Walter

HAVE YOU MET MY FRIEND? HE'S NOT THERE

"Well, it looks like I wasn't any help," said the old man. "But I'm glad you weren't hurt."

Getting up, Walter decided to choose a spot on the log that hasn't been worn smooth.

"That could have been a pretty hard fall. Of course the bag's what tipped ya over in the first place. Ya may want to take it off before it decides to drag ya back down again."

Believing it to be sound advice, Walter removed his bag and let it slump to the floor.

"Thank you," said Walter. "I think that would be a good idea."

"Not a problem young whip, name's Ben."

"Walter, sir," he replied.

"Ben will do just fine, Walter. I haven't been a sir anything in years."

"Alright, Ben. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Walter. Now tell me, what brings ya out here. I'm sure it ain't sightseeing."

"Well sir... um, I mean, Ben. You see, I got up late this morning and ended up being left behind by the school bus. So I decided to try and make my way to school on my own. I ended up meeting a nice boy named Morty, but he was sick and wasn't able to come out and play like normal kids do."

"Now that's no fun for a young boy, now is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"After leaving Morty, I made my way to the railway station. I tried to sneak through the yard to make a shortcut of it. But when I was trying to sneak across, the train that I was hiding behind ended up going the wrong way. So I followed the tracks for a bit and came across a fox and..."

"A fox? Really? How close were you? Did it try to attack you?"

"At first I thought that maybe it wanted to because it got really close to me, and then I found out it was only looking for its family."

"How'd ya figure that out?"

"Well see, I'd seen a momma fox and her little baby foxes a little earlier. When the other fox saw me I thought he was gonna attack me, but then the momma and baby foxes appeared behind me and the papa fox went to join them."

"Well now, sounds like ya had a pretty close call there, Walter. Were you scared?"

"Yes I was, but only for a little bit."

"Sounds like a pretty brave lad to me," said Erle.

"Yes, quite brave indeed," replied Ben.

"Thank you, Ben."

"So what happened next?" asked Ben.

"Well, lets see... oh yes, then I kept following the tracks, and I could hear this buzzing noise."

"Buzzing noise?"

"Yes, a buzzing noise. So I started to run, and then I saw the old railway station here and I ran up to it. And when I got here I saw the buzzing was just the rain."

"Aha, I see."

"After that I fell asleep for a little bit in the station and then I could hear this banging kind of sound coming from outside. So I followed it and then I found you."

"I guess that was you making all that racket when you were throwing the wood into the barrel," said Erle.

"Yes, the wood," replied Ben.

"The wood what?"

"It was the wood hitting the inside of the barrel that was making the noise. At first I was just throwing in an extra log to get the fire stoked so I could start cooking. But the last one was aimed at Erle, it was a fruitless attempt on my part."