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It appeared to me as if those dogs had been frightened and I thought it had something to do with the night before.

I left Tommy as he skated down his driveway. I rode back through the fields looking for any clues, but there was nothing. What was I hoping to find anyway? A scare', from what I could fathom was a mysterious item, I didn't know what it looked like or felt like, just that it was there one day and gone the next.

When I returned to my scarecrow, I was confronted with the saddest sight. Perched on top of his head were three birds. He was defenseless, the birds were making quite a racket and if I could have understood what they were saying, I'm sure they were laughing and making fun of him. I screamed at them to leave my scarecrow alone, but they weren't finished humiliating him. They picked and pecked at his face and finally flew away when I was close enough to throw some dirt at them. I watched those birds fly slowly over to the Smith's and hover above their scarecrow. I thought for a moment that they were about to attack Tommy's scarecrow, but they didn't. They just laughed down at him, as if sharing the joke. Tommy's scarecrow was standing straight and triumphant. He certainly hadn't lost his scare'. The birds were keeping their distance, but they were all communicating, I was sure of it.

My scarecrow's face had disappeared, his eyes were now tatters of straw and his mouth was a gaping hole. His arms hung uselessly by his side and his head bowed down in disappointment. I felt cheated, the work I had put into my scarecrow had been for nothing. I sat down and looked across my field, the birds had caused a lot of damage to the budding plants, but my scarecrow was what bothered me the most. I had learned about the magic of the scare' and that it really worked, even if it took seeing my scarecrow lose his to realize it. My father had been watching me and came out to see if he could help.

"Did you figure out what happened Flick?" Yes, I replied, and I told him exactly what happened to my scarecrows scare'. He didn't look anymore like he was about to laugh, in fact he was the one with a confused look now. "There's no other option than to build a new one then" he said. I knew that was what I had to do and I would commence work on it immediately. There was hope for my crop yet.

SECTION III Identify the clues and solution

Clues:

Flick thought that scarecrows came alive at night.

The scare' could be stolen.

Tommy Smith's scarecrow was happier than normal.

The Doberman's had been behaving strangely all morning, as if they'd seen something frightening.

The birds were communicating and laughing with Tommy's scarecrow.

Solution:

Tommy's scarecrow had stolen the scare' from Flick's scarecrow during the night and gave the dogs the fright of their life. The birds were grateful and showed their appreciation to Tommy's scarecrow.

Learn more about this author, Peter Robertson.
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