The wood was owned bud and ____ by the Fosters in the touch-me-not cottage, and if they never wandered in among trees, that was their affair.

It widened and seemed to pause, suggesting ____ bovine picnics: slow shewing and thoughtful contemplation of the infinite. It went on again and came to the wood.

Mae's husband, on his back beside her, did not stir. he was still asleep, and the _____ creases that folded his daytime face were smoothed and slack.

Mae Tuck began to dress: three petticoats, a rusty brown skirt, and old cotton jacket, and knitted shawl which she pinned across her bosom with a ___ metal brooch.

He laughed, gesturing in self-______ with long, thin fingers. His tall body moved continuously,; a foot tapped, a shoulder twitched.

"How delightful to see you looking so fit." "And why should't I be fit?" she _____, peering at him through the fading light.

She paused and peered anxiously at the toad to see how it would receive this ______ idea, but it showed no signs of interest.

The gnats were too frantic to notice these intrusion, however, and since every pebble missed its final mark, the toad continued to squat and ____ without a twitch.

Winnie was once again in the yard, this time ____ on catching fireflies, and at first she didn't notice him. His yellow suit seemed to surprise her, and she squinted suspiciously.

Through the twiglight sounds of crickets and sighing trees, a faint, surprising ___ of music came floating to them, and all three turned toward it, toward the wood.

There was a twig tucked between the toas of one foot. He waved the twig ___ as he sat there, his face turned up to a gaze at the branches far above him.

Still, it was galling, this having to admit she was afraid. And when she remembered the toad, she felt even more _____.

The last stains of sunset had melted away, and the twilight died, too, as he stood there, though its ____ clung reluctantly to everything that was pale in color.

She had always pictured a ___ of burly men with long black moustaches who would tumble her into a blanket and bear her off like a sack of potatoes.

"It's pretty," said Winnie, taking the little box and turning it over in her hands. The winding key was still revolving, but more and more slowly. The melody ____. Another few widely spaced notes plinked, and then it stopped.

Thinking of her mother, she saw herself as small, weak, and helpless, and she began to cry, suddenly, crushed as much by _____ as by shock. Mae Tuck's round face wrinkled in dismay.

They had come to the edge of the wood now, with no sign of slowing their _____ jog. The road where it angled across the meadow, was just ahead dazzling white in the open sunlight.

"They come to pull back from us. There was talk about _____. Black Magic."

Discovering him, seeing his surprise, and presented at once with choices, Winnie's mind ____ went blank. Instead of crying out for help, she merely goggled at him as they fled past the spot where he stood.