Song Said to Have Been Sung by Sam page 11.
"Well," said Darling Darlene measuring out her words with the greatest of care, a teaspoon at a time. "We did come across an anomaly but we haven't been able to classify it yet. It's going to take us awhile, by the look of it."
"We're doing a joint project on it," contributed Will.
"It's partly about the song that Sam ..."
"Has sung," finished Will.
"Well then, you'd better get at it, hadn't you?" their mother said, wondering what had come over their children.
They were acting decidedly strange. Let's see, she said to herself. There are several points that indicate a problem: lack of appetite, sharing things, cooperating, talking about songs that Sam is said to have sung and I must not forget eagerness to get started on their homework. It's worse than I thought. There is something that is troubling those two or else they are up to no good. That only happens when they begin to act like too goodie two shoes. I must find out what it is. Before she knew it, she was scrambling around the bottom of the cookie jar.
"There's nothing for it," she told herself. "I'll just have to make another batch."
When Darling Darlene and Will the Wee Wizard straggled into the kitchen for dinner, the aroma of chocolate chip cookies wafted towards them, in a delicious wave they didn't even deign to notice. Their mother was now becoming worried for it there was one thing that could get their attention that thing was the smell of bubbling-hot chocolate-chip cookies taking their own sweet time cooling on top of the stove. And then to make matters worse, both children had scooted off to bed without being coerced.
Will woke warily. He gazed at the golden sphere that hung lazily outside his window, a golden delicious ready for plucking. He got out of bed and gazed at the golden cast on the waters of the lake far below. The scene held him in rapture. The sound that had awoken him sounded a second time. He listened for a third call. It seemed to take an age. He recognized the reason. the call that had awoken him had not been heard in these parts for so long that it had to have come from so far back that it rivalled the song that Sam is said to have sung. In fact, it could very well be the song that Sam is said to have sung.
Although it was a warm night, Will felt a shiver. Whether it was from delight or trepidation, he could not quite fathom and didn't dare question. A delicious shuddery feeling crept up his spine. It was reminiscent of the roller coaster going into a tightening spiral having left the rider's stomach hanging out to dry on the last loop.
At his window, there was a scritch. A moment later there was a scritch-scritch and a moment after that three in a row. Will nearly jumped out of his skin. A faint whisper followed. It was the kind that carried from the back of the room and allows the teacher to tune in and pinpoint the culprit while she is writing on the chalkboard. Will relaxed. He should have recognized that whisper anywhere. It was a conspiratorial sort of whisper used by those who are up to no good. He admonished himself for not being quicker on the uptake. The whisper was so close to silence that it was as if a ghost had been speaking or perhaps he'd dreamt it. The whisper was as soft as the hush of the prey-plummet of an Unspotted Saw-whet Owl, namely hardly any sound at all, until the sound came from no distance at all. Then it was too late in the night to matter.
"Owl Prowl," is what he thought he heard.