The Scarecrow, and Other Stories

The woman stood in the doorway of the ramshackle, tumble-down shanty. Her hands were cupped at her mouth. The wind blew loose, whitish blond wisps of hair around her face and sl...

He glanced over at the windows. The blinds were up. He could see the dark pressing against the glass; pressing tightly so that it spread. He started for the window. Kurz's voice...

It was a gray fog drenched day. The mist dripped all about him. The opaque veil of it shut out everything in wet obliteration. He stood quite still knowing that beneath its dank...

"I can't help it! I tell you, I can't. It's all right now. It's always all right when you're here. But after you go--Nothing is real to me; nothing but the flowers. And you don'...

To all outward appearances the house across the way was heavily boarded up and closed. It had always been closed since the time that Jasper Wald had come to live in Peach Tree R...

"A crack?" His hand still worked across it. "In the paint--here along the arm. Or a cut, or something. How under the sun could it have happened? We've got to have it fixed someh...

A boy stood in the doorway. He was slight and young. His face was small and rather like the girl's face, and his dark eyes were set far apart like her eyes. Through the gray of...

She struggled, inane with fear. She fought, trying to free herself, to tear away from the vise-like grip of those awful hands; swaying like a tortured, trapped creature against...

Her arms went around the dog's neck. Her hands stroked the thick ruff at his throat. She felt a cold nose on her cheek. A slow, deep sniffing; a second later two heavy paws were...

"But the woods," she went on slowly, "they're so dark and mysterious and all that sort of thing. I've wanted to explore them ever since I've been here--that is--that's not altog...

"Mon Dieu! It is all so cruel--this hate that has crippled our men. Look you, you two brothers--I would avenge them as you avenge them, but voilà--there is so little--so pitiful...