Fantasy fiction; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
Here, stopping on a jutting rock to catch her breath and remove the
burrs from her stockings, Mandy heard a dreadful roar and felt an
ominous rumbling beneath her feet. What-a-butter on a narrow ledge just
above heard it too, and cocked her head anxiously on one side. Perhaps
she had best jump down to Mandy. After all, the great silly girl did
feed and pet her, and from the sound of things a storm was brewing.
If there was one thing the goat feared more than another, it was a
thunder-storm, so, rolling her eyes as innocently as if she had not
dragged Mandy all over the mountain she stretched her nose down toward
her weary mistress.
"Bah--ah-ah-ahhhhhhhhhh!" bleated What-a-butter affectionately.
"Oh 'Bah' yourself!" fumed Mandy, making an angry snatch for the Nanny
Goat's beard. "Pets and children are all alike--never appreciate a body
till they have a stomach ache, or a thunder-storm is coming. Now then,
m'lass, be quick with you!"
Holding out her strong arms, Mandy made ready to catch the goat as it
jumped off the ledge. But before What-a-butter could stir, there was
a perfectly awful crash and explosion and up shot the slab of rock on
which Mandy was standing, up--UP and out of sight entirely. Where the
mountain girl had been, a crystal column of water spurted viciously
into the air, so high the bulging eyes of the goat could see no end to
it. Rearing up on her hind legs, What-a-butter turned round and round
in a frantic effort to catch a glimpse of her vanishing Mistress.
Then thinking suddenly what would happen should the torrent turn and
fall upon her, the goat sprang off the ledge and ran madly down the
mountain, bleating like a whole herd of Banshees.
And Mandy, as you can well believe, was as frightened as What-a-butter
and with twice as much reason. The first upheaval, as the rock left the
earth, flung her flat on her nose. Grasping the edges of the slab with
all hands, Mandy hung on for dear life and as a stinging shower of icy
water sprayed her from head to foot, wondered what under the earth was
happening to her. Thorns and thistles! Could the thunder-storm really
have come UP instead of down? Certainly it was raining up, and what
ever was carrying her aloft with such terrible force and relentlessness?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account