Four small children, seen from behind, walk a quiet country road at dusk: a ghost in a tattered white sheet, a witch in a black hat and cloak, a child in a bear-eared hood, and a child in a pumpkin head, each carrying a pail or paper bag. A white picket fence recedes along the right, fallen leaves drift along the roadside, and a large bare tree with a few rust-colored leaves frames the upper corner.

Far to the left, a farmhouse glows with tiny lit windows under a hazy sky and a pale full moon. Painted in the manner of a 19th-century American realist landscape, the muted, dusty palette, soft brushwork, fine canvas weave and faint craquelure give the scene an aged, varnished look, with impasto reserved for the moon and the highlights on the costumes.