The Big Snapper Read Online Free

accompanied by a rumbling sound. The rumbling turned to moaning and something like a groan. It sounded like someone, or something, was in pain. After following the sound, they broke through the woods into a clearing. Before them—right where Spirit Lake is now, lay a blue whale.”
    â€œWere they seeing things?” Eddie asked.
    â€œOh, no. It was a blue whale, all right. He’d been dropped by the tidal wave. Well, you can imagine the size of the depression one hundred tons of whale falling from the sky would leave. It was filled with water, but only just enough to have kept the whale alive. Great-great grandfather knew they’d have to do something quickly if the whale was to survive.
    â€œSo, the first thing he did was organize the children of the village to pass buckets of water up the hill to keep the whale damp. He then had the women sew hides together, working bythe fire through the night, while the men cut a path from the top of the hill to the sea.
    â€œAll night, the whale continued to thrash around and the depression became quite a crater. By the next morning, everything was in place. It was a good thing too, because the whale was growing very weak. The men carried the hides the women had sewn to the top of the hill like a giant bolt of carpet. They rolled it down the path to the sea. Some of the people threw buckets of water over the hides while others dug next to the crater until the water began to flow. All at once, the whale came along with it. He slipped down that giant waterslide right back into the ocean while everyone cheered.”
    â€œWas this the path he slid along?” Eddie asked.
    Granddad had said it was the very one. “Of course,” he’d added, “it’s grown over since then. You’d never be able to get a blue whale down it now. And the rain has filled the crater which you now know as Spirit Lake.”
    Becky is looking at Eddie. He realizes she has said something, and she’s waiting for an answer.
    â€œSorry, what?”

    Becky groans. “I asked you what’s down that path?” Without waiting for an answer, she bounces from the log and starts to follow it. Eddie cannot resist any longer, and he joins Jake on the raft just as he is about to shove off. Spirit Lake is not a large lake and from any point they can see Becky moving through the trees where she follows the path encircling it.
    Eddie and Jake push past the sunken cedars with long poles, headed toward the deeper water in the middle of the lake. They are leaning over the raft, their poles deep in the water, when a scream from Becky just about sends them overboard. They quickly scan the shore, but cannot see her.
    â€œA mountain cat,” Jake breathes.
    Using their hands as paddles, and plunging their poles in the water, they furiously splash their way back to shore. They jump off where the water is knee deep, soaking their shoes and pants. Armed with their poles, Jake, followed closely by Eddie, climbs frantically back up to the path through the gooseberries, ignoring the scratches on his arms and face, intent on fending off a snarling cougar. After racing down the path, the boys run into Becky. She is juststraightening up, brushing dirt from her knees and whimpering over a tear in her shorts.
    â€œThat root!” she sobs, pointing accusingly at a twisted old root protruding from the path. “It tripped me.”
    Jake and Eddie, dripping and breathless, glance at the innocent-looking root. In confusion, they look at each other.
    â€œWell, someone should take better care of this path. It’s hazardous. It’s lucky I wasn’t hurt.” Becky turns and starts toward the main path leading down the hill.
    â€œIt could still happen,” Jake growls, glaring after her.
    Dragging their poles behind them, the boys return to the raft. After pulling it higher into the woods so it is safe between the trees, they follow Becky.
    It is much easier climbing down