Free The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson

been enlarged by a contingent of evacuees fresh from the ship. Norah felt sorry for them as they trooped out after supper for their medicals. At least she was finally leaving, however frightening her new home sounded.
    In church the minister prayed for the British people “bravely carrying on their struggle alone.” Norah prayed too, naming each member of her family carefully. She tried not to think of what they would be doing. Instead she imagined a family called Ogilvie; her chest grew heavy.
    When they got back to Hart House they were told that a librarian had arrived to tell them stories before lunch.
    â€œYou take Gavin in,” said Miss Carmichael. “I have all these new children to deal with.”
    Stories sounded babyish, but Norah took Gavin’s hand and went into the room they used for recreation.Children were scattered all over, playing with toys and puzzles. A small woman with very bright eyes sat on a low stool in front of the fireplace, watching them calmly.
    â€œOnce upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter, and she was courted by a gentleman …” she began slowly. Her vibrant voice cut through the chatter. As she carried on, the children drew closer and squatted on the floor in front of her.
    When she reached the point where the people in the story were all wailing in the cellar, some of the children began to smile. By the time the man was trying to jump into his trousers, they were giggling. Gavin laughed for the first time since they’d left England, and Norah felt a chuckle rise inside her.
    â€œâ€¦ and that was the story of ‘The Three Sillies,’” the woman concluded.
    â€œTell us another!” demanded a fat little girl called Emma.
    â€œOnce upon a time Henny Penny was picking up corn when—whack!—an acorn fell on her head. ‘Goodness, gracious me!’ said Henny Penny. ‘The sky is falling! I must go and tell the king.’”
    She came to the part about “Goosey Loosey,” and Norah grinned, looking around for Dulcie. Then she remembered she had gone.
    There was a satisfied silence in the room after Foxy Loxy had finished off his witless victims. “Of course, the sky wasn’t really falling,” said Emma knowingly.
    â€œIt is at home!” declared Johnnie. “It’s falling down all over England, and that’s why we had to go away.”
    The librarian looked startled, but only for a second. She showed them how to do a game with their fingers called “Piggy Wig and Piggy Wee” Then she told them “The Three Little Pigs”. All the younger children huffed and puffed with the wolf, even Gavin. They moved closer to her and one of them stroked her shoes. Emma wriggled onto her knee.
    â€œAnd now, I want to tell you the story of Alenoushka and her brother.” Her tone had become sad and solemn and the rollicking atmosphere changed to hushed expectancy. “Once upon a time there were two orphan children, a little boy and a little girl. Their father and mother were dead and they were all alone. The little boy was called Ivanoushka and the little girl’s name was Alenoushka. They set out together to walk through the whole of the great wide world. It was a long journey they set out on, and they did not think of any end to it, but only of moving on and on …”
    The back of Norah’s neck prickled. She was pulled into the story as if by a magnet and she became Alenoushka, trying to stop her little brother from drinking water from the hoofprints of animals, and desperate when he did and turned into a little lamb.
    The other children were as spellbound as she. They sat like stones while the rich voice went on, forgetting the storyteller in their utter absorption in the story itself.
    O my brother Ivanoushka,
    A heavy stone is round my throat,
    Silken grass grows through my fingers,
    Yellow sand lies on my breast.
    N ORAH DIDN ’ T REALIZE her