel, I think that .will be perfectly splendid,'' they were very curious to know what she meant. "Of course,'' they thought, "it couldn't be anything about ghosts." Let us wait and see. Soon the children forgot all about Daniel's secret in the excitement of getting ready for Halloween. The school was going to have a Halloween parade around the plaza, and each of the children was to take part. The parade would be held early in the evening up and down the principal streets as well as around the plaza. Every boy and girl was going to wear a curious costume-that of a witch, or a goblin, or anything desired-and many would carry fantastic lanterns. Almost everybody in town would come out to .see the parade. All the ·p[aris were kept, a big secret so that the pupils of one roorp would not know what those of another room were going to represent in the parade. When the evening of the parade came, there were many surprises. Miss Bianco's first-graders came first and were just as pretty as they could be, all dressed up as fairies ~nd goblins . Miss Francisco's boys were dressed in their Boy Scout uniforms, and the girls wore their green Girl Scout dresses. Miss Villa's boys wanted to be a baseball nine. "But there are too many of you,'' Miss Villa said, "and what could we do with the girls?" "We'd be different· leagues,'' suggested Pedro. "And the girls could be the fans,'' said Mario. 372 THE YOUNG CITIZEN October, 1940 So Miss Villa's boys wore their bas.eball suits and carried their bats, and all the girls wore sweaters and carried their school pennants, just like real fans. Miss Calvo's children were dressed in yellow and black. They carried jack-o'lanterns which they had made out of large squashes. Each hollow jack-o'-lantern had .a grotesque face cut in it, and a lighted candle inside. Miss Moreno's pupils were witches, all in black, with peaked caps and masks, riding on brooms. But what was coming? It was hard to see very far in the dim light from the street lamps. White, ghostly figures eight feet high came bowing this way and that. "The ghosts! The ghosts!" shouted somebody, and how the people laughed . and clapped their hands as the ghosts turned their heads from side to side or bowed halfway to the ground in acknowledgment of the applause. "Who are they? Who are they?" everybody wanted to know. "How can they be so tall?" "They must be on stilts." "No, they're not on stilts. They could not walk that well on stilts." These were some of the remarks that people made. Only Miss Flores' room knew the secret. Daniel had told his teacher about the ghosts he had seen in another school in a distant town, so they decided that her pupils.would be ghosts in the parade, and surprise the spectators. When· they took off their costumes after the parade everyone saw what the ghosts were. Each pupil carried a long pole with a crosspiece nailed near the top. On top of the pole was a ball made of rags. This looked like the ghost's head. The crosspiece was padded. The pieces were the arms. A sheet was thrown over and tied under the ball, making a very good looking ghost. The feet were the feet of the boys and girls who carried the poles .. The children could turn and lower the poles' to make the ghosts look from side to side and bow. Everybody said that Miss· Flores' ghosts were the best part of the grand parade. "Now," said Nita after the parade was over., "I know just what a ghost is. It's just a sheet with somebody you know inside." QUESTIONS I Did you like this story? Why? 2. When is Halloween? 3. Did you ever have a Halloween parade at your school? (Why not ask your teacher to have one this year?) 4. What is the name of the teacher in this story? 5. Who is Daniel? 6. What do you think w~s Daniel's plan?· 7. How were some of the children dressed in this Halloween parade? 8. Can you , tell how to make the costumes for the "ghosts"? 9. How did the "ghosts" act in the parade? 10. What did people say about the "ghosts" in this parade?

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