A Good Night for Ghosts

LITTLE BIT? HAH-HAH-HAH!”
    “AHHHHHHH!” everyone shrieked again. They all scrambled out of the back room to the front room. They pushed on the front door together. But the door still wouldn’t open.
    “SCURVY DOGS! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME!” the ghost of Jean Lafitte shouted.
    The pirate ghost floated to the center of the room and stopped. He rested his hands on his hips, threw back his head, and laughed again. “YOU’RE TRAPPED NOW!” Jean Lafitte roared. “TRAPPED HERE FOREVER!”
    To Jack’s horror, more ghost pirates began gliding through the walls into the room. One at a time they came: a pirate with a gold earring, another with a pistol, one with a head scarf, another with an eye patch, one with a saber, another with a bushy beard, one with a thin mustache, another with a sack, one with a striped shirt, another with a peg leg.
    Finally ten ghost pirates circled the room!
    From the center of the circle, Jean Lafitte let out another peal of mean laughter. “HAH-HAH-HAH!”
    The pirate crew snorted, snarled, and growled, “YARRR! ARGHH! ARRL!”
    Suddenly Jack started singing:
    Skiddle-diddle dog!

Hey, hey, hey!

Ghost, go away
,
Go away, go away!
    “Jack!” said Annie. “What are you doing?”
    “Play Annie! Play!” squeaked Jack.
    “I can’t!” said Annie. “We used up the magic! It’s just an ordinary trumpet now!”
    “Here, give it to me!” said Dipper.
    Annie handed Dipper the trumpet.
    Dipper put the trumpet to his lips. He closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and then he blew. The air vibrated with a single warm note. Then Dipper’s fingers danced over the trumpet’s valves. A lively, swinging tune filled the blacksmith shop.
    Jean Lafitte stopped laughing his mean laugh. He held up his hands for his crew to be silent. As Dipper played, crooked smiles crossed the pirates’ faces.
    Dipper’s joyful music drowned out the noise of the storm outside. Annie snatched two rungs from a broken chair. She used them as drumsticks, tapping them against a wooden bucket. Jack grabbed two more rungs and did the same.
    Dipper paused long enough to yell to his trio, “Hey, boys! Sing the Heebie-Jeebie song!”
    “We don’t know it!” said Little Mack.
    “Make somethin’ up!” called Dipper.
    As Dipper played the trumpet, Little Mack sang:
    I got the heebies!

You got the jeebies!
    Then Happy sang:
    The heebies make you hop!

And the jeebies make you quake!
    Then Big Nose Sidney sang:
    Do a little dance, Mama!

Stomp and shake!
    As the trio sang, the ghost of Jean Lafitte started to dance. He shook his head and clapped his hands. He waved his arms through the air. He turned in a circle. “Go, Mama, go!” he shouted.
    Lafitte’s crew began dancing like their captain. All the ghost pirates moved in a circle, shaking their heads and waving their hands. Some floated off the floor, turning this way and that.
    Little Mack sang:
    Hey, Papa! Hey, Mama!

Hey! Hey! Hey!
    “Hey, hey, hey!” all the pirates shouted. “Hey, hey, hey!”
    Dipper played the trumpet. Jack and Annie drummed on the bucket. The trio sang. The floor shook. The windows rattled. And all the pirates stomped and shook, doing the Heebie-Jeebie dance.
    “SWING THAT MUSIC!” shouted Jean Lafitte’s ghost.

    “YARR!” the pirates all shouted. “YARR! YARR!”
    The front door suddenly banged open.
    “GO, MAMA! GO, PAPA! GO! GO! GO!” shouted the ghost of Jean Lafitte. He danced out of the shop, and his pirate crew followed, one by one.
    As the ghosts all danced out of the shop, Dipper kept playing. The trio kept singing, and Jack and Annie kept drumming.
    “MY CREW AND I SURE ENJOYED YOUR VISIT!” the pirate ghost captain shouted back to Dipper and the others. “BE SURE TO COME BACK! SAME TIME NEXT YEAR!”
    The ghost of Jean Lafitte turned and waved his arms in the air again. “COME ON, BOYS! PAPA’S DOIN’ THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES DANCE!” Then, doing the Heebie-Jeebies dance,
all
the pirate ghosts danced away into the dark New Orleans night.

D ipper stopped playing. The three boys stopped singing. Jack and Annie stopped drumming.
    There was silence. They all crept to the open doorway and stepped outside. The rain had stopped, and the wind had died down. The air felt clean and cool. Stars shone overhead. The pirate ghosts were gone.
    “Whoa, that was something!” said Little Mack. “What just happened?”
    “Was it a dream?” asked Big Nose Sidney. “Were those ghosts real?”
    “I don’t know,” said