Halloween 2#

Little House On The Scary
"Hush, Charles! You'll wake the children!" Ma said to Pa as he came stomping into the house, bringing in the silvery moonlight with him. His gun was slung over his shoulder and he had something clutched in his hand. Jack ran dancing in beside him.

Laura snuggled down into bed so they wouldn't see her disobediently awake. Pa liked little girls who did exactly as they were told. Mary was wide awake too, her sightless eyes open in the darkness.

"Four of them, Caroline! I got four of them tonight!" Pa said.

"That's wonderful, Charles!" Ma said, helping Pa take off his tall leather boots. "I feel so much safer now."

The wind swirled up around the house. Not far away, in the dense endless forests, there were panthers and wolves, all waiting to eat little girls who wandered too far from home. Laura held her corncob doll close to her chest.

"Don't worry, Mary," Laura whispered to Mary. "Pa is home now." Mary said nothing.

"Come to bed, Charles," Ma said. "There's so much more to do in the morning."

Pa hung the four new scalps by the front door. Outside, there was no one for hundreds and hundreds of miles. The wind blew again.