PeeWee and Plush by Johanna Hurwitz

had to reject it. Plush was absolutely right. Lexi was bound to begin climbing trees and leaping on branches even if he was carrying my little Perky. Squirrels just behave that way. It’s their nature. But if we didn’t get to the rain forest, I was afraid we’d be doomed.
    No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member
—
    Member
. That was a funny word for “limb,” I thought, dozing off, thinking of paws and hands and tails and feet. Feet! Suddenly I woke with a start. The solution to our problem had come to me. We could use the skate to get tothe rain forest. Perky could ride in it. That is, if we could convince him to get inside.
    Luckily, the skate was still where Pip and Squeak had left it. With some effort, I managed to move the skate along the bumpy ground toward where my family still lay sleeping. I woke everyone up and explained my new plan. There was much chatter among them when they heard what I had to say.
    â€œWhat fun you’re going to have,” Squeak shouted to Perky. He didn’t look so sure of that.
    Plush and I had to help Perky climb inside the shoe part of the skate. As always he was reluctant to try a new experience, and I had to give him a few hard pushes to gethim moving. Once inside the skate, he curled himself into a ball.
    â€œDon’t you want to look out?” Pip called to her brother. “You won’t be able to see where you’re going.”
    Perky lifted his head for a moment. “I don’t want to see,” he replied.
    â€œI don’t care if you look or not,” I said. “The important thing is that now you’ll be moving at a better speed.” Then I took the laces that hung down from the skate in my mouth and used them to pull the skate along. It was harder than ever to move the skate now that it had the weight of Perky added to it. It occurred to me that if I went on the cement path, instead of traveling in the grass as I usually did, the skate would roll with much greater ease.
    Now there was a new problem. Out on the walkway, I was visible to any passersby. It was a piece of luck that the cool, damp weather of the day did not encourage many people to use the park. There were no mothers or nannies pushing carriages. Only a few solitary individuals were walking their dogs or strolling through the park. So from time to time as I saw someone, I had to pull the skate and veer off the path and into a bush to avoid a human I saw coming toward us. It was quite exhausting.
    After a time, Perky stuck his head out. “This is fun!” he exclaimed. I don’t believe my son had ever in his life found anything to be fun before.
    So I kept on going. Perky’s change of heart gave me new strength. I panted whenthere was a steep incline on the sidewalk, but I kept on pulling. Suddenly the incline ended and the sidewalk sloped downhill. What a relief. I dropped the shoelace and stopped to catch my breath. I turned and waved to Plush who was a short distance away with our other children. Suddenly her face filled with horror and she screamed out to me.
    â€œPeeWee! Look at the skate!”
    I looked back at the skate and saw that it had started to roll down the hill on its own. I ran after it, trying to grab the shoelace, and finally I caught it by its tip. I held on as tightly as I could, but the skate was moving so fast that it lifted my feet off the ground.
    Suddenly the shoelace was pulled out of my mouth and I landed on the cement pathwith a thud. A moment later I sat up, dazed, and then horrified, as I saw that the skate was rolling downhill faster than ever with poor little Perky trapped inside.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Journey’s End

    â€œStop! Stop!” I shouted.
    But Perky couldn’t and the skate wouldn’t.
    Ignoring my bruises, I raced down the hill after the runaway skate.
    Plush, Pudge, Pip, and Squeak came running and calling out behind me. But we discovered that