Chapter 23

B-"Well, in my younger days I was rather..." Euph trailed off. "Mrs. Kahn, I'm sorry to tell you, but we have one of your recent victims that you didn't quite finish off waiting outside the door," said Sarah. "Do you possibly recognize this little Bloodhound?" asked Betsy. Euphemiana glanced over at Poppy and seemed to really see her for the first time. A flickering of recognition passed over her face but she wiped it off before anyone but Sarah or Betsy could notice. It was enough though. "And what about this poor beaver?" asked Betsy (because as it turns out the Beaver was not dead after all! The girls found out about this shortly before the interview but didn't to mention it to the rest of the group. They thought it would be best, and more entertaining to catch Euphie off guard.) The Chief Popo carried little Dodo, the beaver, (short for Dorothea Opal) into the room and Euphie got a look of terror in her eyes. "Dagnabit..." she muttered, "I just knew these beavers would be the ruin of me!" Simon who had been sitting like a very fine gentleman during this whole exchange was just starting to realize that his grandmother was a beaver nabber (which was illegal in the greater part of Scotland) and mostly likely the Killer of Killwinning...
S-“Grandmother, what is the meaning of all this?” he inquired as surreptitiously as possible but everyone’s attention was fixed on the exchange. Euph sat resolutely with lips clenched shut. “How could you do this to us? Our family is surely ruined! All that we have worked for; all that Grandfather worked for. Gone. We will never be respectable ever again.” With that Simon slumped down in his chair head buried in his hands. “And with that all over with,” Betsy--with eyes twinkling excitedly--whispered in a very Dorcas-Lane-when-she-is-up-to-mischief kind of whisper, “we shall get back to business.” (I hope you know that I’m jealous that you get to be Dorcas Lane-esque) “Now,” Sarah said, her eyes shooting daggers at Euph for breaking poor Simon’s heart, “we know who the murderer of Killwinning is even if you won’t admit it. Please allow us to present our evidence. Firstly, the murder weapon of the Sultry Scot’s sister was a halbert. Who in the world owns a halbert? People who live in manor houses and hunt beavers do.”



and

Chapter 22

S-“We were wondering if a few of you would come in for a few questions so we can clear up a bit of fogginess surrounding some of the circumstances surrounding the recent events. No need to fret, this is purely routine,” added Betsy. The girls promptly hopped off the beaver statue and started towards the lovely pub on the corner where they were planning on conducting the interview. Sarah remembered they should probably ask the people they wanted to talk to to come too. The girls then walked resolutely towards the pub not knowing exactly what to expect from the group following behind them. As the settled around the fire in a large circle Poppy went around and sniffed everyone’s boots, letting them know that she was keeping a close eye on things, so don’t try any sneaky business. Mrs. Forrester (who the girls hadn’t met before but looked to be a lovely person), Simon’s grandmother, mother, and two sisters, the butler, the apothecary man--who had the beaver that was the dead-or-very-soon-to-be-dead-that-was-dead-and-then-wasn’t-dead-anymore-(unbeknownst-to-Betsy-and-Sarah) whose tail was flopping merrily, the chief popo, Peter, and Simon all exchanged wary glances. “You may or may not have realized this, but this is not a routine bit of questioning. It is rather a serious bit of questioning and I think that you should all know that we have a murderer in our midst. We just didn’t want to announce that before we had you all trapped in here.” announced Sarah very seriously, nodding towards the door where Poppy stood guard.
S- “As we started into the investigation of the murder of Lulu, things in this town started to get more and more muddled,” started Betsy “The clues weren’t adding up,” added Sarah, “people’s accounts of their doings and characters weren’t matching up.” “Basically,” Betsy interjected, “for most of the investigation nothing added up. Then we had a break--the beaver. Thats when everything started to come together. Poppy, the begonias, the tea cozy, the beaver, shuffling in the woods, disturbances in the dust, the fire in the cottage that nearly cost my sister and me our lives. They’re all connected! Our murderer was very sneaky and worked hard to push the notice from themselves to others. They tried especially hard to push attention onto one particular person, her grandson. Isn’t that right Euphemiana?” Euphemiana who had previously appeared to be dozing in the corner jolted up, very awake, “How would I know?” After a meaningful look from Sarah, Euphemiana’s eyes widened. “Are you insane?” she demanded, “Why would I of all people be the murderer? I can barely walk, let alone stab a young lass with a Halberd.” “Or thats what you’ve wanted people to think. In reality you are quite an accomplished beaver hunter, aren’t you Mrs. Kahn,” replied Sarah.



and

Chapter 21

S-"We MUST find out who this murderer is before anyone else gets picked off," declared Betsy resolutely as she marched off in the southerly direction. "Where are you going?" Peter asked her. "To town to solve this mystery once and for all," Betsy remarked over her shoulder. "Well it might be better if you turned approximately 145 degrees to your left because town is north-east of here" Peter informed her. "Well why didn't you say so earlier?" Betsy cried in exasperation and the whole crew set off towards town. On their way into town Betsy and Sarah started to review all of the evidence to see if they could piece any of it together. They were still thoroughly baffled but felt like they were getting to the cusp of a major revelation. This cusp was marching towards them much sooner than they thought. On the outskirts of town they came across quite a scene...
B- While they were all away trying to solve a murder and wandering around the forest and trying (but failing) to save a beaver’s life the town had decided that a fox hunt was just what everyone needed for a bit of cheering up. So everyone gussied up their horses, rounded up the hounds, and all met in the town square. Now the problem is, how does one go about having a fox hunt? But that is a question for another time. The question is now, how was Betsy going to solve this hole pickle? She didn’t have a clue either until she saw the begonia bushes that had their heads chopped off in front of the inn that she and Sarah were staying in. Then she had an idea! She should go read her journal that she kept insanely good notes in. I bet that if they read over what she had written since they had gotten to Scotland they might be able to piece this whole thing together.
S-Sadly, Betsy's notes were far too detailed for either her or Sarah to make any headway. Entries such as "seven grains of rice left on the plate of the man who ate next to us" and "twenty-three dead ants on the way up the stairs today" appeared to be a little bit excessive in hind sight. Luckily just at that moment Poppy decided it was getting a bit chilly and tugged her pink tea cozy out from under the bed and nudged Sarah's hand to let her know she needed an extra layer put on. Betsy's eyes widened when she saw the fluffy bit of knittery. "Tea cozy, begonias, dead beaver..." she muttered scrunching up her face so that she could think better. She flipped her journal to their first day in the town. "How could we have been so blind!" she cried in distress. It was right under our noses the whole time! Sarah and Betsy ran to the town square to settle this mess once and for all.
B-First the girls had to find the Popo, Simon, and Peter so they could help get everyone paying attention and also to make sure the murderer didn’t escape. “Simon,” Sarah said “I need you to make sure that no one leaves at all. Not even the head Popo!” (eyeing him suspiciously) “Of course madam,” Simon said sarcastically. (But in a good sarcastic way, not a bad sarcastic way) The girls then ran to the lovely fountain of a beaver situated in the center of the town square and clambered to the top of it, Poppy whimpered at the bottom asking with her eyes if she could pretty please come up? “Oh all right dearest,” said Betsy, “But don’t make a fuss.” The Popo, Simon, and Peter were doing their best weaving in and out of horses, hounds, children, and other various objects telling everyone to hush up and pay attention. Sarah mustered up her courage and said, but mostly yelled...“Excuse me everyone! Excuse me! I have a rather important announcement to make. For the past fortnight Betsy, Poppy, and I have been trying to solve these murderings that have been going on in your lovely little town of Kilwinning.”



and

Chapter 20

S-Poppy, being the clever sleuth she is, noticed upon entering the room a rather large leg of mutton lying on the ground next to the unconscious Apothecary Man. She immediately pounced on his sternum, gave it a few pushes and VOILA! a piece of not nearly chewed enough mutton shot out of the Apothecary Man's mouth and landed across the room in what appeared to be belladonna plant that was turning a violent shade of purple. The Apothecary Man sputtered, sat up and looked around. "What happened?" he asked dazedly. Suddenly he shot to his feet and ran to the fire shouting something about how his concoction (which was the source of the wretched smell and dastardly fog) was completely ruined."This is no time to be fussing over your dumb soup!" Betsy shouted, "We have a dead or very soon to be dead beaver here!"
B-"Oh!" exclaimed the Apothecary man (who's name turned out to be Leslie) "Let me examine the patient..." he took the dead or very soon to be dead beaver gently in his arms cradling it like a baby and laid it carefully down on the counter. He poked and prodded and mumbled something that sounded like "Mashed potatoes with salt are disgraceful." He then bustled off to his shelves of herbs and remedies, selected a small round pot and hurried back to the poor animal's side. "Those mashed potatoes..." Leslie mumbled again as he poured some of the liquid inside of the pot down the beavers throat. The group watched with baited breath for what seemed like an eternity... Then suddenly the Apothecary man said in a very loud voice, "Well that's that! He's not a very soon to be dead beaver. He's just plum darn dead." "What a shame," everyone muttered. "I suppose he's in a better place," said Betsy who had grown rather fond of the poor creature. Simon who was rather level headed because he hadn't formed any sort of attachment whatsoever to the Beaver said, "Leslie, would you be so kind as to dispose of the body for us? We would be much obliged to you," and with that he took the girls arms and marched them from the shop. But they hadn't gotten far when they heard a strange strained noise that sounded as though something was in pain. They all looked around but it was Betsy who spotted the source first. It was not anything in pain, well unless you include emotional pain, it was the Sultry Scott and he was singing. This was not any sort of song, this was a song sung for a specific purpose to a specific person. Betsy. Crap.
S-The girls couldn't understand anything the Scot was saying because it was in some ancient Gaelic dialect but Simon informed the girls that the Scot was singing of his undying love for Betsy. Betsy moaned and veered towards the left hoping that they could walk by unnoticed. The Scot was so taken up with his song that he almost didn't notice the party's brisk passing. "Hark, my love!" cried the Scot hopping from his perch atop a branch in a rather tall tree, "I have something I need to show thee!" Too bad 2.5 seconds later the Scot was convulsing on the ground, eyes wild and bile leaking out his ears. Another 3.7 seconds later the Scot was quite dead.
B-Betsy couldn't quite comprehend the situation. One second there was the Scot professing his undying love for her, at least according to Simon, and now he was unmistakably dead. She had already had quite a day, and started to cry right then and there because she couldn't think of anything else she could do. But then Poppy, sensing her distress, went and licked Betsy's hand and cuddled with her. It made Betsy feel a lot better. Sarah and Simon, seeing that Betsy was quite well attended to, were approaching the now still Scot. "I wonder what killed the poor dear," said Sarah. They inspected the whole body trying to find some sign of poisoning, but none could be found. Betsy had regained some of her strength and she started to look over by where the Scot had been singing. On the ground beneath the tree was a bouquet of her flowers. Begonia's.
S-"Begonias!" Betsy cried in surprise, "my favorite." She ran over to where they were lying in the dewy grass. Just as her fingers were about to touch them a flying torpedo of human flesh blind-sided her! Don't worry though, her ninja instincts kicked in. Instead of allowing herself to he hurled to the ground she used the momentum from the fleshy torpedo and channeled it into an epic ninja move sequence that doesn't even have a name--yes, it was that epic. After approximately 3.6 seconds the fleshy torpedo's head was in a death grip and sputtering for breath. Simon and Sarah were so enamored by the sunset that they wouldn't have even noticed the exchange if it weren't for Poppy tugging desperately at Sarah skirts. They turned around just in time to see the last 1.3 seconds of the exchange. Betsy was so enraged at her attacker that she didn't even think to see who it was. Good thing Sarah called out his name in confusion before Betsy had time to snap his neck.
B-"Peter!" cried Sarah. Betsy who was distracted by Sarah's call looked down at whose neck she was just about to break and found that it was the rather attractive man from the forest. She had no clue how Sarah knew his name, but she did. Betsy decided to still keep in in a vice-like headlock just incase he turned out to really be trying to kill her. "Excuse me Peter," said Betsy in a fairly calm voice, "but may I ask as to why you just tried to kill me? It made me feel a little uncomfortable..." Peter tried to say something but it came out more like "muffins are delectable" and that certainly is not a very good reason to try to kill someone. Betsy loosened her hold on him ever so slightly and he tried again. "Begonias.... are... poisoned....*gasp*" Well that took everyone by surprise. "What!" exclaimed Simon, "That must be how the Scot died. I wonder who was trying to kill him." "Well," said Sarah, "I would hazard a guess at whoever killed the rest of the people and the poor beaver." "Oh no! Those flowers were meant for me I think! Whoever is trying to kill off the rest of the town put us next on the list!" (Dun dun dun! To be continued...)




and

Chapter 19

B-The girls decided that they didn't even want to fight with the Butler by pounding on the door again so they decided that maybe there was someone in town that could help the poor dead or very soon to be dead beaver. So they set off at a very quick pace down the hill towards the town. About a minute or two into their journey Poppy started sniffy interestedly in the air. "What is it girl?" asked Sarah. "What do you smell?" Betsy was peering ahead because she thought she saw someone coming up the lane. "Sarah!" she exclaimed, "I think someone's coming!" "I do believe you are right sister," said Sarah. "Maybe that's what Poppy was sniffing." The figure very soon came into focus and it was just who the girls were wanting to see! "Simon!" Betsy shrieked, "We have just been to your house and your Butler was quite rude to us. We even told him that we had a dead or very soon to be dead beaver on our hands." He was quite close to where the were now, and he was not smiling. Betsy, who had almost completely forgotten that he was a suspect in the murder investigation became a little nervous, and she could tell that the other's were too. "What if he really is the murderer and he's coming to finish us off," she thought to herself. "At least I'm a trained ninja..."
S-She had totally forgotten that several summers prior she had gone to Korea to learn the ways of the warriors. Good thing she just remembered. She was just about to reach for her ankle dagger when Simon's expression changed to one of shock. "Sarah, Betsy? You're alive?" he gasped. I've just gone to town to tell everyone the dreadful news of what happened that day in the shack. "Yes, I'm so sorry we thwarted your plans to MURDER us!" shrieked Betsy, her inner warrior was beginning to emerge. Wait, what do you mean I tried to kill you?" asked Simon, "I never did
 anything of the sort. I think there has been a little bit of confusion. You tried to kill me. Don't think I didn't see that deathly night-grip flower so cleverly placed right in my line of stepping. So yes, I did lock you down in the cellar so that... I could figure out what to do about the fact that two supposed detectives tried to kill me. I went to talk to my grandmother about it because she is so clever you see. When I got back to the house however she was indisposed and didn't want to see anyone. I walked back to the shack only to see it in ashes." "Well then who tried to kill us?" inquired Sarah. "They'd better fess up quick or they'll get whats coming to 'em" said Betsy savagely
B-"Well I didn't notice anything around the shack when I was there," said Simon. "But then again I was distraught with grief and confusion." "Alright! How about we continue this lovely conversation later, because we have a dead or very soon to be dead beaver here!" said Betsy in as calm a voice as she could muster because this whole thing was very stressful and she just wanted a bit of breakfast. Sarah and Simon agreed that for the sake of the poor beaver, the conversation could be postponed for a minute or two, and the five started briskly down the lane. "I think we should take him to the Apothecary," said Sarah. " I bet that he would know something to cure this poor sweet creature." So they altered their course in the direction of said Apothecary...
S-Meanwhile, Poppy was looking up at Simon with adoring eyes and playfully nipping at his heels as if to say she had missed him. "Poppy," Sarah whispered exasperatedly, "That is no way to treat a suspect. You must stop immediately. We have no idea what he is capable of!" Poppy slinked to the other side of the party and they proceeded onward. The beaver's breathing began to be laborious. "I think he is holding on to his last strings of life!" cried Betsy in severe distress, "we must hasten!" They awkward group finally reached the steps of the Apothecary only to 
find the door quite locked, rather than just locked, for you see several different kinds of bolts and fasteners seemed to be engaged in the task of preventing the salvation of an innocent creature! "What to do, what to do!" Betsy fretted, "Oh wait, I have ninja skills. I forgot that several moons ago I visited the ancient land and learned the ways of master Jaedong this is fortunate indeed for if I had not traveled..." "Just get on with it!" cried Sarah in distress. "Oh, yes,
of course." said Betsy and in one swift movement the door had been cloven in two.
B-The room smelled even more peculiar than it had the first time the girls had visited, and the haze seemed to have grown thicker. "Where the devil is the Apothecary man!" shouted Betsy, who's only concern now was whether the beaver lived or died. Sarah on the other hand was rather composed as she said, "Simon, if you would be so kind as to check the back room for the Apothecary man. If he is not brought directly I think dearest Betsy will have a hernia, or some other medical disaster." Simon ran to the back room but he was not gone long before there was a loud yell. The girls quickly ran to the back room where the smell was even worse and the haze even more dense. As they looked around they spotted Simon crouched over a mass of cloth on the floor. "Oh my heavens!" exclaimed Betsy. "This is not the time for another death! We need his skills to help save the poor dead or very soon to be dead beaver!" "Curses," muttered Sarah under her breath. "Wait!" said Simon, "I think I've found a pulse! We need to get help!" but Poppy was already two steps ahead...




and

Chapter 18

S-a filthy murdering liar! Thats what he turned out to be. Sarah grabbed Betsy's hand and stomped away into the forest (this time they were careful to avoid the deadly night grip). Poppy gave the forest man a sympathetic look and sauntered after the girls. Sarah ranted on for a while about talking to strange men. Betsy was already embarrassed enough without Sarah's lecturing and soon enough sniffling sounds were emanating from her dainty nose and wetness was falling out of her radiant eyes. "Oh poo," Sarah muttered. She was about to comfort Betsy when she saw something in the dirt, a crushed bouquet begonias! “I think our murderer might be close!” she exclaimed with wide eyes, “Or at least the Begonia murderer is somewhere close.”
B-"Oh the poor dears!" said Betsy, who really rather liked flowers and was feeling especially emotional at the moment. "I don't think we can save them, but maybe we can catch the evil-doer!" But Sarah had been thinking, and the only other person they'd seen in the forest recently was the strange, yet very attractive, forest-man and what was stopping him from being the Begonia murderer! And while she was thinking about it, how did they know that he wasn't the other murderer? Because they'd already figured out that Simon was that murderer... But now she was beginning to doubt her hasty decision. "Bets, do you think that there is anyway possible for Simon not be the real murderer? I mean, what if he was just framed for it?" asked Sarah. "Well, we didn't actually see him start the fire, and he was behind both of us..." said Betsy. "We need to find Simon and the strange, but really quite attractive, forest-man! Stat!" They hurried off the way that they had come.
S-"Strange Forest-Man!" Betsy called out, "We need to speak with you for a moment if you wouldn't mind. Its awfully important." The girls went on with Betsy saying things like this for quite some time. When ever a squirrel jumped from tree to tree or a lark burst into flight she would whip around searching hopefully. "I don't think he is here anymore," Sarah finally remarked. "I guess you're right" Betsy replied in a mournful resigned tone. "We should hurry over to Simon's house to get to the bottom of this whole mess," declared Sarah. "I don't know, maybe we should keep on looking for Forest-man," said Betsy. "Well if you feel like thats the best plan of action how about you stay here and Poppy and I go to Simon's house," said Sarah.
B-"Oh goodness me no!" exclaimed Betsy. "That would be far to frightening. What if I was abducted by the Strange Forest-Man, or some other sinister thing. You wouldn't know that I was missing for a very long time and it would be quite a mess. I suppose I'll come along with you. I want to see Simon anyways." "Why do you want to see him?" inquired Sarah. "I'm not entirely sure, but I have the feeling that he knows something that will really get us to the bottom of this case!" said Betsy. "Well why didn't you say so before, Silly!" said Sarah. "Let's go!" And off they trotted in the direction of Simon's house which wasn't very far at all, only a couple of miles and the walk was pleasant. They soon reached the edge of the park and got an entirely different view of it than the first time they had approached the House on the Hill because they were coming from the back. It seemed a lot more natural with a lovely little stream and pond. But what was this? Something strange was on the ground a little ways off...
S-a dead beaver. "Oh my heavens!" cried Betsy. Who would ever do such a thing to a poor innocent creature? Sarah went over to see if it was really dead. The animal was still warm so that meant that it was either very recently dead or only barely alive. "Quick, lets take it up to Simon's house" said Sarah, "he might have the instruments we need to revive the little dear." The girls made haste towards the house, Sarah cradling the beaver in her arms and Poppy following along at their heels. When the reached the front door of the house they banged on the front door and after a moment the butler answered. "Is Simon here?" inquired Betsy in a panicky voice (which was panicky for more than one reason. One being that the beaver was dead or very soon to be dead, another that Simon, they believed, had tried to kill them, and also the Butler bore a very close resemblance to what she had always imagined Jack the Ripper would look like.) "I'm sorry" he replied in an stone-y voice, "but Simon is out for the afternoon. He had some business in town." "Well that’s not very helpful, is it?" spat Betsy, "we need to come in this instant because we have a dead or very soon to be dead beaver on our hands." "Oh, I see, well that changes things doesn't it?" remarked the Butler. He coolly turned around and shut the door in the girls faces. “That wasn’t very Christian of him,” said Sarah.



and

Chapter 17

B-As the girls were sleeping Poppy was taking the watch. She pretty much just loved to poke her nose out the window and smell the fresh air. And there was just something about that big moon in the sky that she just loved to look at. Howling, she thought, was overrated. It was just so much more enjoyable to look at it and contemplate life. But a noise burst her bubble of wonder, it wasn’t a large noise but very noticeable to Poppy’s sharp ears. A tiny clipping noise, like that of possibly flowers. Poppy searched the nearby hedges and found the culprit. Two figures stood by the hedgerows cutting of flowers and acting very suspicious. Poppy thought this warranted waking up the girls and whined. Both Sarah and Betsy stumbled out of bed and to the window. “What is it girl?” asked Betsy. Poppy pointed with her nose towards the figures. “Well now, that is odd,” said Sarah. “What would two people be doing cutting off flowers from hedgerows and acting very suspicious.” “Too bad we can’t see their faces,” mumbled Betsy, who was still very sleepy and not really wanting to figure it out. But after the girls had gone to bed, Sarah was troubled by the thought that both of the figures seemed very familiar, she just couldn’t put her finger on it.
S-The next morning the girls went out to investigate. All of the tops of the Begonias had been chopped off. "Well this is a bad sign" sighed Betsy. "Indeed" Sarah replied, "It appears that someone has it out for us. Perhaps we're getting a little too close for comfort to the murderer!" "Perfect!" gleamed Betsy. Poppy began sniffing intently at the mangled begonias, her ears perked up. "I think she may have the scent!" exclaimed Betsy. Poppy took off rather quickly along the path the girls had taken the other day. She veered into the forest and stopped at the base of a tree. "A clue!" exclaimed Betsy. "I don't see why we have to go through all of this trouble. We already know that Simon is the murderer. Lets go tell the Popo already," sighed Sarah leaning against a tree gazing into the sky. There was a muffled shriek. Sarah whipped around and saw a very tall man with his hand over Betsy's mouth dragging her into the forest! Poppy was crying and frantically trying to bite the man's legs off, but to no avail. Sarah would have to do some quick thinking to get themselves out of this terrible mess!
B-But Betsy was sick a tired of being the gosh dang damsel in distress! She didn't need Sarah's help, although it was always welcome, because she knew self defense perfectly well! Well, she more or less knew the gist of it. So as she was biting and kicking and screaming and punching she thought of a better idea, why not try talking her way out of it. So she wiggled her way around so that she had a better view of her captor (it always is more intimidating to people when you're looking at them) and she found that he was really quite attractive! But that was beside the point, because he was trying to kidnap her. "Excuse me," she said authoritatively, "but can you tell me why you're trying to kidnap me?" "Oh," replied her captor. "Is that what this looks like? This isn't how I wanted to start things off at all! Why do I always mess things up!?" And then he got this really quite adorable disgruntled look on his face. (C'mon! Can't I have one cute person like me? PS This is not part of the story) "So, what are you going to do with me? Or do you always kidnap girls when you like them? Or do you not like me?" asked Betsy who was quite put out with the idea of him not liking her.
S-"Well you see," he replied, "that tree that you were inspecting just so happened to have some of deathly nightgrip mushrooms at the bottom. If you had even just so slightly stepped on one of them a toxic gas would have been released and you would have been dead in minutes. You were getting awfully close to stepping on one." "Oh, I see." replied Betsy, a little disappointed, "Why didn't you just say so?" "I panicked! Dead people are so messy!" he exclaimed, "and actually we need to be really careful throughout this whole area. This is where the largest colony of the night grip resides." Betsy glanced around nervously and saw some violently purple mushrooms scattered about. She wondered how she had missed them. They seemed so dreadfully ominous now.
B-"I thank you kind sir, but I fear that I have nothing to offer you as thanks for your kind deed!" exclaimed Betsy. "Well, a kiss from a fair maiden would be thanks enough for a lowly forest-man like me," stated the man. As he stooped down, because you see, he was rather tall, Sarah burst forth from the tree's (she had been watching the whole exchange from a conveniently placed bush) and cried "Stop you fiend! Back! Do you know what you are doing!? Betsy, get away from him! You haven't even known him for more than five minutes and during three of those you thought he was kidnapping you! What about 'Don't talk to strangers'? I'm pretty sure that 'Don't kiss strangers' is an obvious one." Betsy was blushing by now because all of what Sarah has said was true, but there was just something about him that seemed like you could trust him. But look what Simon turned out to be...




and