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Featured Story:  A Singular Animal

A woodcutter was hard at work in the remote mountains when a strange animal appeared. He had never seen an animal anything like it before.

“Ah”, said the animal, you have never seen anything like me before.

The woodcutter was also surprised that the beast knew his thoughts.

“And that I know what you are thinking”, continued the animal.

Looking at the animal, the woodcutter wanted to catch it and take it back home.

“So, you want to catch me alive, do you?”

If not that, maybe he could give it one blow with his ax and then carry it home.

“And now you want to kill me, “said the animal.

The woodcutter realized that he could do nothing at all, since the beast always knew what he was thinking of doing. So, he went back to work, determining to ignore the animal.

“And now”, it said, “you abandon me”.

Work as he might, the woodcutter soon found himself thinking of the animal standing there. The beast would then make an appropriate comment. He wished it would go away and was then told that he was wishing it would go away.

The animal apparently did not wish to go away. It stood there, near him, and read all of his thoughts. Nor did it seem well intentioned.

Finally, not knowing what else to do, the woodcutter resignedly took up his ax again, determined to pay no more attention to this singular animal, and began single-mindedly cutting the trees.

While he was so doing, with no thought in his head except the ax and the tree, the head of the ax flew off the handle and struck the animal dead.