Olivia had been playing out in the yard when she’d
heard a door bang in the house. As she got nearer to the porch, she could hear
her Grandpa hollerin’ about this and that but mostly about Old Chief Makkawaw
who lived up on Old Creek Road. Then her Grandpa slammed the door again. This
kind of thing wasn’t like her Grandpa at all, so Olivia guessed he was in a
real bad mood.
Olivia did what she usually did on those occasions,
she crawled under the house and listened to her Grandpa and Grandma talking
through the floorboards.
When her Grandparents were walking up and down she
would only be able to make out some of the conversations. This time she was sure her Grandpa was upset
with the Old Chief, as he was making mountains out of molehills.
It took a lot of things to impress Olivia, who felt
she was a real hard customer to fool (leastways that’s what her Daddy had told
her).But she knew she couldn’t let this opportunity pass and decided that after
her lunch she was going to go up to the Old Creek Road to see what the Chief
was doing.
By one o’clock, Olivia was sitting real comfortable
on the Old Creek Road waiting for the Chief to do his thing. It was just then
that Joe, the boy from her class in school, happened to pass by.
“What cha doin’?” He asked Olivia.
“Why I’m waiting on the Old Chief, I hear he turns molehills
into mountains, and I want to see him doin’ it,” she said, excitedly.
And Joe was kinda sorry that he’d agreed to help
his Pa on the farm and someone making mountains was just what a boy like him
would be wanting to see. He told Olivia that she should remember everything,
and that she was to tell him all about it at school the following day.
“See ya,” he shouted to Olivia.
“Not if I see you first,” replied Olivia, just like
she always did.
Joe had only disappeared when Herbert, the dog from
Asker’s farm turned up.
“What cha doin’?” He asked.
And Olivia told him about a man who could make
mountains out of molehills.
Herbert had to admit that this was a new one for
him, but he also added that he hadn’t seen a mole in many a long day. Herbert
wondered if perhaps he could make mountains out of other things too. Like when
moles were real scarce.
They were just getting’ ready to eat some of the
popcorn that Olivia’s Grandma had made that day when Scrimpy, the Ass from the next
town over, happened to pass.
“What cha doin’?” Scrimpy asked.
And Herbert and Olivia explained all about the
molehill/mountain situation.
“Mind if I sit?” Asked Scrimpy.
“Don’t mind if you do,” said Herbert and Olivia, on
account of the fact that Scrimpy had always wondered how you made mountains and
was real excited about finding out.
Well the three friends ate all the popcorn and then
they waited, and they waited, and nothing and no one came up the Old Creek
Road.
They were just about to give up when the Old Chief
came staggering up towards them.
“I think he’s been at the Fire Water again,” said
Olivia (something she’d heard her Grandpa say but wasn’t sure what it was).
“What you kids doin’ sitting in the middle of the
road,” asked the Old Chief.
And they all told him they were waiting to see him
turn a molehill into a mountain. So he asked why did they think that, and
Olivia told the Old Chief that she had heard her Grandpa say it, so it must be
true.
“Well it ain’t true, that old goat is always saying
that about me and it ain’t true, I tells you. That Grandpappy of yours is
always looking at the world through a glass that’s half empty.”
Olivia wondered if that was indeed true and that
maybe she and Herbert and Scrimpy should go and investigate.
bobby stevenson 2015
http://www.randomactsstories.blogspot.co.uk/
wee bobby
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