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 is