The Dragon Tree by Jane Langton

Author:Jane Langton [Langton, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-202039-0
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

“You mean, the same way? It wasn’t easy,

remember?”

“This time it’s only a girl. She’ll be no

trouble at all.”

23

SIDNEY’S FATHER’S SUSPENDERS

HAMMERS, SAWS, AND nails appeared in a jiffy. So did all the et ceteras. Workbenches were pillaged in many a house along Walden Street, Hubbard, and Everett. Many a father complained.

It took a week of messy effort. Sawhorses stood here and there under the tree. Electric cables snaked out of Aunt Alex’s kitchen and looped across the weedy lawn. Hand saws wheezed back and forth, sawdust piled up and matted in the grass, electric drills buzzed, a faulty plug sparked, and Aunt Alex’s toaster went sphutt.

At last the job was half done. The six parts of the tree house lay flat on the grass, ready to be hauled aloft: the four walls with their window openings, the floor with its open trapdoor, and the plywood roof.

Frieda walked around the finished pieces, bending to inspect them with narrowed eyes. The proud carpenters stood around, waiting for compliments. Instead there was only another command. Frieda straightened up and said, “Okay, you guys, what about those ladders?”

They groaned. But of course she was right. To lift the house high in the tree they would need ladders, lots of ladders.

Eddy dragged a long aluminum ladder out of a tangle of blackberry bushes behind the chicken house, while the bantam hens scrambled in and out and the peevish little rooster screamed.

Sidney’s ladder was short enough to carry on his bike. Sidney lashed it to the handlebars and wobbled down Laurel Street, pedaling fast because if he slowed down the whole top-heavy apparatus would tip over.

Cissie’s ladder was just a kitchen step stool, but it made a dramatic entrance because she brought it on horseback. Maisie was only a plump brown nag, but high on her back Cissie really looked like a knight.

But then there was another interruption, because Rachel had a surprise. She had been making badges. “Here they are,” she said proudly, “your heraldic devices.”

They were gorgeous. Rachel had pasted silver paper and green ribbons on pieces of cardboard and fastened safety pins to the back.

Aunt Alex too was carried away. She rummaged in her sewing closet and found a bolt of green cloth. In no time she turned it into knightly doublets by ripping it in nine pieces and cutting round holes in the middle of each piece.

“Here, dear,” said Aunt Alex to Georgie, “try this on.”

Georgie pulled the green cloth over her head, and then they stood together looking in the mirror, admiring the way the doublet hung loosely front and back.

“Gallant Sir Georgie,” said Aunt Alex, smiling down at her. Then she frowned. “It needs a belt, I think.”

By afternoon the entire Fellowship was outfitted in green tunics, held together with belts scrounged from drawers and closets. Next morning Sidney’s father came down to breakfast holding up his pants with his hands. He glowered at Sidney.

“Uh-oh,” said Sidney, but his mother said quickly, “Wait a sec,” and hurried upstairs. In a flash she was back with a pair of red suspenders.

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