The Clockwork Twin Read Free Page B

locked.
    â€œWe’ll have to smash it in,” said Georgie.
    So Adoniram swung the fishline with the sinker on the end against the window until the glass broke, and then he reached in and undid the fastening. A minute later boy and dog and rooster were standing in a huge room through which ran several rows of pillars. And between the pillars were lines of show-cases. They were in the men’s furnishings department of a big department store.

    Adoniram had never been in a city before. The biggest store he had ever seen was the general store at Snare Forks, near his uncle’s house. “My goodness,” he exclaimed, staring at a showcase full of neckties, “I didn’t suppose there were so many neckties in the world!”
    â€œWe can’t eat neckties,” said Georgie. “Come on, captain. Let’s find some food.”
    So they left the men’s furnishings and went through the shoes and the overcoats and the rugs and the musical instruments, and up a flight of stairs and through the ready-made dresses and the lamps and the underwear and the stationery. They found a drinking fountain, but no water came out of it.
    â€œI hope the groceries aren’t on the ground floor,” said Georgie, “or we’re sunk. Ha ha, not bad, eh? Sunk, and so are the groceries!”
    They went on through the electrical appliances and the refrigerators and the picture framing and the curtains and up another stairway and through a door and there in front of them was a long counter, and on it was every kind of pie and cake and bun and cookie that you can imagine.
    Georgie grabbed a doughnut, and the rooster fluttered up and perched on the edge of a tray of seed rolls, and Adoniram picked up a crisp brown cinnamon bun. They all took a bite and three chews, and then at the same moment they stopped. They were too thirsty.
    If it hadn’t been for Georgie I don’t know what would have happened to them, for Adoniram didn’t know anything about department stores, and the rooster wasn’t any help. But Georgie said the one word: “Bottles!” and hurried off, and after looking at each other a minute, the other two followed. They passed shelves and shelves of canned things and breakfast foods and crackers and jams and jellies and at last Georgie gave a sharp bark and stopped in front of a sort of bin full of bottles of ginger ale. Luckily there was an opener behind the counter. So they opened three or four bottles and drank. And then they opened some bottles of cream soda and drank that. And then they weren’t thirsty any more.
    But the sad part of it was that they had drunk so much that when they went back to the buns and pies and cakes they couldn’t eat any of them. They were hungry still, but they just didn’t have the room.
    â€œYou might have stopped me!” said the rooster, gazing angrily at the seed rolls. “Let me drink all that slosh! If I was turned inside out, I could swim. I heard a distinct splash when I jumped up on this counter.”
    â€œOh, stop complaining about everything,” said Georgie good-naturedly, “or you’ll hear a distincter splash when we throw you back into the river. The ginger ale will settle down after a while and then we can eat. In the meanwhile let’s explore.”
    â€œWon’t the store people be mad if we eat up all this food?” Adoniram asked as they started up to the fifth floor.
    â€œYou couldn’t eat it up in ten years,” said the dog, “and we’re shipwrecked sailors anyway. I guess they wouldn’t—Psst!” he whispered suddenly. “What’s that?”
    They had come out at the head of the stairs on to another huge floor on which stood thousands of chairs and tables and desks and dressers and beds. Nobody was in sight, but from somewhere came a voice. It seemed to be reciting poetry. The voice said:
    â€œWhen I set out upon this tour,
    I thought the skies