Winterbound by Margery Williams Bianco Read Free Book Online Page B

what I mean.
    â€œI didn’t want to say nothing, for I didn’t want to get Nate scared, so we just kept right on going, walking as fast as we could, and all the time I could feel him pressin’ up close to me, and then bye-an’-bye we heard it again, a lot nearer this time: Ooh—oo—ooh!
    â€œThen Nate looked at me, an’ I looked at him, and I says: ‘Nate, suppose we run?’ And he grabbed my hand and we started to beat it, quick as we could, and as we ran I heard the holler again, and this time I could tell by the sound it was there on the corduroy road right back of us. It was dark by then in under the trees and I never run so fast in all my life, just dragging the kid along with me, and pretty soon we were near the end of the road. Our own house was quite a ways off still and there wasanother long piece of woods to pass before we come to it, but there was another house nearer and I figured if we could make that and the folks were up still, we’d go in there and wait for a while before we went on home. So I says: ‘Nate, if you can keep it up till we get to Johnson’s we’ll go in there, and if they’re asleep we’ll wake ’em up.’
    â€œWell, when we got as far as the house there I felt pretty safe. All the folks were in bed—they kept pretty early hours as a rule—and the lights were all out. We crept up close under the front stoop and I said: ‘Nate, I tell you what we’ll do. We’ll just wait here and listen till we hear it holler again, and then we’ll know for sure which way it’s headin’, and if it’s headin’ this way we’ll bang on the door till the folks come down and let us in.’ For I hated to wake everyone up if we didn’t have to, and I knew anyway we could get into the barn or somewheres at a pinch. So we waited, and we listened, and bye-an’-bye sure enough we did hear it. But it wasn’t coming our way any more; either something had scared it or it was tracking something else, for it had turned off and was traveling down the valley. But my knees were still shaking, and so were Nate’s, and we hung round that house quite a bit before we dared start on for home.”
    â€œDid you ever find out what it was?” Martin asked.
    â€œNo, I never did. But I know that about that time, or maybe a year or so later, there was two or three people had tales of seeing some big light-colored thing in the woods, different times, and all more or less around the same place. One was a peddler driving home at night, and he saw it, but it made off before he had a chance to see what it was. No one ever did know. But that swamp there joins right up with the woods in back and there’s miles and miles of country out that way used to be pretty wild, and still is. And I’ve figured since that if some big animal ever did get down there from the forests up north it might live around there for years on what it could hunt, deer and things, without a soul ever setting eyes on it except by chance. I could show you places within fifteen miles of right here where we’re sitting that’s as wild as anything you find up north.”
    â€œYou’re going to have all these kids good and scared first thing you know,” Mary put in. “That was years ago. If you heard anything howling these days it wouldn’t be anything worse than a fox, like we heard tonight.”
    â€œWell, the land around here hasn’t been farmed, not like it used to be, for quite a while now. People come here and buy up the big places and just keep them the way they are, for summer places or hunting and fishingclubs. The land’s lapsing back to forest in lots of places, and first thing you know the wild things start coming back too.”
    It was later than usual when Martin and Caroline got their coats and said goodnight. Listening to Neal’s story they had forgotten the clock, and Shirley was