The Wouldbegoods by E. (Edith) Nesbit
page 80 of 319 (25%)
page 80 of 319 (25%)
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Alice got all right there; because you cannot think much about ghosts and nonsense when the sun is shining bang down on you at four o'clock in the afternoon, and you can see red farm-roofs between the trees, and the safe white roads, with people in carts like black ants crawling. It was very jolly, but we felt we ought to be getting back, because tea is at five, and we could not hope to find lifts both ways. So we started to go down. Dicky went first, then Oswald, then Alice--and H. O. had just stumbled over the top step and saved himself by Alice's back, which nearly upset Oswald and Dicky, when the hearts of all stood still, and then went on by leaps and bounds, like the good work in missionary magazines. For, down below us, in the tower where the man whose beard grew down to his toes after he was dead was buried, there was a noise--a loud noise. And it was like a door being banged and bolts fastened. We tumbled over each other to get back into the open sunshine on the top of the tower, and Alice's hand got jammed between the edge of the doorway and H. O.'s boot; it was bruised black and blue, and another part bled, but she did not notice it till long after. We looked at each other, and Oswald said in a firm voice (at least, I hope it was)-- 'What was that?' |
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