The Halloween Mouse (2 page)

"I do hope it's taking me in the best direction."

Then he thought, "Oh, well, really . . . an
y
direction is fine with me. It doesn't matter
where
an adventure happens, just so it happens."

Timothy was having a very fine ride. But all of a sudden the moving stick curled around and Timothy found a snake staring him in the eyes.

Though he had never read of moving sticks, he
had
read about snakes. They loved to eat mice!

This one gazed at Timothy with bright yellow eyes and licked its lips.

"Not me!" he exclaimed, and jumped off the back of the snake.

He landed on his feet and ran. He ran and ran and ran as fast as his feet could make him run.

Then he looked back.

"Yikes!"

There it was, close to him and getting closer.

Timothy tried to run faster.

"Oh, dear," he thought. "I wanted an adventure, not a disaster!"

Then he came to a sidewalk. He leaped onto it and made a quick turn to the right. The sidewalk was smooth and flat and he could run very fast on it.

He looked back.

Here came the snake!

"Oh, I never should have left the library! I should have been happy just reading books! Make-believe adventures are dandy, and I don't get eaten!"

Looking back at the snake, he had
not
been watching the sidewalk ahead of him. Suddenly, he remembered that smart mice don't run backward for long distances.

He faced the front, but not fast enough.

A Tootsie Roll!

Timothy tripped over it, tumbled and bounced and rolled.

When he stopped tumbling and bouncing and rolling, he sat up and . . .

Here came the snake!

The Tootsie Roll had already rolled out of the snake's way and didn't even slow it down.

Racing toward Timothy the snake opened its mouth very wide. Its fangs looked as big as elephant tusks.

Timothy leaped up and whirled around and ran . . .

. . . smack into the big yellow top of a candy corn.

"Umf!" he grunted.

Then he thought, "Ah-ha!"

Hugging the candy corn like an old friend, he picked it up and swung around. He pitched it at the snake with all his might.

Timothy, however, had never been terribly good at sports. He was a mouse, after all . . . not a child.

Though aimed at the snake's head, the candy corn flew high and outside.

"I'm doomed," thought Timothy.

The snake suddenly
struck!

But not at Timothy. At the candy corn.

Leaping high, it snapped the candy corn out of the sky. It made a beautiful landing. Winking at Timothy, it slithered off into the grass with its treat.

Timothy hurried on his way. After all, one piece of candy corn was hardly a full meal. Just a snack, really. Done gobbling it up, the snake might still be hungry.

Soon, Timothy came upon a
second
piece of candy corn.

"This is my lucky day!" he thought, and picked up the candy with his mouth and took it along with him. "Now I'll be ready in case the snake comes back."

As he hurried along, however, he began to taste the candy. He had read about candy corn in a book about Halloween, but never before had he tasted any. It was so much better than normal corn!

Sometimes, a real adventure
is
better than a book.

He nibbled it and nibbled it as he walked along.

"Better save some for the snake!" he thought.

But he ignored his thought. By the time the sun was very low on the horizon, he ate the last of his candy corn.

"I sure do hope the snake stays away," he thought, and looked behind him.

Coming up the sidewalk . . .

"Oh, dear!"

Not the snake but . . .
ghosts and monsters and witches!

A mummy! A vampire!

Heart thudding, Timothy whirled around and ran.

"Oh why, oh why didn't I stay in the library? This was
such
a bad idea!"

No matter how fast Timothy ran, the horrible creatures were catching up to him. Closer and closer, talking and laughing. They all carried bags. Some of them even carried flashlights.

"If they light me up," thought Timothy, "they'll chase me down! They'll throw me in a bag with all the other mice they've caught tonight and take me home with them. The vampire will drink my blood. The witch will toss me into her brew! Oh, I'll be bashed and smashed and stirred and they'll fight over who gets to gobble me up first!"

The beam of a flashlight slid toward Timothy, so he leaped off the sidewalk and into the grass.

Though the grass was tall, the horrible creatures were even taller. They were the size of people . . . almost. As they came closer and closer, Timothy crawled under a large, crisp leaf.

"I'll be safe here," he thought.

But he shook with fear as he heard their footsteps and voices and laughter coming closer and closer.

"Oh, don't let them see me! Please don't let them see me! Oh, I should have stayed in the library! What was I thinking!"

Though Timothy had read about such creatures, he'd been pretty sure they were only make-believe. He had never expected to
meet
them in a nice little town like Elmwood.

"Well," he thought, "it just goes to show that books don't tell
everything
."

The creatures walked on by and approached a house in the distance. There came the sound of a ringing doorbell. Voices called out, "Trick or treat!"

"Of course!" thought Timothy. "This must be Halloween!"

He'd read books about Halloween. It came once a year, on the last day of October. Each Halloween, children put on costumes and went from door to door, calling "Trick or treat!"

Those horrible creatures hadn't been real. They'd been
children
dressed for Halloween. Human children, not monsters and ghosts and vampires and witches and mummies and snakes!

"How silly of me to be frightened of them."

And how wonderful that of all the many days and nights of the year Timothy had set out for his great adventure on Halloween!

He suddenly remembered the taste of the candy corn.

"I should go trick-or-treating!" he thought, crawling out from under the leaf.

At the edge of the sidewalk, he looked both ways. Nobody was nearby, so he hopped up and saw that he was not very far from a house. It looked old, dark and a bit creepy. The sight of it gave him mouse-bumps. Then he realized it was silly to be afraid. "I'm a mouse after all---not a chicken."

But then he saw lights glowing in the windows of the next house. Its big picture window was full of Halloween decorations: cardboard witches and black cats and ghosts. Best of all, a Jack-o'-lantern smiled down at Timothy from the porch.

"This is just the house for me," thought Timothy.

On his way
to
the porch, however, he heard voices and laughter. He glanced over his shoulder.

Here came the trick-or-treaters!

He leaped off the walkway. Hiding in the grass, he watched them.

Timothy got mouse-bumps all over again.

"I
hope
they are trick-or-treaters," he thought. "Oh, they must be. They have bags for their candy."

He
hoped
the bags were for candy.

The trick-or-treaters climbed the porch stairs. One lurched past the bright, smiling Jack-o'-lantern and rang the doorbell. Then all of them yelled, "Trick or treat!"

"I
knew
they were only children," Timothy thought. "I knew it all along."

The door was answered by a woman. Smiling, she said, "Oh, look at your cool costumes. How original!" Then came sounds that sounded very much like candy bumping into other candy . . . candy already at the bottoms of paper bags.

"Cool costumes?
---Oh, dear," thought Timothy.

The children said "Thank you." After that, everyone seemed to be saying, "Happy Halloween," and "Thank you" and "Bye!"

Timothy stayed hidden in the grass until the trick-or-treaters were gone. Then he climbed onto the walkway and looked down at himself. All he saw was Timothy Maywood Usher Mouse.

"Oh, what shall I do? I can't go trick-or-treating without a costume! It just isn't done!"

But Timothy was a very smart mouse. He was also well-read and had a good imagination. So instead of giving up, he went to the porch and sat on the bottom stair. "I'll sit here," he decided, "and use my head. That's what it's for, after all. It's not just a hat-rack."

Scratching his head, he thought, "If only I
had
a hat!"

Any sort of hat would do nicely.

In a baseball cap, he could be a pitcher for the majors.