Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-16
q! 9{sOZ 4

their terror of reaching the bottom Of
this great crack in the earth. and tho
natural fear that sudden death was
about to overtake them a. any moment,
Crash after crash echoed far above
their heads, as the earth came togeth-
err where it had split. and stones
and chunks of clay ratified around them
on every side These they could not
see, but they could feel them peltng
the buggy top, and Jim screamed al
most like human being when a stone
overlook him and struck his bony body.
They did not really hurt the poor horse,
because everything was falling togeth-
err: only the stones and rubbish fell
faster than the horse and buggy, which
were held back by the pressure of the
air. SO that the terrified animal was
actually more frightened than he was
injured.
How long this state Of things contin-
ued Dorothy could not even guess, she
was SO greatly bewildered.~ But bye
and bye, as she stared ahead into the
black chasm with a beating heart, she
began to dim,y see the form of the
horse Jini--ilis head up in the air, his
ears erect and his long legs sprawl
ing in every direction. Also, turning
her head, she found that she could
see the boy beside her, who had, I'M
til now, remained as still and silent
as she herself.
Dorothy sighed and commenced to
breathe easier. She began to realize
A..
after all, but that she had merely
started upon another adventure, which
promised to be just as queer and un-
usual as were those she had before en-
countered.
With this thought in mind the girl
took heart and leaned her head over
the side of the buggy to see where the
strange light was coming from. Far
below her she found six great glowing
balls suspended in the air. The central
and largest one was white, and re-
minded her of the sun. Around it were
arranged, like the five points Of star,
the other five brilliant balls one being
rose colored, one violet, one yellow, one
Ulue ana one orange. InlS SplenQlQ
group of colored suns sent rays darling
in every direction and as the horse and
buggy-with Dorothy and Zeb-sank
steadily downward and came nearer
to the lights, the rays began to take
on all the delicate tintings of rain
bow, growing more and more distinct
every moment until all the space was
brilliantly Illuminated
Dorothy was too dazed to say much.
but she watched one of Jims big ears
turn to violet and the other to rose, and
wondered that his tail should be yellow
and his body striped with blue and
orange like the stripes OF zebra. Then
she looked at Zeb, whose face was blue
and whose hair vas pink ana gave a
little laugh that sounded bit nervous.
isn't it funny?" she said.
The boy was startled and his eyes
were big. Dorothy had a green streak
through the center Of her face where
the blue and yellow lights came to-
gether, and her appearance seemed to
add to his fright
Il don't s-s-see anything funny
bout it!'' he stammered.
Just then the buggy tipped slowly
over upon it's side, the body of the horse
tipping also. But they continued to fall,
all together, and the boy and girl had
no difficulty in remaining upon the seat.
just as they were before. Then they
turned bottom side up, and continued
to roll slowly over until they were right
side up again. During this time Jim
struggled frantically, all his legs Kicking
the air; but on finding himself in his
former position the horse, said, in
relieved tone of voice: ~
"Well, that's better"
Dorothy and Zeb looked at one an
other in wonder.
"Can your horse talk" she asked.
"Never knew him to. BEFORE" replied
the boy.
'Those were the first words I ever
sad," called out the horse, who had
overheard them, land I can't explain
why happened to speak then This Is
a nice scrape you've got me into, isn't
it,"
"As for that, we are in the same
scrape ourselves" answered Dorothy,
cheerfully. But never mind; some-.s
thing will happen pretty soon"
"Of course" growled the horse; and
then we shall be sorry it happened" :