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It was a dry, warht, and Stanley Collins had decided to walk ho walk - less than a ht was dark, he knew every step of the way as surely as he kne to tie a reef knot
Stanley was a scoutmaster He loved the Scouts He’d been one when he was a boy and kept in contact when he grew up He’d turned his own three sons into first-rate Scouts, and now that they’d grown up and left ho the local kids
Stanley walked quickly to keep warh it was a nice night, his aroosebumps He didn’t mind His ould have a delicious cup of hot chocolate and cookies waiting for hiood, brisk walk
Trees grew along both sides of the road hoerous for anyone asn’t used to it But Stanley had no fears On the contrary, he loved the night He enjoyed listening to the sound of his feet crunching through the grass and briars
Crunch Crunch Crunch
He s, he’d often pretended there werein wait up in the trees as they walked home He’dbranches when the boys weren’t looking Sometimes they’d burst into screams and run for ho
Crunch Crunch Crunch
Soht, he would iine the sounds of his feet as they made their way home, and that always helped him drift off into a happy dream
Crunch Crunch Crunch
It was the nicest sound in the world, as far as Stanley was concerned It was a great feeling, to know you were all alone and safe as can be
Crunch Crunch Crunch
Snap
Stanley stopped and frowned That had sounded like a stick breaking - but how could it have been? He would have felt it if he’d stepped on a twig And there were no cows or sheep in the nearby fields
He stood still for about half acuriously When there were no more sounds, he shook his head and s tricks on hiot ho again
Crunch Crunch Crunch
There Back to the familiar sounds There was nobody else around He would have heardif there was Nobody could creep up on Stanley J Collins He was a trained scoutmaster His ears were as sharp as a fox’s
Crunch Crunch Crunch Crunch Cru -
Snap
Stanley stopped again and, for the first ti heart
That hadn’t been his i snapping, somewhere overhead And before it snapped - had there been the slightest rustling sound, like soazed up at the trees but it was too dark to see There could have been a monster the size of a car up there and he wouldn’t have been able to spot it Ten monsters! A hundred! A thou-
Oh, that was silly There were no monsters in the trees Monsters didn’t exist Everyone knew that Monsters weren’t real It was a squirrel or an owl up there, soan to bring it down
Snap