Barney: Part 4

By ANTHONY HOLCROFT

That evening Pete watched from his attic window as the mists rose in the twilight. A sprinkling of stars appeared in the sky, but in the forest no light shone.

Pete shivered to think that an old man lived in that darkness, in tumbledown hut with no windows and no chimney.

He could imagine mist swirling through the empty windowframes, and frost slowly covering the bed like a stiff white blanket.

"But perhaps he doesn't feel the cold," said Pete aloud as he curled himself up in his warm bed, like a hare in its nest of grass.

In the morning after breakfast Pete asked his aunt if he could visit Barney.

"I don't think you'll find him," she said. "He's shy as a rabbit with strangers. But if you must go, then make yourself useful and bring back some mushrooms. And be careful crossing that river.

"There's only a couple of planks and they're as slippery as a skating rink. You'll need your boots."

Publisher: Shortland Publications

Price: $7.85

Age group: 9 years plus

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