The Cottage in the Woods by Katherine Coville Page A

violent, vandalizing the announcements board and threatening other customers. Only the quick thinking and courage of a small group of boys kept the incident from spiraling out of control. The boys wrestled the suspect to the ground, but he was assisted by an outsider and got away. Anyone with information concerning the identity of the suspect, please contact Constable Murdley.’ ”
    “Oh, sir!” I exclaimed, my temper thoroughly aroused. “How can they print such lies? It wasn’t that way at all!”
    “They can print them because old Mr. Babcock, the man who bought the
Town Crier
, is the Anthropological Society’s grand high chief himself, and he controls the news. Since he’s taken over, there have been more and more stories like this, inciting bad feeling against the Enchanted.”
    “But that’s not right! No one is entitled to tell lies like that! Should I contact this Constable Murdley and tell him the truth? What will happen to that bear if he’s caught?”
    “I wouldn’t be surprised if his family has already spirited him out of town. If you went to the constable, you would only be disbelieved, and perhaps become a target yourself. See to it that you don’t go into town for any reason, and leave the rest to me.”
    “Yes, sir,” I replied, and was excused.
    Teddy was waiting for me in the schoolroom, as was Nurse. She glowered at me with red-rimmed eyes while Teddy greeted me with a spontaneous hug and a highly polished apple. Theterrible thought occurred to me that Nurse might expect to stay with us through Teddy’s lessons, and the idea depressed me unutterably. In a desperate attempt to dismiss her, I looked straight at Nurse and said, “Thank you for staying with Teddy while he waited for me. I was a little late today, but now that I am here …” I trailed off, not having the nerve to tell her to leave, but hoping she would take the obvious hint.
    Nurse’s expression went from hostile to inflamed. She seemed to swell up to twice her normal size, and then declared, “Now that you’re finally here, I’ll be leaving. But don’t you go traipsing out of doors again without me, or there’s no telling what trouble you’ll get yourselves into. I’m keeping an eye on you, and that’s certain!” She spun around and made her exit with as much gravity as her short, lumpy figure would allow.
    My shoulders slumped. The prospect of Nurse’s presence on what might have been pleasant rambles with Teddy completely disheartened me. I thought of going to Mr. Vaughn, or the mistress, and asking that they keep her from coming, but I knew this would fan the flames of Nurse’s hatred. Her threat to implicate me as the owner of her flask hung over me like the Sword of Damocles. And with the incident at the waterfall still fresh in their minds, the Vaughns might very well decide in favor of having two sets of eyes watching their cub anyway. Ultimately, I turned to Teddy and asked for his opinion: Would he like to have Nurse join us on our nature walks?
    “Oh yes!” Teddy answered immediately. “Nurse knows lots of good places to go.”
    My heart sank, but I told myself firmly that I would make a go of it for Teddy’s sake. There must be some redeeming feature in the badger’s personality for her to have earned Teddy’saffection. And if Nurse’s hostility toward me was really simple jealousy, perhaps it would help to include her in our outings. It might even be of some practical value to us to have a guide. But what a dark shadow she would cast! I gave an involuntary shudder.
    Teddy and I started the day by checking on Rana, the frog, who seemed content enough in his watery lair. After that, the time passed quickly with lessons. I began teaching Teddy how to write the numbers and letters that he had already learned to recite, and how to write his own name. He caught on quickly and was excited almost beyond bearing, wanting to go immediately and show his parents his handiwork.
    “I think we had better