Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler Read Free Book Online Page B

trying to get closer to the bank, I stumbled and fell head foremost into the stream. I rolled over and over. My fleece-lined reefer filled up and my head went under the water and I had a feeling I was going to drown. Over and over I rolled, striking against rocks and scraping over the rough bottom.
    Just below me was a long sandbar on which grass and a few bushes were growing. I got my feet under me as I went past it and reached out for the bushes. I didn’t get hold of them but I did pitch forward and fall down in shallow water. I was so scared and tired, that it took me a long time to crawl up the sloping bank and stretch myself out on top of it.
    The sun was shining and it was warm, there. I don’t remember much after that, for a long time. I must have gone to sleep, for when I woke, the sun had gone way down. 22 I hated to move, but knew I had to. No one could sleep out on that bar. To my surprise, my reefer was almost dry.
    I took it off and spread it out on the hot sand. Then I searched along the edges of thestream for an open space, in the hope of finding a few berries. There weren’t any, so I picked up my reefer and went downstream. I made pretty slow time. I was lame and afraid of falling into the water again. It seemed to me I wasn’t getting anywhere at all. That evening, I went to sleep early—on some moss under a tree.
    It got cold that night, and I couldn’t double up as tightly as I did other nights because my knees were too stiff. That left my feet out and, by morning, they didn’t have any feeling in them at all—not one bit. I woke up once in the dark, shivering. I curled up tighter and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t, for a long time. I kept thinking of Mommy and Dad and that airplane. I thought I heard another plane, but, of course, I didn’t. People don’t fly over that place at night. It was just something in my head—maybe, a mosquito near my ear.

    There were funny sounds, though, in those woods—things walking, something big and heavy—and something drinking—and the funniest noise I ever heard, a high, quavering screech that made your blood cold. 23 I guess it was a bird, for pretty soon the noise came from another spot. There were other noises, too—like trees and branches breaking and crashing down.
    After a while, I fell asleep again, and I dreamed of a swink. Maybe you don’t know what a swink is, but it looks like a pig—has big ears like a camel and has a long snout like an anteater. It is death to bugs and eats them up so fast that pretty soon there aren’t any. I read about it once in a book of comics. Boy, I had a swink, and it was a beauty and what a job it did on those bugs! First it licked my legs clean, and then it licked my arms and it even licked my face and neck. I never had anything feel so good as the tongue of that swink.
    It took me a long time to wake up. I’d keep waking up and falling asleep again. When I did finally get my eyes wide open, I couldn’t make up my mind to go on. I was afraid that day would be just like all the rest.

CHAPTER 11
    S OLDIERS IN A S WAMP • E IGHTH D AY
    W HEN I DID get on my feet I found they were only stilts. I felt I was standing way up in the air. I didn’t dare walk much for a while, because I was afraid my feet would just fall apart and leave me walking on my bones. That’s the feeling I had.
    I rubbed my feet and then put them in the cold water of the brook and, after a while, a little color came into them and I could feel a pinch. When I could walk, I left the stream and went out into the sun and it felt good. I looked about for some strawberries, but there weren’t any. So, after I warmed up a little, I went back to the stream and started down with only a drink of water for breakfast.
    Boy, if I’d known what was just around the bend in that stream, I wouldn’t have waded into that water. I climbed up on a rock to avoid a deep trout