Storm Turtle had shouted herself hoarse
and couldn't make any of them hear, she said she wouldn't put up with it
any longer, and that Father Storm had got to fix up some way to call
those children home when she wanted them, especially when it was going
to rain, as it was now. So Father Storm went out into the front yard and
sat down and looked at the clouds and thought and thought."
[Illustration: WENT RIGHT TO WORK AND DUG TWO HOLES.]
"All at once, just as he was about to give it up, he happened to be
looking right at the shell of Old Man Turtle Himself. He jumped up quick
and hit it with his cane, and when it made quite a loud sound he
laughed, for he knew, now, how he could make those children hear when he
wanted them. He didn't say a word to Mother Storm Turtle, but went right
to work and dug two holes and put up two tall posts in the yard and
fastened a stout beam across the top of them. Then he worked until he
had bored a hole in one end of the shell of Old Man Turtle Himself, and
put a chain in it and dragged it over and strung it up between the
posts, so that it swung there and didn't quite touch the ground. That,
of course, made a thing a good deal like Mr. Man's dinner gong, only a
hundred times as big, and about a thousand times as loud. Then Father
Storm went out into the woodhouse to make a club to beat it with,
laughing to himself now and then when he thought how Mother Storm Turtle
would most have a fit when she heard it for the first time.
"But while Father Storm Turtle was doing so much, Mother Storm had been
thinking and doing some herself. She was getting supper, and when she
looked into the fire to put in a stick of wood, she just happened to
think that if she could make a torch big enough and bright enough, when
she stood in the door and waved it, those children would see the light,
especially nights when it was dark just before a heavy rain. So she went
right to work and made one, just as big as she could make it, and put
lots of oil and fat on it, to make it bright. She laughed to think how
Father Storm Turtle would jump when she waved that out the door, and how
the children would come running when they saw the big flash. Then she
noticed that it was getting darker and darker and would rain in a
minute. So she hurried up and lit it and stepped to the door and gave it
a great big swing. And just that second Father Storm hit the shell of
Old Man Turtle Himself with a big hickory club, and there
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