| |
This night
they all slept on the ship. Even the workers
stayed and found places to bed down. They were
lulled to sleep by music and the gentle lapping
of waves against the sides of the ship.
It was fairly early when G & J went down
to breakfast; this being their last day on The
Pink Bird. They had both decided on talking Simeon
into coming with them on the ferry, since they
didn’t get an appropriate chance to ask him last nite.
Breakfast was more solemn than usual; maybe because
they were leaving. G just spit it out in plain
English: "Simeon, are you coming with us?" No
translation - no Spanish. He understood very
well what she had said. He answered in plain
English, "Yes." Then they all got happy
and the place seemed to brighten up. So bright
in fact that Julio had whip cream all over his
face again and the penguins were laughing. A
penguin laugh is very funny, their whole stomach
shaking up and down like a bowl of jello.
After breakfrast, G & J went to their room
to pack their stuff and load up their baskets.
Hoo had forgotten and left his frogs and snails
down by the stream. That’s ok; they were probably
having a good time down there. Two of the baskets
were down by the campsite, and two were in their
room. They were graciously given the pick of
the clothes they found in their room, which came
in very handy for packing around stone jars and
metal containers, diamonds, rubies and what not.
So far so good; nothing had gotten broken. G
and J put on their old overalls and jeans, now
that they had been washed and smelled a whole
lot better.
They went downstairs to load up the horses, using
their old blankies and bridles. Julio was going
to try to lead the Assjack while riding Pepper.
Granma just shook her head. He was turning into
quite the little cowboy.
Julio could ride Pepper out the door, because
she wasn’t as tall as Mober. Pepper bowed down
while Julio got on, and then G handed Cools’
halter rope to him. "Good luck" she
said. Off he went, up the ridged incline to the
deck of the ship. When Cool got up on deck he
freaked out and sat down. Muff started barking
at his behind and that got him up again. Across
the deck and down the gangplank they went. Sometimes
Cool was ahead and sometimes Julio and Pepper
were. It was a good thing that Pepper was a very
smart horse baby, because Cool tried to get around
her and tangle her up. It was a mess for awhile.
Pepper would have to turn around and unwind.
So Julio, smarty pants that he was, got ahold
of Cool real close up by the halter and led him
that way, so he couldn’t go anywhere. This worked
fine but was tiring on the arms. Julio took a
little practice walk down the road a ways with
the Cool and back again, until he caught on.
Ai yai yai. They hadn’t even thought about the
ferry ride with Cool. Well he was so small, they
could just push him on over to the center of
the ferry and tie him. Might take 3 or 4 of them,
but, it could be done.
|
|
Children's Activities Home