For Maria Konopnicka
There was a little boy called Stefan who couldn't wait for Halloween every year! He loved gruesome masks, making up and listening to scary stories and frightening others. The boy claimed not to be scared of anything! Not of a lion for whom he had a sling, not of wolves which he would chop with his wooden sword, not even of a large grizzly bear which he would mount and ride like a horse
Stefan had a friend called Marcus with whom he frequently played in an ancient hazel copse. It was their favourite spot. The old grouping of tall shrubs had long twisted branches, dark gloomy interiors and a canopy of bright green leaves which whispered stories of the past above the boys’ heads. In the semi-darkness of the tall circle of hazel bushes, the boys pretended to be knights defending their castle from a monster ready to devour them and all their people. Sometimes they played at being inside a rocket on an interplanetary mission to save the Earth. At other times, the boys would climb the hazel and pretend they were the Robin Hood band attacking the troops of the Nottingham Sheriff or two superheroes winning over the evil. The mysterious old hazel copse was their second home and they loved it dearly.
Stefan woke up all excited - it was Halloween at last! No sooner had he thought of putting on his costume than he remembered he had to go to school first. Usually, he loved school but that day he just couldn't wait to try on his new costume.
“Well, Dracula will have to wait,” Stefan thought to himself, a little disappointed.
That afternoon, he and his best friend were to play Frankenstein and Count Dracula in their haunted castle of the hazel grove. So as soon as he got home from school, Stefan quickly changed into his black vampire attire dripping with blood. His mum helped with a bit of black and white and red makeup to make him look more scary. Then, he ran to his friend’s house. 
Sadly, that afternoon the little Dracula was to play alone. Marcus didn’t feel well and his mum said he had to stay home. Stefan didn't hide his utter disappointment. All dressed up, our hero decided to visit the old hazel grove alone. The Dracula was lonely in his castle and as the sun hung low above the horizon, he climbed up the tallest branch and made a proclamation:
“I am Dracula! The master of this castle. I am not afraid of anything or anyone! Beware of coming here! Tigers never come here for fear of me. Other ferocious beasts also stay clear. Beware, beware! If you do, I will suck all your blood and leave naught but a pale bloody mark on your neck!”
Stefan climbed down, sat on the ground with his back against the hazel trunk and read Mary Shelly's “Frankenstein.” Soon, the sun would set and it would be time to go home and join his friends trick-or-treating. Count Dracula wrapped his bloody cape around himself feeling a bit chilly in the quiet autumn breeze. Suddenly, he noticed a huge shadow next to him, as if a mountain was approaching or as if it was growing rapidly behind the hazel grove! Stefan froze up frightened out of his mind, scared even to breathe. From the huge mountain a terrifying monster emerged with a big head, short arms and large greedy teeth. The monster was devouring a round head of its latest victim, holding it tightly in its claws. Scared to death, Stefan quietly backed out not to attract the hungry monster’s attention. Then, he ran home with a pounding heart and terrified eyes. His cape fluttered behind him in the wind as if he were flying. He slipped twice on the dewy grass and he nearly lost his book in the haste.
“Mummy, mummy! I… I just saw something terrible,” shouted Stefan, gasping for breath.
“What happened?” asked his mother, visibly concerned.
“I just saw a monster!”
“A monster?!” Stefan's mother opened her eyes wide in surprise “Where?”
“By the hazel corps. I mean copse. It was huge! It had enormous arms and claws and it was eating someone's head!” said the terrified boy.
“Oh, my. And what did you do?” she asked.
“I… I ran…” shyly responded the boy, visibly embarrassed. After all, he always claimed not to be afraid of anything!
“Well, if it's true, and it's not some Halloween joke of yours, I'm glad you ran. Never be ashamed to run from danger!” said Stefan's mother, adding in a conciliatory voice: “why don't I make a cup of hot chocolate for you so you can decide if you still want to go trick-or-treating later.”
“Oh, I do!” quickly confirmed the boy, not willing to pass up a chance for a bag full of Halloween sweets, “and hot chocolate would be great. Thanks mum.”
The following day, Stefan told all his friends at school what had happened to him on Halloween afternoon. Of course, in his account of the events, he had not been afraid and he was planning on going back with his sword to defeat the monster soon.
His friends laughed in disbelief: “Is it one of your fake spooky stories?”
Others taunted him: “Whose head was the monster eating?” or “You are always so brave. Where was your sword yesterday?”
Only his friend Marcus believed him, well, the basic facts anyway, and defending Stefan he added: “I don't see any of you cowards surviving a meeting with a monster!”
A few days later, the two best buddies went back to the old hazel copse. Having ensured first that there was no monster there that day, the boys ran around and climbed the shrubs, having fun as usual. When the evening was near, they sat outside the grove to rest for a bit before going back home. The boys sat quietly exchanging scary stories they had recently read when they heard something munching. Quietly at first, then louder and louder. They turned around and froze! They saw a huge shadow of a head-eating monster right next to them. It was the same monster Stefan had seen a few days earlier. The boys looked at each very frightened but also a tiny bit curious. Now that they were together, there seemed to be more courage to go around.
Clutching the “swords” in their hands, the boys quietly crawled around the hazel growth to where the monster was. To their eyes appeared a tiny mole munching on a beetle. Seeing this, the boys looked at each other and burst out laughing, in the process frightening the little rodent which scampered away into its molehill.
“It cannot be!” said Stefan, a little embarrassed by all the stories of a monster he had told.
“Ha, it looks like your imagination played a trick on you!” said Marcus laughing. “You got scared away by a tiny blind mole! And we nearly took off again like scaredy-cats.”
“I can’t believe it!” hesitated Stefan trying to deny the facts. “... it must have been a different animal last time. It was HUGE!”
“Oh, drop it! Admit it! You got scared of a tiny mole!” Marcus poked fun at his friend.
After a minute, he added to reassure his friend: “What I admire about you is that you came back here with me today, especially, knowing that you could meet the 'head-eating monster’ again. That took courage.”
“I guess…” Stefan hesitated.
Both the boys laughed at how easily they had gotten tricked into being scared of a shadow.
“What shall we do now?” asked Marcus after a while.
“What do you mean?”
“What shall we say to everyone at school? After all, they know where you saw the monster and will ask about it. They might even get curious and come here snooping around,” warned Marcus.
“We will tell them what we saw: ‘a terrible huge monster with a great appetite. They might not have believed me but they will have to believe both of us!” laughed Stefan.
“Okay. This will be our secret and that way we will have the sacred copse all to ourselves. Just look at all those delicious hazelnuts!” said Marcus.
The boys laughed again and sealed their pact by exchanging handfuls of ripe cobnuts in their tiny green husks.