A Good Night for Ghosts

run. They ran to the bottom of Canal Street and crossed to the palm trees in the grove near the Mississippi River. In the dark, they found the rope ladder and scrambled up it into the tree house.
    Jack grabbed the Pennsylvania book that would take them home.
    “Wait!” said Annie, looking out the window. “Look!”
    A brightly lit Mississippi showboat was rolling up the river. A large paddle wheel behind the boat waschurning the water. Music was coming from on board.

    Annie grabbed Jack’s arm. “Listen! The ‘Heebie-Jeebies’!” she said.
    Jack listened. He could hear the trio singing: Little Mack, Happy, and Big Nose Sidney. But the best sound of all was the bright sound of a horn sailing through the New Orleans night.
    “It’s Dipper!” said Annie. “It’s got to be!”
    “He caught the boat!” said Jack. “Just in time!”
    Jack and Annie listened to the joyful swinging sound of Dipper’s music until the riverboat rolled out of sight.
    Jack heaved a happy sigh. Then he pointed at their Pennsylvania book. “I wish we could go home,” he said.
    The wind began to blow.
    The tree house started to spin.
    It spun faster and faster.
    Then everything was still.
    Absolutely still.

    Jack and Annie were wearing their own clothes again. Rain tapped gently against the roof of the tree house. A cool breeze blew through the window.
    “We have to get home before Mom and Dad wake up,” said Annie.
    “Right,” said Jack. He pulled
A History of New Orleans Music
out of his backpack and left it on the floor.
    Annie put the trumpet beside it. Then they headed down the rope ladder. They pulled up their rain hoods. As they tramped in their boots through the wet autumn woods, they were both quiet.
    Finally Annie said, “I feel good.”
    “I feel good, too,” said Jack. “We accomplished our mission.”
    “But I feel other things, too,” said Annie. “I feel mad that Dipper couldn’t sit on the streetcar with us.”
    “Me too,” said Jack. “And it wasn’t just in NewOrleans. A long time ago, they had laws like that in lots of places.”
    “Unbelievable,” said Annie.
    “Yeah,” said Jack.
    “And I feel scared when I think of those spiders in their webs,” said Annie.
    “Oh, they didn’t bother anybody,” said Jack. “But I still feel scared when I think of ghosts.”
    “Actually, they didn’t bother anybody, either,” said Annie.
    “True,” said Jack. “And neither did that bat.”
    Annie laughed. “That’s true, too,” she said. “I feel sad when I think we’ll never see Dipper again.”
    “We can listen to his music,” said Jack.
    “Yeah… and I guess the music all around us will always make us think of him,” said Annie. “Like right now Dipper would hear the music of the rain.”
    “Tappity-tap-tap,”
said Jack.
    “And the music of our feet scrunching over the dead leaves—” said Annie.
    “Scrunchity-scrunch-scrunch,” said Jack.
    “Patti-pat-pat!”
sang Annie.
    “Skid-dat-de-dat!”
sang Jack.
    “Skid-dat-de-doh!”
sang Annie.
    “Go, Mama! Go!” shouted Jack.
    And the two of them ran out of the Frog Creek woods and up their street, heading for home.

The city of New Orleans is nestled on the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana. The historic city is a blend of many cultures. Its architecture, food, and music were greatly influenced by a mix of French, Spanish, African, German, and Irish settlers.
In 2005, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest storms in American history. Much of the city became flooded, and over 1,000 people lost their lives. The city is still rebuilding after the devastating storm.
New Orleans is famous for being the birthplaceof jazz music. Jazz bands play in clubs and march frequently in street parades.
The most famous parade of the year happens on Mardi Gras in late winter. On this day many thou sands of tourists and townspeople participate in parties and processions.
Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 1901 and died in Queens, New York, in July 1971.
His friends and family called him Dipper because he had a fondness as a child for a song called “Dippermouth Blues.”
All the chapter titles in this book are the titles of songs Louis Armstrong recorded early in his career.
A year before he died, Armstrong told a reporter, “I think I had a beautiful life. I didn’t wish for anything that I couldn’t get and I got pretty near everything I wanted because I worked for it.”