Read Online Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R. Brooks - Free Book Online Page B

handfuls of hair and pulled them right out, which was his way of expressing amazement. He even forgot to correct her grammar. But Kate took Jack back to the house and gave him a leg of venison and two roast partridges and a big dish of potatoes and gravy. In fact, she gave him everything there was in the ice-box, so that all Pete got for supper that night was four ginger-snaps and a bowl of corn flakes with a little sugar on them.
    But after supper she said: “Pete, we got to get them children back.”
    Pete had his grammar open and was reading the “Rules Governing the Use of the Subjunctive.” He held the book in one hand while the fingers of the other felt round the inside of the bowl to pick out the last crumbs of corn flakes. “Those,” he said absently, and went on reading.
    Kate pulled the book away from him. “Listen to me,” she said. “We got to follow them children. Tomorrow’ll be too late.”
    â€œWe can’t follow them tonight,” said Pete. “We can’t see the trail.”
    â€œWe don’t need to see it,” she replied. “What’s this dog for, I’d like to know? Let him smell one of Everett’s shoes; he’ll follow ’em all right.”
    â€œH’m, that’s an idea,” said Pete. “They can’t have got far. And maybe we can find the cow, too.”
    â€œWe’ve got to find all of ’em,” said Kate. “With the children to do the work, and the cow to give milk and cream and butter, we’ll be settin’ pretty. But we’ll set mighty uncomfortable if we don’t find ’em.”
    â€œSit,” said Pete. But the idea of having a little milk on his corn flakes occasionally was pleasant, so he got up and lit a lantern while Kate went after one of Everett’s shoes.
    As soon as Jack had smelt the shoe, he started off, nose to ground, like a bloodhound. Kate and Pete were delighted. They wouldn’t have been so happy if they had known that they were being led in exactly the opposite direction from the one the children had taken. Jack had intended to make the chase as difficult as possible for them—to lead them through swamps and briers and up steep hills; but he was kind-hearted, like most dogs, and after they had fed him and treated him so well, he couldn’t bear to be meaner than he had to. So after they had followed him steadily for two hours, he decided to put an end to the game and get back to his friends.
    They were going along the side of a hill when he noticed by the light of Pete’s lantern a heap of big boulders and under them a hole that might have been the mouth of a cave. He gave a sharp yelp, as if the scent was getting very hot, and dashed off towards the opening; then he stopped a yard or two short of it, barking short eager barks, as if he knew the children were inside.
    But to his surprise and disappointment neither Pete nor Kate showed any desire to go into the cave. He had hoped that they would, and then he could run away and rejoin his friends. There was a queer smell about the cave, too, now that he was close to it—a strong smell that he had never smelt before. He went a little nearer to investigate, and then gave a sharp yelp of surprise, for out of the hole came lumbering a huge black shape with long white teeth in a snarling mouth and eyes that glowed red in the lantern-light.
    Right there Jack decided that he had done enough for one evening, and he turned round and started home. His first jump took him three yards past his companions, who were both trying to climb the same tree, and his second jump took him over the branches of a fallen hemlock, and his third jump scared into fits an old grandfather rabbit who had come out to forage for a late supper, and who reached home trembling and shaking an hour later and took to his bed for three weeks. By his fourth jump Jack had got into his stride, and he raced on over fallen trees and