Read Online My Children Are More Precious Than Gold by Fay Risner - Free Book Online

rocker, she
folded her hands in her lap. “Here's the chant. ‘Haunt Dawson, be
gone with ya. Ya are dead! This barn is fer the liven. Go back to
the beyond and stay there. Go away! Go away now!’ Ya boys got all
that?”
    “ Yep, Miss Mitts,” Lue
confirmed. “Now what do we owe ya?”
    “ Nothen yet. This ain't
fer sure to work on all haunts. Jest on certain ones so best come
back and let me know what happens, ifen yer able. Hee, hee.” Genon
winked mischievously at Lue.
    At chore time when Pap wasn't looking,
the boys slipped around the barn to prepared it for the visit of a
haunt. They dispersed the bones on the window sills and on the barn
floor in front of the door.
    That night after everyone had gone to
bed, the boys crept quietly downstairs and outside. Inhaling a deep
breath of the fresh night air, Lue smelled the strong, syrupy
fragrance of the gold and white honeysuckle blossoms on the vine
clinging to the yard fence. He looked up at the star laden sky.
Early in the evening, he’d sat with Pap, and the other children on
the edge of the porch, watching those stars. They passed Pap's spy
glass around, taking turns trying to find the largest, and
brightest star or the one that twinkled the best.
    Now there was no time for that. Lue
and his brothers were on a mission to scare off Haunt Dawson.
Except for the usual night sounds, it seemed to be a quiet night as
Lue lead the haunt catching party to the barn. He unlatched the
door, and they melted into the dark barn.
    “ It's too dark in here to
see where we're goen,” Don complained. “We needed the
lantern.”
    “ Nope, we don't. We don't
want any lights,” Lue whispered. “We know this barn blindfolded.
Jest scatter out and find places to hide.”
    “ I'd rather stay with
y'all,” Don stated, thinking there was safety in
numbers.
    “ Me too,” agreed Tom
quickly.
    “ I'm fer that, too.
Remember, boys, Lue's the one who’s armed with the haunt powder,
not us,” reminded Sid, always the sensible one.
    “ All right, scaredy cats,
jest follow me and keep along side the barn wall until we get to
that empty stall next to the horses. We kin all hide in there,” Lue
decided.
    He groped his way along the rough, log
wall, feeling the rough splintered wood under his touch. In the
lead, he felt taunt, dainty strands of a spider web wrap around his
face. He stopped to wipe the web away then moved his fingers along
the smooth edge at the top of the stall door, feeling for the
wooden latch. Lue touched something warm and soft. Quickly, he
jerked his hand back when he heard a grumbling protest, then he
realized it was only Pecker and his flock roosting on top of the
stall. The chickens must have thought it was too hot to roost in
the chicken coop.
    Slowly, Lue opened the door, trying
not to disturb the chickens. The boys edged passed him into the
darkness. The clean straw bedding crunched underfoot.
    In the next stall, the horses stomped
restlessly, aroused by the boys rustling the bedding. An occasional
low growl came from the chickens, uneasy in their slumber, as the
door moved back and forth with them roosted on it.
    Plunk! Sid felt a warm
pressure on the top of his head. He ran his fingers through his
hair, touching a substance that was soft and fowl smelling.
    “ Oh boy! What smells?”
Rasped Lue.
    “ Ugh!” Sid croaked, wiping
his fingers on his pants. “We've got to get out of here or em
chickens are goen to have to move. It's not safe to sit under
em.”
    “ They would make too much
racket if we try to move em,” warned Don.
    “ Then I'm moven,” retorted
Sid.
    Plunk! Plunk!
    “ Good idea. Let's all of
us move,” Lue agreed quickly, fearing he would be the next target.
Staying at arm's length out of the chickens aim, he slowly opened
the stall door.
    “ Where to now?” Sid asked,
easing out the door.
    “ Let's get in the hay
manger,” whispered Lue.
    The boys, staying close to each other,
felt their way back along the wall, past the now