Jen, thanks so much for the Sredni Vashtar story. I put it on my list To Read. Kids are indeed much more clever and resourceful than adults. Sometimes though they do behave like smart little foxes :-)

Glad you enjoyed the story, Lauren. I too realized the girl had made it all up, when the aunt came in, but it was still interesting to read that guy’s reaction :-)

While I am an ardent fan of all of H.H. Munro’s work, I believe his best short stories feature children, who are unfailingly more clever, honest and resourceful than the adults around them.

“Sredni Vashtar” is about a boy who, according to his stiff and humourless guardian aunt, is “delicate” and therefore must be denied all pleasures and freedoms. He relieves his grey life by his association with a caged ferret that he has hidden in the back of a garden shed. Over time, he makes a cult of worshipping the ferret, dreaming up a grand name and even grander powers.

Eventually the stiff-necked aunt decides to investigate the shed, sure that the boy is up to no good. As the boy watches from the house, chanting prayers and entreaties to Sredni Vashtar the great and merciless god-ferret, the aunt opens the door to the shed, disappears inside …. and fails to return. Eventually the ferret, with bloodied mouth, blinking in the sunshine, slinks out the door of the shed and to freedom, seen only by the boy.