Aunt Effie's Ark (3 page)

“Hooray!” Everyone but Daisy cheered Mr Jones when he closed the school just after opening it on the first day of winter. The little ones clapped their hands and broke the icicles off their noses. Then they cried
because
they hadn't learned how to read. Tears ran down their noses and formed icicles again.

Mr Brunton, the driver, put the horses into the school waggon to take home the kids who came from out Wardville, and down the pa, and up the boohai, and out the back of beyond, and away in the wop-wops. Peter and Marie were the cocoa monitors. They heated a bucketful on the stove for the waggon kids because they had a cold ride ahead of them.

Mr Brunton took what was left of the gunpowder we'd made in Science that morning and loaded two enormous horse pistols with a handful of barbed wire, and some dubs and steelies he'd cheated off us at marbles. “In case of wild beasts coming down from the Vast Untrodden Ureweras,” he said. “I don't mind them eating a kid or two off the back of the waggon.”
He rolled his eyes at us. “But I don't want them eating me or me horses.”

“Oh!” said Daisy. “Grammar!” And she sat down in a fluster.

“Mr Brunton's only teasing,' Alwyn told her, but Daisy enjoyed having a good fluster. “Oh,” she said and held her breath till only the whites of her eyes showed.

Mr Jones gave us a leg-up on to Hubert. “I won't lock the door,” he shouted, “and I'll keep the stove going all winter in case anyone gets lost in the snow and wants to come inside and get warm.

“I'll just call the roll to see you're all here.
Daisy-Peter
-Marie-Colleen-Alwyn-Bryce-Jack-Ann-Jazz-
Beck-Jane
-Isaac-David-Victor-Casey-Lizzie-Jared-Jessie!” We all answered, “Present!” except for Alwyn who always said, “Absent!” when the roll was called.

“When are we going to hear some more about the Mole?” asked Lizzie.

“What about our homework?” Daisy cried.

“Read the rest of
The Wind in the Willows
!” Mr Jones handed his book up to Peter.

“But that's not real homework!”

“There's no better homework than reading a good book!” Mr Jones popped back inside. Through the window we watched him sit in his comfortable chair, put his feet on the table, the newspaper over his head, and go to sleep. The stove beside him glowed cherry red. Mr Jones had hibernated.

“We must tell Mrs Jones at once!” Daisy cried, but Peter said, “She must have hibernated after breakfast. She hasn't shouted for Mr Jones all morning.”

Just then the school bell thawed out on top of the
stove and rang all the dings it had been too cold to ring at the end of playtime. “Ding-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-
a-ding
!” Something in its sound set Daisy crying. “I was looking forward to the homework!” she sobbed.

Jessie was the last on Hubert's back, so she kicked the gate shut behind us, and Hubert's tail almost got caught. “Here, watch it, Jessie!” he said, but only Peter heard. He repeated Hubert's message over his shoulder to Marie: “Here, watch it, Jessie! Pass it on!”

“Beer, watch it messy!” Marie said over her shoulder to Daisy. “Pass it on!”

Daisy didn't approve of strong drink or messes. She said over her shoulder to Colleen, “Cheer crops are misty. Pass it on!”

By the time the message reached Jessie, it said, “Pork chops and apple sauce.” Being the youngest,
Jessie
was used to getting strange messages passed on. By that time, too, Hubert was climbing over the top of the hill. Jessie leaned out and saw the front three-quarters of Hubert disappear with Peter, Marie, Daisy, Colleen, Alwyn, Bryce, Jack, Ann, Jazz, Jane, Isaac, David, and Victor as they started going down the other side. The back part of Hubert with Casey, Lizzie, Jared, and
Jessie
was still climbing uphill.

Casey, who had been holding on with her arms around Victor's waist, had to let go as Hubert's front half bent and disappeared over the top of the hill.
Jessie
laughed and told Jared who leaned out to look and slipped. He grabbed Jessie and Lizzie who slipped, too, and Lizzie grabbed Casey. Casey had nobody to grab hold of. She screamed but – since they were going down the other side – the big kids couldn't hear.

At the bottom of the hill, Hubert fell into a hole in the snow, and we had to get off so he could climb out. We climbed a strainer post and got on again. Peter looked down at the hole, shook his head, and said something to Marie.

“Better not tell the others,” said Marie, but Alwyn who had sharp ears had already repeated Peter's words. “It's one of the footprints of the wild beast that ate the foolish sheep.” We looked down at the hole in the snow that Hubert had fallen into. It was the footprint of a wolf's paw so big we felt dizzy.

Hubert galloped across the creek. We pulled up our feet, but they still got wet and our toes started to freeze.

“If you wore shoes and stockings as I do,” said Daisy, “your toes would be as warm as toast!”

“As warm as toast,” repeated Alwyn although his toes were blue.

Covered in snow, the house and barn looked like a white hill with chimneys sticking out the top. Seeing us coming, the kitchen chimney puffed a smoke ring from the maire backlog which never went out. We all cheered.

“Shhh!” Marie was too late. Away to blazes up the back of the farm the wild beast heard us and howled, “Ooowhooooo!”

“Stop, Alwyn!” cried Marie, but Alwyn could never stop himself teasing animals and grown-ups. “
Ooowhooooo
!” he howled back.

“OOOWHOOOOO!” howled the wild beast – much closer and sounding hungry. Peter unlocked the door, and we scrambled inside Aunt Effie's enormous
kitchen
. There wasn't time to take Hubert to the barn, so
we took him inside with us.

And just then Becky shrieked, “Where's Casey, Lizzie, Jared, and Jessie?”

We all looked at Victor because he sat in front of Casey on Hubert. “I looked round and saw them as we came to the top of the hill,” he said. “When I looked back again, Hubert's front half was coming down this side, and they were still coming up the other side on his back half, so I couldn't see them any longer.”

“Didn't you feel Casey let go?” Daisy asked.

“Of course, but then we reached the bottom of the hill and saw the tracks of the wild beast,” Victor cried. Daisy made it sound like his fault.

“We must rescue them!” Marie rushed upstairs to Aunt Effie's bedroom and came down carrying two suits of armour, the helmet with a bullet-hole, a brass blunderbuss, and a bloodstained halberd. She and Peter each put on a suit of armour, and they dropped the helmet with the bullet-hole over Hubert's head. He looked pretty scary, like the painting of Ned Kelly by Mr Nolan that Mrs Jones hung in the girls' dunny at school.

Marie loaded the blunderbuss with nikau berries which everyone knows are harder than bullets. Peter wanted to take Daisy because she had a carrying voice and could call the little ones, but she was too busy having hysterics.

It was lucky Aunt Effie had shown us how to rig sheerlegs to hold a block high in the air. We ran a rope through the block, hoisted Peter and Marie in their heavy suits of armour, and lowered them on to Hubert's back

Peter shouted and shook his halberd, a very
convenient 
weapon that ended in a spear with an axe-head underneath. If you missed your enemy with the spear you could still chop off his head. Marie shouted and brandished the blunderbuss. Their armour clanked as Hubert neighed inside his helmet and galloped into the snowstorm. We hoped the little ones would hear them coming and call out.

In Aunt Effie's enormous kitchen, the maire backlog glowed red against the back of the chimney. Although it was still only lunchtime, the day was very dark. We didn't like to go inside while the little ones were
missing
, and Peter and Marie and Hubert were risking their lives to rescue them. We lit lengths of resinous rimu heartwood from the fire and stood on the steps, holding the torches above our heads. Burning resin dripped, hissed, and melted black holes in the snow like notes of music.

“I'm hungry!” whimpered David and Victor.

“You can't be hungry, not while your dear little
cousins
are almost certainly being eaten by a wild beast!” Daisy told them. She wiped her hand across her mouth, and we realised she had been into the bread bin while she was having hysterics.

“Come on,” said Jane, and she took David and Victor who were now the youngest and gave them some bread and cheese and an apple each, and a glass of milk. The rest of us felt hungry, too, but we didn't like to say
because
we felt guilty about losing the little ones. When our empty tummies rumbled, Daisy said, “Manners!” Our bare feet were red and blue with cold.

Jazz shuffled and said, “I wouldn't mind a nice fresh hot cow plop to stand in.”

“Do you mind?” sniffed Daisy, and Hubert galloped
out of the snowstorm with Casey, Lizzie,
Jared
, and Jessie on his back. He hurdled us, and landed in the middle of the kitchen. We leapt inside after him, slammed the door against the snow, and pushed the bars across just as somebody hammered on it and yelled, “Let me in!”

We pulled out the bars, opened the door, and
Marie
fell through with a heap of snow. We slammed the door, and pushed the bars across just as somebody hammered on it and yelled, “Let me in!”

We pulled out the bars, opened the door, and Peter fell through with more snow. We slammed the door, and pushed the bars across just as something hammered on it and howled, “Ooowhooooo, Euphemia! Let me in!”

Peter and Marie grabbed our rimu brands, ran
upstairs
, threw up a window, and flung the blazing torches at something which howled, “Ooowhooooo!” and ran away into the dark. The air stank of singed hair.

Back in the kitchen, we lit candles and counted each other. “Daisy-Peter-Marie-Colleen-Alwyn-Bryce-
Jack-Ann
-Jazz-Beck-Jane-Isaac-David-Victor-Casey-
Lizzie-Jared
-Jess!” we all said. “You're back!” we told Casey, Lizzie, Jared and Jessie.

We tossed the little ones up to the rafters to show them how delighted we were to see them safe and sound. We tickled them, we teased them, we rubbed and polished them. We dressed and undressed them, and bathed and towelled them dry, and threw them up in the air again, and pretended we weren't going to catch them. We filled them up with cakes and lollies and cream and soft drinks till they were all sick and crying, and after we'd handed them around several more times, we asked, “Where were they?”

“We found their tracks in the snow where they'd fallen off Hubert's tail,” said Peter. “They'd started running as they came down and hit the ground.
Unfortunately
they landed facing the wrong way, so they headed back to the school.”

“Remember Mr Jones said he'd leave the door unlocked, just in case anyone wanted to come in and get warm?” Marie asked. “Well, that's where we found them. They'd drunk the last of the cocoa out of the bucket and were sitting in front of the stove pretending to read the blackboard.”

“Did you wake Mr Jones?”

“He just muttered something about the Prime
Minister
and went back to sleep. We filled the stove with wood again so he'd keep warm. Halfway home, you know where the track goes under the black trees?” We all nodded. “Well,” said Marie, “that's where the Urewera wolf was waiting. It was higher than Hubert. Its eyes glowed in the dark, and do you know what?”

“What?” we shrilled.

Marie dropped her voice. “You'll never guess!”

“What?” we shrieked.

“Its face is tattooed!”

We all burst out crying. “A Tattooed Wolf!” Aunt
Effie
had always told us they were the worst kind. “What did you do?” we screamed at Marie and Peter.

“We dropped the halberd and the blunderbuss.”

“You dropped the halberd and the blunderbuss!”

“It was the cleverest thing we could think to do. It saved our lives because, while the Tattooed Wolf bent down and scrabbled around trying to pick them up, Hubert galloped home,” said Peter. “Marie and I fell off as we got near the house. It's very difficult staying
on a horse when you're wearing armour.”

“It doesn't matter. You rescued the little ones!” we said. “And we're all safe.”

“You think we're safe?” screeched Daisy. “With a Tattooed Wolf outside armed with the halberd and the blunderbuss? A Tattooed Wolf that said The Name We Dare Not Say!”

We looked at each other. We'd all been pretending we hadn't heard it say that name.

And just then a terrible voice whispered through the keyhole. “Open the door, Euphemia!”