Prev | Current Page 157 | Next

Smith, Jewell Ellen, 1915-1998

"Great Jehoshaphat and Gully Dirt"


How long I'd been going, or how far, I couldn't tell. My legs
were hurting, but I was afraid to stop. Mister Ward would catch
up with me! So I went stumbling on-falling, getting up, falling
again. I was beginning to shiver, and I noticed for the first
time that my cloak was wet all over and that my hair had come
unbraided and was stringing down. It kept getting caught on limbs
and vines, and I kept bumping into saplings. Every time I fell I
wished I could just stay down and go to sleep, but I never did
fall in a place fit for sleeping. Then I saw what looked like a
wide strip of white sand. I could lie down on the sand and sleep.
But it wasn't sand. It was a road!
Once out of the thick woods, I could see a little better. In
the dim, shadowy part of the evening, when the sun has gone down
and the stars haven't yet come out, it's hard to see anything. I
started trying to run again, this time up the middle of the
winding road that stretched in front of me like a wide, silver
ribbon lost out of some lady's sewing basket.


Pages:
145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169