"I ain't never seen a scorpion!" Josh said as he followed them into the house, looking forward to her cookies and seeing this new creature.  "I don't know if I want to play with it though if they eat each other.  I don't want it to eat me!"  

"Oh, it's just a diddy thing, it can't eat you." Jemima assured Josh. She was less concerned about Porter though, actually threatening to eat him up herself.

Weedy's nose wrinkled up and he stuck his tongue out at Jemima.  "I won't be a good snack," he declared, "I'm all sour and tough!"  He knew the young woman was just needling him, and he wasn't put off.  He'd been over here enough now that there wasn't much to bother him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're a tough feller." she nodded.

"Those can sting you, can't they?" Then he had a thought as he reached for a cookie. "Was it a girl that ate the boy?" Yet another reason not to ever get married! 

"Yep, he thought he was pretty tough, too; till his girlfriend ate him up for supper!" Jemima explained with some relish. "Come on, let's have a look at her." she said and led them from the kitchen and through the hall to the parlour, where all sorts of curios were on offer to the eye.

"Maybe we can show Josh some of the Professor's experiments?"  Something he'd never get tired of!

Jemima shrugged. "The ones he's doing at the moment aren't real interesting. He's sort of separating out the mud samples he brought home in water, seeing what's in the soil for some reason. The animals are more interesting..."

He turned to his cousin.  "There was a mouse-thing here, but it got loose and Buster ate him!  He's buried in the back if you want to see!"

"That was a gopher, and his name was Montgomery. But he's in Heaven now. Chloé told me." she casually named the Spirit Guide from the seances she attended at Mrs Orr's house. She lifted the lid on a large glass jar and put her hand in, gently lifting out a small, semitransparent eight legged creature with the distinctive curved tail of a scorpion. 

The Wigfall girl gazed at the small animal with a dreamy look in her eyes, stroking it's laminated back like it was a pet cat . 

"I wouldn't care if this was the most poisonous critter in the world: death has no fear for those who have seen what lies beyond the veil." she said n a quiet, almost mystic voice.