Fantasy literature; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
"She isn't even the same kind of animal!" said Lambert, the wartfrog
leader. "She doesn't have any troll features--not even a little around
the eyes! They are totally incompatible! She must only be out to get his
milkweed! To think that I once felt sympathy for that wretched little
unicorn! Why, that cunning little crook even has Lindsay entranced so
much that he has begun giving her some of the good stuff! She is no
longer contented with the scraps and rejects of our fields! She has got
to go. But how shall we do it? It will have to be handled in a sneaky
enough way so as to keep Lindsay from noticing. He has been placed under
the spell of that little siren, and I know that he would never grant us
permission to shove her away from the area."
It was the very next day that the wartfrogs made their move. Under the
direction of Lambert, they went about their work, and it was business as
usual. Then, when one of the amphibious pigs saw the small unicorn in
the field behind them, Lambert called for a halt. The wartfrogs turned
around and went back toward Jeanne-Marie. She was not looking in their
direction, so she did not notice that they were coming toward her until
it was too late to escape. They were already upon her and hurled her
unceremoniously into a harvesting-bag. This they tossed onto their cart
and carried away. "I will sell her to a zoo in some other land, where
they are not so kind to thieving horse-creatures!" giggled Lambert,
showing his teeth. "Now we can get rid of this little troublemaker once
and for all! Old Mickey-D will never know what became of his dear little
charity-case!"
Indeed, it would have been curtains for poor Jeanne-Marie had not Graham
had a sudden inspiration which he wanted to tell her about right away.
He felt certain that he had formulated a plan by which they would be
able to save Telly from the Witch, and he had run into the milkweed
fields to find her. He had seen the terrible wartfrogs capture her and
had even overheard what they planned to do to her. "I can't let them do
it!" he whispered angrily. "Why, this is the second time I've made a
friend in Oz who has met with foul play!" He would have cried, had his
sadness not been so highly overcompensated for by his anger. His first
instinct was to run to her and try to fight for her freedom. But he was
a wise enough boy to know full well that this would be folly. He was no
more than one little boy against a whole farm's worth of strong and
muscular laborers. If he were to pick a fight with this bunch, he would
be sold alongside his friend. No, he would need another plan of rescue.
But he had already come up with one such plan. Now he could give it a
test-run. However, he knew that he could not hope to carry it out all by
himself. No, he would have to have help. And Graham knew from whence
that help must come. With a swallow of anxiety, he headed for the home
of the ranchero.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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