Baartock

  Chapter 5

  "A troll! I've been driving around all day with a troll!" thought Mr.Fennis. "I didn't even think there were trolls. Aren't they supposedto be mean? Aren't they supposed to eat people?" Mr. Fennis tried toremember everything that he had ever read about trolls in stories andfairy tales. The only things he could remember were scary.

  But, somehow, if Mrs. Jackson was having the same thoughts, they didn'tseem to bother her. All she saw was a seven-year-old child who shouldbe in school.

  "Have you enrolled Baartock in school?" she asked.

  "What? What school?" asked Whinnurf Slinurp.

  Mrs. Jackson had it all figured out now. Troll or not, this wasanother parent who had to be told about the importance of education,the state laws requiring school attendance, and all the other thingsabout school. "All children are supposed to go to school," she said."Baartock is supposed to go to school."

  "Go school today," Baartock told his mother.

  "Baartock," said Mrs. Jackson, "why don't you show Mr. Fennis around?I need to talk to your mother for a few minutes." Both Baartock and Mr.Fennis started to say something, but she cut them both off.

  "We'll only be a few minutes," she said again. "We'll call you.

  "Come on, Baartock. Why don't you show me around?" Mr. Fennis decidedthat one young troll was probably better than two trolls and a schoolprincipal.

  Baartock led the way back toward the dry stream bed. He wasn't surewhat he would be able to show. All the noise this human, Mr. Fennis,was making was scaring everything away. Even the squirrels and micewere all hiding. He pointed through the trees at a head-knocking bird.

  "It's a red-headed woodpecker," said Mr. Fennis, when he finally saw it.

  Then Baartock got an idea. He knew just what to show. He started upthe hill along the stream bed.

  "We shouldn't go too far. We have to be able to hear when they call."

  "Can hear. Not far," said Baartock as he kept scrambling up the hill.This was something that no amount of noise could scare away.

  "Please slow down," asked Mr. Fennis after a few minutes. He wasn'tused to racing up hills, and he was getting hot.

  "Not far," repeated Baartock, but he did slow down to let Mr. Fenniscatch up.

  At one time there must have been a lot of water coming down from aspring, because the stream bed was wide in some places and deep inothers as it cut a path down the hill. But now it was dry most of thetime, except when it rained, when the water would come churning downthe hill, bubbling past the rocks and washing the leaves down hill.Then after the rain ended, it would stop flowing, just leaving pools todry up in the sunlight.

  Mr. Fennis caught up with Baartock at a bend in the stream bed, justwhere it went around a clump of trees. Baartock just pointed up thehill.

  "Mine," he said.

  Mr. Fennis stopped to see what he was pointing at. Just a little way upthe hill was a stone bridge over the stream bed. Mr. Fennis stared atit.

  The bridge looked just like a picture out of a story book. It was alow, wide, stone arch crossing over the stream. Big, heavy stones madeup the pillars on each end and the curved bottom of the bridge. Lotsof smaller flat stones filled in the walls, and some bigger ones toppedoff the walls. There were trees and bushes going up to the bridge oneither side. Under the arch, there was the glitter of sunlight on apool on the other side. It was a very pretty sight, but Mr. Fenniscouldn't think why anyone would build a bridge here, so far away fromeverything.

  Baartock ran to the bridge and stood under it, and looked back at Mr.Fennis with a big grin. "Mine," he said again.

  Mr. Fennis hurried to the bridge too. He had never seen a real stonebridge like this before. "Baartock," he said, "you shouldn't standunder there. It might not be safe."

  "Not safe?" asked Baartock.

  "One of those stones might fall down."

  "Not fall down," said Baartock, not grinning any more. "I make. Goodbridge. Trolls make good bridge. I show you good bridge."

  He came out from under the bridge, and went scrambling up the side ofthe stream bed. Mr. Fennis looked for a better place to climb up, butfinally climbed where Baartock had. When he got up to the end of thebridge, Baartock was in the middle. And he wasn't just standing there.He was jumping up and down.

  "I make good bridge," he said again. "Not fall down.

  "Yes. It's a good bridge," agreed Mr. Fennis. He stopped watchingBaartock and examined the bridge. It did seem safe. It really didlook like someone had just built it. The path on each side only wentabout ten feet into the woods and stopped. There didn't seem to be anyreason for anyone to build a bridge in the middle of the woods. Hedidn't even consider what Baartock had said, that he had built it.

  Baartock stood watching Mr. Fennis for a minute, then he had an idea.He went over and took his hand. "Come," he said, leading him to theend of the path. "I call. You come cross bridge." Baartock ran backacross the bridge and into the woods on the other side.

  Mr. Fennis stood waiting for a minute, then he faintly heard Baartockcall "Now!" It sounded like he had run way off in the woods. Not surewhat the game was, Mr. Fennis walked back to the bridge and started tocross it.

  Just then there was the most awful noise he had ever heard. He stoppedto look around. And Baartock came running and screaming up from underthe bridge. Mr. Fennis stood there for a moment with his mouth wideopen, then he found himself running off the bridge, and running awayinto the woods. He was quite a long way into the woods when herealized that the noise had been made by Baartock. It had beenterrifying. He stopped beside a big tree and leaned on it while hecaught his breath. He wasn't used to running, or to being scared likethat. He was still standing there panting, when Baartock came walkingup to him. Mr. Fennis didn't know what to say.

  "Good bridge," was what Baartock said, with a huge grin on his face. Hehad done it. On his first day. He really had scared someone.

  Mr. Fennis stood, leaning up against the tree, and thought of somethings he could say, but "Shouldn't we go back now?" was what he said.

  With Baartock leading the way, they walked back toward the stream bed.Not far below the bridge there was a place where they could get downeasily. They were starting down when Baartock suddenly stopped.

  "Mother call," he said and raced off down the hill.

  Mr. Fennis hadn't heard anything, but he was too out ofbreath to call for Baartock to wait. When he could have called,Baartock was out of sight, so he just slowly walked down the hill afterhim. When he got to the clearing in front of the cave, Mrs. Jacksonand Baartock's mother were coming out of the cave.

  "We were starting to wonder where you were," said Mrs. Jackson.

  "Baartock was showing me his bridge," said Mr. Fennis. "Though he toldme he built it."

  "Baartock good troll. Build good bridge," said his mother.

  "You mean he really did build it?"

  "I'm sure he did," said Mrs. Jackson. "I've been learning some amazingthings about trolls, but we must be going now. It was very nice talkingwith you, Mrs. Slinurp. I'll see you both in the morning," she said,seeing Baartock come back out of the cave. With Mr. Fennis following,she led the way back down the hill.

  Baartock watched them leave and listened to them talk, or at least Mrs.Jackson. "I could hear that scream all the way down here," she said.Then, "Well, he is a troll, you know." He didn't hear anything elseafter that, and went in the cave to help his mother fix dinner. He wasvery hungry.

  When his father got home, Baartock had told him all about what hadhappen to him, including riding in the car and about the school. Hisfather hadn't said anything about that, but he didn't look too pleased.Then Baartock told about showing Mr. Fennis his bridge and about how hehad scared him. That had made his father laugh long and loud, and he'dpatted Baartock on the head and told him what a good troll he was.After dinner, Baartock went to bed. Later, he heard his mother andfather talking quietly, or at least quietly for trolls who were quite
loud sometimes, but he was tired and happy and went back to sleep.