Archie and the North Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘How am I going to kill a beast like that?’
    She says, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what to do. When it opens its mouth, you jump into its mouth, and keep well back into its mouth so that it will not be able to get its mouth closed,’ she says, ‘and just cut the windpipe with your sword.’
    So she gave Jack heartening, you see. So down he goes and sure enough this beast opens its jaws and he jumps inside the jaws and right enough he was so far back into its gullet, it couldn’t get its mouth shut. And he starts to hack and hack and hack and hack with his sword till all the windpipe is cut and the head slumps down. And he jumps out before the teeth could get him, you see. And when he looks into this cave, he says, ‘No, that’s not my sister.’
    But the girl runs to him. She’s that happy she clings on to him.
    And she says, ‘You don’t look very pleased to have come and rescued me.’
    ‘Well,’ he says, ‘I’m really looking for my sister.’
    ‘What happened to your sister?’
    ‘She was stolen away by a white bull,’ he says, ‘I can’t remember how many years ago. And we’ve never seen nor heard of her since.’
    ‘Well, that’s what happened to me,’ she says. ‘But I wouldn’t behave myself. Every chance I got I was running away.’ And she says, ‘If that’s what’s happened to your sister, she’s probably in the same place I have been in. This is my punishment, out here with this beast, for what I have done. I just wouldn’t stay, I was always trying to get away. Lots of girls try to get away and they’re badly punished for it.’
    And he says, ‘Do you think that my sister could be there?’
    ‘Well,’ she says, ‘if she’s living, that’s likely where she’ll be. But you must take care. There’s a great fortress built,’ she says, ‘and an army of men you’ve never seen the like of. There’s no way you’re going to get in there. I’m warning you, if you go in there you’re going to your death.’
    ‘Well,’ he says, ‘if I’m going to my death, I’m going to my death. ’Cause I promised I wouldn’t come back without her anyway. And I’d be as well dead as wandering about this way for years and years and years.’
    But anyway, he came back and he took the lassie with him. And they sat down and leaned against this cow, because she was sitting chewing the cud, you see. And the cow says, ‘She’s not your sister then?’
    ‘No,’ he says, ‘She’s not my sister. But she’s somebody’s bairn for all that.’
    She says, ‘Aye!’
    And Jack says, ‘She thinks my sister might be there. But there’s no way I’ll get her out,’ he says. ‘It’s a king that changes himself into a bull and goes and steals these bairns and lassies.’
    And the cow says, ‘What do you mean, no way?’
    ‘Well, he has an army of thousands.’
    ‘But,’ says the cow, ‘you can have an army of thousands too, if you just listen to me. I’ll tell you what to do,’ she says. ‘Go with your sword to the dragon’s head and cut the gums away and pull every tooth out that you can get.’
    He says, ‘Ah, there are thousands.’
    ‘Well,’ she says, ‘Pull them. And get the lassie to help. Go on, you, and give him a hand,’ she says. ‘Now go and do what I’m telling you.’
    ‘Might as well,’ he says.
    But they got a drink of water anyway. The well was free now, you see, with no beast guarding it. So having this lassie, they pulled and pulled and they pulled and they pulled and he yanked and he cut and the lassie pulled them out and threw them in a heap, all these teeth.
    And he went back to the cow. He says, ‘What am I going to do with that now?’
    She says, ‘I’ll tell you. You’re going to stick them in the ground all round about you.’
    ‘Ah me,’ he says, ‘I must be mad listening to a cow, but I’ll do it anyway.’
    So him and the lassie both, they stuck all these teeth and they kept sticking and sticking until it was pitch dark night and they