Hey there, Arl Stein Story Club members.

I'm Ivy, your ghostly host and custodian of those strange and spooky tales from the hidden

vault of R. L. Stein. Today is another chilling tale. This weird tale story club members

might make you keep off the grass.

It's one I call gnomes sweet gnomes.

The smile looked as wide as a crescent moon.

The exposed teeth were just as bright.

The eyes smiled too with a similar heavenly glow.

And the pointy little red hat was super weird.

It all gave Becky Mayer the creeps.

Why does Dad have to have these foot-tall ceramic garden gnomes in our yard?

Becky asked herself, they're weird and they're creepy.

She helped her father in the yard.

While he was busy mowing the grass with the lawn mower,

she edged strips of grass and dirt from the edge of the sidewalk with a hoe. Edging makes the lawn, the whole exterior of the house, in fact, tidy and inviting.

Her father had told her, and that's what we want our lawn party tomorrow night to be.

The roaring din of the lawn mower suddenly died down.

Well, wouldn't you know it?

Becky's father said, it's out of guess.

He grabbed the red two-gallon can nearby and shook it, but the sound came up as empty as the blue summer day.

Looks like I've got to run to the gas station.

Darwinkle, the lamplighter gnome, lay on the ground.

...