eside
him, and by chance it hung from his neck to the windward side.
The wind blew very strong.
"I do declare," said he, "I shouldn't wonder a bit if the wind blew me
away."
Que was a truthful boy; but he did wonder very much when he found, two
seconds afterwards, that the wind _was_ blowing him away. But he
didn't wonder at all, when he lay, a minute later, against a huge
apple tree; partly because people generally get through wondering when
they are at the end of anything, but mostly because the blow stunned
Que, so that he didn't know anything for an hour.
When he gradually came to himself, he didn't know where he was. Then a
little wind shook a green apple down on his nose, and he concluded
that he was under an apple tree; which was quite correct.
Then he looked about to see whether he was in the United States or
not; he saw the five juniper trees that had been standing in a row,
half a mile from his father's house, ever since he could remember, and
concluded that he must be; wherein he was again quite correct.
Then he wondered if any one would come for him, for he felt so stiff
and sore that he thought he never could go home alone.
"They'll come for me, _I_ know; for if I've had a gale they must have
had one; and if they have had one they'll know that I've had one. Of
course they'll come."
Que felt round for his mail-bag, and got his head on it, and waited.
While he was lying there it occurred to him that the people down in
the village wouldn't have been walking about with bags broader than
themselves to windward of them, and mightn't have felt the breeze as
he did; so his last reasoning wasn't correct at all.
"I'll bet they didn't feel it a bit!" thought Que; and by this time he
was so fully in possession of his original faculties, that his
reasoning was quite correct again. No one else had felt the gale.
Que put his head on the bag and thought that his end had come, and so
cried himself to sleep.
His family had not felt the gale very heavily; but when tea-time came,
and Que didn't, they felt that; and when darkness came, and Que
didn't, they felt that; and when a report came, with a growl, from
the Point that they wanted their mail, Que's father started out with a
lantern to find it.
Que, having finished his nap, felt better, and tried to get up; but
his ankle didn't want to move; and when he tried again it actually
wouldn't move; so he lay down again to wait and watch. When he saw the
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