The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

Author:Evelyn Sibley Lampman [Lampman, Evelyn Sibley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Childrens, Fantasy, Juvenile fiction
ISBN: 0385074905
Published: 1955-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

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“And maybe I haven’t too. It won’t hurt to keep my eye on that cookie jar. And on Mr. Jones, either.”

It was nearly dark when the professor returned, but Mr. Jones demanded that he drive them straight into Silo even before they had eaten dinner. Mr. Jones had been getting more impatient and edgy as the afternoon progressed. Joey had observed that he couldn’t seem to sit still as Mr. Smith did. He seemed to be getting up, then sitting down, then coming outside, then going in again.

“I’m afraid gas won’t do you any good,” said Professor Harris, shaking his head. He had not had a chance to say anything before, except “How do you do,” for Mr. Jones had immediately begun an account of their forced landing and the necessity of Mr. Smith proceeding to Los Angeles to keep his business appointment.

“Of course it will,” said Mr. Jones, and his tone suggested that the professor didn’t know anything about planes.

“You can’t fly with most of the engine smashed to pieces, can you?” asked the professor mildly.

“There’s nothing wrong with the engine,” bristled

Mr. Jones.

“I’m afraid you’re wrong,” contradicted the professor. “I saw the plane as I was returning home and drove out of my way to inspect it. I’m afraid there’s a very

great deal wrong with the engine. It looks as though it had been run into by a bulldozer.”

“That’s impossible!” cried Mr. Jones. “It was fine when we left it. All we needed was a little gas.”

“Perhaps we’d better drive out and have a look at the plane, Frank,” suggested Mr. Smith. He spoke calmly, but he seemed a little worried. He no longer smiled at the children, and two deep wrinkles of concentration appeared between his eyebrows.

“You’ll eat first, won’t you?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“No, no. I’ve got to see what’s happened to my plane,” cried Mr. Jones. “I’ve got to see it right now.”

The professor sighed a little. He had spent a long, grueling day, and he was tired. But he must have understood Mr. Jones’s anxiety, for he stood up.

“I’m sure it won’t take long,” he apologized to Mrs. Brown. “I’ll drive as fast as I can.”

Mrs. Brown put the dinner on the back of the stove after they had gone.

“What in the world could have happened to their plane?” she wondered. “You told them it was broken, didn’t you, Joey? But they didn’t pay any attention to

yy

you.

“People ought to pay attention to me,” he said quickly. “You’d better move the money from that cookie jar so Mr. Jones won’t steal it.”

“Mr. Jones has bigger things on his mind right now than money in someone else’s cookie jar. Did either of

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you see any strangers when you were out there this morning?”

'‘No, Mother. We didn't see a single stranger,” answered Joan honestly.

“It’s certainly curious,” mused Mrs. Brown. “Do you suppose it just exploded by itself in the sun? From the heat?”

“I don't think so,” said Joan. “I don't think that’s the way it happened at all.”

Notwithstanding the professor’s promise to hurry, it was a good hour before they returned.

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