It’s Halloween Again
Eleanor Elkins
Halloween is here again
With golden pumpkins all about,
Goblins now will come a-spying,
Witches through the air a-flying,
Funny faces we’ll be buying
At dark of night we’ll all go out.
Halloween is here again …
Autumn leaves come tumbling down,
Black cats will slink about tonight,
The moon will shed an eerie light;
“Trick or treat” will bring delight
From every house in town.
We all look forward to the time
When Halloween is here,
Owls will hoot high in the trees
And we will brave the chilly breeze
That heralds winter’s coming freeze …
October’s time of year.
So join me on this special night
When ghostlike shapes are seen,
We’ll duck for apples, spin the pan,
Play blindman’s bluff and tag our man,
Pull taffy, fragrant, golden tan …
This night of Halloween.
Adapted from the original
by Mark Twain (1835-1910)
I took a large room up Broadway, in a huge old building whose top stories had been-empty-for years, given up to dust and cobwebs. I seemed invading the privacy, of the dead that first night I climbed to my room, and turning a dark angle of the stairway, a cobweb clung to my face, I reached my room. As the fire burned low, loneliness crept over, me. I covered up in bed and lay listening to the rain and wind till they lulled me to sleep.
All sit once I found myself awake. All was still but, my own heart. Presently the bedclothes began to slip away slowly, as if someone were pulling them! I could not stir. Then I seized them and drew them over my head. Once more that steady pull began, and I snatched the, covers back and held them –
By and by I felt a faint tug. My hold parted, and for the third time the blankets slid away. I groaned. An answering groan came from the foot of the bed! Presently I heard a heavy footstep the step of an elephant, it seemed. I lit the lamp with a trembling hand. I felt a gust of air and was conscious of a huge, cloudy presence before me. It gradually took shape-arms, legs, a body, and a great sad face. The majestic Cardiff Giant loomed above me!
All my misery vanished- for a child might know that no harm could come with the sweet face of that well-loved giant. Why, is it nobody but you? I said. I wish I had a chair-here, don’t try to sit down in that thing! But it was too late – I never saw a chair, so splintered in my life. ” Stop, stop, you’ll ruin everything,” I cried, but too late again. There was another crash and another chair was broken. Before I could stop him, the bed was destroyed.
” Confound it, what is wrong with you? – I yelled. “You are big enough to know, better!” I apologize,” the giant moaned. ” I have not had a chance to sit down for a century.” And the tears came into his eyes. He sat down on the floor, wrapped up in my red blanket, and inverted my sitz-bath on his head, helmet fashion, and made himself comfortable. We talked along for half an hour, and I mentioned that he looked tired.
‘Tired? He said. ” Well I should think so. I am the spirit of the petrified man that lies across the street there in the museum. I am the ghost- of the Cardiff Giant. I can have no rest until they bury me. I haunted the museum for a long time, but who comes to the museum at midnight? So I moved here. Every night, I have haunted this place, and honestly, I am worn out. I need some help.”
I lit off my perch in excitement and said,” Why you poor, blundering old fossil, you have had all your trouble for nothing-you are haunting a plaster cast of yourself – the real Cardiff Giant is in Albany!”
The petrified, man rose slowly to his feet and said ” Honestly, is that true?” “As true as I am sitting here,” I answered. ” Well, I never felt so absurd in’ my life,” he muttered. “Now you mustn’t let this get out, think how silly you would feel if you’d made such a fool of yourself.” I heard his stately tramp die away, step by step down the stairs and into the deserted street, and I felt sorry that he had gone, poor fellow – and sorrier still that he had carried off my red blanket and my bathtub.
Homes decorated for Halloween in Chicago. Photo Gallery at:
https://polishnews.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=310