Aunt Effie's Ark Read Online Free PDF Page B

you!” We laughed even louder.
    â€œI’ll blow your door down!”
    â€œI’ll blow your door down!” repeated Alwyn.
    â€œNo, by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin!” said Lizzie who knew all the nursery rhymes and stories by heart.
    â€œTry huffing and puffing!” Jessie sang out.
    Boom! The Tattooed Wolf fired the blunderbuss. The nikau berries were so much harder than bullets, theydented the steel shutters, and the wood stood out in little bumps on our side.
    â€œOw! Ow! Ow!” screamed the Tattooed Wolf.
    â€œThe berries bounced back and hit him,” said Peter. “It’s called a ricochet.”
    â€œOw! Ow! Ow!”
    â€œOw! Ow!” said Alwyn.
    We followed Peter upstairs. He rolled out the wicked little barrel, painted with the skull and crossbones, that Aunt Effie kept under her bed – where most people kept a chamber-pot. Gingerly, he worked off the top.
    â€œI thought so. Gunpowder!”
    Aunt Effie had taught us how to load and fire a cannon. We pushed a canister of gunpowder down the barrel and tamped it into place. We stood in a circle, heaved up a cannon-ball, and rolled it down the barrel. With a broom handle, Marie made sure it was in place, and poked in a wad to hold the cannon-ball.
    The window screeched. We pulled on the gun-tackle and ran the cannon up so the barrel poked over the sill. Peter tapped in the wedges to point its mouth down.
    Despite the window’s screech, the rumble of the cannon’s iron wheels across the floor, and the tap of Peter’s mallet, the Tattooed Wolf heard nothing.
    â€œOoowhooooo! Ooowhooooo!” With all four paws, it was patting its bruises. It raised its face, “Ooowhooooo! Ooowhooooo!” and we saw it was tattooed all over, not just the forehead, the cheeks, the chin, and the nose, but the insides of the ears, the nostrils, and the eyelids.
    â€œThere’s something familiar about that tattoo,” said Jazz.
    The monster stuck out its tongue and licked its bruises. “Ooowhooooo! Ooowhooooo!”
    â€œThat’s why it’s got such a terrible voice!” Ann gasped. “Its tongue is tattooed, too…”
    Jazz said, “I’m sure I’ve seen that tattoo somewhere else.”
    â€œTouch-powder…” Peter trickled some grains of black powder into the touch-hole.
    The Tattooed Wolf heard him, looked up, and saw the cannon. He must have been fired at before because he shrieked and ran away over the paddocks. “ Ooowhooooo ! Ooowhooooo!”
    Between two sticks, Peter picked up a burning coal from the fireplace and put it to the touch-hole. The cannon boomed, recoiled, bumped Aunt Effie’s bed, and filled the room with smoke. We cheered, leaned out the window, and saw the black cannon-ball streaking over the white snow.
    The Tattooed Wolf saw it coming, screamed, “ Ooowhooooo ! Ooowhooooo!” and jumped out of sight in a ditch. He stuck up his terrible head to see what was happening, and the cannon-ball whipped off the tip of one ear as clean as whistle.
    â€œOoowhooooo! Ooowhooooo! I’ll get my own back!” he howled. “I’ll crop the ears off the sides of your heads.” Lizzie and Jared felt their ears.
    â€œWhat? What’s going on? What…” Aunt Effie sat up, eyes half open, nostrils flaring and sniffing.
    â€œIt’s all right,” Marie told her. “We just chased away a Tattooed Wolf that came down from the Vast Untrodden Ureweras. Everybody’s safe and sound. Go back to sleep.”
    â€œEberybuggle’s shafe. Glow black to sheep,” Aunt Effie mumbled. “What a nishe shmell!” We laid her back against her pillows.
    â€œGunpowder smoke,” Marie told her and said to us, “You know how she always says she loves the smell of battle!”
    Aunt Effie sniffed the smoke and snored again. Ann straightened the sou’wester she wore. Peter mopped out the cannon and