Valley of the Scarecrow Read Online Free PDF Page B

only a friend and mentor, but the shining example of how God wanted all men to live their lives. Reverend Miller had been the sole reason Angus had moved his wife Anna and their newborn child Malcolm from Scotland, following the charismatic preacher across the Atlantic on nothing more than the man’s word they could make a better life for themselves.
    For a time they’d done just that, settling in Oak Valley and planting corn, a crop none of them had ever farmed back in the old country but was perfectly suited for the rich, dry Iowa soil. Building a community from the ground up and coaxing a living from the previously barren fields was incredibly difficult for the first few years. Had it not been for Reverend Miller’s leadership and guidance their tiny village out in the woods never would have gotten off the ground, much less started to thrive. In Angus’s opinion, they owed everything to Joshua: their homes, their community, their livelihood, perhaps their very lives. Simply put, without him Miller’s Grove wouldn’t exist.
    But then, just as things were finally coming together and all their hard work was beginning to pay off, the Great Depression hit like a fairy-tale giant, mashing their meager savings beneath its feet, trampling their hopes and dreams but never quite squashing their spirits. Faithkept them alive, and when times were at their worst, Reverend Miller persuaded the village that instead of giving up they should turn to God for help. The entire community banded together to build the church in the center of their largest cornfield, and once it was done Joshua promised everyone God would provide for them.
    Instead of prosperity, what came next were the droughts and heat waves that swept across the middle of the country, devastating crops, withering the corn away to nothing and taking the community’s willpower along with it. In Angus’s mind that was when Joshua had started to turn, when he’d first started to look for answers outside of the Holy Book. Some people said that was when the Man in Black first made an appearance, but Angus believed he’d always been here, always been waiting in the shadows for his chance to sink his claws into Reverend Miller when he was at his weakest. Their fields had made a sudden comeback, the corn crops flourishing when no others in the middle part of the country were. Joshua had reaped huge profits selling food at outrageous prices to all the hungry people in the nearby towns and cities, but something just wasn’t right about the way things had changed and the villagers weren’t as grateful or happy as Joshua thought they should be. Thirty-six months later, things had spiraled down to where they were now, out of control and the Grove’s future all but hopeless.
    As they neared the end of the dirt path, word was passed to the torchbearers to extinguish their flames, none of them wanting to give away their position when they exited the woods. They walked the last hundred feet in darkness, using only the light of the moon filtering through the tree branches to guide their steps.
    Angus emerged out of the forest followed closely bythe other elders and they paused for a moment at the edge of the field. A murder of crows grabbed their attention, soaring above their heads, filling the night sky with the sound of powerful wings. The large scavenger birds were the first animals the elders had seen tonight and their sudden appearance could have been interpreted as a bad omen, but no one seemed too concerned with the local wildlife. Instead, their gaze was drawn out over the high rows of corn to where the white church stood alone in the center of the unnaturally bountiful crops, the only building within sight.
    There were flickering candles in the windows but somehow it still felt empty from here, desolate and abandoned although they all knew that wasn’t true. Reverend Miller was inside, along with the few members of his flock still loyal to him even after all his screaming