The Magic Meadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

maybe I can find out.”
    By using great care and effort, he managed to stand up as Princess had done and take a few faltering steps. But his longunused legs were too weak to support him, and abruptly he crumpled. Then he saw that Princess was on her hands and knees, crawling. He tried it, and found it fairly easy, except that they both had to stop every few feet and rest.
    The sun was hot on their backs now, and it was a great relief when they finally reached the little spring at the foot of the slope and buried their faces in the cold sweet water. It was the best water Brick had ever tasted.
    Princess said finally, “My, that was good! But I’m afraid I can’t go any farther. I—I’m just too tired.”
    Brick was tired, too, and he was dismayed when he glanced over at the slope ahead. Though it was a gentle slope, carpeted with flowers like the one behind him, he doubted if he could make it to the top. Yet he had to try. Something told him that the most important thing in the world was to reach that building and find out everything he could about it.
    â€œI’ve just got to go on,” he told Princess. “Only, I don’t like to leave you here all alone.”
    â€œOh, but I won’t be alone,” she said happily. “There are thousands of unspeakably wonderful things everywhere around me. I could spend days and days right here, just looking.”
    â€œWell, if anything happens before I get back, all you have to do is think real hard of your bed in Ward Nine, and you’ll be back there in no time.”
    It must have taken him nearly an hour to crawl painfully up to the trees, a comparatively short distance which anyone with good legs could have covered in seconds. The most awkward part was crossing the spring. The ground was too boggy on the right to attempt going around it, but he managed to sort of sprawl and flop to the other side without getting anything wet but the lower parts of his pajamas and his feet.
    Just before entering the trees, he stopped and glanced back at Princess, but she was so absorbed in something in the water that she did not see him. He was very tired now, and if his goal hadn’t been clearly in sight, he might have thought twice about going on. But there it was, just a little way ahead. A low stone building with a thatched roof, and it was built at one corner of what seemed to be a long stockade.
    Sudden excitement rose in him. He forgot his weariness and went scrambling through the trees as fast as he could move. What parts of the world had stone houses with thatched roofs? The only place he could think of was Ireland.
    Ireland?
    He stopped a moment in sheer surprise. Was Ireland far enough around the world to explain the difference in time? And what about the trees? These looked like pictures he’d seen of pines, but they were awfully big, and some of them had slashes in the bark with odd-looking cups fastened to them. Did the Irish have pines like these? But what of the stockade? Somehow he had the idea that the Irish built stone walls instead.
    Could this be Russia—or Siberia? Still, the climate …
    A little chill came over him, and he looked intently at the structure and realized it wasn’t a stockade after all. It was a very high fence made of slender poles placed about a foot apart. In between, near the ground, were short pieces that made the lower part of the fence practically solid. Was it built that way to keep something out—or in?
    As he began crawling forward again, cautiously now, Brick found himself unconsciously listening—listening for some sound that would indicate the presence of people. Instead, he was again impressed by the quiet. Other than the small sounds of birds and insects, it was so very quiet that the sudden chattering of a squirrel overhead gave him a momentary fright. Squirrels, like the brown lizards and yellow butterflies he had already noticed, were creatures he had never seen except