The Louisa Alcott Reader: a Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of SchoolAlcott, Louisa May
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The Louisa Alcott Reader: a Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School
Alcott, Louisa May
Children's stories; Readers (Elementary)
He liked her courage, and said kindly in his rough voice,--
"Hop up, little girl, and sit among my feathers. Hold me fast round the
neck, or you may grow dizzy and get a fall."
Rosy nestled down among the thick gray feathers, and put both arms round
his neck; and whiz they went, up, up, up, higher and higher, till the
trees looked like grass, they were so far below. At first it was very
cold, and Rosy cuddled deeper into her feather bed; then, as they came
nearer to the sun, it grew warm, and she peeped out to see the huts
standing in a green spot on the top of the mountain.
"Here we are. You'll find all the men are down in the mine at this
time. They won't come up till morning; so you will have to wait for your
father. Good-by; good luck, my dear." And the eagle soared away, higher
still, to his nest among the clouds.
It was night now, but fires were burning in all the houses; so Rosy went
from hut to hut trying to find her father's, that she might rest while
she waited: at last in one the picture of a pretty little girl hung on
the wall, and under it was written, "My Rosy." Then she knew that this
was the right place; and she ate some supper, put on more wood, and went
to bed, for she wanted to be fresh when her father came in the morning.
While she slept a storm came on,--thunder rolled and lightning flashed,
the wind blew a gale, and rain poured,--but Rosy never waked till dawn,
when she heard men shouting outside,--
"Run, run! The river is rising! We shall all be drowned!"
Rosy ran out to see what was the matter, though the wind nearly blew her
away; she found that so much rain had made the river overflow till it
began to wash the banks away.
"What shall I do? what shall I do?" cried Rosy, watching the men rush
about like ants, getting their bags of gold ready to carry off before
the water swept them away, if it became a flood.
As if in answer to her cry, Rosy heard a voice say close by,--
"Splash, dash!
Rumble and crash!
Here come the beavers gay;
See what they do,
Rosy, for you,
Because you helped _me_ one day."
And there in the water was the little fish swimming about, while an army
of beavers began to pile up earth and stones in a high bank to keep the
river back. How they worked, digging and heaping with teeth and claws,
and beating the earth hard with their queer tails like shovels! Rosy and
the men watched them work, glad to be safe, while the storm cleared up;
and by the time the dam was made, all danger was over. Rosy looked into
the faces of the rough men, hoping her father was there, and was just
going to ask about him, when a great shouting rose again, and all began
to run to the pit hole, saying,--
"The sand has fallen in! The poor fellows will be smothered! How can we
get them out? how can we get them out?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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