Earthly Astonishments Read Online Free PDF Page A

each coin, to hold it safely in place. Stitch by tiny stitch, breath by quiet breath, she completed her task.
    Now she was ready. The apples in her pockets bumped gently against her legs as she set off. A wagon clattered by, pulled by an old horse. Josephine stood rigid, afraid to be seen, and then shrank into the shadows. A scraping noise above made her jump. She shook herself. Probably only a squirrel. She mustn’t let the night scare her!
    She headed toward The Philosophers’ Inn, meaning to cross the road before she came too near the abundance of light at its entrance. There was a rowdy cry and a rejoining laugh just before the barking started. She heard more than one dog, suddenly and angrily sprinting in her direction. The doorman at the inn shouted after them, trying to call them back.
    Josephine spun around and jumped into the road, feeling the sharp yapping closing in. She knew the beasts were likely bigger than she was. Then, thundering out of the darkness before her, appeared a horse bus, kicking up grit in all directions.
    For an instant, Josephine froze, trapped betweenattacking dogs and the fast-approaching horses. Then she hurtled toward the darkness and safety on the other side of the road, straight across the path of the oncoming hooves.
    The shriek in her head came out as a hiccup. The horses reared back in confusion, snorting foam. The carriage teetered dangerously before coming to a standstill. The dogs howled and raced back to the shelter of the inn.
    “What the devil was that?” hollered the driver, jumping to the ground in a fury. Passengers were emerging from the sides of the horse bus, examining themselves for bruises.
    “Biggest rat I ever saw!” proclaimed a round man with huge gray whiskers. “Those mutts are lucky it got away instead of staying to fight!”
    Josephine, trembling in the shadows, smiled faintly.
    “All aboard!”
    “Where are you headed, my man?” called someone from the entrance of the inn.
    “Straight down Broadway. All the way to the bottom. Last ride of the night.”
    “Would you hold up an extra minute? I’ve left my hat.”
    The driver cursed and spat, but he waited.
    Josephine took the delay as an omen of good fortune. She had been watching for her chance. She grasped the step at the back end of the bus and heaved herself up. Instead of boarding, however, she kept her head low andslid into position with her hands gripping the platform and her feet wedged on the wheel brace.
    The hatted man took a seat on board. The horses tossed their heads and snickered quietly, quite recovered from their surprise. The driver snapped his whip, and the team lurched into motion. The horse bus, the driver, and the eight passengers within rocked back and forth with every ripple in the road.
    One extra passenger clung on behind with all the strength her tiny arms could muster.

osephine rode the horse bus until her bones were rattled into rice. She finally tumbled from her perch during a stop at the corner of Houston Street. She was shaking from ears to toes and covered in the muck that had been sprayed up by the wheels. Weak in the legs, she hobbled her way to the wall of a store called Murray’s Feed and Grain and sank to the ground amidst the litter of rags and papers. Her blue dress was as dirty as a dust cloth, anyway.
    Close by was a pile of corncobs, leftovers dumped by a sweet corn vendor. A black rat ignored Josephine as he feasted, flicking his whip of a tail.
    Josephine’s mouth and ears and curls were full of grit. Her curls? Her hand clapped the top of her head. Her cap must have flown off during the ride, and the string tying back her hair was gone with it.
    She leaned against the bricks, counting the hours she had been awake. Nearly twenty! No wonder she was wishing for her straw mat. But she couldn’t stop here. She had to keep going until she found Margaret and a safe resting place. She pulled herself up and started to walk, avoiding the debris and staying close to