by Ruth Chew
All Peggy could see was the little hole in the trunk of the tree.
Peggy put her hand on the lump on the tree. The bark felt cold and hard and wet. She lay down on her stomach and pushed her finger against the little hole.
The warmth of her finger seemed to melt the bark. Peggy poked her finger into the hole. Before she knew what was happening, she felt herself sucked into the tree.
It was dark inside. The only light came from the little hole in the bark. “Brian,” she whispered, “where are you?”
“Here I am, Peg.” Brian’s voice seemed to come from down in the ground. “Watch out! There’s a deep pit.”
Peggy’s eyes were getting used to the darkness. She felt the ground inside the tree. “I found the pit.” She reached into it. “Grab my hand, Brian.”
It was too dark for Peggy to see Brian. But he touched the ends of her fingers. “I can’t get a grip on your hand, Peg.”
Peggy turned around and poked her finger into the hole in the tree. She pushed and pushed. But the hole stayed small.
Peggy was frightened. But there was no sense in letting Brian know it. She took off her jacket and dangled it into the pit. “Grab hold of this, Brian.”
Peggy held onto one sleeve. And Brian grabbed the other. Peggy tried to pull her brother out of the pit. But suddenly her feet slipped from under her. The next thing she knew she was sliding into the pit.
“Look out, Brian. Here I come!”
Brian dodged to one side. Both children fell to the ground.
It took them a minute or two to get their breath back. Peggy looked up at the dim light above them. She put her jacket on. “We can’t be very far under the ground. Let’s dig our way out.”
“That’s a great idea, Peg,” Brian said. “I just wish we had something to dig with.”
Peggy was feeling among the roots of the tree. She pulled out two sharp stones. “Use this.” She handed one of the stones to Brian.
They set to work scraping at one side of the pit. The earth was soft and easy to dig. They just pushed it behind them.
Side by side, they scratched their way up through the ground. It was darker than anything either of them could remember. They couldn’t even see the light from the little hole in the tree trunk now.
They had to dig their way between the roots of the tree. Peggy was pretending she was a mole. All of a sudden she pushed the stone she was digging with through the dirt and up into the open air.
They squirmed up out of the ground.
Brian stood up. “It’s stopped raining, Peg. The sun is shining.”
Peggy looked at her brother. “You’re all covered with dirt. I guess I am too. Mother will have a fit.”
Brian shook himself like a puppy. The dirt flew all around. A minute later Brian was no dirtier than he usually was. “This stuff comes right off.”
Peggy jumped out of the way of the flying dirt. “Take it easy, Brian.” She stamped her feet and dusted the brown earth from her clothes. She looked down at herself. “My clothes don’t look too bad now. But my mouth still feels gritty. And I’d like to wash my hair.”
“No reason why you can’t,” a voice said. It came from the hole in the ground that Peggy and Brian had just come out of.
They turned to see the striped gray cat crawl out of the hole they had dug. The hole seemed just the right size for the cat. “You saved me a job,” he said. “I don’t much care for digging.” He flicked a clod of dirt from his tail.
“Peg, look!” Brian pointed to the hole.
While they watched, the hole got smaller and smaller. Then it was gone.
The tree looked different now. For a moment Peggy didn’t know what it was. Then she said, “Brian, there are leaves on the tree, green leaves.”
“It’s hot too.” Brian took off his jacket.
“Don’t tell me you’d rather it was raining.” The cat rolled on his back on the ground.
“Were you in the tree with us all along, Puss?” Brian asked. “Why didn’t you let us know?”
“I wanted to see what you would do,” the cat told him. “Not everybody can go along with the things that tree comes up with. You two did just fine.” He looked at Peggy. “Didn’t you say you wanted to wash your hair? Follow me.”
The cat began to trot down the curving stone walk. Peggy and Brian ran after him. All the trees were covered with leaves. And the grass on each side of the walk was green.
Peggy stopped to take off her jacket and tie it around her waist. She stuffed her hat into one of the pockets. Brian was carrying his jacket. The sun was blazing down. They were glad when the cat left the walk and went around a wooded hill. It was cooler here.
On the other side of the hill a stream was tumbling straight down. It made a waterfall that splashed into a pool at the foot of the hill.
“How’s that for a place to wash your hair?” The cat curled up on a flat rock in the sun and went to sleep.
Brian took off his shoes and socks and rolled up the legs of his pants. “I’m going wading. I’m sure you’re not allowed to swim in Prospect Park.”
“I don’t care.” Peggy wiggled out of everything but her undershirt and underwear. She piled her clothes on a rock. “I never had a chance to go swimming in November before. Last one in is a rotten egg!” She jumped into the pool.
Brian was surprised that Peggy would go swimming in the park. She was usually much more careful to obey rules than he was.
“Come on in, Brian. The water is just cool enough to feel good.” Peggy swam round and round in the little pool until the gritty feeling in her mouth was gone. She dived down into the clear water. Then she bobbed up to the surface to tell Brian, “There are fish swimming around in here.”
Brian was still wading at the edge of the pool. He climbed out onto the mossy bank and looked all around to make sure no one was watching. Then he took off his shirt and his jeans and jumped into the water in his underwear.
The fish didn’t seem to be afraid of the children. They swam so close to them that Peggy felt one glide past her cheek. She moved out of the way in a hurry. Bump! She banged into something that was jutting up out of the sand at the bottom of the pool.
Peggy came up for air. She saw Brian swimming around on his back.
“There’s something stuck in the mud down there,” Peggy said. “Help me dig it out.”
Brian was being splashed in the face by the spray from the waterfall. He rolled onto his stomach and swam to the bottom of the pool.
Peggy pointed to an object covered with trailing waterweed. Brian pulled off the weed. Then they tugged at what seemed to be a small wooden box. They had to keep coming up for air. It was some time before they pried the box out of the sand. Together the children brought it to the surface. They hauled it out of the water onto the bank near the rock where the cat was sleeping.
“It’s heavy for such a little box. The wood must be waterlogged.” Brian sat down on the moss.
Peggy splashed out of the pool. A drop of water fell on the cat’s back. He uncurled himself and sat up.
The cat blinked his eyes. He stretched and jumped off the flat rock. “What’ve you got there?”
“A box,” Brian said. “We dug it out of the bottom of the pool.”
The cat’s ears perked up. And the end of his tail twitched. “What’s in it?”
Brian tried to open the box. “It’s rusted shut.” He shook it. Something rattled inside. “If we take it home with us I could pry it open with a screwdriver.”
Peggy jumped to her feet. “Home!” she said. “We’d better go home. I wonder what time it is.” Peggy didn’t take time to let herself get dry in the sun. She started to pull her clothes on over her wet underwear.
Brian rushed to get dressed too. He tucked the box under his arm. “Come on, Puss.”
“I know a shortcut,” the cat said. He began to climb straight up the hill beside the waterfall.
The children had a hard time keeping up with him. There was no path. Their feet skidded on
the steep slope. The dirt and stones gave way under them. The day was very warm. Peggy and Brian didn’t mind that their underwear was wet. It helped to keep them cool.
“Peg,” Brian said when they were close to the top of the hill. “I never knew there was such a high hill in Prospect Park.”
Peggy didn’t answer right away. She’d been wondering where all the people were who were always in the park on a sunny Saturday. Ever since she saw the green leaves on the trees, a strange thought had come to her. She didn’t know why she wasn’t frightened by it. But she wasn’t.
They had reached the top of the hill. Peggy looked out over green meadows. There was no sign of the tall buildings that were all around Prospect Park. Instead Peggy saw something that made her grab Brian’s arm. “Look! Now I’m sure we’re not really in the park at all!”
Beyond the meadows there was a wood. And from the middle of the wood rose the gray stone towers of a castle.
Brian stared at the castle. Then he said, “We’ve just got to explore it, Peg.” He called to the cat, “Puss, wait a minute.”
The cat was about to start down the other side of the hill. He turned around to look at the children. “Come along. I’m hungry. Your mother must be fixing lunch.”
“I want to go and see the castle over there.” Brian pointed to it.
“It’s not a good time now,” the cat said.
Peggy had read stories about castles. And she’d often wished she lived in one. She wondered what was inside the stone towers. “Can you take us some other time, Puss?” she asked.
The cat looked at her for a minute with his green eyes. He smoothed his whiskers with one paw. “I’d be glad to,” he said. “Now, come along.” He started down the other side of the hill.
Peggy took the heavy box from Brian. “I’ll carry it for a while.”
They followed the cat down the hill and along the stone walk to the old beech tree.
Peggy put on her jacket. She got down on her knees and held the wooden box in her arms. Then she rammed her head against the hole in the tree trunk. The bark of the tree began to stretch. A moment later Peggy was inside the tree.
Brian pushed his way in after her. Then the cat joined the two children.
“What are we waiting for?” Puss jumped into the pit.
Brian climbed down by holding onto one of the thick tree roots that grew at the sides of the pit. “Hand me the box, Peg.”
Peggy leaned over the edge to give him the wooden box. Then she grabbed a root and lowered herself into the pit.
“What’ll we use to dig with?” Peggy asked.
Brian started to scrape at the dirt with a corner of the box he was holding. “Look, Peg. The ground is opening up!”
Puss rubbed against Peggy’s ankle. She picked him up. By the dim light from the hole in the tree the children and the cat saw the earth crumbling away.
In a few moments a little hole appeared at one end of a tunnel. The hole grew larger. And so did the tunnel. In no time at all Peggy and Brian could walk out into the open air.
They were back in the park. The rain was coming down hard now. Peggy put the cat on the ground so she could hold the wooden box. Brian put on his jacket and pulled his cap down over his ears.
“Hurry up.” Puss raced down the stone walk toward the park gate.
The wet underwear didn’t feel at all good now. Brian started to run after the cat.
Peggy turned to look back. The big hole had vanished. And the ground around the tree was covered with fallen leaves.
Mrs. Dobson was looking out of the window at the rain. She opened the front door before Peggy had a chance to ring the doorbell.
“Come in, children,” she said. “You must be soaked to the skin. Run upstairs and get out of those wet clothes.” She leaned over to pet the cat. “Poor Puss. Come into the kitchen and get something to eat.”
Mr. Dobson walked into the hall. “I see we’re still stuck with that cat. Couldn’t you find his owner?”
“She ran away when she saw us.” Peggy started up the stairs to change her clothes. Brian went up after her.
When lunch was over, the two children took the wooden box to their father’s workbench in the basement.
Peggy thought it might help to oil the hinges. But still the box wouldn’t open.
“Maybe it’s nailed shut.” Brian held the box right under the light bulb over the workbench. The wood was so dark from being underwater that he couldn’t see if there were nails in it. “I’ll use a hammer and screwdriver to crack it open.”
Brian banged and pried. He even tried to saw the box in half. But the wood was so hard that the saw didn’t even scratch it.
Brian put down the saw. “It’s no use, Peg. I can’t get it open.”
Peggy looked at the box. “Brian, I have an idea. But we’ll have to go back to the park to try it.”
“It’s snowing now. Puss won’t want to go out in this weather,” Brian said. “He’s in the living room with Dad, watching television.”
Peggy picked up the box. “We’ll go without him.”
“Our jackets are still wet,” Brian said.
“We’ll find something,” Peggy told him.
Their mother didn’t even look up when the children walked through the kitchen. Mrs. Dobson was busy chopping onions to stuff a chicken. And onions always made her eyes water.
Peggy took her new winter coat out of the hall closet. She put on rubber boots and a knitted cap. Brian borrowed her old ski jacket. It was too small for Peggy, and it was a little big on Brian. But it would have to do. He found a pair of fuzzy red earmuffs in one pocket and mittens in the other.
While Brian got into his boots, Peggy ran up to her room for her new gloves.
Peggy and Brian took the wooden box and went quietly out the front door. They ran all the way to the park. The snow was coming down in fat flakes that stuck to their eyelashes. The air was so cold that their breath came out like steam.
“I know what your idea is, Peg,” Brian said. “You think the magic tree can open the box for us.”
Peggy nodded. “It’s worth a try.”
They were walking along the stone path. The snow underfoot kept their feet from making any noise.
Brian peered through the falling snowflakes. “Look,” he whispered.
Peggy saw someone in a brown coat walking ahead of them. “It’s the lady with the shopping bag.”
“There’s something funny about her. Let’s sneak up and see what she’s up to.” Brian pulled Peggy away from the walk.
The children ducked behind the trees. They moved from one tree to the next. The woman in the brown coat sat down on the bench near the lumpy old beech tree. She started fumbling around in her shopping bag.
Peggy and Brian ran over and hid behind the tree.
Peggy and Brian stood close together behind the beech tree. The woman in the brown coat sat on the bench on the other side.
Peggy leaned against the trunk. “She might see us if we looked around the tree.”
Brian pointed to the branches overhead. “She wouldn’t be likely to look up there. It’s an easy tree to climb, Peg. I’ll go first. You can hand the box up to me.”
“I might tear my coat,” Peggy said. “I wish we could get up into the tree without having to climb.”
Suddenly Peggy felt herself slowly rising in the air. She looked at Brian. He was floating up beside her.
Peggy held the wooden box under one arm. She reached out to grab Brian’s hand.
“Don’t touch me, Peg,” he whispered. “I might go pop. I feel like a gas balloon.”
They sailed up among the branches of the tree and stopped. Peggy sat down on a thick branch. Now she felt just as heavy as ever. Brian sat down beside her. He pointed to the woman below them.
She was pulling the blue tablecloth out of her shopping bag. The woman leaned over the cloth and said something to it. At once the cloth gave a little shake and spread itself on the walk at the woman’s feet.
Peggy and Brian saw that a place was set for dinner on the tablecloth. There were pretty dishes with blue flowers on them and shining silverware.
The woman got off the bench. She sat down on the ground and started to eat a bowl of steaming stew. The snowflakes were falling all around her. But they never seemed to get into the stew.
There was a plate of crusty rolls that smelled as if they had just come out of the oven. The woman ate them with the stew. When she’d had all she wanted, she clapped her hands.
The dirty dishes vanished. In their place was a thick wedge of apple pie and a cup of hot chocolate. The smell was wonderful.
After she was all done, the woman wiped her mouth on a blue napkin. Again she clapped her hands. All the dishes disappeared. The tablecloth folded itself up. Then the woman put it back into the shopping bag. She got to her feet and walked away through the park.
“I read about something like that in a book,” Peggy said. “It’s a great way to have a picnic.”
“But why would she want to eat outdoors when it’s snowing?” Brian asked. “Let’s follow her and find out where she’s going.”
Peggy looked at the wooden box on her lap. “We don’t want to forget why we came to the tree.”
They heard a chirp from the branch above them. Peggy and Brian looked up to see the mockingbird perched overhead. He was all fluffed out like a ball of gray feathers.
All of a sudden the bird hopped down onto the box on Peggy’s lap. She was so surprised she almost dropped it.
The mockingbird tapped the box with his beak. “What do you have in here?”
“We don’t know,” Brian said. “We can’t get it open.”
“I thought the tree might help us open the box,” Peggy told the bird. “I wish it would.”
“If I were a woodpecker, maybe I could help you.” The mockingbird gave the box a peck. Then he fluttered up onto Brian’s shoulder.
