It was a dark and stormy night, and this old lady was sitting on her porch, watching the storm come in. She goes, “who’s going to sleep with me on this dark and stormy night?” In the woods, she could hear someone reply, “I will.” So she scurries inside. Then she comes back out later on, smokes her pipe back outside, and asks again, “who’s going to sleep with me on this dark and stormy night?” She hears a little bit closer, “I will.” So she runs back inside. A little bit of time passes. She’s sitting in her family room, and she asks, “who’s going to sleep with me on this dark and stormy night?” Right outside her door, she hears, “I will.” So she runs upstairs and gets in bed. She asks again, “who’s going to sleep with me on this dark and stormy night?” Right outside her door, she hears “I will.” She hides under the covers, and then she hears footsteps walking towards her. One cover goes off… two covers go off… BOO!

Informant’s dad would tell this story to her. It was supposed to scare her. He would tell it often at bedtime. Her dad got it from his dad. She thought it was funny, but it didn’t scare her. She didn’t tell it to anyone else.

This tale is one that seems fairly specific to this person’s family, as she’s not exactly sure where it comes from and I can’t find it either. I think this tale is a great example of one to collect, because it provides a rich story and has a clear goal, of scaring the listener. My informant also provided a lot of context that makes sense for it, such as it being told to her at bedtime. I find it interesting that she never found the story scary, just funny. It makes me wonder if she was too old for it to be genuinely scary to her, and it would be better geared towards even younger children, or if the tale is just a little cheesy overall. Maybe a mix of both. I think this is great in terms of folklore because the informant told me about the specific ways it connected to her family and how her father enjoyed the story a lot and enjoyed telling it to her.