Eight Days of Luke Read Online Free PDF Page B

where the wall had come down still cemented together. “Come on,” he said. “Don’t look so glum about it.”
    So David, feeling hopeless about it, got up slowly and wandered to the other end of the joined piece of wall. He put his hands to it and found the bricks coming loose as he touched them.
    â€œHeave!” Luke said cheerfully.
    David heaved, not very hard. But he must have heaved harder than he thought, because he managed to raise the whole section. Luke lifted his end, and together they carried a whole chunk of wall, grinding and bending, and laid it down in one piece by the compost heap.
    â€œThere, you see?” said Luke, and went jumping gaily back across the bricks. “Now this bit.”
    In a remarkably short time, they had all the complete sections of wall laid out in order on the gravel. When these were moved, they found there had been a tree growing up against the back of the wall—part of the neat orchard—and the wall had crushed it as it went over. They looked at it, Luke laughing and David glum. Luke shook his head.
    â€œIt’s dead,” said David.
    â€œYes, but we can fake it a bit,” Luke said. “You pull that branch straight.”
    They spread the tree out until it looked the right shape for a tree again. Then Luke lifted it in his arms and thumped the broken trunk into the soft ground until it stood upright. Its leaves were withering and wilting still, but it looked as if it were growing.
    â€œCan’t bring the dead to life, I’m afraid,” said Luke, “but they might think it died from natural causes, with luck.”
    Then they rebuilt the wall. David had never imagined it could be so easy. True, they worked hard and sweat trickled through the dirt on their faces, but they laughed and whistled as well, and the wall grew in leaps and bounds. As they worked, David came to like Luke more and more. He was fun. He made jokes all the time, and no difficulty seemed to dismay him. Some of his jokes were complete nonsense, mostly because he chose to keep up the pretense that David had let him out of prison. “My chains,” he said, as they staggered under the largest section of wall, “were a good hundred times heavier than this.” Then again, when they got to the most difficult part, which was slotting the newly rebuilt wall into the jagged ends of the walls at the sides of the garden, Luke said something odd. David was doing the slotting, while Luke held the wall tilted for him. He could see Luke’s muscles standing out in knots.
    â€œAre you sure you can hold it?” David asked.
    â€œNothing like so heavy as a bowl of venom,” Luke panted cheerfully. David laughed.
    Once the wall was slotted in, they were finished. It was not perfect. The upper courses of bricks wandered up and down a little, and because they had used no cement, there were places where you could look through to the orchard. But it stood solidly. David and Luke were very proud of it.
    â€œNot bad, considering neither of us ever built a wall before,” Luke said. “What shall we do now?”
    David looked at his watch and found it was nearly supper time. “I shall have to go in,” he said mournfully. “They get furious if I’m late.” He was very dejected. He remembered he was in disgrace and about to be sent to Mr. Scrum on Tuesday. It was too bad, now that he had met Luke. “Can you come out after supper?” he asked, thinking he must see as much of Luke as he could while he had the chance.
    â€œOf course,” said Luke. “Whenever you want. Just kindle a flame and I’ll be with you.”
    â€œMeet you here then,” said David.
    â€œAs you like,” said Luke. David turned to go and Luke, laughing, but trying to look solemn, raised one hand like in mock salute. “Farewell, oh my benefactor,” said he.
    â€œOh do shut up about that!” David said, and ran down the