Once upon a time there lived about half a mile from a forrest a farmer and his wife and his sons and daughters and a granddaughter. The farmer and his wife loved this little girl very much but she caused them great trouble by running away into the woods and they often spent haf days looking for her. One day she wondered further into the forrest than usual and she begun to be hungry. Then night closed in. She asked a fox where she could get something to eat. The fox told her he knew where there was a partridges nest and a bluejays nest full of eggs. So he led her to the nests and she took five eggs out of each. When the birds came home they missed the eggs and flew into a rage. The bluejay put on his topcoat and was going to the partridge for law when he met the partridge coming to him. They lit up a fire and commenced sining their deeds when they heard a tremendous howl close behind them. They jumped up and put out the fire and were immejutly attacked by five great wolves. The next day the little girl was rambelling through the woods when they saw her and took her prisoner. After she had confessed that she had stole the eggs they told her to raise an army. They would have to fight over the nests of eggs and whoever one would have the eggs. So the partridge raised a great army of all kinds of birds except robins and the little girl got all the robins and foxes and bees and wasps. And best of all the little girl had a gun and plenty of ammunishun. The leader of her army was a wolf. The result of the battle was that all the birds were killed except the partridge and the bluejay and they were taken prisoner and starved to death.
The little girl was then taken prisoner by a witch and cast into a dunjun full of snakes where she died from their bites and people who went through the forrest after that were taken prisoner by her ghost and cast into the same dunjun where they died. About a year after the wood turned into a gold castle and one morning everything had vanished except a piece of a tree.
PETER CRAIG.
(DAN, WITH A WHISTLE:--"Well, I guess nobody can say Peter can't write fiction after THAT."
SARA RAY, WIPING AWAY HER TEARS:--"It's a very interesting story, but it ends SO sadly."
FELIX:--"What made you call it The Battle of the Partridge Eggs when the bluejay had just as much to do with it?"
PETER, SHORTLY:--"Because it sounded better that way."
FELICITY:--"Did she eat the eggs raw?"
SARA RAY:--"Poor little thing, I suppose if you're starving you can't be very particular."
CECILY, SIGHING:--"I wish you'd let her go home safe, Peter, and not put her to such a cruel death."
BEVERLEY:--"I don't quite understand where the little girl got her gun and ammunition."
PETER, SUSPECTING THAT HE IS BEING MADE FUN OF:--"If you could write a better story, why didn't you? I give you the chance."
THE STORY GIRL, WITH A PRETERNATURALLY SOLEMN FACE:--"You shouldn't criticize Peter's story like that. It's a fairy tale, you know, and anything can happen in a fairy tale."
FELICITY:--"There isn't a word about fairies in it!"
CECILY:--"Besides, fairy tales always end nicely and this doesn't."
PETER, SULKILY:--"I wanted to punish her for running away from home."
DAN:--"Well, I guess you did it all right."
CECILY:--"Oh, well, it was very interesting, and that is all that is really necessary in a story." )