[jambutty]

I got 7/8 and also did well in my 11 plus for real all those years ago. Not quite good enough for a Grammar School but good enough for the Accrington Secondary Technical School in Ossy.

I went for crawled, trudged, trotted, raced, galloped
Their answer was crawled, trudged, trotted, galloped, raced.

Hmmm! Galloped – Raced! A horse gallops whilst it is racing or if you like when a horse is raced it will be galloping. I claim a moral 8/8.

The numbers sequence Studio25 was the difference between adjacent numbers and reducing by one each time.

Paint is to brush as ink is to pen lancsdave. The pen writes with ink and a brush paints with paint. You don’t paint with hair.

No one has written a story so all those claiming a score actually got one less.

Good, bad or indifferent my story gives me a genuine 7/8.

With a body made of straw I have to be propped up by a stick stuck in the ground, otherwise I would just fold over. In fact the stick is more of a cross because my arms are just as floppy so they are held outstretched by the cross member. So you could say that I was made just to be crucified.

I spend my days stuck in a field of wheat and my brief is to scare off the birds from eating all the seed that my farmer sowed. Sadly I cannot move around waving my arms so the birds just ridicule me and peck away to their heart’s content. Some even have the cheek to perch on my outstretched arms and one regularly perches on my head and then craps all over my back. It is most undignified and I wish and I wish that one day I could come alive and wring those birds’ necks.

Then on one magic night with a clear sky and a new moon, a light drifted down from the sky. I stared with amazement as the light got closer and brighter until it settled a few feet in front of me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off this apparition and watched as the light faded until I could see a beautiful woman with a star tipped wand in her outstretched hand. Her brilliant white dress glistened in the starlight and then she spoke.

Her voice was soft and warm as she waved her wand and spoke, “Your dream has come true scarecrow and tomorrow you will be able to run around and wave your arms to scare all the birds away. But now you must sleep so that in the morning you will be fit to do your job.”

With that the lady was enveloped in an incandescent light and disappeared upwards into the night sky.

If I could have done, I would have rubbed my eyes but instead drifted off into a deep sleep dreaming of being able to run around.

Next morning as the birds dived onto the field the usual crow sat on my head. But just as it was going to make me suffer the ultimate dignity once again, I move my head and frightened the life out of it. I move my arms around and the birds flew off squawking in a panic. Buoyed by my sudden ability to move I lifted one leg, then the other and found that I could walk and then run.

For the next hour I chased all the birds all over the field with such vigour that they all just flew away swearing that they will never come back.

I patrolled the field until nightfall but not one single bird dared to land in my field. Exhausted I went back to my usual spot and as the night drew on, my newly found ability to move dwindled away.

Today I still stand stock still but the wheat has grown from the seeds and in a few days the harvesters will come along and harvest the crop.

My farmer will be pleased but I hope that he doesn’t leave me out here for the winter and takes me into that nice warm barn where he first made me.