MR. AND MRS. Dennis Hostuttler were trying to get a tree for Christmas. Mr. Hostuttler had tried to buy one, but none of the trees he looked at suited his wife.
On the way home, Mrs. Hostuttler looked over in the cemetery and saw one of the prettiest trees she'd ever seen. She told Dennis to stop the car and go and get it. It was
dark and no one would see them, she said. Her husband wouldn't cut the tree at first, but she insisted, so he went in finally and cut it down. As the tree
fell, it seemed as if a voice said, "I'll make you sorry."
Mr. Hostuttler put the tree on the car and started up the hill. As he got to the worst turn, he met a buggy and a man standing beside it. He got around them, but then he looked back and there was nothing there. The Hostuttlers went on over the ridge, and when they were almost home, they saw the same man and the same buggy again, but before they got to them, they went up the roadside, out of sight.
The Hostuttlers got home without further delay and put the tree up. Mrs. Hostuttler trimmed it and called the family in to see it. She stepped back to admire it, and there, in the top of the tree, was a little man and a buggy. She showed it to Dennis and said it was the same man they'd seen twice, on their way home.
Mrs. Hostuttler talked to the man and asked why he insisted on following them.