Tree Girl Read Online Free PDF

I’ve told ye tenthousand times what could happen in there. Do ye thinks I want to come home someday and find yer carcass in a tree?”
    “No, no.” A sob bubbled up from her throat. “I don’t…I mean, it’s not—”
    “Hush! Ye fool-brained girl, ye’ll be me own death, too.” He grabbed a handful of sand and threw it at her. “Now get back inside where ye belong!”
    Anna stumbled, sobbing, back to the cottage. She’d ruined everything. Everything!
    She slammed the door hard. The cottage now seemed so bare, so empty. For it lacked what she so much wanted.
    And what was so wrong about wanting a friend? The master didn’t understand. Didn’t care! She knew now that the master could never really be her friend. But that didn’t have to stop her from finding someone else.
    She wiped her cheeks with clenched fists. “I’m going to find that bear again,” she declared. “Aye, wherever I must look! Back to the glade. Or the trees beyond. Or even…”
    She glanced over her shoulder at the open window. “The High Willow.”

Chapter 7
    T HE MASTER STAYED HOME the next few days, finishing his boat. Though he often grumbled at the slapping sea, he said not a barnacle’s worth to Anna. Even so, he kept a close eye on her. And she did nothing to make him suspect her plans.
    Finally, on a morning when gulls and cormorants called to the rising sun, he went to sea again. Anna thought about helping him by holding the boat steady while he loaded all his gear. But her sandals were still missing and there were lots of urchins in the shallows. And besides, she just didn’t feel like helping.
    So she just watched, her feet planted on the sand, as he shoved off. Eagle’s own feet drummed against her shoulder.
    “Mind ye, girl,” the old man called out to her. “Stay out o’ those woods! Do ye hear?”
    Anna nodded. She heard.
    He started to heave the oars. She watched himpull away. And watched as, minutes later, he vanished over the horizon.
    She waited another moment. Then she turned and strode up the beach to the row of brambles at the forest’s edge. She paused for a last look back. The branches of Old Burl stirred as if to wave good-bye.
    “I’ll be back, old friend. Don’t worry.” But she felt a strange lump in her throat as she said the words.
    She stepped over the brambles—and into the forest world. Her feet crunched on dried needles here, sank into soft moss there. “Oh, Eagle, smell! It’s so different in here.”
    The bird, standing on her shoulder like a soldier on guard, just squeezed her skin with his feet.
    Meanwhile, new smells flowed over them like an invisible tide. The air was sharp and sweet and musty all at once. Spots of light danced on the branches, side by side with glittering leaves. Anna felt an urge to dance herself…yet she couldn’t forget all the master’s warnings.
    Alert. That’s what she had to be. Aye, alert and careful.
    She noticed then something strange. The forestseemed quieter than before. No branches rustled, no squirrels chattered. No birds whistled at the sparrow on her shoulder. And she had the uncomfortable feeling she was being watched. By someone she couldn’t see.
    “What is it, Eagle? Do you feel it?”
    The bird shifted his weight uneasily.
    At last, they approached the glade. There was the great beech tree. And the meadow of flowers, even more colorful than before.
    She paused under a twisted pine. Where would be the best spot to wait for the bear? Over there in the cavern of the beech? She chewed her lip. And what should she do if the cub didn’t come back to the glade? Despite her vow to find him, she didn’t feel ready to go any deeper into the forest. Not yet, anyway.
    Thunk!
A pinecone dropped on her head, glancing off the brim of her bonnet.
    Eagle screeched at the tree, as Anna peered into the thick branches above. She picked up the cone and hefted it in her hand. “Just a little welcome from this old tree,” she told the bird. “Probably a