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most anything if told enough times.
"Hey you guys, come on, let's get out of here!" Jimmy had

instantly ruled out the idea of the boys playing a joke on him, for
he knew they wouldn't dare attempt such a thing. "I don't know
who banged those cans," and, as if on cue, the noise sounded
again in the middle of his sentence, ''but it sure wasn't me!" His
voice shook.

The five boys came all from different directions and
headed toward the gate, intending to run straight home. The
breeze muffled an "Uffi',"that came from a place in the fence
somewhere amongst the fog and darkness. None of the others
had heard it.

Only four of the boys made it home that night, and even
they slept uneasily in their beds. Too scared to make sure they
all had escaped the vacant lot, Jimmy and the others assumed all
was good and well. But it is in this way lessons are learned. One
wonders why, after so many generations have passed, people
(little boys included) must continue to learn lessons the hard way.

Poor little Andy, having tripped over a protruding tree
root, rested belly down on the spiked fence. Of all the boys, it
was, of course, clumsy Andy who dangled there stuck to the fence
with blood oozing and spurting from his round little stomach. His
cries that had been lost in the wind were now silent altogether.
Behind him in Mrs. Zeller's garden, keeping the crows away, two
sets of pie plates banged back and forth in the wind.

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