Continued from Part 2 ... Dillweed, the substitute teacher is telling the story of "Ben Rooge and the Christmas Ghost ....
Then finally Ben Rooge got HIS!
On a Christmas Eve ole’ Ben worked into the night and then made the trip from Slightville up Snagbottom Pass to his cold damp house. On the way, his old mule what was carrying him slipped a time or two and ole’ Ben just hit her with his old crookedy stick!
With that Dillweed slapped “Patch’s” desk with his ruler and he must’ve jumped two feet high!
‘At’s when it happunned . . . the old mule stopped and tried to get a drink out of a half-frozen puddle. Ben reared back like he was goin’ to whup the fire outta’ that mule but she shifted a little and Ben went a crashing to the ground breaking the ice that was beginning to form with his very head!
The old mule went back to drinking from the puddle and Ben just stared at her reflection in the water – when all of a sudden hit changed! The old mule face turned into the face of Ben’s old partner!!
Only his eyes was a glowing like two hot cinders and his teeth was bared like a mad dog!
That night when Ben was home in his bed, his old partner crept into his room only he was all wrapped in chains and he said when Ben died he would be a-wearin’ even more chains on account of he was so stingy and mean.
He said three Christmas Ghostes would haunt him that night…
And the story goes that the last one was a fiery ghost with empty eyes that rode on a flaming horse. His scream was like the howl of a thousand lost souls! And He chased Ben Rooge all the way down Snagbottom Pass.
And they say that right around Christmas. . . .
I heard “Patch” gulp.
If you ain’t been good…
The Christmas Ghostes will come for YOU!!
With that he put his sharp nose right up against “Patch’s” squinting face. “Patch” having removed his hand from his eye felt double the shock with two noses coming right at him and thus he bolted out of the desk and right into the floor.
“Patch” came to my house after school – mainly because he was afraid to go into the woods by himself – and he even stayed and helped me with my chores. Dillweed had been so enthralled with his story that he forgot to assign us any homework for the Christmas Holiday so by evening, we had nothing to do.
“Patch” looked up and the churning grey clouds in the sky above and realized that dark would come early. I knew what he was up to. He didn’t want to make that trip through the woods across the Pass by himself.
“Jeremiah, why don’t you come with me to my house. We could look for baby raccoons.” He said.
“Patch” was forever talking about catching a few baby raccoons and starting himself a coon farm so he cold sell the pelts for hats, coats and mittens for the city-folks. I wasn’t nearly as interested in the idea as he was.
I knew he really just didn’t want to go alone so I agreed to go.
By the time we neared his house, the sun had set and it was getting colder by the minute. “Patch” who was walking ahead of me stopped cold, I nearly bumped into him.
Before I could yell at him, I noticed why he had stopped: there at his feet, tangled in some butcher’s twine, was a baby raccoon.
“Patch” was ecstatic! He immediately began to try and untangle the little animal but in his excitement, his vision went double and he could not figure out which raccoon to grab. When he covered his eye, he didn’t have a free hand to untie the knots and tangles in the string.
I realized his dilemma and pulled out my Barlow pocket-knife and soon we had our first member of the Coon Ranch herd. “Patch” held him close and stroked him kindly.
That’s when it happened.
We heard it before we saw it.
It began with an unearthly bellowing that raised the hairs on the backs of our necks! Then we heard what sounded like an army on horseback on the craggy hill above us…ready to ride down right on top of us!
We first stared at one another – afraid to turn and see our impending doom.
Everything slowed down as I watched “Patch’s” eyes cross! That’s when we turned to see it a flaming fireball – as big as a house – racing down the Pass right at us!
I thought I heard the snort of the fiery horse! That is when I leaped out of the way skinning both of my elbows!
Upon landing, I checked all my parts to be sure the Christmas Ghost hadn’t bitten off an arm or a leg, then realizing I was still in one piece and fairly unharmed, I turned to see if “Patch” was still alive.
“Patch” was catatonic. He stood there in the face of mass destruction and held up the little raccoon toward the evil phantom – as if it’s cuteness my break his heart and turn him into a goody-goody. Apparently “Patch” was frozen in fear.
What had really happened was that “Patch’s” agony was doubled by his double vision; seeing two sinister, flaming goblins he thought his best defense was to stay put in hopes that each would pass on either side of him.
I don’t know why I did it – it certainly wasn’t courage – but I lunged toward “Patch” to knock him out of the way. I think I must have figured that I didn’t want to see what would be left of him after the Christmas Ghost made a barbecue out of him!
About the time I leaped toward “Patch”, he decided that he just couldn’t bear to watch all the devastation. So he closed his eyes and naturally assumed that the impact of my body knocking him out of the way- was actually the hammer of that Christmas Ghost.
We both rolled in between some trees and the fireball sped past us, at which point “Patch” let out the most fiendish, girlish scream I had ever heard. It made icicles form on the hairs that were already raised on the back of my neck! About that time, the baby raccoon took flight, and landing safely scampered home to his mother.
Just then we saw the blessed lights of “Patch’s” little woodland home and clawed the ground desperately to try and make it to safety.
“Patch”, still seeing double, ran squarely into a giant oak tree. Only slightly daunted by the blow, he jumped up and purpose to dive through his back door. However, having seen two doors – he selected the wrong one to jump through and soundly crashed into the wall of his house.
I watched all this take place and would have laughed had I not felt the hot breath of that villain on my neck! I also made a dive for the door but was equally turned back as the door did not give when I hit it!
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