The Old Meadow by George Selden

Author:George Selden [Selden, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Jailbreak—Number One

“We’ve got to get them out,” said Ashley.

John Robin had returned, and all he said was, “They’re still in jail. Both of them. A human jail and a dog jail—the pound.”

Since he had wings, John Robin had been sent off to spy. Chester Cricket didn’t like to use a friend as a spy, but Mr. Budd was gone—Dubber Dog was gone—it had been two days, and those who lived around and under Simon’s Pool had to know! They were frantic. John Robin, who was familiar with all the byways of the town—he wormed everywhere—seemed to be the answer.

“We do have to get them out!” said Walt.

“They’d just put them both back in again,” sighed Simon Turtle, with age’s weary experience.

There was a round wind blowing, under clouds that were hurrying somewhere. “Round wind” was one of the turtle’s favorite expressions. He had used it for years and years. It described a wind—a breeze or a gust, ordinarily, sometimes a steady breath of air—that came from nowhere and everywhere. It blew off the petals of purple irises, shook green reeds, and ruffled the pink of rugosa roses. But everybody, animal and human too, liked the young round wind that circled about them playfully.

John fluffed his feathers. In a round wind, flying was difficult, but he enjoyed being surprised by it. “Simon’s right. Those men in uniforms will just come hunting—”

“Tchoor! Of course they’ll come hunting, but we can hide them! We’ve got to get them out!” The water got a solid whop! It hurt Walter’s tail, and the water wasn’t changed at all.

“Chester—” began Ashley.

“All right, all right,” Chester Cricket agreed. “If they stay in jail too long, they’ll turn into half of themselves. Mr. Budd’ll be put in an old folks’ home—and Dubber—” The cricket refused to think about that. “But how—how do we get them out?”

The wind coaxed thoughts on shells, scales, feathers—a cricket’s wing—but it whispered no answers.

“Tchoor!” Walter Water Snake suddenly had an idea. “I’ll get them out. The thing I’ve hated all my life is how much the human beings hated me! And all us snakes. But now it pays off!” Walt raised up and glowered down onto his friends. “You’re lookin’ at a deadly serpent! Har! har! I’ll scare the guards, and Dubber and Mr. Budd will go free. Simple—?”

“Oh, simple!” said Chester. “But how are you going to get to those jails?”

“I’ll creep, I’ll crawl, I’ll slither—if necessary, I’ll even writhe! But I hate that word. And I’ll get directions first. John Robin—where is the pound? I’ll rescue Dubber before Mr. Budd. They take less time to dispose of dogs than men. John—where?”

“No problem,” said John. “You go six blocks on Mountain Road, take a left at Fisk, and then two blocks, hook a right at Hedley Avenue, but only one block, left at Santell, three blocks, then half a block on Salter Street—and there you are!”

“You see?” Walter splashed some water at Chester. “Not a thing in the world could be more simple!”

“Oh, nothing,” the cricket agreed heartily.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.