The Borrowers Afield Read Online Free PDF Page B

grumbled Pod, glancing sideways at this massive tome as he laid out his own belongings. For the same reason, Arrietty thought to herself as she glanced at Pod's unpacking, that you brought along your shoemaker's needle, your hammer made from an electric bell-clapper, and a stout ball of twine: each to his hobby and the tools of the craft he loves (and hers she felt to be literature).
    Besides his shoemaking equipment, Pod had brought the half nail scissor, a thin sliver of razor blade, ditto of child's fret-saw, an aspirin bottle with screw lid filled with water, a small twist of fuse wire and two steel hat pins, the shorter of which he gave to Homily. "It'll help you up the hill," he told her. "We may have a bit of a climb."
    Homily had brought her knitting needles, the rest of the raveled sock, three pieces of lump sugar, the finger of a lady's kid glove filled with salt and pepper mixed, tied up at the neck with cotton, some broken pieces of digestive biscuit, a small tin box made for phonograph needles which now contained dry tea, a chip of soap and her hair curlers.
    Pod gazed glumly at the curious collection. "Like as not we brought the wrong things," he said, "but it can't be helped now. Better pack 'em up again," he went on, suiting the action to the word, "and let's get going. Good idea of yours, Arrietty, the way you fitted together them tin lids. Not sure, though, we couldn't have done with a couple more..."
    "We've only got to get to the badger's set," Arrietty excused herself. "I mean Aunt Lupy will have most things, won't she—like cooking utensils and such?"
    "I don't know anyone as couldn't do with a few more," remarked Homily, stuffing in the remains of the sock and lashing up the neck of her bag with a length of blue embroidery silk, "especially when they live in a badger's set. And who's to say your Aunt Lupy's there at all?" she went on. "I thought she got lost or something, crossing them fields out walking."
    "Well, she may be found again by now," said Pod. "Over a year ago, wasn't it, when she set out walking?"
    "And anyway," Arrietty pointed out, "she wouldn't go walking with the cooking pots."
    "I never could see," said Homily, standing up and trying out the weight of her bag, "no never will, no matter what nobody tells me, what your Uncle Hendreary saw fit to marry in a stuck-up thing like that Lupy."
 
    "That's enough," said Pod. "We don't want none of that now."
    He stood up and slung his borrowing-bag on his steel hat pin, swinging it over his shoulder. "Now," he asked, looking them up and down, "sure you're both all right?"
    "Not that, when put to it," persisted Homily, "she isn't good-hearted at bottom but it's the kind of way she does it..."
    "What about your boots?" asked Pod. "They quite comfortable?"
    "Yes," said Homily. "For the moment," she added.
    "What about you, Arrietty?"
    "I'm all right," said Arrietty.
    "Because," said Pod, "it's going to be a long pull. We're going to take it steady. No need to rush. But we don't want no stopping. Nor no grumbling. Understand?"
    "Yes," said Arrietty.
    "And keep your eyes skinned," Pod went on as they all moved off along the path. "If you see anything, do as I do—and sharp, mind. We don't want no running every which way. We don't want no screaming."
    "I know," said Arrietty irritably, adjusting her pack: she moved ahead as though trying to get out of earshot.
    "You think you know," called Pod after her. "But you don't know nothing really: you don't know nothing about cover, nor does your mother: cover's a trained job, and art—like—"
    "I know," repeated Arrietty. "You told me." She glanced sideways into the shadowy depths of the brambles beside the path. She saw a great spider, hanging in space. His web was invisible: he seemed to be staring at her—she saw his eyes. Defiantly, Arrietty stared back.
    "You can't tell no one in five minutes," persisted Pod, "things you got to learn from experience. What I told you, my girl, that day I took you