The Adventures of Horace Tidwiddler by jlee smith (book suggestions txt) 📕

a little sun light filtering through. It was at this time Horace saw their little hill had become an island. the river was all around them and it was at least a quarter mile to the nearest land. He closed his eyes and said, “Thank you God for the gypsy wagon master.”
Bruno walked up and sat down beside him. He told Horace he had never seen anything like this in all his life, Horace looked over to where the City of Mottlee had once been and said, ‘What will they do, where will they go?” Bruno said, “They will wait till the water goes down and then rebuild. That’s what people do, home is where the heart is, no matter what.” Horace said, “I guess you are right but I think the next time, I would leave my heart on top of this hill if I were them.” Horace was still looking at the fast moving river when he heard, “Help me, Help me.” He and Bruno ran to the water’s edge in time to see someone standing on a tree trunk that had washed near their little island. Bruno wadded out and grabbed the tree trunk by a root and pulled it to shore. A little Opossum hopped off the tree trunk and on to solid ground. He looked at then both and said, “Did you miss me?” It was Bob the Opossum from the creek camp ground. Horace said, “How in the world did you get here?” He said, “By water, and a lot of it.” He then said, “Boy, I’m hungry, you guys wouldn’t have anything to eat would you?”
After having some gypsy flat bread and a little sausage, Bob sat down by the fire with Horace, Dylan, Aunt Matt and Bruno. He sat so the fire could dry out his back paws and tail, folded his front paws behind his head, leaned back and said, “You guys don’t have it bad at all, mind if I join you for a while?” Horace said, “I thought you told us that you never wanted to leave home.” Bob laughed and said, “That’s true but my home left me, it’s about fifty miles down stream by now.” Bruno laughed and handed him a cup of coffee and said, “Welcome to the club, hope you like coffee and flat bread.”
It took the better part of a week for the water to go down and their little island to again become part of the landscape and just a little hill. It was during this time that Horace became concerned about Ulee and Mardia, He wondered if Morris had arrived before the rains had set in. He wondered if his brother was safe.
On the morning when they were able to again leave the little hill, Horace told Abbasonn that he needed to check on Ulee and be sure he had weathered the storm. Abbasonn agreed and they both set out for the little farm. Bob decided to tag along as he wanted to see more of the country than his view from the floating log had provided. As they walked through the woods, Horace was alarmed at how high the water had been. There were brush and logs stuck in the tops of trees on both sides of where the trail once was. Some as high was twenty feet in the air, The further they went, the worse it became. Finally when they arrived at the little farm, Horace was relieved to see it was still there. He had not noticed before but the house was constructed on a rise in the land and was saved from the flood waters. Abbasonn turned to Horace and said, “see, Little Brother, I told you they would be fine.” It was at this moment when Bob said, “Shhhhhhh, do you hear that?” They stood completely still and did not make a sound. Horace could only hear the wind rustling through the leaves in the trees. Abbasonn said, “I don’t hear anything.” Bob said, “it sounds like angels singing, can’t you hear it?” It was at this very moment that Horace heard what up until now only Bob had been able to hear. It was a very soft sweet haunting sound that seemed to float between the trees, moving through the forest like a ghost through silvery spider webs. The three adventures stood transfixed. They did not even breath . Horace finally said to Abbasonn in a whisper, “What is it?” Abbasonn replied, “I think it is violins.”


CHAPTER NINETEEN - A LONG TRIP, A SHORT VISIT

The three adventurers slowly approached the little farm house and realized that the music was not coming from inside the building. It was coming from the woods behind the house, Horace slowly walked to the rear of the house and saw three individuals setting on a log bench. Two held violins under their chins with one hand and a bow in the other. They had not heard the visitors approach. As they continued to play a slow melody Horace was taken by the look on the third person's face. It was Mardia, Ulee's Wife. Horace could see that she was so proud of both and there was a love in her face for both that defied words. Horace thought how lucky his brother was to know that kind of love. It was at this moment that Ulee noticed them and put down this violin. He said, “Welcome to our home.” the other person laid his violin down, stood and turned to greet the three. Horace was at a loss for words, he stammered some unintelligible sounds then extended his hand in friendship. The two brothers stood facing each other for a moment then Morris grabbed Horace around the waist in a bear hug with both arms and lifted him off the ground. He swung Horace around in a circle twice all the time yelling welcome, welcome. Horace was at first shocked, then surprised at how strong his brother was. He was strong as a bull and lifted Horace off the ground as if he were a feather. Another thing that shocked Horace was his brother talked funny, he had a foreign accent. He put Horace down finally and the two just stared at each other for a long moment. He put his arm around Horace’s shoulder and said, “Let’s take a walk.” The two brothers walked off together through the trees. Ulee looked at the others and said, “Let’s have some coffee and cakes.”
Horace was surprised that Morris had just as many questions as he did, if not more. He wanted to know about Placidshire, about his birth mother and father, about Horace’s friends, did he have a girlfriend, what did he like to eat, what was his favorite color, did he like music? They walked and talked for the rest of the day. It was almost dark when they started back to the little farm house. Abbasonn was waiting out back of the house with Ulee. They were sitting on the log bench having coffee when the two brothers walked up. Bob was curled up at Abbasonn’s feet asleep.
It was decided that as it was too late to return to camp, they would stay the night and return in the morning, Mardia had prepared a large meal and afterward they all sat around a large fire and talked late into the night. Morris told them that he had to leave the next day to return to Budapest for classes, He said that he had two more years of study before he could become a teacher. He promised Horace that before he took up his teaching duties he would visit him in Placidshire. He wrote a letter to both his birth parents and asked Horace to deliver it for him. The next morning, after a large breakfast, goodbyes were said all around, Morris set out on his return to Budapest and Horace, Abbasonn and Bob set out for the camp site. They had walked in silence for quite a while when Abbasonn suddenly said, “I sure like Ulee, he is an extremely fine gentleman, and your brother was very fortunate to have him for a father.” “I know”, said Horace, “I know.” Bob said, “and his mother is a good cook too.” They walked on in silence until they reached the camp site. Dylan saw them first and almost knocked Horace down when he ran to welcome them back.
While they had been gone the gypsy wagon master had decided it was safe for them to continue on to the clan meeting. The wagons were being made ready for the next leg of their journey when the three adventurers returned. Durant, Bentaub and Aunt Matt had all their belongings packed and were waiting when the three arrived at the camp. Bruno was sitting with them having coffee when they arrived. He said that he and Blanco were going to miss their company as they had all been such great traveling companions. He told Horace that he should never stop practicing riding his unicycle as, one day, it may come in handy. Blanco and Bruno set out in the lead as the caravan started down the trail headed West. Horace was still waving goodbye when the last gypsy wagon disappeared over the hill and out of sight. Bob was sitting next to Aunt Matt and said, “Well, what’s next? Where are we going now?” “I don’t know”, she replied, “I don’t know”.
Abbasonn and Horace set out leading the way back down the trail headed East. Dylan ran along side of Horace while Aunt Matt and Bob walked together discussing bugs and flowers. Durant and Bentaub were discussing the weather and if the winds would be okay for a crossing of the sea this time of year. Abbasonn thought they should be back at the cavern entrance in about a week. Horace looked at the dark clouds that had begun to form and hoped this was true.
As they walked down the trail, Horace could not get Bruno out of his mind. He had been a wonderful friend and Horace knew he was going to miss him greatly. Horace had never really thought about him going away before, but now that he was gone, Horace felt an empty space in his heart. His leaving now caused Horace to think about what it was going to feel like when all his other friends went back to their normal lives and the adventure was over.
That first night on the trail they had set up camp and were preparing the evening meal when Bob looked at Horace and asked, “what’s this sea thing I keep hearing about?” Horace said, “It will be better if you just find out for yourself, you will know soon enough.” Aunt Matt smiled and said, “I hope that Durant has some more of those leaves in his pocket.” They both giggled and smiled at Bob who looked at them like they were both crazy.
The camp fire had burned down to almost nothing but embers and the band of travelers had all fallen asleep when the fog first began to roll in, It was the kind of thick fog that you could almost cut with a knife. A man would