Read Online Selby's Shemozzle by Duncan Ball - Free Book Online Page A

‘Come on, dog, my leg muscles are just starting to work! Keep it up.’
    â€˜She’s loving it,’ Selby thought. ‘I’ll bet Fred never gives her a workout like this. He’s too careful. She needs an uncareful, responsible, intelligent dog like me.’
    As the hill got steeper and steeper, Selby dug his paws into the dirt and scrambled up and up. Around boulders and bushes they went. Selby kept his face towards the ground making sure there was nothing to trip on. Suddenly …
    Clonk!
    â€˜Ooooooh,’ Bertha groaned.
    Selby turned quickly to see the big woman sitting on the ground.
    â€˜Oh, no!’ he thought. ‘A low branch! She clonked her head because I was looking at the ground. This guide dog stuff is trickier than I thought.’
    â€˜A branch,’ Bertha said, reaching out and patting Selby and then getting slowly to her feet. ‘I haven’t clonked my head like that since I went walking in a jungle in Africa. What a trip that was. Brings back old memories. Come on, dog, what are we waiting for?’
    Selby kept going up the hill, but this time he watched for low branches while Bertha lifted her stick in the air to do the same.
    â€˜This is fun,’ Selby thought. ‘I’ll bet she hasn’t had a walk like this since her mountaineering days.’
    On and on, up and up Selby raced with the woman until …
    â€˜Ooooo, uuuuh, woooooo!’
    Selby turned around to find the woman on the ground again.
    â€˜Uh-oh,’ he thought. ‘Where did that rabbit hole come from? Just when I start to look up for branches there are things to look down for, like rabbit holes.’
    Bertha struggled to her feet.
    â€˜A hole,’ she said. ‘That reminds me of the time I fell down a crack in a glacier in South America. Well, leg’s not broken. Everything’s still working. Come on, dog, let’s get a move on while there’s still time in the day. Oh, how I love being out in nature again! This is wonderful!’
    Selby trudged on, and then started down the other side of the hill.
    Suddenly he saw something.
    â€˜The sun,’ he thought. ‘It’s not there anymore. It must have set. If we don’t get back soon, we’re going to be stuck out here after dark.’
    Selby looked around at the trees and fields below.
    â€˜We should go back the way we came, but it’s too late,’ he thought. ‘We’ll have to take a short-cut.’
    Down and down they went till they got to the banks of Bogusville Creek.
    â€˜Oh, no,’ Selby thought, ‘we’re on the wrong side of the creek and the bridge is washed out! The only way across is over the fallen log. I can’t possibly get her over that. But we have to. It’s getting cold and we’ll freeze if we don’t get home.’
    â€˜What’s that? Water?’ Bertha said. ‘Do I hear rushing water? What a wonderful sound. That reminds me of the time I’d been walking for a week along the Oronoco River and I knew I had to get across it or starve to death. And the only way across was over a slippery log.’
    â€˜Well, that’s exactly what we have here,’ Selby thought (he didn’t say it, though, he only thought it).
    Selby walked towards the log and then started across it.
    â€˜I can’t believe I’m doing this!’ he screamed in his brain. ‘And I’m not only doing it but I’m pulling a blind woman with me!’
    Selby and Bertha were about halfway across when the rushing water suddenly moved the log, sending Selby plunging one way into the creek and Bertha the other.
    â€˜I’m going to drown!’ Selby thought. ‘I’ve got to get back on the log.’
    Selby scrambled up onto the log again as he watched Bertha thrashing around in the swirling water.
    â€˜I have to speak now or she’ll drown!’ he thought. And then he said out loud, ‘Hey, lady! Stop struggling