Three shrinking tales, p.6
Three Shrinking Tales, page 6
“What?” Ellen asked him.
“The witch came back for her mushroom. And she took the frog, too,” Ben said.
Mrs. Sanders picked up the big book from the dining table. “What were you doing with my mushroom book?”
“I was trying to find a picture of a mushroom we saw today,” Ellen said.
Mrs. Sanders handed her the book. “It’s nearly bedtime. But you can look for the mushroom while Ben takes his shower.”
When Ben had finished his shower and was all ready for bed, Ellen showed him two drawings in the book. They were on page 580. One was a side view of the puffball standing up on the points of the star.
“Spooky,” Ben said. “It looks like an octopus.”
The other drawing showed it all curled up like a crocus bulb.
“That’s just the way we first saw it,” Ben said. “It’s the same mushroom all right.”
“It’s called an earthstar,” Ellen told him. “I tried to read about it. But the words were too hard.”
Mrs. Sanders walked over and took the book. “Your turn for a shower, Ellen. Off to bed, Ben.”
Ben woke Ellen very early in the morning. The birds were twittering outside. And it was just beginning to get light. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders were still asleep.
“Don’t waste the day in bed,” Ben whispered. “Come on down to the lake. Mom and Dad won’t be up for hours.”
Ellen slid out from under the covers. “Br-r-r! It’s cold.” She put on a shirt and jeans and pulled on a warm sweater. She saw that Ben was wearing his new rubber clogs.
“My sneakers are still wet,” he said.
Ellen decided to wear clogs, too.
They unhooked the screen door and went out onto the porch. Ellen was careful not to let the door bang behind them.
“Ben,” she whispered. “The phoebes are back again this year.”
Ben looked at the top of the pole in the corner of the porch. A fluffy brown bird was sitting on a nest there.
“I wonder how those frog’s eggs are doing,” Ben said.
The people in the other cottages seemed to like to sleep late. Ben and Ellen didn’t see anybody on the dirt road. And there was no one on the tree-covered hill going down to the lake.
They walked down a path till they came to the narrow beach. The lake was covered with a thick white mist. Through the mist Ben and Ellen could see a man fishing from the dock next to theirs.
Ellen went over to a green canoe on the beach. It was lying upside down on two sawhorses.
“Where are the paddles, Ben?”
Ben ran out to the end of the dock that belonged to cottage number eight. He looked into a motorboat that was tied to the dock. “Dad keeps them in the boat.” Ben pulled two long paddles out from under the back seat. He found two orange life jackets tucked into a shelf in the side of the boat. “The Lake Patrol will stop us if we don’t wear these.”
Ben and Ellen strapped on the life jackets and put the canoe into the water. Ben climbed into the front of the canoe. Ellen got into the back so she could steer. She used her paddle to shove the canoe out into deep water.
The two children felt like Indians as they paddled through the mist. Trees hid the cottages. The parking lot was around a bend of the lake.
They paddled steadily for a while. The sun rose over the treetops. The mist broke up into little wisps and puffs and was gone. The lake sparkled.
Ben looked over the side of the canoe. “There’s a whopper of a fish down there. The big ones come out early in the morning. Why don’t we head over to Shuman Point? I’ll bet we’d see a lot of fish there.”
Ellen turned the canoe and began to paddle toward a long point of land that stuck out into the lake. No cottages were built there. It was all woods.
Ben pointed to a place on the rocky shore. A deer with two short horns had come out of the woods there to drink from the lake. He raised his head and sniffed the air. Then he flapped his white tail and crashed back into the woods.
“That was a buck,” Ben said. “I guess we scared him.”
Ellen looked into the woods after the deer. The trees grew on a steep rocky slope. “Ben, I think I see a cave.”
“A cave? Where?” Ben was so excited that he stood up in the canoe. It tipped to one side. He sat down and held on to both sides until the canoe stopped rocking.
“Take it easy!” Ellen said. She pointed to the top of the hill. “Can you see that dark place in the rocks up there?” She paddled close to the shore.
Ben tried to look through the trees. “Let’s go up there and see if there really is a cave.”
When they were in shallow water, Ben and Ellen stepped out of the canoe. They carried it up onto the shore and hid it behind some rocks.
They left their life jackets in the canoe with the paddles and started up the rocky slope.
It was hard to climb in the rubber clogs. Their feet kept sliding out of the back of them. One of Ben’s clogs rolled most of the way down the hill. He had to go after it.
“Let’s go barefoot.” Ellen jammed her clogs into the back pockets of her jeans.
Ben tucked his clogs under his belt.
“Watch out for poison ivy,” Ellen said.
They zigzagged up the hill, going from one rock to the next. The trees seemed to grow right out of the rocks.
When they were close to the top of the hill, they walked along a ridge. Ben saw a shadowy place under an overhanging rock. “Is that what you saw?”
Ellen nodded.
It was tricky climbing the rock. Ellen had to use both hands. She pulled herself up onto a ledge in front of the cave. Then she lay down on her stomach and grabbed Ben’s hands to help him up.
They stepped into the cave. It was dark inside, but after a few minutes their eyes began to get used to it.
The cave was bigger than it looked from outside. Ellen and Ben walked through a tunnel that went back into the hill. It widened out into something like a room.
Ben grabbed Ellen’s arm.
In the dim light they saw somebody lying near them on the floor of the cave. It looked like a woman.
“Do you think she’s dead?” Ben said.
The woman stirred. She let out a snore.
“She’s only asleep,” Ellen whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”
The two children turned to run out of the cave. But they were too late. A bony hand grabbed hold of Ellen’s ankle. “Who’s there?” a raspy voice asked.
Ellen felt as if she were frozen. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak.
The woman sat up. She let go of Ellen’s ankle and started to feel around in the dim light for something. The next minute she struck a match and lit a bit of candle that was stuck to the floor of the cave.
Now Ben and Ellen could see that she was wearing a green sweater and a brown skirt.
Ellen shivered. Her ankle still felt cold from the touch of the woman’s hand. She looked at the woman’s face. Her nose was long and pointed. And so was her chin. She brushed her scraggly gray hair back and looked at Ellen with bright green eyes.
Ellen’s heart seemed to stop beating.
“Good morning,” the woman said. “You’re up early.”
She’s pretending to be friendly, Ellen thought. We’d better act as if we believe her.
“We saw you in the woods yesterday,” Ben said.
“Yes.” The woman stood up and stretched. “You’re Ben. And that’s your sister, Ellen.”
“How do you know our names?” Ben asked. “You must be a witch!”
Why did Ben always say such terrible things? Ellen wished she could shove the words back into his mouth. “Be careful, Ben!” she said in a low voice.
Ben stared at the woman. She was blinking her green eyes. And her face was starting to get red. The corners of her mouth began to turn down.
“Oh, Ellen, she’s going to do something awful to us!” Ben tried to pull Ellen toward the mouth of the cave.
But Ellen didn’t move. She was still looking at the woman’s face.
Ben was frantic. “Run!” he said.
Ellen thought she saw something shiny on the woman’s wrinkled cheek. A moment later a fat tear rolled down.
All of a sudden everything seemed different. Ellen wasn’t afraid anymore.
“Stop it, Ben!” she said. “You’ve hurt her feelings.” She yanked her hand away from Ben and gently touched the woman’s arm. “Don’t cry,” Ellen said. “Ben didn’t mean it. Of course you’re not a witch.”
The woman looked at Ellen with wet green eyes. “That’s just the trouble.”
“What do you mean?” Ellen asked.
The woman sniffed. She swallowed hard. “If you must know,” she said in a very small voice, “they took my hat and broom away last Friday night.”
Ben jabbed Ellen in the ribs. “What did I tell you?”
“Sh-sh!” Ellen said.
The woman was still talking. “I could do without that stupid broom. It never flew very well. My ankles were banged every time I went over a fence. But, oh dear! It was a lovely hat.” Two tears trickled down her pointed nose.
“What’s your name?” Ellen asked. “You know ours.”
“Gertrude,” the woman said. “I’ve never liked it. Some people call me Gert. But I don’t really like that, either.”
Ellen thought for a minute. “Would you like it if we called you Trudy?” she asked.
The woman looked at Ellen. Suddenly her face cracked into a smile. “Why didn’t anybody ever think of that before?” She gave three little jumps in the air. “Trudy, Trudy, what a lovely name!”
The candle was flickering. Ellen saw something on the ground right beside the candle. It was the earthstar! Ellen picked it up. A second later the candle sputtered and went out.
“I wish I had my flashlight,” Ellen said.
She felt something heavy in the side pocket of her jeans. Ellen pulled out her little red flashlight. “I must have put it in my pocket after I finished looking for the frog last night,” Ellen told herself.
She clicked on the flashlight.
“Lend that to me for a minute, Ellen,” Trudy said.
Trudy shone the flashlight all over the cave. She bent over and poked her sharp nose into every crack in the rocks. “Oh dear! Oh dear! Whatever did I do with it? Next thing I’ll be losing my head!”
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Ellen held up the earthstar. “You were jumping around so much I was afraid you’d step on it.”
“Yes, yes. That’s my darling.” Trudy gave Ellen her flashlight and took the little brown star. She held it on the palm of her hand. “Now, don’t go running away again,” she said to the mushroom. “I never seem to be able to keep track of you.”
Ben poked Ellen. “I told you she took it last night,” he said in a whisper.
“What’s it good for?” Ellen asked Trudy. “Why do you want it so much?”
“I don’t know,” Trudy said. “But I just love it. When I was a child my mother had one. She would never let me touch it. Mother said earthstars were dangerous.” Trudy frowned. “Yesterday this one changed me into a frog.”
Ellen looked at her. “Is that why we didn’t see you on the cliff?”
“That was dangerous all right,” Ben said. “If I hadn’t taken you home with me, you might have been eaten by a bird.” He scratched his head. “And of course you know our names. You spent all that time with us yesterday.”
“And now we know why we couldn’t find the frog last night,” Ellen said. “How did you get changed back to yourself again, Trudy?”
“The earthstar did it.” Trudy slipped the star into the pocket of her green sweater. “I wish we could be friends,” she said to Ellen and Ben. “I get lonesome all by myself here in the country.”
“Where do you come from?” Ellen asked her.
“Brooklyn,” Trudy said. “But the Head Witch there expelled me from the coven.”
“Why?” Ben asked.
For a minute Trudy didn’t answer. She looked at the ground. “Lately I forget things,” she said in a sad voice. “And my magic never did work well. Some of the other witches aren’t very good, either. But the Head Witch told me I was the worst she’d ever heard of. She said she wasn’t going to let a good hat and broom go to waste any longer.”
Bong! Bong! Bong!
Ellen ran down the passage to the mouth of the cave. She looked through the trees on the hill outside.
Ben and Trudy came after her.
“Ben, that’s our motorboat out there! Mother and Daddy are looking for us. They brought along the gong.” Ellen turned to Trudy. “Good-bye. We have to go now.”
Trudy helped them over the ledge in front of the cave. Ben and Ellen climbed down the hill as fast as they could. They put the canoe into the water and paddled out into the middle of the lake.
Mr. Sanders was angry. “Don’t ever go anywhere again without telling us. It’s lucky our neighbor saw you two go out in the canoe or we wouldn’t have known what happened to you.”
Mrs. Sanders tied one end of a rope to the back of the motorboat. The other end was tied to the canoe. “I’m glad you had the sense to take the life jackets,” she said.
Ellen sat down on the back seat of the boat. “I’m sorry you and Daddy were worried, Mother.”
“We didn’t want to wake you, Mom,” Ben said. “You always like to sleep late when we’re in the country.”
The motorboat rumbled down the lake, towing the canoe behind it. The motor made too much noise for anyone to talk. Ellen liked the canoe because it was quiet. But the motorboat was much faster. Very soon they reached their dock.
Ben and Ellen jumped out and tied up the boat. Mr. Sanders put the canoe back on the sawhorses.
They all went up the hill to the cottage for breakfast. Mr. Sanders mixed up a batch of pancakes. Mrs. Sanders fried bacon and made cocoa.
Both Ellen and Ben were very hungry. Halfway through her third pancake, Ellen put down her fork. “Ben, what do you suppose Trudy eats? I didn’t see any food in that cave.”
Ben thought a minute. “Toads, I guess.”
Ellen couldn’t eat any more of her pancake.
Ben finished his. Then he jumped up and ran to look out of the big picture window. “Those birds sure are busy.”
Ellen left the table and came to see what was going on.
Two brown birds were flying back and forth to the nest on top of the pole. There was no mother bird sitting there now. But four little beaks were sticking up out of the nest. The eggs had hatched.
“I wonder how those frog’s eggs are doing,” Ben said.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanders came to the window. They watched the birds for a while. Then Mrs. Sanders said, “I’m going to Hawley for groceries. There’s a bazaar and rummage sale today at the Methodist church. I’d like to go to it.”
Last year Ellen had bought an old book about water babies for ten cents at a Hawley rummage sale. “Oh, Mother,” she said, “may I go with you?”
“Why don’t you both run along right now?” Mr. Sanders said. “I don’t much care for rummage sales. Ben and I can wash the dishes and burn the trash while you’re gone.”
Ellen and her mother drove five miles to the little town of Hawley. They stopped at the News and Novelty Shop to buy a New York Times.
“Oh, Mother, aren’t they pretty!” Ellen pointed to a pot of pink and white petunias in front of the store.
Mrs. Sanders smiled. “There are even more flowers on Main Avenue than last year. Look at the windowboxes on the bank.”
The library was open. Mrs. Sanders took out a book. “Why don’t you take one out, too?” she asked Ellen.
“I’m going to buy a book at the rummage sale,” Ellen said.
Next they went to the supermarket. Mrs. Sanders bought four big bags of groceries. Ellen helped her load them into the station wagon. Then they drove to the Methodist church.
Some people stood outside on the church steps and talked to each other.
Inside there were two rooms with tables of things for sale. Mrs. Sanders went to the table with the biggest crowd around it. She bought a loaf of homemade banana-nut bread and a jar of watermelon pickles.
Ellen started to walk toward the table where there were books for sale. On the way she passed a rack of old clothes. On top of the rack was a pointed hat with a wide brim. Ellen stopped to look at it.
The woman in charge of the old clothes smiled at her. “That’s part of a costume I wore in a play,” she said. “I made it myself.” She put the hat on her head and made a fierce face. “How do I look?” The woman laughed. “That’s the way I looked in the play.”
Ellen touched the hat. It was made of shiny black oilcloth glued onto cardboard.
“It’s very strong,” the woman said. “I wore it for a rainhat once. If you want it, I’ll sell it to you for a quarter.”
Ellen felt the hat again. She only had a quarter. “I really want to buy a book,” she said.
She went to look at the books. There was a dog-eared copy of The Cuckoo Clock on sale for a quarter. Ellen loved the pictures in it, but she had already read the book. There were some great paperbacks, too, that Ellen hadn’t read. They only cost a nickel.
But Ellen kept thinking about the pointed hat.
At last she went back to the old clothes stand. She took out her quarter and handed it to the woman there.
“Please, may I have the witch’s hat,” Ellen said.
“I thought you were going to buy a book.” Mrs. Sanders put the banana-nut bread and the watermelon pickles in the back of the station wagon.
“I changed my mind,” Ellen said. “It’s such a nice hat.” Ellen sat on the front seat and held the hat on her lap. “The lady who sold it to me said she wore it in a play.”
Mrs. Sanders took a good look at the hat. She started the car. “I think I saw that play last summer at the Ritz Theater here in Hawley.”
