"I opened it to look," Mary says, and makes a disgusted face. "It was not easy to tell. It looked like it might have been something living at one time, perhaps some sort of meat, but it certainly was not useful. I could hardly have brought it to school with me!"

She sounds more than a little defensive. Also, she is loud. Anyone standing in the hallway might easily get an earfull.

"Even the suitcase was not worth saving. I expected the creatures in the forest would eat it eventually, but -

"- you don't think the dog could have eaten it? But he is always in the school!"