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"Ahoy" it
says again. "Ahoy" said G & J
limply. "Whut brings yeh to deeze parts,
maties?" it said. G & J looked at
each other and G explained: "We’re looking
for the road over the Peppermint Mountains
there in the distance and further on." They
could see that "it" only had about
3 teeth in it‘s mouth. "What’s your name
and the name of this place?" asked G,
tho' she already knew the name of the place. "Well,
dis b heer da Marhsmallow Wastes and I beez
a Marshie. Weez all Marshies" it said. "Where’s
the rest of you?" asked G.
Theyz awl bak et tha houz, kross the waddur heer," it
said. He didn’t seem like the kind of fellow
that expected you to bow down to him or call
him Your Majesty, but just the same, to be on
good terms, not knowing whether it was friendly
or not, G said " If it please yer Majesty,
we are travelers seeking a way. If you may so
much as give us directions, we will be on our
way." "Oh righto, jest memberd, thar
ain’ts no way o’er them Pepmints, koz theyz downrite
slippry, they iz." the Marshie said. Seen
kritterz tryin’ ta go up ‘em and fall rite bak
down ‘em. Slip-slidin’ awl da way. U kent go
o’er them, U kent. You gotta go through them," said
the Marshie rather seriously.
Well now this was something to think about, thought
Granma. THROUGH them.
When the Marshie wiped the hair out of its face
you could see it’s three snaggly teeth and bent
up nose. The horses were getting ansy. Julio
spoke up and asked if he could maybe get one
of those lights in the water. "Shor thang.
I kin hep ya’," said the Marshie. He took
his oar out of the canoe and poked at some of
the smaller balls on the bottom … "take
as miny as U want; theyz free," it said. "They
grow back anyway." "Ok," said
Julio. (He had a very brilliant plan to put headlights
on everybody and everything.) "I’ll take
two medium ones and 3 small ones," said
J to the Marshie. "Righto again!" and
he began to pry up the small ones from the shallow.
The Marshie waded out to deeper water to get
the medium sized ones. Julio got down to help.
As the Marshie pryed them up, Julio caught them
in the air as they came flying out of the water. "Perfect!" J
said. And even out of the water they still gave
off light. "Look Granma, they have holes
clear through them like beads. I got a great
idea!" said the Hoo. . I wonder how long
the light will last? muttered Hoo to himself.
Wonder if they need batteries? "Bat-treez?
What's batrees? These here lights shine on and
on and on," said the Marshie.
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