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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmthe ones the Indians want back. I know it sounds funny to say your nice little house there on the mainroad, with its phone and electric lights and cable TV and all, is on the edge of a wilderness, but it is.” Helooked back at Ellie. “All I’m saying is that you don’t want to get messing around in these woods, Ellie.You might lose the path, and God knows where you might end up then.”“I won’t, Mr. Crandall.” Ellie was suitably impressed, even awed, but not afraid, Louis saw. Rachel,however, was looking at Jud uneasily, and Louis felt a little uneasy himself. It was, he supposed, the citybred’salmost instinctive fear of the woods. Louis hadn’t held a compass in his hand since Boy Scouts,twenty years before, and his memories of how to find your way by things like the North Star or whichside of the trees moss grew on were as vague as his memories of how to tie a sheepshank or a half hitch.Jud looked them over and smiled a little. “Now, we ain’t lost nobody in these woods since 1934,” hesaid. “At least, nobody local. The last one was Will Jeppson—no great loss.Except for Stanny Bouchard, I guess Will was the biggest tosspot this side of Bucksport.”“You said nobody local,” Rachel remarked in a voice that was not quite casual, and Louis could almostread her mind:We’re not local. At least, not yet.Jud paused and then nodded. “We do lose one of the tourists every two or three years because they thinkyou can’t get lost right off the main road. But we never lost even one of them for good, missus. Don’tyou fret.”“Are there moose?” Rachel asked apprehensively, and Louis smiled. If Rachel wanted to fret, she wouldjolly well fret.“Well, you might see a moose,” Jud said, “but he wouldn’t give you any trouble, Rachel. During matingseason they get a little irritated, but otherwise they do no more than look. Only people they take after outof their rutting time are people from Massachusetts. I don’t know why that’s so, but it is.” Louis thoughtthe man was joking but could not be sure; Jud looked utterly serious. “I’ve seen it time and time again.Some fella from Saugus or Milton or Weston up a tree, yelling about a herd of moose, every damn oneof em as big as a motorhome. Seems like moose can smell Massachusetts on a man or a woman. Ormaybe it’s just all those new clothes from L. L. Bean’s they smell—I dunno. I’d like to see one of thoseanimal husbandry students from the college do a paper on it, but I s’pose none ever will.”“What’s rutting time?” Ellie asked.“Never mind,” Rachel said. “I don’t want you up here unless you’re with a grown-up, Ellie.” Rachelmoved a step closer to Louis.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Ste...%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (24 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM