What Johni saw, he could not believe! As he gazed into the river, suddenly a flying fish leapt right out of the water in front of his very eyes and then plopped back into the water.
His first thought was that nobody would ever believe that story...flying fish had become very scarce in Shallow Stream. No one ever saw them anymore.
Johni walked on slowly, deep in thought.
He was so deep in thought that he forgot all about the fierce dog in Mrs. Bawa's yard. The dog leapt at the fence as if he would really like to swallow Johni whole. His great black head with the flecks of froth around the mouth was dangerously close to Johni.
Johni screamed in fear and started to run. A block or two later he flopped down onto the edge of the pavement. He knew for sure now that Mrs. Bawa didn't keep a dog - she kept a wolf, or even a bear. Johni decided to eat half of his sandwich. Maybe the apricot jam would help with the shock.
He ate half his sandwich. His eyes closed with delight at the sour sweetness of jam. And so he ate the other half of the sandwich as well.
In the distance the school bell rang, but Johni didn't hear it, because he suddenly saw a tiger, not far from him, looking him up and down.
Oh yes! It was definitely a tiger! Not a tiger with spots, but a tiger with stripes. It was a Bengalese tiger. Johni knows his tigers. Every day this tiger looks at him from the Jungle Oats box.
The tiger was lying on the sunny side of the Turners' rockery and licking his paws, just like a cat.
Johni flew across the earth, his lunch tin left behind in the shock. The first tree that he came to was a cypress. He dropped his schoolbag and clambered up the cypress, getting his hands and clothes sticky with gum. From the tree he could no longer see the Turners' rockery. There was a garden wall and a hedge of poplars between him and the tiger.
"And here I sit," thought Johni, "like a fly stuck to flypaper."
This thought sent shock right through him. What if the gum from the tree made him stick fast to the tree? Then the tiger could scrape him off the tree like a fly. Tigers can climb better than people anyway...
...TO BE CONTINUED...
