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The Hoo
stagger-wobbles up, brushes himself off, and
gives himself the once-over …. picking up a
couple of Chips that had fallen off Pepper’s
mane & tail. The baby Chips were looking
up at him like he was their mom or something.
The ones on his shoulders still hung on, but
their eyes were huge and sorta popping out
of their heads. J went a ways back up the road
and turned to look at the horses. Then he went
a ways further and blew the thing again. Pepper
started to run away, but Mober caught hold
of her with her teeth.
G & J waited about 5 minutes and … bound, bounce,
lick, lick.. Flop .. Flop .. here came da Muff. "Man,
what a lot of trouble you are!" says Julio, as
he sorta limped over to a big rock. G rode over with
Pepper and J got ahold of her bridle and led her up.
Pepper was not all too sure of him now. So he began
whispering in her ear, sweet nothins … and she calmed
down. Then J remembered the carrots in the beaverskins. "We
need a carrot, Granma" said J. So she fished one
out of the beaver bag, and another for Mober. Mober
batted her eye lashes. She loved carrots. Pepper wasn’t
that fond of them, but it was a nice gesture, she thought. "K" she
said. I’ll trust you, but don’t ever do that again!
Bout gave me an attacky cardia!" (heart-attack:
Pepper was raised on a ranch with a lot of Mexicans,
so she was sorta bilingual.)
Julio was on, G was on, da Muff was there wagging,
so off they started again. One-two-three: that-a-way!
J put the whistle back in his pocket and the Chips
back on Pepper’s mane & tail. "Wait!" cried
J. "We gotta look in the baskets and see if the
Chips are ok." "Brilliant idea, Hoo! Check
‘em out." "I’m afraid to. What if they are
squished with bananas and … what if we’ve killed them!
What if the Big Tortilla finds out?" blubbers Hoo.
"Ok, I’ll look," says G. She pulled up next
to Pepper and peeked in, but it was dark. She opened
the lid wider and shouted "Hurray!" There
are only 3 in here and they are hanging on to the sides
of the basket for all they are worth. Most of them
musta been outside already," said G. "Lemme
look in the other basket. Well there’s a smushy banana
. . . Ah oh …. I see a furry leg sticking out from
underneath the banana. Julio, you gotta pick it up.
I can’t stand to touch Chips … er ..ah .. No offense,
Chips …. dear little ones" said G. All the eyes
on Peppers mane and tail were looking in the direction
of the basket. Julio picked the Chip up; limp as a
dishrag, it was. "Maybe if we just blow on it,
sorta like respiration." "Yeah, do that,
Hoo, in the NAME !"
He did and a blue leg jerked and then they heard a
teeny sputter .. "I’m alive! I’m alive!" it
said. "I saw a light and a long tunnel and ..
I’m alive!" The Chips had not spoken at all so
far on the trip. Now they were all crawling down Pepper’s
mane, giving her the heebie jeebies, to have a look-see. "Ok,
alright! Show’s over" said J. "Back to the
mane!" he yelled, "and you two, back to the
tail!" "Thata boy Hoo. You tell 'em! We’ve
already been hangin' out here an hour, what with finding
da Muff, the whistle dump, the Chips …. cheesh!" said G.
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