Bunting was prevalent on every allotment but Nell's. (prevalent: widespread, common, prevailing) She had come to loathe the annual contest. (loathe: detest, abhor, hate) Posters invited everyone to profess their love of village life, while neighbors argued over every entry. (profess: declare, avow, affirm) The judge's zealous inspection of string lengths struck her as almost pathological. (zealous: ardent, fervent, enthusiastic; pathological: obsessive, excessive, compulsive)
She tried to sublimate her indignation into a scarecrow. (sublimate: channel, redirect, transform; indignation: outrage, resentment, umbrage) A striped jacket, a clipboard and a tape measure made the identity of her subject obvious. The incongruity of a scarecrow measuring a cabbage made the children howl. (incongruity: mismatch, inconsistency, discordance) What would transpire when the judge saw it? (transpire: occur, happen, take place)
He returned the next morning with the twin of Nell's creation, down to the expression of solemn outrage. (solemn: grave, serious, sober) He propped it against the first and put his own prize ribbon between them. Nobody knew which scarecrow had won. For once nobody asked.