My, I’m glad we have sweaters,” said Henry. “The wind blows harder up here.” He pulled his brown sweater on over his head.
The others put on their sweaters and then they sat down in a row,
“What a view!” said Jessie. They looked out over the valley. They felt as if they were very high up.
Grandfather said, “Benny, you come over and sit by me. I want to talk to you. You know a boy ought to learn a thing the first time he is told. Of course he can learn it the second time and maybe the third time. But he will save a lot of time for himself by learning the first time. I am telling you not to go near the edge, and I shall say nothing more about it. Is that clear?”
Grandfather almost never spoke in that sort of voice.
“Oh, yes indeed!” cried Benny. “I learned that before you got through talking. I don’t like the edge myself.”
Henry looked around at Flat Top. There was a small hump in the middle. “Look at the wavy lines in the rocks,” he said. “White and black and gray. Wouldn’t a geologist find this interesting?”
Everyone looked around. Violet said, “It looks like the waves of the sea.”
Grandfather said, “That is just what they look like, but they are waves of rock. Probably millions of years ago what we are standing on now was covered by the ocean.”
Henry said, “This low mountain may once have been near the ocean floor. It was pushed up to where it is now.”
Benny threw his head back and laughed. He said, “I’ll bet the old dinosaurs paddled around here.”
“Maybe dinosaurs were here when this was a swamp,” said Jessie.
“I wish I had brought my camera,” said Henry.
“Oh, I wish you had,” said Violet.
Mr. Alden was looking at the great stretch of woods below. He said, “I don’t think anyone has ever cut those trees. I’d hate to get lost there.”
Benny looked at his wristwatch. “I hope someone besides me will say it’s time to eat,” he said.
Violet said, “I am willing to be the one.” She patted Benny’s shoulder.
Jessie said, “Let’s sit here and plan what we will do.”
“That’s the housekeeper in you, Jess,” said Henry. “If we are going to cook that hamburger we’ll have to get a fire started. Let’s find the wood.”
Mr. Alden sat still and watched them.
“Well, there are certainly all kinds of wood,” said Benny. “Big and little. And look, there is a kettle and a frying pan.”
“That kettle is for hot water, I think,” said Violet. “Just throw a little coffee in, and there will be Grandfather’s coffee.”
“Freshly made,” said Grandfather.
“Those men at the store thought of everything,” said Benny. “Here’s the fireplace with a back rock to keep off the wind.” He was beyond the little hump.
“Well, I guess we’re all set,” said Henry.
Everybody had a job. The two boys built the fire, for even Benny knew how to start a good fire. The girls made cakes of the hamburger and took out the bacon.
“I think we had better fry the bacon first,” said Jessie, and the girls soon had the crisp slices lying on a paper napkin.
“Where shall we put the grease, Grandfather, when we get through?”
“Give it to me,” said Mr. Alden, “and I will show you. Wait till I get all set.”
Grandfather, without a smile, got down flat on his stomach and crawled slowly to the edge. “Now I’ll take the pan,” he said. Everyone tried not to laugh—Mr. Alden looked so funny. With a straight face, Mr. Alden took the pan and poured the hot fat down the rocky mountainside. He backed slowly until he was far from the edge. Then he said, “That grease went almost straight down for half a mile. That’s why you can’t go down or up except on our trail.”
“Oh, you did look funny,” said Benny. “I could hardly help laughing.”
“Neither could I,” said Mr. Alden. “Now we can laugh all we want.”
Indeed when anyone thought of Grandfather pouring grease straight down the mountain, it was hard to stop laughing at all.
“Now the hamburger,” said Henry. “Just about room for six in this pan.”
Jessie passed him the hamburger cakes. They started at once to give out a delicious smell.
Soon Henry gave the orders, “Get a plate and a bun and a piece of cheese and a paper napkin, and be all ready for your hamburger.”
“We’ll get a bottle of Coke, too,” said Benny,
“Right,” said Henry. “And I will put Grandfather’s black coifee in one of these cups.”
Never did food taste better. They made it last a long time.
“I think this is the first time,” said Jessie, “that we ever had anything left over from a picnic. I couldn’t eat all my hamburger, and neither could Violet. We have five buns and one hamburger left.”
“You will see that I didn’t quite finish my big hamburger either,” said Grandfather.
Benny’s loud voice was heard saying, “Save it—save every crust and every crumb. I have a feeling I might use it later in the day.”
The Alden family picked up all their papers and cups and burned them in the fire. Grandfather said, “Save my coffee, too. I have a feeling I might like it just before we go. We go at exactly four o’clock.”
Violet shook every drop out of an empty Coke bottle. She filled the bottle with coffee.
Henry saw what she was doing. He said, “Just dump the coffee grounds on the rocks. The wind will blow them away.”
“When we go down,” said Benny, “how about letting me go first?”
“All right,” Grandfather agreed, “you lead the way.”
They put the scraps of food in a paper bag and at exactly four o’clock Benny got ready to back down.
Benny said, “The first step will hold both my feet.”
“So will the second one,” said Henry.
Benny reached down carefully with one foot for the first step. He held onto the edge tightly. It was a long way down to the step and he almost wished he had let Grandfather or Henry go first.
“Let me take one of your hands,” Henry said. “Take your time and you’ll be all right.”
Benny swung his other foot down but still kept Henry’s hand. The next step was not quite so steep.
With one foot on the second step Benny was just about to let Henry go. Then with no warning it happened—one moment Benny’s foot was on the step, the next he was reaching wildly for a foothold.
With a noise like thunder the stone step went crashing down the mountain side. As it rolled, it knocked loose stones and boulders in a regular mountain slide.
“Help!” Benny shouted, hanging on to Henry and trying to catch at anything that would not crumble and break loose.
Grandfather threw himself down and grabbed Benny by his free arm. Henry got a better grasp. Jessie took the back of his sweater and the three pulled Benny to the top and safety.
Benny lay perfectly still on his side, breathing hard. “Gramps,” he said, “it will take me three days to get over this.”
Benny had never called his grandfather “Gramps” before, and nobody had ever seen him quite so still. Mr. Alden knelt down to comfort him. He said, “Benny, you put your mind on this. Forget the step. Just think that your life was saved for something special and try to wonder what it is.”
Benny sat up at once. “I was saved, wasn’t I?” he cried. “Maybe I’ll be a mountain climber. Or a scientist.”
Jessie and Violet both looked pale. They knew what a narrow escape Benny had had. The noise of the rocks crashing down, Benny’s shout, the rescue—it had all happened so quickly.
Henry looked around the rocky top of the mountain. He did not want to frighten the girls, but he knew that the only way down was gone. The rocky sides of Old Flat Top gave no spot to get a foothold.
Mr. Alden said, “Now let’s plan what we’ll do. We are safe here, but we’ll be cold. We certainly can’t get down now.”
Henry said, “Won’t the ranger and the man in the store notice when we don’t come down?”
Mr. Alden gave Henry a look. Then he said, “There are a lot of things that they may do. One thing seems sure. We’ll have to spend the night up here. This is the end of the summer and it will be dark soon.”
Henry said, “Perhaps they heard those rocks coming down.”
“Yes,” said Violet. “They crashed like thunder.”
“They probably did hear the noise,” said Mr. Alden. “I don’t think we need to worry, but perhaps we’d better build a fire. They will see it when it gets dark.”
Henry had a feeling that Mr. Alden knew something that the children did not, but he went right to work and everyone helped to build a roaring fire.
Violet’s teeth were chattering. She said, “The f-f-fire f-f-feels good. I didn’t know I was so c-c-cold.”
“That’s because you nearly lost me, Violet,” said Benny. “Haven’t you ever heard of shivering from fright?”
It soon began to get quite dark. Still Grandfather did not seem to be worried. Suddenly they all heard a strange whirring noise.
“It sounds like an airplane,” said Benny. “I’ll bet it’s a helicopter.”
Henry cried, “That’s Grandfather for you! I’ll bet he planned that in case of trouble.” Grandfather smiled.
It was indeed a helicopter. First it went high over the flat top, winked its lights, and then hovered over the family. The pilot had a megaphone.
He called down, “Are you all right?”
Five voices shouted, “Yes!”
“We can’t take you off in the dark,” the pilot called. “We’ll have to wait until morning. But I am going to drop five sleeping bags. Keep your fire going, and we’ll be around in the morning. Now all of you stand behind the hump.”
The whole family did so. Down came five sleeping bags, one by one. The helicopter whirred away.
Jessie said, “I guess they didn’t know that we are short on food. It’s lucky we saved everything from lunch that we did not eat. I wonder if we should eat the leftovers for supper.”
“Maybe we should save our food for the morning,” Violet said. “We might have to wait for quite awhile.”
“Good idea,” agreed Grandfather. “As long as we are warm we can stand being a little hungry.”
Benny added, “I guess I got being hungry scared right out of me—at least for now.”
Grandfather said, “You know the old saying about an ill wind that blows no good.”
“It wasn’t a wind, it was a rock slide,” Benny said.
Mr. Alden said, “We might as well get into these sleeping bags to keep warm.”
When they were all in the sleeping bags they sat in a row.
Benny said, “We’d look funny if there were anyone to see us.”
They all looked down over the dark country. Many lights of the town showed at the left, but not a light at the right.
In a little while Jessie said, “You know, I think I see a faint light in the woods. You don’t suppose anyone is in trouble, do you?”
“I don’t see it,” said Mr. Alden. “Oh yes, I do, too. It’s very faint, but it stays right in one place.”
Benny asked, “How could anyone live in the woods? I wonder what the light is.”
Mr. Alden was glad to have anything interesting to talk about because he knew the night would be long. “When we get down,” he said, “we will find out what the light is. The rangers may know, and if they don’t, we’ll find out anyway.”
The stars came out. They were very bright.
“I don’t really mind going to bed tonight,” said Benny. “I’m in bed.”
Jessie whispered to Henry, “He seems to be all right.”
“Thanks to Grandfather,” whispered Henry. “He certainly said the right thing to Ben.”
Mr. Alden and Henry decided to take turns putting wood on the fire during the night. There was plenty of wood. They all lay down in a row. Benny was on one side of Grandfather, and Violet was on the other.
Benny sounded sleepy as he said, “I’m coming over closer to you, Grandfather, if you don’t mind.”
“Come ahead, my boy,” said Mr. Alden.
“You know, Grandfather,” said Benny, “I must have been seeing things. When that big rock gave way, I thought I saw an enormous hole behind it.”
“Maybe you really did see a hole,” said Grandfather. “I have heard of holes in mountains.”
But by this time, Benny was asleep.
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