Tricks and Treats Read online

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  Published by

  Dell Publishing

  a division of

  Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

  1540 Broadway

  New York, New York 10036

  Text copyright © 1994 by Judy Delton

  Illustrations copyright © 1994 by Alan Tiegreen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  The trademark Yearling® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

  The trademark Dell® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

  eISBN: 978-0-307-80003-9

  v3.1

  For Maureen Parsons and all of her great readers

  at G. H. Nichols School in Endicott, New York,

  with thanks for being friends

  of the Pee Wees.

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books You Will Enjoy

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Mrs. Peters Forgets

  2 No Party Plans

  3 Double Secret

  4 The Scariest Story of All

  5 Molly Looks for Work

  6 A Trick on the Pee Wees

  7 A Happy Ending

  CHAPTER

  1

  Mrs. Peters Forgets

  “And remember,” said Mrs. Pine, “it’s safety first on Halloween night. Halloween will be here before you know it.”

  Mrs. Pine was Molly Duff’s second grade teacher.

  “We’ll be having a little party here in our room before the big day!” she added.

  Just then the bell rang. School was out for the day.

  “Some party,” said Roger White, dumping his math book in his desk. “School parties are dumb. A bunch of candy corn and apples with faces on them.”

  “Our Pee Wee Scout party will be better,” said Rachel Meyers, putting her library book into her backpack. “Mrs. Peters knows what a real Halloween party is.”

  Mrs. Peters was the leader of Troop 23. They met every Tuesday afternoon in her basement.

  But at the meeting the next day, Mrs. Peters did not mention Halloween. She asked for good deeds instead.

  Hands waved. Maybe after good deeds, thought Molly. Then she will talk about Halloween.

  “I made a birthday cake for my little sister,” said Tracy Barnes.

  “Good,” said Mrs. Peters. “What a fine good deed! Anyone else?” She looked from one to the other.

  “I raked leaves off my porch,” said Tim Noon.

  “Hey, you don’t rake your porch, dummy!” yelled Roger. “How can you rake a floor?” Roger took a make-believe rake and raked the basement floor. He made loud scraping noises.

  “There were leaves on our porch,” said Tim, giving Roger a punch in the arm.

  Mrs. Peters held up her hand. That meant no pushing or shoving or fighting.

  “Did you sweep them?” said Mrs. Peters.

  Tim shook his head. “I raked them,” he said.

  Rachel’s hand was waving.

  “Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Peters!” she called. “I baby-sat for my neighbor’s Siamese cat. His name is Jeeves. He’s very, very smart. I had to give him this special cat food for show cats,” she added.

  “He’s probably some old alley cat,” taunted Roger.

  “You take that back, Roger White!” said Rachel. “Jeeves comes from a long line of famous show cats. He has papers.”

  Rachel’s face was red. Roger irritated her, thought Molly. Actually, Roger irritated everyone. That was his nature.

  Mrs. Peters was still not mentioning Halloween. Maybe she needed someone to remind her. She was still looking for good deeds.

  Molly raised her hand. “I helped my mom clean our attic,” she said. “We packed all kinds of stuff away, like old Halloween costumes that are too small for me.”

  There. Now Mrs. Peters would remember the holiday that was coming up. The most important holiday of the year.

  But all Mrs. Peters said was “Very good, Molly. It is always a big job to clean an attic. Your mom must have appreciated the help.”

  Rat’s knees, thought Molly. She tapped her foot. Her idea hadn’t worked.

  “Maybe we aren’t having any Pee Wee Halloween party,” whispered Mary Beth Kelly to Molly. Mary Beth was Molly’s best friend.

  “Mrs. Peters wouldn’t forget Halloween,” said Patty Baker. Patty and Kenny Baker were twins. They were both Scouts. Their cousin Ashley was a temporary Pee Wee Scout. She lived in California but came to Pee Wee Scouts when she was visiting her cousins. She was back in California now.

  “I washed one window for my mom,” said Lisa Ronning. “That was all I could reach.”

  “I picked up a newspaper my dad dropped,” said Roger.

  The good deeds were getting weaker and weaker, thought Molly. This always happened toward the end of the announcements. Some Pee Wees would make up their good deeds.

  “I picked a flower for my mom,” said Sonny Stone.

  “Where did you get it?” asked Roger. “Out of your neighbor’s garden?”

  “Out of my own garden,” said Sonny.

  “I’ll bet it was a weed,” whispered Tracy. “Sonny doesn’t know the difference between a flower and a weed!”

  Molly felt sorry for Sonny. His mother babied him. Sonny still had training wheels on his bike and he was seven. His mother had just married the fire chief and they had adopted twins, but it had not helped Sonny grow up as everyone thought it would. He was still a mama’s boy, even though now he had a father.

  The good deeds were over. Now Mrs. Peters would plan the party, thought Molly. But she didn’t. Instead, she passed out drawing paper.

  “Maybe it’s for making Halloween masks!” said Lisa.

  “Or pumpkins,” said Kevin Moe.

  Molly was going to marry Kevin someday. He was her favorite Scout.

  But Mrs. Peters asked them to draw a map of the neighborhood on the paper. She held up a map of their city and said the ones they made would be smaller.

  “I think Mrs. Peters forgot all about Halloween,” said Mary Beth.

  “How could she?” asked Molly.

  Halloween was hard to ignore. There were pumpkins with mean faces in all the stores along Main Street. There were witches in the school windows. There were safety posters in the shape of goblins on the lightposts. Even some houses had ghosts and witches in the windows. Mrs. Peters would have to be blind not to notice Halloween coming.

  “First draw a line down the middle of your map,” she was saying. “Write ‘Main Street’ on it.”

  “Bor-ing,” Lisa sighed.

  Mrs. Peters showed them how to make lines crossing Main Street that were the streets the Pee Wees lived on.

  “Put your school on Elm Street,” she said. “And my house on Oak. And be sure to put your own house and your neighbors’ houses on too.”

  Molly colored her house light blue. She drew Mary Beth’s house, and Sonny’s, and colored them green.

  “Now,” said Mrs. Peters, “draw a big red line around all of the houses, like this.”

  She showed the Pee
Wees how by holding Molly’s map up in front of the room. A bright red marker line circled the houses and stores that Molly had drawn.

  “Now,” said Mrs. Peters, “you have a map of the streets and houses you go to on Halloween, when you go trick-or-treating.”

  “Yeah!” shouted the Pee Wees in relief.

  “She didn’t forget!” said Mary Beth.

  “She tricked us,” said Roger.

  “I knew Halloween was too important for Mrs. Peters to ignore,” said Kevin.

  Kevin used bigger words than the other Pee Wees. He was smart, thought Molly.

  The Pee Wees all clapped and cheered as Mrs. Peters told them the safety rules for trick-or-treating.

  “We go only to houses we know, in our own neighborhood,” she said.

  Sonny’s mother, who was assistant troop leader, came down the steps with cupcakes.

  The cupcakes were not orange and black. They were pink. And pink is not a Halloween color.

  CHAPTER

  2

  No Party Plans

  The Pee Wees ate them anyway.

  After their treat the Pee Wees said their pledge. Then they sang their Pee Wee Scout song. After that, they helped clean up Mrs. Peters’s yard. They played with the Peterses’ baby, Nick. And with Lucky, the Pee Wee mascot.

  “Now,” said Mrs. Peters when all the Pee Wees had collapsed into the lawn chairs. “We all know Halloween is coming up soon.”

  “At last,” sighed the troop. At last their leader was going to tell them about the party.

  “Instead of a party this year,” she went on, “I thought we would do something for others. After all, that is what being a Scout is all about. Helping others.”

  The Scouts moaned. And groaned. They liked to help others. But not on Halloween. Not instead of a party.

  “Rat’s knees!” shouted Molly. “It’s my favorite holiday!”

  “Mine too!” shouted Lisa and Tracy.

  “We will still dress up in costumes. And go trick-or-treating. But then I thought it would be fun to give some treats instead of getting them.”

  The Pee Wees didn’t say anything. They waited to see what Mrs. Peters had in mind.

  “Many people give food to the food bank program,” she went on. “And the people who need food, or are out of work, can get food there.”

  “My aunt goes to the food bank,” said Patty.

  Molly knew being poor was not a shameful thing. Still, she would be very upset if she had to get free food.

  Mrs. Peters held her hand up. “The reason I mentioned it,” she said, “is because I thought it would be a good thing for the Pee Wees to hand out treats to all the children when they come with their parents to get food! We could put up signs telling people there will be free treats on that night. We could dress up and wear our costumes to give treats out, instead of taking them in! What do you think of that idea?”

  The Pee Wees were cautious. Was this some kind of grown-up trick?

  “Can we go trick-or-treating first?” asked Roger.

  “If you want to,” said Mrs. Peters.

  “Then I guess it’s a good idea,” he said.

  “Where will we get the treats to give out?” asked Lisa.

  “I thought we could all donate some,” said Mrs. Peters. “I know I can bring some popcorn, and Mrs. Stone will bring some candy, and I’m sure other people will donate fruit and maybe even games and toys for a special Halloween treat for the children at the food bank.”

  Everyone thought it was a good idea. They cheered. It would be as much fun as a party, thought Molly. Maybe more.

  “And I have another surprise,” Mrs. Peters went on. “There will be a prize for the best costume. But it must not be a store-bought one. It must be homemade.

  “And there will be another prize for the scariest story you can make up. We will read them around a Pee Wee campfire late at night, and choose the most scary one.

  “Last of all, there will be a Halloween badge for all those who give out treats at the food bank, wear a homemade costume, and tell a scary story.”

  “Yeah!” everyone shouted.

  “This is better than a party!” said Kenny.

  Soon the meeting was over, but the Pee Wees talked about costumes and scary stories all the way home. They talked about getting a brand-new badge and telling ghost stories around a fire.

  “I wish Ashley were here for the party,” said Patty.

  “I’ll bet Rachel is glad she isn’t,” whispered Mary Beth to Molly. “Rachel thinks she’s a show-off.”

  Molly giggled. “Rachel is a show-off too,” she whispered. “Ashley is too much competition for her.”

  “My mom isn’t going to like it that we can’t buy a costume,” said Rachel. “Homemade stuff takes so long to make.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Patty.

  Patty and Rachel turned off at the corner. Molly and Mary Beth walked on.

  “Let’s work on our costumes together,” said Molly.

  “Tomorrow after school,” agreed Mary Beth.

  They couldn’t start too soon for Molly. Molly liked to get things done fast. She liked to be the first one to do things or get places, and the first one to earn a new badge.

  The girls said good-bye, and Molly went on to her own house to tell her parents about the Pee Wee Halloween plans.

  “Well, that’s a good idea,” said Mr. Duff, who had just come home from work. “A party would only be more candy corn and soda pop. Bad for your teeth.”

  Molly laughed. “That’s what Roger said. The candy corn part.”

  “And giving treats instead of taking them is a good thing. The people who use the food bank will appreciate that.”

  Molly felt warm all over thinking about how good it would feel to help hungry children. To share candy and toys with children who had none. And it wasn’t even Christmas. Christmas would be a long time to wait for a game or candy bar or apple. The Pee Wees would help now!

  The next day after school, Mary Beth and Molly sat on the Kellys’ front porch and planned their costumes.

  “My mom says we should do a lot of thinking before we start to make them,” said Mary Beth.

  “We have to get stuff like material and needles and thread and scissors, and we have to measure,” said Molly.

  “My mom says, ‘Measure twice, cut once,’ ” said Mary Beth.

  “We wouldn’t have to sew it,” said Molly, thinking. “I mean, we could use Scotch tape or glue or rubber bands or safety pins to hold it together.”

  “The first thing we have to do is decide what we want to be,” said Mary Beth. “I mean, like a ballerina or a frog or a cowboy or what.”

  “There are always lots of ballerinas,” said Molly.

  “And we couldn’t make a ballet costume,” said Mary Beth.

  Rachel walked by, eating a lime Popsicle.

  “I might wear my riding costume, and go as a horsewoman,” she said.

  “That isn’t homemade,” said Molly. “That is store bought.”

  “But it’s what real horsewomen wear,” said Rachel.

  Molly frowned. Rachel had a good point.

  “I have to go to my dance lesson,” said Rachel, sighing. She waved good-bye and walked down the street.

  “I want to be something different this year,” said Molly. “Something no one else is.”

  “So do I,” said Mary Beth. “Not a dumb old pumpkin or witch or ghost.”

  Molly’s mother said she was very creative. That she had a wild imagination.

  “I think I have an idea,” Molly said. “For both of us. But we can’t tell anyone. Otherwise they’ll copy us.”

  “I won’t tell anyone!” said Mary Beth. “Tell me, tell me!”

  Molly leaned over and whispered something in Mary Beth’s ear.

  “Wow!” said Mary Beth. “No one would ever think of that. Not in a million years! We’ll both win. It will be a tie!”

  “Let’s get started right away,” she said. “It’s easy
to make the costumes. And no one ever was one of these before. I know just where to find the right stuff to make them. Follow me.”

  Mary Beth led Molly up into her attic, where her mother had boxes and boxes of old scraps of material. And old clothes. And buttons and zippers and hats and feathers and all the things anyone would want to use for a costume. She found an old red blanket. “Here!” she said. “Now we need something thin and tan colored.”

  By the time Mary Beth’s mother called her for supper, the girls had found all the things they needed. Now they just had to turn them into something else. Something that was a deep dark secret until Halloween.

  CHAPTER

  3

  Double Secret

  All week the girls cut and sewed. They sewed after school. And on Saturday and Sunday. When they had trouble sewing, they pinned. Finally the costumes were finished. The girls put them on and stood in front of the mirror.

  “This is the best costume of all, and we made it ourselves!” said Mary Beth.

  “Well, no one will have one like it,” agreed Molly. “I think we’ll win the prize.”

  “Let’s not show it to anyone till Halloween night,” said Mary Beth.

  At school, Roger said he was coming as a pirate.

  “Pooh,” said Lisa. “That’s ordinary. Pirate costumes are a dime a dozen.”

  “Mine’s a secret,” Rachel said.

  “So are ours,” said Molly. “We are going to win the prize.”

  “How can you both win the prize?” asked Rachel.

  “You’ll see,” said Mary Beth, giggling.

  At three o’clock, Molly got out her list. She kept a list of everything she wanted to do. She carefully crossed off “costume.” The next thing on the list said “Write a scary story.”

  She decided to do this at the library. The library was quiet. There were big tables. And there were books about ghosts.

  When she got there, Kevin was there too. He was writing something in a notebook. At another table was Lisa. She was writing too.

  Molly got some books about scary things. She looked through them. Then she sat down to write. But she couldn’t think of how to start. Finally she wrote “It was a scary night. It was raining and thundering and lightning.” She couldn’t think of what to write next.