Scratch the surface of, say

Once upon a time, there was a curious squirrel named Scrappy. He always loved digging into things to see what was inside. One day, while he was foraging for nuts in the forest, he stumbled upon a large boulder.

Scrappy was itching to know what lay beneath the surface of the rock, so he scraped away at it with his sharp claws. He soon discovered that beneath the rough exterior was a beautiful, smooth marble surface. He couldn’t believe his luck – he had uncovered a hidden treasure!

Scrappy realized that sometimes, you have to scratch the surface of something to find its true value. He couldn’t help but chuckle at how the word ‘mar’ (which means to scratch or damage the surface of something) could perfectly describe what he had done to the boulder.

And so, Scrappy continued on his adventures, always on the lookout for hidden treasures beneath the rough surfaces of things. And whenever he came across a tricky crossword clue asking him to ‘scratch the surface of, say’, he smiled and confidently wrote in the answer – MAR.