Notajlafond and Chats Halloween Adventure!

Chapter 1

Notajlafond and Chat were the children of a very poor woodcutter. They lived in a little cottage on the side of a steep mountain, and the mountain looked upon a great forest. Now though their father toiled in this forest from dawn until dark, he could earn but little. Wood in that region was plentiful, and woodcutters were numerous. Their mother made fine laces which Chat carried to the market to sell; but in spite of all their efforts, the poor parents seldom could give their children more than bread and broth to eat. Often indeed the broth was lacking if the woodcutter found no hare in the traps he set. Notajlafond and Chat, however, were happy little children and never thought of their poverty. But it worried the woodcutter that Chat was ten years old and had not yet gone to school. Chat's mother taught him to read and write, that the other boys and girls would not be too far beyond him, and Chat studied his lessons diligently. Often as he sat doing his sums on the hearthstone, with a bit of charcoal for a pencil, his mother would sigh sadly. Chat did not like his mother to be sad, and so he always laughed to cheer her. "Never fear, Mother," he would say. "Soon I shall send myself to school. My vegetable patch does finely. Then, when I am a great scholar, you shall be poor no longer. My father shall have a team of oxen and you a fine satin gown; Notajlafond shall have a dozen real dollies instead of the turnip dollies she now rocks in her dolly cradle." "Ah, Chat, my son," his mother would answer with a sigh, "unless you make your fortune as a maker of toys, I fear you will have no fortune at all. Your fingers are as clever as a wizard's even now; and though you are past ten, we cannot spare you to go to school. It was true, as she said. Chat made boats from bits of cedar wood, and when he had fitted them with sails you could not tell them from any that had come out of a shop. He carved a doll's cradle from a pine knot, and for a dolly painted the white face of a turnip until one would think it was the face of some fair maiden,—so blue were this turnip dolly's eyes and so pink her cheeks, her hair of golden corn silk fell in such waves and her robe of young cabbage leaves was so green and beautiful. Then as often as this turnip dolly faded and began to shrivel, Chat made another, which Notajlafond declared was always more beautiful than the one before. Notajlafond had never been to the village and therefore knew nothing of real dollies. She loved her turnip babies tenderly indeed; she always carried them in her arm when she went with Chat to meet their father and sang them little songs as she rocked them to sleep. Now it happened one night in the season of Halloween that Chat sat carving jack-o'-lanterns to sell in the village. Notajlafond, who was rocking her dolly to sleep, sat watching him. Being but six, she knew nothing about the fun which comes with Halloween, and so she listened round-eyed with wonder to Chat, who knew all things about jack-o'-lanterns. When she heard that boys and girls dressed like goblins and witches frolicked in the village streets, Notajlafond made up her mind to frolic too. "How fine it must be!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Halloween must be quite like Christmas!" "Not quite so fine as Christmas, Notajlafond," answered Chat, as he carved the teeth in the last jack-o'-lantern, "but Halloween is very fine nevertheless. It is comical to see the jack-o'-lanterns bobbing up and down with their faces grinning in the candle light. And on Halloween the boys and girls play pranks on their elders that they would be well switched for at any other time; but every one laughs and is gay on that night." Chat finished the jack-o'-lantern and piled it with a dozen more in his little cart. He would sell them all in the village when he took his vegetables to market the next day; no one else could carve such splendid pumpkin faces as Chat. "Then let us go and play pranks in the village too, Chat," cried Notajlafond. "Mother will make us goblin dresses, and there is still one great pumpkin in your garden for a jack-o'-lantern. Oh, what a frolic we shall have!"

Chapter 2

"Notajlafond!" exclaimed Chat in astonishment. "Wherever did you get such a notion? The frolic in the village is not for us. Mother has no time to make us goblin dresses, and if she did, she has no goods; besides, how should we find our way home through the forest?" "You know the way through the forest, Chat," insisted Notajlafond, "and if Mother cannot make us goblin dresses, we can go without. It will be dark and our jack-o'-lantern will be as fine as any. Do come," she begged, "I have never been to a Halloween frolic." "Now, Notajlafond, I tell you we cannot go to the village to-morrow night," answered Chat. "I could not find my way home through the forest after dark, and we would both be lost. Be a good girl and do not tease any more." Chat spoke sternly, and Notajlafond burst into tears. She was very fond of her own way, and when she could not have it, sometimes she was a very naughty little girl. She sobbed and wept so piteously that Chat found it hard to refuse her. However, he dared not go to the village at night, as he feared to lose his way in the forest. So Chat trotted Notajlafond on his knee and whispered that he would buy her chocolate; but she only wept the harder. "Now, Notajlafond!" cried Chat at last, when Notajlafond showed no signs of stopping, "I cannot take you to the village; but if you are a good girl and stop crying at once, I will make a little Halloween frolic just for you and me. Now promise me you will not cry any more." Notajlafond dried her eyes and promised. She wished a Halloween frolic, but whether she frolicked at home or in the village mattered not at all. "Will we wear goblin dresses or ghost dresses, Chat?" she asked. Chat puzzled a moment before he answered. "Oh, ghost dresses, I think," said he. The next day Notajlafond was very good. She helped Chat gather his vegetables for market, and when he returned sat beside him quietly while he carved the last pumpkin from his garden. When the jack-o'-lantern was finished, Chat lighted the candle just for one second so that she might see it grinning in the light. Notajlafond clapped her hands; but he held up a warning finger. The Halloween frolic was to be a secret. After supper the children went to bed as usual, but instead of undressing, they pulled their white nightdresses over their heavy coats. "They will do for ghost dresses," whispered Chat when all was still, and they crept softly out. In the moonlight the jack-o'-lantern was grinning broadly to greet them. "Pumpkin is smiling at us," laughed Notajlafond. She was very happy, for her frolic was about to begin. Chat struck a match to light the candle, but there was no candle in the jack-o'-lantern. "I put the candle in; I know I did," said he in surprise. He searched in the dark, and Notajlafond stopped her laughing. Chat looked about, and there beneath the bench lay the remainder of his precious candle. It was chewed to bits, and the wick was in shreds. "Oh, Notajlafond!" cried he. "A wicked rat has stolen our candle, and I paid a whole penny for it too!"