The Magic Meadow Read Online Free PDF

grimy buildings of the city had bounded their world and had shut out all horizons. This was the first sunrise they had ever seen.
    â€œBoy!” he said finally. “Boy o’ boy! I sure never dreamed it could look like that!”
    Without realizing what he’d done, he found he’d somehow managed to sit upright. Though it was tiring, it raised his eye level well above the grass, and he was able to see everything he had missed before. He braced himself with his arms and peered curiously about, filled with the wonder of a world that was so different from all he had ever known.
    They were on the edge of a bowl-shaped meadow tucked between low, forested hills. Immediately on the left, he could make out the tiny stream he had been hearing. It went tumbling down through a carpet of dandelions and other flowers to the foot of the opposite hill, where it was joined by another small spring flowing in from the right. After the first careful glance about him, his attention went quickly to the spot where he had briefly glimpsed something on his first visit.
    At the moment, he could make out nothing. It was too early, and the misty woods on the other hill were still deep in shadow. As he squinted at the trees, trying vainly to see through them, the mounting sun brightened the distant edge of the meadow on the left and outlined three animals grazing there. One was a great black horse with a long mane. Near it were two deer—a slender doe with a fawn.
    He glanced eagerly at Princess, and found that she, too, had managed to sit up and was looking with wide-eyed fascination at the animals.
    â€œThey’re so beautiful! ” she whispered breathlessly. “Oh, I wish I could go over and pet them. I believe I could if I tried.”
    He was astounded when Princess actually got to her feet and took several faltering steps down the slope. Then she collapsed.
    He crawled over to her. “Are—are you all right?”
    For a few seconds she seemed unable to speak. Then she stammered, “D-did you see me? I walked! I actually walked! ”
    â€œYou sure did! I’ll bet everybody can do it if we can just get ’em over here.”
    â€œMaybe we ought to go back and get them,” she suggested happily. “Shall we?”
    â€œNot yet. We’d better find out all we can about this place while we’re here.”
    He glanced in the direction of the animals, and was almost relieved to see them moving away downstream. The deer were probably safe enough, but the horse wasn’t exactly his idea of Black Beauty. The huge creature impressed him as being absolutely wild.
    Again his attention went to the woods on the other side of the meadow. The mist was clearing under the warm sun, and now he could trace a vague shape back in the shadows.
    â€œLook!” he said, pointing. “That’s what I saw the first time I came here. That long dark thing—it looks like it’s on the other side of the trees. What is it?”
    â€œI see it,” Princess said in a low voice. “I believe it’s a house.”
    â€œIf it’s a house, it’s sure got a funny shape. It stretches ’way off to the left.”
    â€œBrick, that’s a fence on the left.”
    â€œIt’s doggone high for a fence. It’s more like a stockade. You know, the kind we’re always seeing around a fort in one of those westerns on TV.”
    â€œOh, Brick, maybe it is a fort with a stockade! Wouldn’t it just boggle you to find we were actually ’way out West somewhere, with Indians and cowboys and settlers and soldiers—”
    â€œYeah,” he muttered. “It sure would, because it’s impossible. Don’t you realize that’s all Hollywood make-believe? This is for real.”
    â€œThen where are we?”
    He shrugged. “That’s what really boggles me. I can’t figure it. But if I can get over to that house or fort, or whatever it is yonder,