Aunt Effie and Mrs Grizzle Read Online Free Page B

with their hands over our eyes so we couldn’t see where we were going. They screamed and kicked to make us go faster.
    We had to stop to catch our breath when we came to the Dark Trees. The leaves were so thick it was always night under them. Something rustled, a twig cracked, and a branch creaked against another. “Wheee-eee!” said a tall black shadow.
    We tried to drop the little ones and run, but they hung on tighter. As we bolted screaming out the other side of the Dark Trees, we met Peter and Marie coming back to find us. They took the little ones on their backs. Puffing up Chapmans Hill again, we heard, “Whooo-ooo!” and “Wheee-eee!” and there was another terrible noise. “Whaaa-aaa!”
    “The Boggart!” Marie and Peter tried to drop the little ones who flung their arms so tight around their necks, Peter’s and Marie’s eyes bulged out like ping-pong balls. We shot up Chappies Hill, and didn’t stop running till we got to the boundary of Aunt Effie’s farm.
    “What’s that?” said Bryce, who had good hearing. We stared at him. “I heard something. Like the sound of the Prime Minister’s Zeppelin.”
    “I hope she hasn’t been trying to pinch our treasure and all the gold dollars,” said Isaac.
    “Shhh!” Bryce stood with his head on one side, and we all listened. “I can hear it!” the little ones yelled.
    “I saw something,” said Alwyn. He pointed through the trees. “Something huge, and silver, and taking off.” But since it was Alwyn, nobody took any notice, and even Bryce couldn’t hear anything more. None of us really believed it could have been the Prime Minister’s Zeppelin.
    We climbed the stile and were taking the shortcut when a twisting column of dust, grass, and leaves hummed down the middle of the road: “Whooo-ooo! Wheee-eee! Whaaa-aaa!”
    “That’s your Zeppelin!” Peter told Bryce.
    “I did so hear a Zeppelin!”
    “Whooo-ooo! Wheee-eee! Whaaa-aaa!” the williewaw whizzed round us, making our hair stand on end.
    “They must have followed us!”
    “Now they know where we live!”
    “They’re going away!” We watched the williewaw disappear down the road.
    “I said we should leave the little ones for them to eat,” said Alwyn. That made Casey, Lizzie, Jared, and Jessie start crying again.
    “Peter and I won’t let anyone drink your blood and suck the flesh off your bones,” said Marie and shepherded the little ones over the plank across the ditch by the bull paddock. We ran after her, stamping to make the plank jump up and down so the one behind us would fall off and get wet.
    “Whooo-eee!” went Alwyn, to speed us up, but we stopped when we saw Aunt Effie cleaning the ditch. As she flung the weeds on to the bank, eels flapped and wriggled back into the water.
    The bulls were sitting with their arms folded, watching through the fence. When they saw Alwyn, they jumped to their feet, tossed their horns, and muttered threats.
    “You behave yourselves,” Aunt Effie told them. She climbed out of the ditch and took off her waders. “Don’t just stand looking! We’ll take some of these eels home for our tea.”
    “‘Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters that shall be an abomination unto you,’” Daisy said. “Leviticus, eleven, twelve.” Fortunately for her, Aunt Effie didn’t hear.
    The eels wrapped themselves around our arms and legs and tried to strangle us, while a real whopcacker snarled and tried to hook the little ones on his tusks.
    “Don’t let them drag you into the ditch, Daisy, Mabel, Johnny, Flossie, Lynda, Stan, Howard, Marge, Stuart, Peter, Marie, Colleen, Alwyn, Bryce, Jack, Ann, Jazz, Beck, Jane, Isaac, David, Victor, Casey, Lizzie, Jared, Jess,” Aunt Effie said, “or you’ll be a goner.”

Chapter Seven
    Silver-Bellies, Yellow-Bellies, and “Tarnation!”; Why We All Felt Maori for Waharoa Day; the Pong Under the Woolshed; What the Moko Man Does; and a Groan From Jazz .
    We filled our school bags and Aunt