THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WELL

Chapter 4 – page 5

Welp, first, they would find water, then they would come back and lead the horses to it! Ingenious idea! Bravo! They didn’t have to go very far til they heard a faint trickle and the ground became mossier and fernier. They saw a little mountain dale-y type stream and further down a larger hole where the horses could drink. G & J drank and drank, upstream, of course. The water was so sweet and filling, they hardly felt hungry anymore … Then the Hoo spotted some fish in the larger pool upstream … and they had matches. They seemed like ordinary fish … not the kind that sunbathe on rocks around the pool. He stuck in his hand and pulled one out ~ just like that. Stuck in his hand and pulled out another ~ just like that. "Bravo!" said Granma, though she wasn’t at all fond of fish full of little bones.. Well, that’s all they had. Wait a minute. There on that bush! Blueberries of some sort! G & J filled up big wide leaves and folded them over trying not to squish the juice out of the berries. Granma loaded her overall pockets with bulging berry-filled leaves and Julio loaded his pockets with fish. Eeeewww! Then they headed back for the horses. Little did they know, but a gnome creature was watching them from behind a tree.

They found a nice tallish rock that was flat on top and unloaded their fish and berries. Each one grabbed a horse and led it down to the water to drink. Back up in the dale where it was drier they found wood and twigs, dry leaves and moss and made a fire. Julio ran a stick through the middle of the fish .. leaving the guts in. No one was fond of cleaning fish, nor did they even know how. They figgerd they could just eat around the guts. Granma got the fire going and they stuck their fish sticks in. "Hey! says Julio, " Maybe this is where they got the name for fish sticks!" They both nibbled berries while the fish cooked, which was taking much longer than they had meant to stop. Julio used his pocket knife to check and see if the insides were cooked yet. Nope, just a little bit more. Granma had some mushrooms too.