Casper's cousin Abigail, or I-be-a-gale, as she calls herself, whooshed past Casper and stopped with a screech.

" it's Halloween, it's Halloween; are we dressing up to do a bit of haunting?"

she leered into Casper's face awaiting an answer impatiently.

You need to be a witch on Halloween, Abigail, not a ghost, said he matter-of-factly. I thought you were old enough to know the difference between witches and ghosts.

Well maybe I was a witch before I was a ghost, she looked into his eyes for some recognition of agreement to what she said. I always wanted to blow around on a broomstick. I' m so excited Casper, like all the children down there who are dressing up and painting their faces and blacking out a tooth here and there; it seems so much fun for a change rather than merely gushing through walls and watching people who all do the same things all the time anyway. Oh come on Casper, come with me and let's live a little.

How can a ghost live a little Abigail? Think what you're saying. You're dead, so you can't live a little, or at all, for that matter. All you can do, like the rest of us ghosts, is a bit of haunting and scare things a little. I'll come to the forest with you, if you wish, so we can scare some rabbits and birds and things, but ghosts don't wear tall black hats and long black coats do we?

We are white wispy things, which is really quite different from black solid things. Anyway you had better hurry up if you want to come with me because my friend Spook is coming over later. We are going to haunt a little at the party, at the Castle, once they have all had a drink or two, as humans do, and no, you can't come, as Spook doesn't like amateurs around while we're doing real haunting, and you must admit, you are a daft giggly entity most of the time.

Abigail was hurt when Casper would not allow her to tag along; and she was bored. All the older ghosts preferred to leave her behind. She'd a good mind to go to the Castle before they got there and scare everyone away first. That would teach that Spook that she was just as clever as he was. Then Casper would be really angry and would never take her with him to the forest, and she did love to growl at the rabbits and watch them scurry into their burrows, white tails wagging everywhere. The farmer's dog became a bit anxious too when she whooshed around his ears when he was half asleep and it was so funny when he chased his tail and couldn' t see her.

There definitely was an advantage when you could see things that couldn't see you; and the day she scared the mice out of their wits and out of the barn and the farm cats were furious. She had laughed so hard that Casper wondered what she was up to, but she didn't tell him - oh no, she had kept him wondering what she had up her sleeve that day. Casper had called her a sly hussie, whatever that was. Who cared? She would perhaps have another tease at the mice at the cats' expense, and maybe there would be bigger ghosts than Casper and Spook at the Castle. That would be the price of them - silly superior windbags, and down she whooshed to scare a little black witch or two who were too engrossed in knocking at house doors.

"I too can knock on doors and cackle" she thought with amusement.

Mary Milne