The Miser and The Monster: A Halloween Tale

Once upon a time, in a little town called Scaresville, there was an awful old Miser named Mr Crabtree, who really hated Halloween.

The reason he hated it so much was because little trick or treaters would always come to his door asking for candy.

"Candy!", he would shout at them as he chased them away with his walking stick, "What do you think my house is, a sweet shop?".

But then, one Halloween a real monster came to town; a big, horrible, blue and furry, scary one called the Ogapus and the Ogapus had a very cunning but very evil plan.

You see, the Ogapus had observed how, every year, on Halloween, kids would dress up as monsters and go trick or treating and people would open their doors to them and this had given him an idea.

"If I go from door to door", he thought, "Looking at my furry and very monsterish appearance, people will think I'm one of those silly trick or treaters in a halloween costume and then they'll open their doors to me and when they do, oh, when they do, I'll pounce on them, I'll growl and snarl and I'll eat them up".

And that is just what the monster did.

One door at a time, he went round all of the houses in the town, knocking upon them and each time a person opened their front door and, looking at the monsters ugly, scary face, said, with a smile, "Why what a scary costume", the monster would leap on them, growling and howling and snarling and slobbering before swallowing them up whole.

But then, finally, the Ogapus came to the house of the old miser, Mr Crabtree, and knocked upon his door with his big hairy blue fists; licking his lips at the anticipation of eating yet another person.

When the door of the house opened, however; much to the monsters surprise, instead of seeing a human being come out it saw an even bigger monster than itself and the monster was growling and snarling angrilly, waving around its longed clawed hands.

"Arrrgh!", it roared.

And the Ogopus was so surprised and scared by the monster that, first of all, its long red fur turned completely white, then its sharp teeth and claws fell out and then, with a loud shriek, it died of fright, right there on the doorstep and, when it did, all of the people it had swallowed crawled back out, still in one piece, from its enormous gaping mouth.

But the Ogopus really needn't have been so frightened of the monster for then it took off its big ugly, horned head revealing the face of the old Miser, Mister Crabtree, underneath.

Crabtree, you see, hated trick or treaters so much that he had planned to scare them away by dressing up as a terrifying monster; roaring and snarling at them but instead what he had done was saved everyone in the town from the Ogopus.

Unfortunately for poor old Crabtree, after that he became so popular with the people of the town that rather than just a few trick or treaters coming to his door, he had hundreds and so sadly he very rarely had a Happy Halloween.