Millie disliked snails, but no enough to kill them. So every moring early Millie would potter around her garden picking up snails and puting them into a blue plastic bucket. Then Millie put the id on the bucket, and stored it carefully where it would be in shade all day. Late in the day, as dusk turned to dark, Millie would take the bucket of snails and walk along the road until she was far enough away from her own garden, and then take the lid off and tip the snails over someone's garden wall. Millie didn't for this twice at the same house, as she thought that that wouldn't be fair.
Mr Grizzel at number thirty two had another way of dealing with snails, he lobbed them as far as he could across to other people's gardens. Sometimes he lobbed them one at a time, and sometimes two or more at once.
One evening Millie depodited her bucket of snails over the wall of Mr Grizzel. In the morning the garden at number thirty two had been chomped and chewed, and there were silvery snail trails everywhere. Mr Grizzel quite wore himself out lobbing snails in all directions, and by the time he had finished the elbow of his throwing arm ached.
Mr Griazzel was determined to discover the reason for the snail invasion. He quickly realised it couldn't have been a natural occurance, and knew someone had had a hand in it. That evening, unaware of wrath of Grizzel that awaited her, Millie walked down the road with her blue plastic bucket. When she reached number seventy nine she removed the lid, and had just upended the bucket over the garden wall when Mr Grizzel came bellowing toward her. Thinking he had mistaken hre for somebody else with whom he had a grievance Millie smiled, hoping there was enough light from the street lamps to show this man he had made a mistake.
Millie's hope was short lived, as she quickly realised Mr Grizzel had not mistaken her for anyone else. In fact he was delighted to inform her that now she knew who she was, and he intended to let the whole neighbourhood know the following day.
Unfrotunatly for Mr Grizzel his pan backfired onto himself. In the telling of the story of Millie and her bucket of snails, Mr Grizzel admitted to his near neighbours that he had been lobbing snails from his garden into theirs for years. Next morning as Mr Grizzel walked out of door the first thing that happened was that he was hit on the shoulder by a large snail dropping from the direction of the sky.
Mr Grizzel picked up the stunned creature, and lobbed it along two gardens to the left of his. Mrs Merry screeched in annoyance, and the came smartly back, this time landing in Mr Grizzel's rosebush. Not wishing to get scratched Mr Grizzel left that snail to it's fate, and gathered one large snail and two smaller ones from the border. The large snail travelled all the way to Mrs Merry's garden, but the two smaller ones only made it as far as next door.
By the time the police arrived neighbours on both sides had joined in the onslaught of snails towards Mr Grizzel. He meanwhile scampered about his garden, picking up the molluscs and throwing them, sometimes overarm, sometimes underarm, to the left and right. PC Comfrey got slowly out of his police car, mindful to keep one eye out ofr low flying snails. As he crunched his way across the pavement (not everyone's aim had been true), all activity stopped.
PC Comfrey stood tall, and thought in an authorative frame of mind, as he had been taught. He enquired what was going on here then, and soon had a fairly accurate picture of events.The residents having been warned that their behaviuor was not sociable, PC Comfrey walked back to the police car.
Everyone stare at the squashed snails on the pavement, and Mr Merry commented that it was difficult to believe some people paid good money to eat snails.
Mr Merry's comment put an idea into Mr Grizzel'd head. His back garden was quite big enough to errect the neccesary enclousures, and so despite lobjections from his neighbours, Mr Grizzel was granted permission by the local council to turn his garden into a snail farm.
Inspired by Mr Grizzel's success Mrs Merry decided to supplement her pension wiht honey, and soon busy hives appeared in her garden.
PC Comfrey thought in an authorative frame of mind so well that soon he became Sgt Comfrey.
And Millie? Millie founded the snail liberation group Free A Snail Today, of which she was the only ever member. Despite Millie's best attempts by sneaking into Mr Grizzel's garden and leaving escape holes cut for the snails, only one snail ever made a dash for freedom, and that was eaten by a Hedgehog.
