Dinosaur Trouble Read Online Free PDF Page B

pleasure to talk with you. And you are all such good fliers.”
    I just said that, thought Aviatrix. Ah well, maybe I can improve her vocabulary. Which, to some extent, she did.
    Gargantua learned to say perambulate instead of walk, enumerate instead of count, cogitate or deliberate instead of think, and many other long words that, though familiar to Aviatrix, were quite new to the apatosaurus.

    Â 
    Â 
    â€œNot the most erudite of creatures, those apatosauruses,” said Aviatrix to her husband later.
    â€œCome again?” said Clawed.
    â€œThey don’t know very much.”
    â€œOh,” said Clawed. “Not as much as we do, eh?”
    As I do , said Aviatrix to herself.
    â€œShe’s not too bad,” she said. “What d’you think of him?”
    â€œWho?”

    â€œTitanic.”
    â€œOh, him. Well, he’s a fine figure of an apatosaurus, I must say.”
    And he called me “sir,” he thought. Not a bad start.
    â€œHe’s all right,” he said. “Probably not all that clever, like we are.”
    If Aviatrix had possessed eyebrows, she would have raised them.
    â€œPerhaps you could teach him a thing or two, Clawed,” she said.
    Fat chance , she thought.
    Â 
    Meanwhile, Banty’s parents were talking about the pterodactyls.
    â€œI must tell you, Titanic,” said Gargantua, “that I have changed my mind about little Nosy’s mother and father.”

    â€œHave you, Gargy?” said her husband. “Because they rescued Banty, you mean?”
    â€œOf course. But also because they turned out to be much brighter than I thought they’d be.”
    â€œHe was?” asked Titanic.
    He, too, would have raised his eyebrows if he’d had any.
    â€œWell, perhaps not,” replied Gargantua, “but she seemed quite intelligent.”
    Now, when one set of parents met the other, usually by the lake, it was generally mother who talked to mother, and father to father. Because of the great difference between the two species, these conversations were always conducted in the same way. Each pterodactyl would fly to, and hang from, a branch high enough for each apatosaurus to stretch its very long neck to the
fullest extent. Then each was able to speak to the other, face-to-face, one face, of course, being upside down.
    The mothers talked about all kinds of different things. Their conversations were lively—and filled with long words. It was somewhat different when Clawed met Titanic.

    To begin with, neither male quite liked to look the other in the eye. Their faces may have been close, but Titanic tended to look up into the sky or out to the lake or over to the Great Plain, while Clawed, partly because he was upside down and partly because talking to Titanic
made him feel sleepy, usually stared straight down at the ground. In contrast to the conversations of their mates, theirs were short and pretty dull.
    Clawed would fly in and hang up, and Titanic would make his heavy way to the tree in use and stand beneath it and stretch up his long neck. A typical exchange might be as follows:

    Clawed: Morning.
    Titanic: Good morning, sir. I trust you’re well?
    C: Not too bad.
    Longish pause.
    C: Nice weather.
    T: A trifle hot, I fear, for someone of my size.
    Makes walking tiring. This last word would make Clawed yawn.
    T: How fortunate you are, sir, to have the gift
of flight. How pleasant it must be in the upper air.
    C: Yes.
    T: Your family well?
    C: Yes.
    Longish pause.
    C: Any sign of T. rex?
    T: No, I think he must be on the other side of the Great Plain.
    C: Hope he stays there.
    Short pause.
    T: If you’ll excuse me, sir, I’ll go down to the lake for some waterweed, if I may?
    C: Please do.
    T plods heavily off.
    C goes heavily to sleep.

    These family meetings between the pterodactyls and the apatosauruses suited Nosy and Banty
perfectly. With their parents close by in case of trouble, they could spend time