“Never, never, ’Ansey?”
“Never, never, Babs.”
“But in the deep, dark, beautiful woods that you come to and enter there is many a terrible monster living—horned, shelly, warty monsters. And they are all waiting to catch you.”
“Terrible, ’Ansey!”
“Are you afraid, dear?”
“Oh, no, ’Ansey! Be terrible some more.”
“Well, there is danger all around you now, for some of these monsters are quite hidden among the sand, with only one eye protruding, and this looks like a flower because it grows on a stalk. But when you go to look at it, suddenly the sandy ground gives way under you. You are caught and killed, and know no more.
“Some of these monsters, Nelda, live in caves, and if you go too near the entrance a great, long, skinny arm is thrust out, and you are dragged into the dark and devoured.”
“But I would turn quickly away out of that terrible wood, ’Ansey,” said Nelda.
“Yes, that is just what the sailor did.”