Summary: Something is destroying farmer’s crops. A Halloween Story.<\/p>\n
Rating: G, Word Count: 806<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Pooka<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hoss sat in the saloon listening to the men talking about their farms.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got something ruining our crops this year. It\u2019s at night so we don\u2019t see who it is,\u201d Ira McMann said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been going on with ours too,\u201d Mack Larson replied.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve told the sheriff, but he and his one deputy can only do so much with guarding the town,\u201d Ira said.<\/p>\n Hoss looked out the door and saw it was nightfall and figured he\u2019d better get home.<\/p>\n Mounting his horse he headed home, tossing an apple he\u2019d been eating by the side of the road. He rode by a few of the farms and could barely see the damage made by the mysterious assailant. The wind picked up as he neared another farm. Lightning flashed and he saw a horse running from the farm to the canyon. Hoss knew he had to follow and catch it. He pushed Chubb into a run. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, and rain poured on him. He got off Chubb, tied him up on a bush and climbed the rocks where the horse had run.<\/p>\n Drawing closer to the horse he saw that it was black and had yellow eyes. He thought that was interesting that a horse would have yellow eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, boy. I won\u2019t hurt you,\u201d Hoss said softly.<\/p>\n The horse reared up and Hoss backed up.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss no!\u201d a voice called out.<\/p>\n Hoss looked to see who was there. Just then the horse reared up again and kicked Hoss knocking him down the rocks.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss, I\u2019m sorry. Are you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss opened his eyes and saw Angus McTavish standing over him with a lantern.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss, you shouldn\u2019t be near that horse. It\u2019s a Pooka.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss frowned then passed out. Angus roused Hoss and helped him to his wagon. Hoss climbed in the wagon bed and passed out again. Angus climbed on his wagon after tying Chubb to the back, and took Hoss to the doctor. Angus went to the Cartwrights to tell them what happened to Hoss. Ben, Joe and Adam left as fast as they could for town.<\/p>\n \u201cPaul, what happened?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n \u201cAsk Angus, he brought Hoss in.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben turned to the older man.<\/p>\n \u201cHoss was up on the canyon going after a Pooka that had taken the shape of a horse and was kicked by him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Pooka?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a goblin that causes problems. It\u2019s been going around the farms and destroying their crops.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a load of nonsense,\u201d Ben scoffed.<\/p>\n \u201cPa, it\u2019s an Irish folklore, and not something to be taken lightly,\u201d Adam explained.<\/p>\n Ben rolled his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere was it at? Will you show us?\u201d Adam asked.<\/p>\n \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll stay here,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should come with us, Pa. Hoss will be all right until we get back,\u201d Adam urged.<\/p>\n Ben sighed and followed them.<\/p>\n They had climbed into the wagon and Angus drove to the canyon. It was still storming and there was a flash of light that lit up behind the horse.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d Ben asked skeptically.<\/p>\n \u201cYes. His eyes are a fire yellow and he causes troubles,\u201d Angus said.<\/p>\n Ben looked at the old man, his tawny eyes reflecting a sudden flash of lightning. Adam and Joe jumped out of the wagon and headed up the rocky trail.<\/p>\n \u201cBe careful boys! He\u2019ll get ya!\u201d Angus said and followed the boys.<\/p>\n Ben decided to follow them. Thunder crashed in the air which made the horse jump along with the men. It ran off into the darkness but made no sound. Adam and Joe climbed the rocks as best as they could without slipping.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see it anywhere. Do you, Joe?\u201d Adam asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Joe replied.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s get out of here,\u201d Adam said and they made their way down.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, Angus, I\u2019m sure you want to see Hoss too,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n He turned to Angus but the old man wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019d Angus go?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Joe shrugged. Adam frowned as he scanned the area through the rain.<\/p>\n Puzzled and soaking wet, they took the wagon back to Paul\u2019s office.<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s Hoss?\u201d Ben asked.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s fine. Just a broken arm,\u201d Paul said, then looked beyond the Cartwrights. \u201cWhere\u2019s Angus?\u201d<\/p>\n Ben looked at his sons who shrugged. \u201cHe\u2019s not here?\u201d<\/p>\n The Cartwrights looked at each other again.<\/p>\n \u201cUm, I think we should check on Hoss,\u201d Ben said in an uncertain tone.<\/p>\n Adam and Joe nodded and followed Ben to the back room. The dark room brightened from the hall light, and Hoss opened his eyes when his family walked in.<\/p>\n For just a second, the three Cartwrights each thought they had seen Hoss\u2019 blue eyes reflect a golden color before closing again. No one shared their thoughts as they backed out of the room to let Hoss sleep.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From the Brandsters.\u00a0 The story was originally written and published on the Bonanza Trail Riders site.\u00a0 Brand is happy to offer this story a new home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: Something is destroying farmer’s crops. A Halloween Story.<\/p>\n Rating: K, Word Count: 806<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12475,"featured_media":62121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1157],"class_list":["post-48057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-halloween","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BTR.png?fit=442%2C255&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}