To Peggy-Muffins,
the little artist in
our family
THE BRAMBLE BUSH MAN
THE EXPEDITION BEGINS
Madeline Moffet stood on the corner beside the big sign that said USE DRAGON MOTOR OIL. She liked to think of the sign as a warning, BEWARE OF DRAGONS and the dragons as Mr. and Mrs. Lippett who lived in the farm house beside the sign. Muffs boarded with them. She had been told to go out and play but there was no one to play with except the chickens. They made little friendly noises and tilted their heads.
“Talk! Talk!” they said and flocked after her.
Muffs wanted to talk with somebody. The dragons had an idea that children should be seen and not heard and so she had kept everything she wanted to say all bottled up inside herself. She thought the chickens felt differently about it until she tried to catch one. Its squawking frightened her and she dropped all of it but one long tail feather which came out and was left waving in her hand.
“I’ll make b’lieve I’m an Indian,” she said to herself and stuck the feather in her yellow hair.