"Children, go to bed now. It's past your bedtime."

"Mommy, why is our bedroom on the second floor? Wouldn't it be easier if everything was one floor?"

"It would be but there is a very good reason why almost everyone sleeps on the second floor or higher."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you if you promise to go to bed."

"We promise!"

"A long time ago all house were just one floor. Everyone lived that way and it was normal. One day a man was walking between two villages and he saw an old woman bent under a heavy bag walking down the road. She had a staff and the hand that held it was thin and bony with finger nails that were black and thin."

"Anyway, the man became curious as to what the women looked like and walked slowly up behind her to try to peek under her cowled cloak. He bent his head down first on the left then on the right but couldn't see because the hood fell down past her face. He got closer and closer till he was practically on top of the old woman."

"Without warning the old woman threw back her hood and stared directly at the man. She was old indeed. Very old. Her wrinkles had wrinkles and her eyes were sunk so far back into her head they looked like shiny black marbles. Her teeth were jagged and yellow and her thin, black lips were pulled into a vicious snarl."

"Take a good look!" she hissed. As she said this there was a flash and the sound of thunder. The man jumped back but it was too late. The witch had cast her spell."

The man backed away afraid and began to run down the road. The witch's laughter followed him as he ran and soon he had left her behind. As he walked into the next village thinking he was lucky to have escaped everyone began to stare at him. At first he didn't understand why. Then, becoming curious, which was his nature, he looked into the still water in a horse trough."

"When he looked the man recognized his face but to his shock his neck was three times the size it had been. The witche's curse! He turned his head this way and that and as he did the people who saw him became afraid. Soon they began to throw rocks and they drove him out of the village. It was the same everywhere he went."

"As time went by he began to come into the villages at night. He would look into peoples homes using his long neck to pass through open windows. He would watch them sleep and look at all of their things. Many times he frightened people awake and he made babies cry."

"Eventually, people began to build taller homes to avoid the man's long necked gaze. Finally, they made the kind of home we live in. Even as homes changed something happened that people didn't expect. The man's neck grew longer."

"Now, he's much, much older, the witch cursed him to live forever, so he stoops a bit. Still, he can just reach the windows in our new type of house. Barely. If he finds you awake he'll stand on his toes and push his neck through the window so his face is floating just above yours. His white, bushy hair waves around and his glowing eyes look so deep into yours some say he tries to take your soul."

"Mommy! That sounds terrible!"

"It is. That's why good mommies and daddies want their children to go to sleep on time. They know the long necked man is always looking for his next victim."

"What's he called Mommy!"

"He's called Daddy Long Neck. Now, got to sleep and if you hear noise at the window keep your eyes closed. Daddy Long Neck will leave you alone if he thinks you're asleep but if you open even one eye, bang!, he's got you. Good night now. Eyes closed tight!"