From far off to our left, the scream and the light made a turn and started coming down the Pass in our direction. There was a loud crash and the sound of a cat whose tail had been suddenly stomped!
The sound was coming from old Mrs. Garrett’s house. We heard another shriek – probably Mrs. Garrett. That was followed by a dancing light and the mournful cry moving ever closer to us.
That’s when it came into view! By the time we saw it, it was too late to run.
I don’t know how to describe the apparition. At times it had a human shape but then it would undulate and change to a round shape and then back to a human form.
In the lantern light, I could see that all of “Mudcat’s” color had drained from his face.
The visage seemed to float and fly about three feet above the ground as it soared toward us – it was white and had an eerie glow emanating from its center.
This was no trick and the shriek of the Ghost was suddenly joined by a trio of screams – one coming from me!
“Patch” waxed heroic! He was determined he would not go down without a fight! He reached frantically for the first thing his hand could find to fling at the phantom and all the time it was bearing down, screaming, crying, bellowing – closer … closer!
“Patch” remembered the apples in his basket and reached down but saw two baskets – finally in his frustration, he used both hands to thrust them into to both baskets. His fingers found their purchase and he produced an apple!
“Patch” - despite his affliction – had always been a good one for chunking things. He could fling a rock from a good fifty feet away and knock a squirrel out of a tree. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that good at close range – and without one eye covered.
I found myself on the ground, clawing scratching and kicking – desperately trying to get out of the path of what was clearly the Christmas Ghost!
“Mudcat” and “Patch” were on either side of the trail just ahead of me, the ghost was going to pass between them! “Patch” reared back and let the apple fly!
It seemed to pass right through him – amazing!
It seemed to pass right through him!
Meanwhile, the apple having missed its intended target, instead landed smack on the spot where hair doesn’t grow on “Mudcat’s” top lip! The apple shattered into a thousand shards and “Mudcat” dropped to his knees in agony.
Not having seen his smaller brother load up the apple and fire away, “Mudcat” assumed that the blow to his upper lip was the impact of the Christmas Ghost beginning to wreak havoc on his once youthful and promising life!
“Mudcat” commenced to pleading for his life:
“Plee-ase! Plee-ase don’t kill me!!! Plee-ase don’t kill me!”
Then as the swelling began to set in on his lip, it impaired his speech somewhat:
“Beeze dode keebee!! Bee-eeze dodekeeBee!!”
Were we not in danger of instant and terrific death, we might have found it quite comical.
As “Patch’s” eyes began to uncross, we looked at each other and realized that we had cheated death one more time. It was likely that we three were the only people that ever survived a visit from the Christmas Ghost! That is – if we could get out of those woods!
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