In tandem, Hog and Council tell Jon a traditional “crazy tale” about a Gal named Sal. Jon asks Council and Hog to please finish the story about the battle between the giant frog and the huge snake. That story is finally finished. The three trail buddies break camp and start their separate hikes back to their homes. A week later, Hog and Council telephone Jon in the middle of the night to tell him one more true tale about the haint house and Polly the dancing ghost.

Council finishes the story about the mermaid and the fortunate country folk who escape her wicked clutches with the aid of a magical old woman who lives in a trailer on a nearby mountain.

At breakfast, Council tells the first part of a story about a sneaky mermaid living in a crick pool in West Virginia. Then Route Hog tells a story about three magical apples, a big hairy booger man, and a basket full of truth.

The campfire burns low, as Council tells Jon and Hog about Polly the dancing witch who came to be the ghost that haunts haint house. Jon, unable to sleep, imagines that Polly comes after him. The next morning Jon asks Route Hog to return to a less scary story, the “one about the giant frog and the huge snake”. But something else comes up and that tale remains unfinished.

William Gates’s mother is revealed as an ogre who wants to cook up Shaneale’s children but is prevented by her chef. Jon hears still more about Jock the Masterful Thief and how he gains possession of the haint house. Jon, Route Hog, and Council Register crawl into their sleeping bags for the night.

Council Register tells Jon and Route Hog the story of Shaneale, a young woman who is scratched by a church key and must sleep for one hundred years before being waked up by a wealthy young man named William Gates.

Jock the Masterful Thief continues his comic crime spree. Council Register arrives at the campfire where Jon and Route Hog are sitting and spinning tales.

Jon still wants to hear more about the haint house. Route Hog describes Mary’s desperate escape from Mr. Wolfe’s house and how she is saved by her four brothers. Night has now fallen on their campsite; Hog begins a long narrative romp about a later resident of the haint house, a fella called Jock the Masterful Thief.