Read Online The Moffats by Eleanor Estes - Free Book Online

apparently, and quite full, too. He looked at them lovingly. Some of the teeth were quite small. These were Rufus's own. But most of the collection he had found under the Grape Room window. Dr. Witty, who had lived in the yellow house before the Moffats, was a dentist. Apparently every time he pulled out a tooth, he had just tossed it out of the window. The first tooth Rufus had found one day when he was digging a hole, hoping to get a peep into China. It had filled him with the most amazed delight. In excitement he had rushed in to show it to Mama, thinking she would be as interested as he was. On the contrary, she hadn't been at all pleased about it and had said, "Throw that nasty thing away." He didn't show her his finds after that, but stored them privately in his Prince Albert box.

 
    "Well, what are you doin' up there?" called Jane.
    "Comin'," said Rufus, carefully putting them back in the box. Making his way down the ladder, he poured them out between Jane and Joe.
    They looked at the teeth admiringly.
    "Gee, those are swell," said Jane. "Look at that one, will you?" she said, pointing to an enormous one.
    "Yeah," agreed Rufus, looking at it with pride. "Old Natby the blacksmith gave me that one. He said he'd been shoein' an old mare one day and that tooth fell out of her mouth. He said it was the biggest he'd ever seen."
    They stuck the teeth in the pumpkin head, and at last it was finished. They looked at their work with satisfaction. Phew! She looked gruesome, particularly with that old mare's tooth hanging over her lower lip. Twilight was approaching and they had difficulty in seeing clearly. As it grew darker, they automatically lowered their voices. Now they were talking in whispers, putting the finishing touches on their plan for the night. They began to feel a creepy uneasiness. Their own ideas scared them and sent prickles up and down their spines. They jumped when Sylvie came to the kitchen door and called them to supper, and then tore from the barn as though all the hobyahs, pookas, and goblins in the world were at their heels.
    The light from the kitchen spread a warm welcome to them. From up and down the street they could hear the different whistles and calls that summoned the other children in the block home to their dinners. Pookas, hobyahs, and goblins fled ... temporarily. The five Moffats sat down around the kitchen table. As they ate, the oil lamp in the middle of the table sputtered and sent little curls of black smoke to the top of the glass chimney.
    "A wind is rising," said Mama.
    The children exchanged pleased glances. A wind! So much the better.
    Jane whispered to Sylvie, "Have you had a chance to bring the Madame upstairs?" For Madame-the-bust was to be the ghost this night.
    "Not yet," Sylvie whispered back. "There's plenty of time."
    "Plenty of time!" echoed Jane impatiently. "Supposin' Peter Frost comes before everything's ready?" She couldn't eat another bite. Rufus had finished, too. Finally the others put down their spoons. Dinner was over.
    "Now," said Mama, "I see no reason, even if it is Halloween, why I shouldn't leave you four children. Mrs. Pudge wants me to talk over plans for her silver wedding anniversary dress, so I think I'll go tonight. Now don't be gallivanting through the streets after eight o'clock. And, Joey, please tie the garbage pail to the back porch or some of those street hoodlums will be trying to tie it to the lamppost. And see that the rake and anything else that's movable is locked in the barn. I won't be very late." Then she put on the black velvet hat with the blue violets that matched her eyes and went out.
    How still and empty the house suddenly became without Mama in it! Inside not a sound except the ticking of the clock in the sitting room and the creaking of the cane rocking chair that no one was sitting in. Outside the wind rustled in the trees and a dog that sounded miles away howled mournfully. The children sat hushed and motionless. Suddenly a hot