Kneeknock Rise by Natalie Babbitt Read Free Book Online Page B

aft—”
    But Uncle Anson had clapped his hand over Egan’s mouth. “Hush!” he cried. “Hush now. You’re all excited. Probably coming down with a fever. Look, you’re soaked through. Not another word. Not a peep. I’ll have to get you home right away.” He wrapped one arm firmly around Egan’s shoulder and they started down the slope. Just below them in a clump of trees the lights of other lanterns glowed. “Hello! Hello down there!” called Uncle Anson, hustling Egan along. “I found him. He’s all right. Let’s go home.”
    But the rescuers were suddenly crowding around them, holding their lanterns high and peering with relief into Egan’s face. “So you’re safe! Foolish boy—you might have been killed. And think what we risked climbing up to save you!”
    “But listen!” cried Egan, twitching out of Uncle Anson’s grasp. “Listen! I went clear up there and looked and there isn’t any Megri—”
    “Where’s the dog?” interrupted one of the men. “Anson, didn’t you say he climbed with your brother’s dog? That’s a shame! The Megrimum got the dog, eh?”
    “But there isn’t any Me-” Egan began again.
    “That boy looks feverish to me, Anson,” said another man. “Better get him home right away. Too bad about the dog, but you’re lucky the boy got away.”
    Egan began to shout. “Listen to me! I went and looked . There isn’t any Megrimum up there! ”
    At once there was total silence. The men stood looking at him, expressionless. He looked back at them and felt a nudge of uncertainty. He said, more quietly, “There never was any Megrimum.” The men waited, watching him. “It’s only a spring in a cave,” he finished in a very small voice.
    After a long moment, one of the men cleared his throat. “No Megrimum. Well, that’s certainly something. A spring in a cave. Hundreds of years—and no Megrimum.” There was another uncomfortable silence and then they all started talking at once.
    “Anson, that boy is feverish.”
    “Feverish? He’s delirious! Better take him home.”
    “He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
    “That’s right—he doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
    And they turned away and started down the hillside, muttering to themselves.
    Uncle Anson sighed and took Egan’s hand. “Let’s go home, Nephew.”
    “But look, Uncle Anson,” Egan pleaded. “There really isn’t any Megrimum. Uncle Ott explained it all, all about the spring and the cave and everything. It’s really true!”
    Uncle Anson shrugged. “Perhaps. We’ll talk about it later. Let’s go home. It’s been a long day.”

    Egan sat on the bench before a blazing fire and sipped at a cup of scalding soup. He was draped with quilts and his feet tingled in a pan of steaming water. He wiggled his toes and sighed, and Uncle Anson, from his chair across the hearth, sighed too. On the floor between them Ada sat hugging her knees, nearly bursting with the questions she had been sternly ordered to keep to herself. Aunt Gertrude, on the bench beside Egan, stretched out cold fingers nervously to the flames. It was very quiet.
    Finally Uncle Anson shifted in his chair and spoke. “Are you warmer now, Nephew? Feeling better?”
    “Yes, thank you,” said Egan. “But I felt all right before, too. I don’t have any fever.”
    “I’m glad to hear it,” said Uncle Anson.
    And then Egan could contain himself no longer. “I saw what I saw,” he said stubbornly, as if they had all been arguing, “and I don’t see why you won’t believe me.”
    Ada, too, erupted. “Tell us what you saw, Egan! Quick! Tell us all about it!”
    “Well…” Egan looked toward Uncle Anson.
    “All right. Go ahead and tell your story. We might as well have it now.”
    “Well!” said Egan again. “I climbed up the Rise and when I got to the mist at the top, Annabelle ran on ahead and I thought she’d found the Megrimum, but when I caught up with her, there was Uncle Ott!”
    “Ott?” cried Aunt Gertrude.