“I stood up. It was a pitch dark night, but as I started toward the house I thought I could see something moving in the side yard under the apple tree. I told Charlie. He saw it, too, as plainly as could be. It was white and it moved about in the most terrible way. Oh, to be safe back in the house! I clutched Charlie’s arm and trembled all over, I was so afraid. It seemed to be coming toward us, and suddenly I couldn’t stand it any longer and I screamed—the most awful, blood-curdling yells—and, pulling Charlie with all my might, I ran for the house.
“The kitchen was filled with frightened young people, for no one knew what had happened. Just as we tumbled into one door three or four white clad figures burst into the other door, and it was hard to tell which was the worst scared.
“‘Ghosts!’ sputtered Charlie, gasping for breath. ‘Ghosts under the apple tree!’ Then everybody saw the joke and laughed. The ghosts turned out to be some of the big boys who had wrapped themselves in sheets to frighten the folks. The opening of the front door that Charlie and I had heard had been Truman bringing out the sheets, but my yells had scared them and they looked right sheepish and didn’t say anything when Isabel Strang asked them whether they thought Mother Girty was after them.
I screamed the most awful blood-curdling yells
“In the excitement and confusion, sister Belle, who was going down the cellar stairs backward with a mirror in her hand, in which she was supposed to see the face of the man she would marry, fell halfway down the stairs, and John Strang picked her up and sure enough he was the man she married later.
“After that Charlie and I didn’t say much, for the pan of taffy was still under the lilac bush by the front gate and we didn’t want to go into any explanations about why we happened to be out there too.
“Here, here, don’t forget your ‘apple a day.’ There now, good night, dears.”