Once upon a time there was a small brook that fooled everyone. It was called Toe Brook because people liked to dip their toes in it. They didn't think it was deep enough to dip a foot in. But they were wrong. Actually it was very deep and there was a troll lurking in it.

Do you know what a troll is? Well I don't either, not exactly. But I do know this, trolls are dangerous mythological animals that usually live in water and under bridges. Moreover, they like to eat small animals such as goats or lambs or little boys or girls, especially if their names begin with R or J. I haven't ever seen one, so I don't know what they look like.

So if you play in Toe Brook, please be careful and watch out crossing bridges. OK?

The brook didn't always have a troll under it. But one day a little boy built a tiny bridge over it so his toy trucks and cars could cross over it. This attracted a passing troll to the brook because there is nothing a troll likes better than a bridge to lurk under, especially if there is water under the bridge which can also be lurked under. It was the troll who dug Toe Brook so deep so it would be more lurkable under.

When these story monsters were very little they got their Daddy used to telling them stories all the time. Before that he hardly ever made up or told stories. And if he couldn't tell them stories he wrote stories for them like this one.

One day the troll got hungry and decided to eat the next thing that went over the little boy's bridge. The next thing was a yellow toy dump truck. The troll grabbed it off the bridge and stuffed it into his mouth as he dove to the bottom of the brook. But when he discovered the truck was made of metal he spit it out. Yeck!

Next the little boy's fingers began to cross the bridge. He was pretending they were a person. The troll grabbed the fingers, but when he tried to pull them into the water, the little boy pulled harder. So the troll came right out of the water and landed on the bank.

The troll cried a lot because he thought he was a failure as a troll. But the little boy said: "don't cry I'll put grass and other things on the bridge for you to eat and you can scare my toys and me but not eat us."

The troll agreed and after that the troll and the little boy were good friends. And if anyone was mean to the little boy, the troll would scare them. Boo!

THE END