The Borrowers Afloat Read Online Free PDF

had become a little better for Pod lately: he had filed down the rusted needle and was back at his cobbling. Hendreary had brought him the skin of a weasel, one of those nailed up by the gamekeeper to dry on the outhouse door, and he was making them all new shoes. This pleased Lupy very much, and she had become a little less bossy.
    "Where's Arrietty?" asked Homily one evening.
    "Downstairs, I shouldn't wonder," said Pod.
    "What does she do downstairs?"
    "Tells Timmus a story and puts him to bed."
    "I know that," said Homily, "but why does she stay so long? I'd nearly dropped off last night when we heard her come up the laths...."
    "I suppose they get talking," said Pod.
    Homily was silent a moment and then she said, "I don't feel easy. I've got my feeling...." This was the feeling borrowers get when human beings are near; with Homily it started at the knees.
    Pod glanced up toward the floorboards above them from whence came a haze of candlelight. "It's the old man going to bed."
    "No," said Homily, getting up. "I'm used to that. We hear that every night." She began to walk about. "I think," she said at last, "that I'll just pop downstairs...."
    "What for?" asked Pod.
    "To see if she's there."
    "It's late," said Pod.
    "All the more reason," said Homily.
    "Where else would she be?" asked Pod.
    "I don't know, Pod. I've got my feeling and I've had it once or twice lately," she said.
    Homily had grown more used to the laths: she had become more agile, even in the dark. But tonight it was very dark indeed. When she reached the landing below, she felt a sense of yawning space and a kind of draft from the depth, which eddied hollowly around her: feeling her way to the drawing-room door, she kept well back from the edge of the platform.
    The drawing room, too, was strangely dark and so was the kitchen beyond: there was a faint glow from the keyhole fire and a rhythmic sound of breathing.
    "Arrietty?" she called softly from the doorway, just above a whisper.
    Hendreary gave a snort and mumbled in his sleep: she heard him turning over.
    "Arrietty..." whispered Homily again.
    "What's that?" cried Lupy, suddenly and sharply.
    "It's me ... Homily."
    "What do you want? We were all asleep. Hendreary's had a hard day...."
    "Nothing," faltered Homily, "it's all right. I was looking for Arrietty...
    "Arrietty went upstairs hours ago," said Lupy.
    "Oh," said Homily, and was silent a moment: the air was full of breathing. "All right," she said at last, "thank you ... I'm sorry..."
    "And shut the drawing-room door onto the landing as you go out. There's a howling draft," said Lupy.
    As she felt her way back across the cluttered room, Homily saw a faint light ahead, a dim reflection from the landing. Could it come from above, she wondered, where Pod, two rooms away, was stitching? Yet it had not been there before....
    Fearfully she stepped out on the platform. The glow, she realized, did not come from above but from somewhere far below. The matchstick ladder was still in place, and she saw the top rungs quiver. After a moment's pause she summoned up the courage to peer over. Her startled eyes met those of Arrietty, who was climbing up the ladder and had nearly reached the top. Far below Homily could see the Gothic shape of the hole in the skirting: it seemed a blaze of light.
    "Arrietty!" she gasped.
    Arrietty did not speak. She climbed off the last rung of the ladder, put her finger to her lips, and whispered. "I've got to draw it up. Move back." And Homily, as though in a trance, moved out of the way as Arrietty drew the ladder up rung over rung until it teetered above her into the darkness, and then, trembling a little with the effort, she eased it along and laid it against the laths.
    "Well—" began Homily in a sort of gasp. In the half-light from below they could see each other's faces: Homily's aghast with her mouth hanging open; Arrietty's grave, her finger to her lips. "One minute," she whispered and went back to the edge. "All right," she