Read Online The Painted Ponies of Partequineus and The Summer of the Kittens by Peter H. Riddle - Free Book Online Page A

in a puff of purple smoke.
    â€œHer mother and father will be so glad to see her,” Vanessa said.
    â€œOf course they will,” Aaron said, “but they won’t know where she’s been. Where Janie is now, it’s still two hundred years ago.”
    â€œI’m going right now,” Evan announced, and took three steps backward and disappeared.
    â€œMe, too,” Alyssa said. One by one the children vanished, going back to their interrupted lives, until only Vanessa and Alexander were left.
    â€œYou saved us,” Alexander told her. “If not for you, we would never have figured out how to defeat the dragon.”
    â€œI think you would,” Vanessa said, “sooner or later. But I’m glad I could help.”
    â€œWill you ever come back to Partequineus?” he asked.
    â€œI don’t know. Not right away, anyway. It will be nice to have my life settle down for a while.”
    â€œI feel the same way. Let’s go. But you’ll have to help me.”
    â€œIt will be my pleasure.”
    Alexander leaned on her shoulder, and she put one arm around his waist. “Count with me,” he said.
    â€œGoodbye, Partequineus!” Vanessa shouted. She helped Alexander to hop backwards on his one good leg. “One! Two! THREE!”

TWENTY-FIVE
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    Vanessa was just eleven years old. She was sure of that now, because the world was back to normal. In fact, she wasn’t absolutely sure that her adventures in Partequineus hadn’t simply taken place in her imagination.
    Two weeks had passed, and Vanessa sat in Mr. Carson’s English class during reading period. She was just finishing the last chapter of The Abandoned . After her visit to that strange, bright land of her dreams, Paul Gallico’s fantasy about a boy who thought he was a cat no longer seemed so odd and extraordinary to her.
    She looked up as she heard the classroom door open, and Mrs. Watkins, the principal, walked in.
    â€œWe have a new student joining us today,” Mrs. Watkins announced. “He just moved here to our town. I hope you’ll all make him feel welcome.”
    She stepped aside so everyone could see the handsome boy who stood in the doorway. “His name is Alexander,” she said, “and he’s had a little accident. He’ll need your help to get around until the cast on his leg comes off.”
    Vanessa grinned at the newcomer, at his crutches, and at his oh, so familiar face. Alexander grinned back at her. It was all real , she thought to herself. I can never tell anyone else what happened, but Alexander knows. And I just know we’ll be friends forever.

 
    The Summer of
    the Kittens

Dedication
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    The Summer of the Kittens honours two very important people in my life. I chose the young narrator’s name in loving memory of my maternal grandmother, Hanna M. Hulse, gone from this earth since 1966, but still very much alive in my memories and so often in my dreams. And the story is especially for our son Kendrick, keeper of tadpoles, nurturer of cats and hamsters and guinea pigs, and rescuer of birds and mice and baby skunks. Francis of Assisi would have been as proud of him as I am.
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    Acknowledgements
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    Shelley Hustins, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, was kind enough to offer her guidance and expertise concerning the care of orphaned kittens, for which I am deeply in her debt. I also owe a special vote of thanks to Taffy, our tiny bottle-fed kitten, who slept warm and cuddly on my lap and kept me company as I edited this manuscript. And I will be forever grateful to Joanne Hudson, who cared for Taffy so lovingly after he lost his mother when just four days old.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
    Edmund Burke
    Â 
    Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.
    Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt
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    â€œ Try to Remember” (The Fantasticks)

 
    MY VERY OWN DIARY
    Hanna McCormick
    Wolfville,