he Monster of Castle Lake

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

The Baron lived in Lilliland Castle on Castle Lake. Castle Lake was a large lake favored by the beautiful swans of Lilliland.

Sailing was a favorite pastime of the Lilliland citizens who lived near the lake. It was reported that some sailboats mysteriously overturned on very clear, calm days for no apparent reason. Rumors started to circulate that there was a large, dark green and brown monster in the lake that was attacking the sailboats.

The Baron summoned his trusted advisor, Professor Hamblin, to help him look into the matter of the mysterious monster of Castle Lake. The professor said that there was no such opportunity for a large mammal to survive in the lake, even though the lake was very large. The professor said that for such a monster to exist, it would have been seen and reported by many people, and there would be pictures of the monster. The Baron asked, "If it was not a monster, then what was it?"

As the professor and the Baron investigated the matter, some new facts began to surface. There were a total of eight sailboats that were supposed to have been attacked by the monster. When the sailboats overturned there were other boats in the immediate area and no one reported seeing any monster. Five of the eight boats that turned over had inexperienced people on board at the rudder who did not know how to sail properly. One of the other sailboats sank because there was a hole in the bottom of the boat that should have been repaired before it was taken back onto the lake. The two remaining sailboats smashed into each other while trying to turn around a buoy in the center of the lake.

Furthermore, the dark green and brown monster was really a large, half-submerged floating tree trunk that had been hit by a bolt of lightning and fell into the lake. The log became waterlogged and covered with algae and weeds and must have looked frightening. But it was only a large tree limb and nothing else, not a monster.

After the Baron reported the findings to the People of Lilliland, everyone felt much safer as they enjoyed sailing on Castle Lake.