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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2018
Copyright © Alan Garner 2018
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Alan Garner asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008305970
Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008305994
Version: 2018-09-11
For Tom
Contents
John and I were going up the Hough to pick watercress in Pott Brook and to look at the anti-aircraft battery in Baguley’s fields.
DANGER. DON’T TOUCH.
The notice was on the board outside the police station on Heyes Lane. A red arrow pointed to pictures of a high-explosive shell, small bombs with fins, a hand grenade; and there were some harmless-looking things too. And underneath was printed:
IF YOU FIND ONE OF THESE, TELL TEACHER OR A POLICEMAN.
DO NOT TOUCH IT, EVEN WITH A STICK.
AND DO NOT THROW STONES AT IT
Pott Brook goes under Hough Lane, and we jumped from the bridge into the field and began to look for caddis fly larvae in the water.
Caddis larvae build tubes from grit and bits of leaf and twig bark to protect their bodies, with only the head and legs poking out. They showed the water was clean. If there were no caddis flies we didn’t pick the cress.