Excerpt From the Groundhog Story:

This was not a pleasant, comfortable position for Charles. He felt a tingling all over his skin. His mouth had gone dry. The rumbling in his middle had turned into a tightness. He did not want to go to the garden to look for his sister, but one look at his mother, her yellow teeth bared in his direction, took all the arguments out of his head and off his tongue. He gave Charlotte what he hoped was a withering look as he started down the garden passage. As he made his way through the dark tunnel, he tried to think of the possibilities that lay ahead. Maybe, he thought hopefully, Charlene had fallen asleep under a bush, and didn’t realize how late it was. That was unlikely. No groundhog ever fell asleep in a vegetable garden, especially not one as enthusiastic and industrious as Charlene. That left the more unpleasant scenarios. There hadn’t been a dog living on the farm in over a year, but you never could tell about the presence of dogs. A neighborhood dog might have come by that day and found Charlene without a fence between them. Or, worse yet, perhaps the Gardeners had adopted a new dog? Mama had heard of such things happening. It was an old tale passed from one generation to the next, and Charles recalled the stories of this possibility told to his sisters and him when they first emerged from their den as youngsters. Watch out for dogs, Charles told himself as he continued down the passage towards the garden. There was also Mr. Gardener and his gun. It had been a long time since Mr. Gardener had been near the garden. No one had ever seen Mrs. Gardener with a gun, though she came to the garden with regularity to plant, then weed, and finally harvest. She had always seemed fairly harmless though, at worst chasing Charles or his sisters away with her hoe or rake or spade. But humans were notoriously unpredictable. Charles had better be wary and on the watch for a human with a gun.