Nightmare Before Christmas by Daphne Skinner Page B

laughing. The trees were covered with bright ornaments and topped with stars. And inside cozy little houses people sat together talking, reading, singing--even hugging and kissing! Jack kept walking, enchanted
    by everything around him.
    Before long he noticed something else. He hadn't yet heard a single scream, only laughter, and sweet music. The smells wafting toward him through the crisp night air were delicious--cakes and pies, not swamp gas, smoke, and witch's brew. And children here, Jack saw as he looked into house after house, all slept peacefully, untroubled by nightmares. They were happy. Everyone here was happy!
    Jack could not keep from smiling. He was happy, too! Amazing! What is this? he wondered. And then he saw the sign:

    CHRISTMASTOWN
    "Christmastown?" Jack murmured to himself. "Hmmm . . ."
    Back in Halloweenland, nobody was smiling. Far from it. There were frowns, there were groans, and there were moans, because Jack was still missing. This fact was causing everyone a great deal of worry.
    "We've got to find Jack!" the Mayor told the crowd that had gathered in the town square. "There are only three hundred sixty-five days left till next Halloween!"
    "Three hundred sixty-four!" yelled an especially worried Werewolf.
    "Is there anywhere we've forgotten to check?" asked the Mayor. "Think hard. Tell me."
    "I looked in the crypts," said a vampire.
    "We opened the tombs," called the witches.
    "I scoured the cemetery," said the werewolf. "But he wasn't there."
    Worries deepened. Moods darkened. Where was he?
    "It's time to sound the alarm," said the Mayor.
    The wail of a cat screeching was the town's alarm. The distant noise reached Sally's ears just as she was whipping up a very special
    brew. Her private name for it was Sleeping Potion Soup, though when she served it up to the Evil Scientist she simply called it lunch. It was full of deadly nightshade, and if the doctor drank it, he'd sleep for a week.
    Wouldn't that be nice, thought Sally as she set a steaming bowl of the stuff in front of the doctor. Then I could get away. For good.
    "Have some" she urged. The doctor sniffed it hungrily, but then put down his spoon. "Frog's breath!" he snarled.
    "What's wrong?" said Sally innocently. "I thought you liked frog's breath." But inwardly she quailed. She had used frog's breath to disguise the smell of deadly nightshade. Had she used too much?
    "Nothing's more suspicious than frog's breath," said the doctor. He dipped his spoon into the soup and held it up to Sally. "Until you taste it," he told her, "I won't swallow a spoonful".
    Sally knocked the spoon out of his hand with a nervous giggle. "I'm not hungry," she said.
    The doctor fixed her with his most malevolent glare. "You want me to starve, don't you? I'm weak. I'm old. And you owe your Very life to me!"
    "Oh, don't be silly," said Sally. She bent down as if to pick up the spoon, then reached into her sock and pulled out a slotted spoon instead. She dipped into the soup and noisily pretended to slurp up a mouthful of broth.
    It worked! Thanks to the slotted spoon, the soup fell back into the bowl, but the doctor didn't see. Sally breathed a huge sigh
    of relief as he grabbed the bowl away from her and started eating hungrily.
    "See?" she said as he gobbled it down. "It's scrumptious." A hopeful smile crept over her rag-doll face. Soon, she thought. Soon I'll be free.

C H A P T E R . F O U R
    Back in the town square, hope was as scarce as bat feathers. Despair, however, was readily available. The Mayor, who lay sprawled atop his hearse, had more than enough for everyone. As dusk fell he stared up at the darkening sky in desperation. Where was Jack?
    No One knew.
    Then, just as a sliver of moon appeared in the sky, a distant bark was heard. It was followed by a strange rumbling sound, a sound that gradually grew louder and louder.
    "Zero . . . ? Jack . . . ?" The Mayor barely dared to say the words aloud. He sat up. The crowd stirred.
    The rumbling became a dull