On the other hand, I sometimes wish I didn’t believe in ghosts, because I’ve no wish to bump into one or walk through one, or whatever happens when one meets a ghost down dark lanes or in empty houses; for there are occasions when I have to walk down dark lanes and when I find myself at home alone.

But back to the Grozzies. These terrible creatures had been spoken about in Mellowmark ever since anyone had anything to speak about in that country. The Grozzies were as old as the Mellow Stones themselves; indeed, some knowing rats even went as far as saying they had been put there by the Grozzies to mark out their territory.      Perhaps you’re wondering what exactly Grozzies were like. Well, I’ll tell you for I’ve had dealings with creatures very like them myself. They were like Humanfolk in a primitive sort of way. Some of us to this day have Grozzy characteristics one way or another. I certainly have, but I wouldn’t want to be associated with them. They’d come from no one knew where, blundering, as Humanfolk will do, into the world of animals and mucking it up way back in the olden days.      The Grozzies were supposed to be utterly bad. They’d mellowed a bit when this story opens, but they were still pretty anti-social by our standards. They’d gone into the depths of the earth thousands of years before simply because the sunlit world above had grown too beautiful for them.