Bell Mountain (The Bell Mountain Series) Read Online Free PDF

he did it.”
    Jack picked up the book. “We can’t take this with us. It weighs too much.”
    “I know that!” Ellayne snapped. “I’m just showing it to you to prove I know all about adventures.”
    Had they known better what lay ahead of them, Jack and Ellayne would have planned much more carefully, or else given up the idea altogether. But they didn’t know, and they wanted to leave soon, so they planned accordingly. If they ran into trouble, Ellayne said, they would just do whatever Abombalbap did when he was in difficulties.
    She cut open the lining of her coat and hid money in it, wrapping it so it wouldn’t jingle—a trick she’d learned from the book. Jack was amazed when he saw the money.
    “You’ve got so much more money than Van—and he’s a grown man who gets paid a penny a day. You didn’t steal it from your father, did you?” he said. She had silver pennies, threepenny pips, fivepenny moons, and something he’d never seen in Van’s possession—three gold pieces, newly minted “spears” (so called for the image they bore of a spearman standing at attention).
    “Of course I didn’t steal it!” Ellayne said. “My mother and father give me an allowance, and I save it. I was going to buy a horse and carriage when they said I was old enough to have one. It ought to be enough to get us to the mountain and back. We’ll need to buy food and lots of other things.”
    They’d need sturdy boots, she said, and warm clothes for Jack and fur bags to sleep in, like the loggers had. They’d have to buy them in another town—too risky to buy them here, where people would notice and tell her father.
    “We’ll want to buy weapons, too,” she added. “Bows and arrows for hunting for food along the way, and swords and knives—just in case.”
    Jack could only marvel. She really did know all about adventures, and she was going to spend all her money on theirs. Van would never buy him boots. He felt as if they were all but on the mountain already.
    “Don’t tell me you know how to use a bow and arrows,” he said.
    “We can learn. I can ride a horse, though.”
    He shook his head, dazzled. “I can get us rabbits and woodchucks with my slingshot,” he said. “We won’t go hungry. I can cook them, too. But I never thought of any of the rest. I had you figured all wrong. Now I’m glad you’re going with me—you really do know what you’re doing. I can hardly wait to get started! How about tomorrow morning, first thing?”
    Ellayne wanted to make it the day after: she needed time to get some things together. “We’ll both need to carry packs,” she said, “with everything in them that we’ll need. I’m sure there are some clothes of my brothers’ that’ll fit you, and I’ll need some of their things, too. Maybe you ought to pack some cooking gear. And don’t forget your slingshot.”
     

CHAPTER 7
The Journey Begins
    Jack didn’t think that day would ever come. He was sure something would go wrong. Van would hurt himself on the job, and Jack would have to stay home and tend to him; Ellayne’s father would find out; or Ashrof would decide to tell on him because he was sure Jack would come to a bad end if no one stopped him.
    He would have liked to say good-bye to Ashrof and ask the old reciter for his blessing. He knew the priest at the chamber house didn’t like Ashrof, thought he was too old and foolish. Jack would have been happier with Ashrof’s blessing, but knew he’d have to do without it. He could make it up with him when he came back.
    He stuffed a canvas sack with two small pans, two knives and two forks, his slingshot, some bread, some onions, and what little spare clothing he had. It didn’t seem like much. He found an old wineskin that would serve for holding water.
    It didn’t take him very long to get his things ready, leaving him with the rest of the day stretched out before him and nothing to do. He wished he could read Scriptures. But the Old Books were written