This historical fiction was written by Levi T. Conry.

It was a cool dark night, just right for night fishing and catching some frogs on the Belle Fourche River. I`d managed to sneak out of the house without mom catching me and was just slipping down the river bank to my favorite fishing spot when I noticed a huge fire across the river. I just had to take a closer look.

I crossed the river and crept along the bank to get a closer look at the fire.

``Gee whilikers!`` I thought, ``There were a whole passel of . . . Ghosts?``

Some of them were on horses. They must have come out of the sky. I would have noticed this many horses around town. There must have been hundreds of them! They made a fire in the middle of the field, to keep warm I guess. It didn`t seem to be all that cold. They all looked the same, they were all wearing white and they all had pointed heads. They were the funniest looking critters I had ever seen.

I wondered why they had all decided to come here. They kept gathering in a huge circle. There was one in the middle standing on something. He must have been the leader.

Suddenly I heard something? Something is moving over in the grass, next to the creek. It`s is moving closer to me. Maybe it`s a ghosts. They are going to get me. It`s going to burn me on their cross. They will take me to the under world I know it. Where should I go? What should I do?

Billy! . . . Billy! . . .

It was Tom. I was so busy watching the ghosts I`d almost forgot that I`s supposed to meet my best friend to do some fishing.

``Tom, you knucklehead, you scared me to death. Where have you been?`` I said.

``Looking for you.`` grumbled Tom.

``Look at all of these ghosts,`` I whispered, ``There are thousands of them!``

``Those aren`t ghosts, those are KKK members having their yearly meeting.``

Tom was a little older than I was and always seemed to know more than me. Sometimes I felt kind of stupid around him but he never teased me so I enjoyed hanging out with him.

``Come, on, let`s go and get some fishing done before our moms` find out we`re gone.`` whispered Tom. I didn`t want to leave but it was too scary to sit there alone.

We worked our way along the bank until we were to the back side of the rodeo grandstands. We went to our favorite spot where the fishing was always great.

``Tom,`` I said, ``What is the KKK?``

``You, have never heard of the KKK?`` said Tom.

``No, who are they?`` I said again.

``The KKK is a big group of men, who gets together in the dark. They always wear those sheets on their heads and do lots and lots of talking. Sometimes they even have a bonfire with a cross in the middle. Other than that they don`t do much.``

``Oh. I see`` I said quietly. I still didn`t understand what the KKK was but I didn`t want to let Tom know that.

``Billy, Billy!``

``Oh no, my mom! I better go home. See you tommorrow Tom.`` I said as I ran off along the bank.