The Dragon Tree Read Online Free PDF

doubtfully, “You mean he can’t do anything to hurt
our half
of the tree.”
    Eddy too wasn’t satisfied. “So what if he cuts the whole thing down? You know, like the whole damn tree?” Eddy leaned far out over the porchrailing and stared balefully at the house next door. “I don’t trust him. He’ll be out there some night with his chain saw. He’ll cut the tree down in thirty seconds and leave nothing but a stump. You know, just the way he did in his own backyard.”
    “Remember, Eddy,” said Aunt Alex softly, touching his shoulder, “you mustn’t snoop.”
    “But he may be right,” said Uncle Fred. “I’m reminded of the saints of old. Killing a saint wasn’t easy. If you stuck them full of arrows, they refused to die. If you threw them in the river, they just kept bobbing up. But if you chopped off their heads”— Uncle Fred swept a finger across his throat—“it never failed.”
    Georgie shuddered. She didn’t say anything, but she made up her mind to keep watch on the tree every hour of the day for weeks if necessary. For months, for years!
    Inside the house, in the dim light of the lamp in the hand of the metal lady on the staircase, Aunt Alex missed Georgie. Looking around, she saw only Eddy and Uncle Freddy in the kitchen. Where was Georgie?
    Aunt Alex hurried back outside and called, “Georgie, where are you?”
    She found her sitting on the grass, leaning against the tree. “Georgie, dear,” said Aunt Alex, “aren’t you coming in?”
    “No,” said Georgie.
    “But, Georgie, it’s getting dark. Please, dear, come in.”
    “No,” said Georgie. “I have to keep watch.”
    “Oh,” said Aunt Alex. She said nothing else for a minute, because it was clear what was happening. It had happened before, when Georgie had set out on the highway to walk all the way to Washington. Most of the time she was quiet and obedient, but when she made up her mind about something important, she became a force of nature, just the way Uncle Fred said.
    It was nine o’clock. The sun was at last going down behind the rooftops of the houses along Everett Street, but the top of the tree still shone with rosy light and rustled as if chuckling at some leafy joke.
    “All right, Georgie, dear,” said Aunt Alex, sitting down beside her on the grass. “Okay if I join you?”

16
THE LURKING OF MORTIMER MOON
    A FTER A WHILE U NCLE Fred and Eddy came out with lawn chairs.
    “Oh, good,” said Aunt Alex, sitting down on one of them gratefully.
    Georgie sat down too, and so did Uncle Fred and Eddy. For a minute they sat quietly, their faces looming out of the deepening shadow under the tree.
    Then Uncle Fred leaned forward and explained it to Georgie. “The trouble is, my dear, there aren’t enough of us. We can’t keep an eye on the tree every hour of the day.”
    Georgie said nothing, but even in the dark the faint blob of her face looked stubborn.
    Then the darkness vanished in a blinding light from next door. It flashed in their faces, like a staring eye.
    “He’s watching,” said Aunt Alex, turning her head away.
    “Lurking,” muttered Uncle Fred angrily.
    “Spying on us,” growled Eddy.
    Then the glare from Mr. Moon’s powerful flashlight blinked off and an even more powerful light shone from a different direction. This time it was the full moon, lifting suddenly over the roof like a balloon. Radiance flooded the tree, and the leaves glimmered like mirrors.
    There were other lights too: sparks moving here and there in the dark.
    “Fireflies,” murmured Georgie.
    Then another spark kindled in Eddy’s head. “Well, okay, Georgie,” he said. “Our hero has figured it out. I know what to do.”
    “What?” whispered Georgie.
    “Organize.”
    There was a shocked silence, and then Uncle Fred said, “Organize! You don’t mean Oliver and Frieda and all the rest?”
    “Well, naturally,” said Eddy.
    “Of course,” said Georgie.
    “Good heavens,” said Aunt Alex.
    “My God,” said Uncle