HARRIET SAID

Harriet not only says -- she dictates what her friend, a year younger, permed and plump, will write in her diary and she's the evil mind who decides how they'll spend their days and evenings during the summer. Perhaps spying on the Tsar, as they call him -- poor Mr. Biggs who submits to his blowsy wife and whose rheumy eyes grow sad with the afterknowledge of lost hope while he dreams of % barrel of wine to sweeten the dark days."" Darker than he ever imagined. This is a short, expertly conceived and consummated horror story which you read in the anticipation of what Harriet will say and do and it is to the author's credit that via her two girls -- tempting forces beyond their control -- she has made it seem as likely as it is unnatural, sad, and insidious.