The Wanigan by Gloria Whelan

Author:Gloria Whelan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

MOUNTAINS TOPPLING EVERMORE

By the next week Mama was better. “You’re not to worry, Annabel,” she said. “It was only a touch of flu that settled in my chest. I’m much improved, thanks to your and Jimmy’s help and the help of dear, sweet Frenchy.”

I smiled as I thought of what Frenchy would think to hear himself called “dear, sweet Frenchy.”

Mama got up from her bed in the morning and climbed into it at night with no deep sighs. She was cross with Jimmy when he tracked mud into the kitchen and with me for leaning too close to the stove and scorching my apron, but she didn’t have the strength for a severe scolding. Though Mama was cooking again, Jimmy and I still did a lot of the work. And each morning before he left, Frenchy started the bread.

With so much to do, there was no time to fret over my hard life. There was Mama to help, and Jimmy was forever dragging me off to show me something. Bandit was growing more and more mischievous each day. I could not even learn new lines of poetry but had to fall back on the ones I already knew.

It was the middle of July. Because the wanigan was so warm, I had taken to putting my cot out on the deck and sleeping outside. At first I was a little afraid of being right out in the open at night, but the moon was bright. Even on cloudy nights there were the small lights of fireflies among the grasses on the shore. One night I awoke to see veils of color sliding across the sky. It was the northern lights. They flashed on and off, lighting up first one part of the sky and then another. I thought of awakening Mama, but selfishly I wanted to keep it all to myself. Sometimes there was a falling star to wish on. I could not help but feel that like the falling star, I had dropped very far. I thought of Mr. Poe’s words:

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.