Archie and the North Wind Read Online Free Page B

trapped in there and it cannot get out. And they tell me it knows everything, no matter what you want to know, if you go up there,’ she says, ‘and look for a wee hole.’
    And Jack says, ‘If there’s a hole why can he not get out?’
    ‘No, no, no,’ she says, ‘I’ve never seen the wind. Don’t you know that it can’t come up through a wee hole? Just look for a hole,’ she says, ‘and put your mouth to the hole and shout down into it.’
    So Jack goes and he climbs and he climbs and he climbs and he climbs this mountain. And it was some mountain. And he’s looking all over and all over. It’s a long time before he spots this wee hole.
    He says, ‘I wonder if that’s the hole she’s speaking about?’ So he put his mouth to the hole and he shouts down, ‘Wind, are you there?’
    ‘Ooooooooooooo.’
    He says, ‘Well, listen, please. I’m looking for my wee sister that was stolen by a white bull years ago. And I’ve been tramping and walking and swimming and rowing all over the world trying to find her. And I’m really exhausted, Wind. Please tell me what happened to her.’
    Then he put his ear to the hole, you see.
    And he heard this:
    ‘Oooooooooooooooo.’
    ‘What are you saying? I can’t make you out,’ he says. ‘Try and speak a wee bit clearer.’
    But all he could get was ‘Oooo the Coo!’
    He says, ‘It sounds like “Follow the coo.” Is it “Follow the coo?”’
    And he put his ear again to the hole. But there was no answer.
    ‘Ah,’ he says, ‘I’m off my head to listen to that silly old woman to take that road up this huge mountain and that silly wind that doesn’t know anything. All I could make out was “Follow the coo, follow the coo.”’ He says to himself, ‘What coo isn’t he speaking about?’ So he trudged down the mountain again. Hours and hours and hours it took him to trudge down. But when he got to the bottom, sure enough there was a cow. And this cow started to walk on. It was a-standin grazing when he came down. But it started to walk away, you see.
    So Jack says, ‘Well, no harm done,’ he says. ‘I’ll follow it anyway. I’m sure that’s what that wind was saying: “Follow the coo.”’
    So he walked after this cow and he walked after this cow for about two days. Till this cow stopped to eat the grass again, you see. And it ate away and it ate away and he’s standing looking at it and going round about it. And then the cow sat down and stared chewing the cud. And Jack he sat down too beside it, you see. And suddenly he heard this voice saying, ‘You might go and get me a drink of water.’ And he looked round. This was the cow speaking to him.
    ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘you can speak.’
    ‘Of course I can speak,’ she says. ‘Go and look over there,’ she says. ‘There must be water beside those rushes and things over there.’
    He says, ‘I could do with a drink myself.’ So over he goes. And he’s looking about for something to carry water in, you see. And he’s kicking away the grass. And he takes his sword and he’s cutting down these rushes and things when this head comes, this huge beast, like a dragon, a great big mouthful of teeth. And he jumps back, terrified. And looking past in a cave – this dragon was in a cave – he sees this girl at the back of it.
    And he says, ‘My sister! I’ll bet it’s my sister!’ But he’s too terrified to stand and look too much. And he goes back to the cow and says, ‘Oh no, no, no, you’ll get no drink of water here, neither me nor you. There’s a beast there and I never saw the like of him in my life,’ he says. ‘I’ve heard about dragons and that’s what it must be.’
    ‘Well,’ the cow says, ‘you’re a big young man with a sword in your hand. Are you afraid of a beast?’
    ‘You never saw the beast,’ he says. ‘It’s forty times the size of you.’
    ‘Away you go,’ she says, ‘Go on,’ she says, ‘laddie, go and kill the beast.’
    ‘Kill the beast?’ he says.