R. L. Stine’s Twitter Story

In October of 2012 R. L. Stine the author of the wildly popular children’s horror stories series--Goosebumps--gave his followers on Twitter an extra treat.

On the 31^st he sent 13 entertaining tweets one after another between 12:49 PM and 1:02 PM. In these tweets he managed to share a complete jump story.

The way he separated this story out turns some parts of his tale into cliffhangers. However, to make this story easier to read I have kept the endings of each sentence together.

Here are his 13 tweets put together:

His story is about a vengeful farmer--

Here is a Halloween story for kids. If you read it aloud, the last line should be shouted.

A farmer named Ferris had bare fields. He didn’t know what to plant. One night, walking on a dark country road, he saw an old farmer planting seeds in a field. The old farmer introduced himself: “My name is Yost. It rhymes with ghost. 

He said he planted pumpkin seeds every year for Halloween. 

Ferris waited till the old man went to his watering hose. Then he stole all the seeds, He didn’t wait till morning. He planted the seeds in his field as fast as he could. 

Soon, Ferris watched the pumpkin vines sprout and grow long. 

He began to feel guilty. “How could I steal that man’s seeds? I must go apologize.” He walked down the country road but he couldn’t find the old man’s farm. 

Another farmer came by on a tractor. 

He said, “No one has farmed that land for 100 years. Its been abandoned since they buried a crazy old farmer there.” 

Ferris went back to his farm. The vines were thick and long. 

That night he heard strange moans and groans from his field. A big fall moon sent cold light down over the vines. 

The vines seemed to slither on the ground like snakes. 

As he walked, they curled around his ankles. They started to tighten. Ferris kicked at them. 

He tried to free himself. 

But the vines strangled Ferris and pulled him into the dirt. “Why? Why did you do this to me?” Ferris cried. 

And the old farmer replied, “Because my name is Yost--and it rhymes with GHOST!”

The last word in this tale is shouted because it is a jump story. This means it startles the listener-- making them jump.

I share a ghost Jump Story that Mark Twain told on stage here. And here is another one told to a group of tourists on a ghost tour in London.

I talk about traditional Jump Stories here.