The Wishing-Stone StoriesBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Science
The Wishing-Stone Stories
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy fiction; Wishes -- Juvenile fiction
He knew that each of those black spots was a great, broad-winged
bird--a Canada goose. He could see the long outstretched necks as tiny
black lines. One behind another in two long lines which met in a letter
V, like well-drilled soldiers maintaining perfect formation, the leader
at the apex of the V, and behind him each bird a given distance from
the one in front, they moved steadily across the sky, straight into the
north.
“_Honk, honk, k’honk, honk, k’honk, k’honk, honk!_” There was something
indescribably thrilling in the sound. It made the blood leap and race
through Tommy’s veins. Long after the living wedge had passed beyond
his vision those clarion notes rang in his ears--“_honk, honk, k’honk,
honk, k’honk, k’honk, honk!_” They were at once a challenge and a call
to the wild freedom of the great wilderness. They filled his heart with
a great longing. It swelled and pulsed with a vast desire.
“Oh,” he sighed, “it must be great to be able to fly like that. I would
rather fly than do anything I know of. I envy old Honker in the lead
there, I do. I wish I could join him this very minute!”
Of course that wish had slipped out unthinkingly. But that made no
difference. Tommy had wished, and now here he was high in the air, no
longer a boy, but a great bird, the last one in a long line of great
birds beating the thin air with stout, tireless wings as they followed
Honker, the leader, straight into the North. Far, far below lay the
Great World. It seemed to Tommy that he had no part in it now. A fierce
tumultuous joy surged through him and demanded expression. Spring had
come, and he must tell those plodding creatures, mere specks, crawling
on the distant earth. _Honk, honk, k’honk, honk, k’honk!_
Never in all his life had Tommy felt such a thrill as possessed him
now. Looking down, he saw brown meadows and pastures showing just a
hint of green here and there, green forests and bare woodlands, silver
threads, which he knew to be rivers, shining spots which were lakes and
ponds, and villages which looked like toys.
Once they passed over a great city, but it did not look great at all.
Seen through the murk of the smoke from many factory chimneys, it was
not unlike an ant-hill which had been opened,--tiny black objects,
which were really men, women, children, horses, and motor-cars, seeming
to hurry aimlessly in all directions, for all the world like ants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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