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One sunny day Teresa was riding on her bicycle around the
yard. Elizabeth was looking wistfully out of the window wishing that she had a bicycle to ride. "It looks like
soo much fun!" She mumbled to herself.
"Teresa?" Called Samantha, "come inside, dear."
Teresa
carefully set her bicycle down and skipped up to the house.
"Hmmm..." thought Elizabeth, "I wonder if Teresa
would mind if I took a wee ride on her bicycle?"
Elizabeth pushed aside some of her soldiers and got up from
the table.
"Oh boy!" She said. "This is gonna be fun!"
"There you are, dear!" Samantha said, "Senor Carravaggio
will be here any minute! Do go upstairs and change, you have some dirt on that dress, and we must make a good impression!"
"Yes Samantha," Said Teresa.
"Yay! All clear!" Said Elizabeth.
She put one fuzzy
foot on the pedal and tried to swing herself over the bike in order to land her other foot on the second pedal.
Elizabeth stood up on the seat, wobbling back and forth,
while she warily watched Creme deliver the Parkingtons' groceries.
"Oh no!" Cried Elizabeth.
All of a sudden...
...CRUNCH!
Elizabeth fell right into some of Mr.
Hawkins' prized lilacs, crushing most of the stems.
"Oh dear!' Said Creme,"are you alright?"
"Yeah, sure I
am, just a few bruises that's all..." mumbled Elizabeth.
Creme helped Elizabeth back onto the bicycle. Elizabeth
slowly began to pedal around the yard, falling once or twice but climbing right back on again to try again.
Elizabeth was just getting the hang of it when Laura Windmill
raced up to the Parkington's house riding her shiny blue bicycle. She leaned back and yanked up with her arms, bringing
the bike into a wheelie.
"Wow!" Said Elizabeth, "I wish I had one of those!"
Laura got off her bike in order to bring a small package
and some letters up to the front door.
While she was busy, Elizabeth tiptoed up to Laura's bicycle.
"Oh hello
Laura!" Elizabeth heard Rebecca say, "Why don't you come in for tea?"
Elizabeth giggled when she heard Laura accept
the invitation, and as soon as Laura went inside she jumped onto the shiny new bicycle and started doing acrobatics while
zig-zagging back and forth across the newly mown yard.
Elizabeth leaned back and yanked up the bike, imitating
what Laura had done. All of Laura's letters fell out of the basket.
One of the letters caught in the wheel,
causing Elizabeth to fall AGAIN!
Elizabeth was just trying to tug her skirt free from the
gears on the back wheel when Alison McCann hurtled around the corner on her skateboard, screeching to a stop at
the maid's back door entrance.
Alison tore off her helmet and dashed inside. She was late
again, as usual.
Elizabeth peered at the skateboard curiously as she finished untangling herself from the
bicycle.
"Whoopie!" Yelled Elizabeth, jumping onto the skateboard.
She zoomed up and down the porch of the house doing flips and jumps. She was in the middle of one of her
highest jumps when she noticed Snowball the dog running straight towards her!
She fell, barely missing
the dog, who ran away as fast as his short little furry legs could carry him.
"Ouch!" Moaned Elizabeth, "OOOooOO it hurts! OUCH!"
Rebecca was just coming out of the house to have tea on the porch when she saw Elizabeth, flat on her face in
the grass.
"Oh dear!' said Rebecca, "Elizabeth! Are you alright?"
Elizabeth moaned in reply.
"Heather,
please fetch me the phone, I must call Josefina!"
Heather brought the phone outside to Rebecca, and Rebecca
dialed Josefina's number.
"Operator," Said a bored Paul Windmill, obviously chewing on something.
"I
would like to be connected to CAT-J please, and do hurry! It's very Urgent!" Rebecca said, trying to stay calm.
BBrrrrrring,
BBrrrrring!
"Hola?" Said Josefina.
"I am sorry to tell you that Elizabeth has been grevieuosly injured! She
is not even able to speak!" Cried Rebecca.
"Just bring her over and I will see what I can do." Said Josefina, hanging
up the phone.
All three of the maids hoisted Elizabeth up and started
a slow prosession up main street. Snowball and Rebecca led the procession, followed by the maids and a moaning Elizabeth.
"Josefina?" Called Rebecca once they had arrived, "We're
here!
The three maids squeezed through the front door with Elizabeth
on their shoulders and set her down on a large chair.
Josefina put several pillows under the still moaning Elizabeth
and turned to Rebecca.
"What happened?" Said Josefina, alarmed by the amount of
people accompanying Elizabeth.
"Well, she fell off a skateboard. Oh Josefina! Will she live?" squeeked
Rebecca in a very serious tone.
Josefina examined Elizabeth and giggled before turning to Rebecca again.
"Oh,
she's fine Rebecca. Just a few bruises! That's all. She'll be jumping around again in no time."
Josefina climbed up to the watchtower and took down her
well-worn remedy book from a shelf.
She flipped through the pages until she found her bruises remedy. When she
finally came to it, she began to read the instructions.
Find a poppy seed flower.
The poppy seed
flower is extremely rare and can only be found at dusk near caves inhabited by indians.
How to get it:
Sneak up to the cave and pluck
this flower as silently as possible. Wear green, or you will fall asleep.
Shake the poppy flower to extract the pepper-like seeds.
While Rebecca and the maids waited downstairs, Alison and
Heather massaged Elizabeth's feet and Sunny fluffed Elizabeth's pillows.
Crush the poppy seeds into a pulp between two rocks...
...and mix with goat cheese.
"Good thing
Mama just made a fresh new batch of goat cheese," Josefina chuckled to herself.
Josefina smashed the mixture well with her mixer so that
it would be extra creamy.
"Maybe this is why my arms are so strong," she mused.
Heading out to the kitchen garden, Josefina knelt in the
wet earth and collected some fresh green limes for her next step.
Let the mixture soak in lime oil for five minutes.
Josefina took a book down from the shelf and flipped through
Fransisca's "Fashion de la Moda" while she waited for the mixture to be ready.
She had almost decided
which dress she would like to make next, when a moan from Elizabeth downstairs brought her back to the task at hand.
Slowly boil the mixture on the open fire.
Sprinkle the poultice with thyme.
Pour the poultice onto a piece of cloth...
...and wrap as a poultice around a wound with a clean
cloth and a leather thong.
Josefina carefully tied the poultices around both of Elizabeth's
feet and onto a spot slightly off-center on her head.
Elizabeth tried to push Josefina away several times, but
in the end, Josefina got her way.
"I usually do," she giggled.
"There!" Said Josefina, "Good as new. Well, almost."
"Thank you so much Josefina! " Said Rebecca.
"Goodbye, Josefina dear!" Called Rebecca as they made
their way to the door.
The maids helped Elizabeth squeeze outside and all the way home.
Once Elizabeth got home she settled down into her seat in
the parlour to continue playing with her toy soldiers.
However, she soon noticed both of the Parkington sisters standing
over her with very worried expressions on their identical faces.
"Elizabeth, that was very irresponsible!" Said Rebecca,
"promise me that you will never go fooling around with Alison's skateboard, alright?"
"Elizabeth, you could have been
seriously hurt!" Said Samantha.
Elizabeth tried to ignore them and focus on her battle, but to no avail.
"Elizabeth?
Are you listening?" Said Rebecca.
"Yeah, sure..." Said Elizabeth. "I'll try not to do it again."
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