The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tree, Spare that Woodman, by Dave Dryfoos

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Title: Tree, Spare that Woodman

Author: Dave Dryfoos

Illustrator: Fries

Release Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #29794]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Illustrated by FRIES]

Tree,
Spare That Woodman

By DAVE DRYFOOS

_The single thing to fear was
fear--ghastly, walking fear!_

Stiff with shock, Naomi Heckscher stood just inside the door to Cappy's
one-room cabin, where she'd happened to be when her husband discovered
the old man's body.

Her nearest neighbor--old Cappy--dead. After all his wire-pulling to get
into the First Group, and his slaving to make a farm on this alien
planet, dead in bed!

Naomi's mind circled frantically, contrasting her happy anticipations
with this shocking actuality. She'd come to call on a friend, she
reminded herself, a beloved friend--round, white-haired, rosy-cheeked;
lonely because he'd recently become a widower. To her little boy, Cappy
was a combination Grandpa and Santa Claus; to herself, a sort of newly
met Old Beau.

Her mouth had been set for a sip of his home brew, her eyes had pictured
the delight he'd take in and give to her little boy.

She'd walked over with son and husband, expecting nothing more shocking
than an ostentatiously stolen kiss. She'd found a corpse. And to have
let Cappy die alone, in this strange world ...

She and Ted could at least have been with him, if they'd known.

But they'd been laughing and singing in their own cabin only a mile
away, celebrating Richard's fifth birthday. She'd been annoyed when
Cappy failed to show up with the present he'd promised Richard.
Annoyed--while the old man pulled a blanket over his head, turned his
round face to the wall, and died.

Watching compassionately, Naomi was suddenly struck by the
matter-of-fact way Ted examined the body. Ted wasn't surprised.

"Why did you tell Richard to stay outside, just now?" she demanded. "How
did