Free The Moffats by Eleanor Estes

after him.
    "Let me go," he bellowed. But he couldn't find the hatch.

 
    Around the attic and around the attic he stumbled, kicking over stuffed partridges and quail. Finally he tripped over the wildcat and sprawled on the floor. Joe flashed his light on them for a second and when Peter Frost saw that he was sitting on the wildcat, he let out another piercing yell and leaped to his feet. He had seen now where the hatch was and he meant to escape before that ghost could catch up with him. Again he tripped and was down once more, this time with the ghost right on top of him. She would smother him with those ghastly robes of hers.
    "She's got me! She's got me!" he roared.
    Frantically he shook himself free of the ghost, and in wild leaps he made again for the hatch.
    But now Rufus and Jane, too, had stood all they could of this nerve-racking business. They both began howling with fright and screaming, "Mama, Mama!" What with Peter Frost's yelling, Catherine-the-cat's yowling, the screams of Rufus and Jane, Sylvie herself began laughing hysterically and the place sounded like bedlam. To make matters worse, the battery of Joe's flashlight gave out, so there was no way of turning on the blessed light and showing everyone there was no real ghost.
    No, the ghost was real enough to Peter Frost, and as he finally reached the hatch and clattered down the stairs he thought he could still feel its cold breath on his neck and cheeks. The four Moffats followed after him, half tumbling, half sliding, until they reached the kitchen. Peter Frost tore out the back door with a bang and left the four of them there in the kitchen, breathless and sobbing and laughing all at once.
    "Phew," gasped Joe. "Some ghost, I'll say!"
    "'Twas real then?" said Rufus, getting ready to howl again.
    "Of course not, silly," said Joe, whose courage had returned. "Come on, though. We've got to get the things down. Mama'll be home in a minute. Sylvie better carry the little lamp."
    Rufus and Jane did not want to go back into that attic. They'd had enough of ghosts and goblins. But neither did they want to stay down in the kitchen alone. So up to the attic the four went once more. And with all the light made from the little lamp Rufus could see there wasn't any real ghost at all. Just Madame and the pumpkin head he'd stuck his own teeth into and his own scooter that Catherine-the-cat, caught in the loop of the rope, was dragging around and around.
    Swiftly Sylvie unloosened the cat. She gave them all a triumphant leer and leaped down the hatch with short meows. Next they dismantled the ghost and returned Madame to the Grape Room, where Sylvie dressed her again in Mrs. Shoemaker's new dress. The pumpkin head had received many bad cracks, but they put it in the sitting room window with a candle lit inside of it, where it looked quite jolly and altogether harmless.
    Then they sat down to talk the evening over. They agreed the ghost had been a success.
    "That'll teach him to be always tormentin' the life outta us," said Jane with a yawn.
    "Sh-h-h," warned Sylvie. "Here comes Mama."
    Mama came in the door. She took off her hat and wiped the tears that the wind had put there from her eyes.
    "Goodness," she said. "The witches certainly must be out tonight all right enough. I just passed Peter Frost racing like sixty up the street. He muttered some gibberish about a ghost being after him. And look at Catherine! She looks as though she's preparing for a wild night. And why, for goodness' sakes! Will you look here, please?" Mama's voice went on from the Grape Room where she had gone to hang her hat. "Just look here! Mrs. Shoemaker's dress is turned completely around. The hobgoblins must have done it." (Here Rufus smothered his laughter in his brown chubby fist.) "Well, well..." she continued, "let's bob for apples..."

 

6. The Sailor's Hornpipe

    The Moffats all went to Miss Chichester's dancing school in Moose Hall. They didn't have to pay Miss Chichester a penny for their