squeaked Thudd. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see a fungus,” said Judy. They picked their way through the darkness toward the little lights. The ghost mushrooms surrounded a huge tree trunk like a necklace. The cap at the top of each mushroom looked like a glowing, pale green parachute. Judy stood under one of the mushrooms. “We’re too small to break off chunks of these mushrooms,” she said. meep … “Cap of mushroom got lotsa thin, thin sheets underneath,” said Thudd. “Sheets called gills. Gills got tiny spores. Spores make baby mushrooms. “Gotta climb up stem of mushroom, pull off gills.” Andrew and Judy shinnied up a mushroom stem. The gills were as thin as tissue paper. They were almost as close together as the pages of a book. Andrew and Judy ripped off bits of the soft, spongy gills and tossed them to the ground. Tiny round spores rained down like twinkling fairy powder. Before long, a circle of glowing shreds surrounded the mushroom. “Okey-dokey!”
