THE SECRET OF WHISPERING HOLLOW

      

Creeping through the dew covered grass and up to the top of an old weathered tree stump was a small snail.  Around him, ferns and spring flowers were also dripping with the morning dew.  It was going to be a beautiful day in Whispering Hollow.  The hollow sits between two huge Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Kentucky.

The sun was rising over the river near the hollow.  Henry Becker was a farmer who lived near the river.  He could always be found fishing on the river when a nice morning like this came along.   He was a good fisherman, so lunch would likely be corn bread, soup beans, home fried potatoes, green onions and delicious fried fish.

Henry had a lovely home he shared with his wife       Harriet, daughter Sue Ellen and his son Timmy.  They were all very happy where they lived and enjoyed the peaceful quiet of their home.  There was one problem though, some of the folks in the area thought the hollow was haunted.   Sometimes at the strangest times you could suddenly here whispering

  sounds coming from the hollow.  Sounds that rustled through     the ferns and leaves of the trees.  Some people said even the trees had been seen looking around trying to find out where the sounds were coming from.  Sue Ellen told Timmy she had seen a dragon fly with a fairy on it's back flying over the river bank one day.

Timmy didn't believe her.  After all Sue Ellen was his sister.    Most Boys don't believe much their sisters tell them.  Timmy decided to go take a swim.  He grabbed his swim tube and headed for the river.  Sue Ellen was already there paddling in her canoe.

Sue Ellen planned to be in a big canoe race the town had every summer.   She was working hard practicing and getting ready for the race.  As she went by she waved at Timmy floating in his tube.  It was one of his favorite things to do.  They both noticed a lot of dragonflies were out on the water.  They seemed to be everywhere!  The water was

swarming with them.  Timmy looked over and thought   he saw a pretty fairy on the back of a big toad frog.  He couldn't believe his eyes!  Maybe his sister had been right.  Maybe there really were such things as fairies!  He jumped out of the river and headed for home.  On his way he heard that strange sound the folks around there always talked   

about.  A whisper spreading through the air.  Suddenly     out of the woods ran a hunter with a large dragonfly chasing him.  As he ran by Timmy, he could hear the dragonflies wings making a loud fluttering sound.  It sounded a little like a whisper!  While sitting on the front porch that night the whole family started talking about fairies and dragonflies.  As it turned out both Mr. and Mrs. Becker had seen a fairy a few times.  Henry told the

  kids about seeing a lady floating near the waterfall that ran into the river.  He said he saw a unicorn with a fairy flying above it's back, fly over the lady in the water.  He thought the lady must have been sleeping because she didn't even seem to notice.  Henry had told Sue Ellen the story before but now the kids were really surprised.  They realized they may not have

been imagining what they thought they saw.  The    beautiful fairies may have been real after all!  Harriet was a wonderful gardener.   She had a real green thumb which meant she could grow almost anything.  In addition to growing a lot of wonderful vegetables, she also had one of the most beautiful flower gardens in all of Whispering Hollow.               

One of Harriet's favorite creatures were the dragonflies.  Many mornings she would go out to check her flowers and find several pretty dragonflies resting on some of them.  One day she thought she also saw a fairy but as soon as she looked at it, suddenly it just seemed to melt away.  She was never really sure what she had seen.

It could have been a fairy or just another pretty dragonfly.  As she gardened Harriet kept thinking about it.  She felt so sure it wasn't just a dragonfly she had seen, she started to wonder if maybe it could have been both.  Just about that time she turned and saw a beautiful little fairy standing in a lovely purple dress right in the middle of her pink flowers.  Harriet knew she had just seen something no one else would ever see!

As soon as her family got home she told them about what she had seen.  The whole family was finally starting to realize they were sharing their hollow with some very special creatures.  Something most people in this world would never be lucky enough to see.  Sue Ellen was a talented artist.  She worked with oil paint and thought she would try to paint a picture of the pretty fairies the family had seen.

As she sat painting her dog Good Boy showed up and Sue Ellen had to take a brake to give him a hug.  He got the name Good Boy simply because the Becker family are so sweet to all their animals, they kept telling him what a good boy he was until he thought it was his name!  Good Boy had known for a long time about the fairies and dragonflies.

He had always enjoyed laying on the porch watching as the robins would chase the dragonflies.  The robins almost never won and Good Dog was glad about that.  He even had a favorite fairy.  She sat each day and rested on a pretty mushroom near the porch.  Animals have a special sense to know somethings that people just don't notice.  Many times they hear and smell much better than we do.  Wouldn't it be nice to know all the things they do?

Southerners have a saying, "Y'all come back now, ya    hear!" They really do mean it too.  The Becker family was just as welcoming but also loved the peace and quiet of their so called haunted whispering hollow.  They had since discovered the whispering in the hollow was simply the sound of fairy and dragonfly wings.  To the Becker's, one of the sweetest sounds on earth.

IMAGINATION IS TO SEE THINGS THAT NEVER HAVE HAPPENED AND BELIEVE THAT SOME DAY THEY MAY!