Undergardeners by Desmond Ellis Read Free Book Online

there…
    â€¦once,” said Snick and Snock.
    Mouse looked at the mess. There were sheets that had only one word on them. There were sheets torn neatly in half and sheets torn into many little pieces. There were sheets that were scribbled fiercely upon and sheets measled with inkblots. “Quiet now,” whispered Alkus, holding up her hand as she reached the corner. “He doesn’t like to be interrupted in the middle of a verse.” Mouse stopped and there was an “Oof!” from Digger as the mole bumped into his leg and sat down heavily on an inky page. They all tiptoed forward and peered around the corner.
    The cave of the Ancient Rhymer was dimly lit, but there was just enough light to see a most untidy jumble of papers. Piled to the roof in places, the swelling stacks went all the way to the barely visible corners. Papers overflowed from crates. Bags were crammed to bursting with them. Shelves sagged under many reams. Gasping tongues of paper stuck out from trunks so full they wouldn’t close. There were narrow pathways through the jumble, and in the center of a small clear area, a little man stood at a paper-piled desk, bathed in the gentle glow of a single candle on a tortoiseshell candlestick. On the shell, not in the shell; the tortoise itself was in the shell. The candle was stuck on its back.
    â€œI think I have it now, Sprint,” the little man said to the tortoise, tossing the pile of papers in front of him into the air. The sheets made a sound like a flock of startled birds taking off as they flapped and fluttered upward before flurrying down again. Sprint, the tortoise, crawled under the desk to shield the candle from the paper’s swirling fall.
    The Ancient Rhymer had a big head crowned with an enormous mane of black hair. His ruffled shirt was open to his waist, and around his neck he wore a large, gold medallion that gleamed against his chest. He had big bushy eye-brows that jiggled rapidly up and down in a most agitated fashion. Sometimes both eyebrows moved together, sometimes they moved independently, but at least one of them seemed to be in motion at all times. The Ancient Rhymer cleared his throat and started to move very slowly through the narrow walkways of the cave followed by Sprint, whose only job seemed to be to keep light on the page in the Rhymer’s hand.

    The Ancient Rhymer cleared his throat again, cupped his hand behind his ear and prepared to read, but at this point, unable to contain themselves any longer, Snick and Snock ran excitedly into the cave with cries of glee. This sudden commotion startled the tortoise, who reared up, dislodging the candle, which fell into the discarded paper. There was a whoosh and almost instantly the crisp dry paper was alight. The fire spread unbelievably swiftly. Mouse watched, horrified, as Snick and Snock, the Rhymer and the tortoise were enveloped in a cloud of billowing acrid smoke.

Chapter 7
    Filling his lungs with air, Mouse dashed forward into the burning cave. Choking smoke engulfed him in an instant, going up his nose and making him sneeze. It filled his throat and made him cough. It made his eyes water so much that he had to squeeze them shut and feel his way along. “Where are you?” he called as he fumbled about in the murk.
    He felt a tug at each pajama leg dragging him forward as two squeaky voices said, “We’ll…
    â€¦guide…
    â€¦you.”
    Of course! Smoke rises. Down there, near the ground, it must still be fairly clear. “The tortoise and the Rhymer,” Mouse shouted to the deer mice, “where are they?” As soon as he spoke, he found the tortoise—painfully. The big toe of his bare foot smashed against the upturned shell, making Mouse wince and sending the tortoise into a spin. He picked up the rotating reptile and tucked him under his arm. “Now the Rhymer,” he gasped as he bent down and gulped a breath of the cleaner air near the