Free Season of Ponies by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

hair floated behind her and little Solsken could barely keep up. The heavy front door slammed behind them, and they were running across the muddy pig-tracked ground.
    They had almost reached the edge of the island when suddenly the air was full of a terrible, beautiful sound. Ponyboy ran slower and slower and then stopped. His eyes had changed again to brown marbles. Solsken, too, seemed frozen to the spot.
    At the far end of the island, something was moving in the mist. First dozens and dozens of thin black pigs with sharp white tusks darted forward, their jaws clicking. Then out of the swirling fog came a woman. Long black hair hung around a sharp white face and floated out behind her into the mist. A heavy cloak of dull black feathers fell like two huge wings from her shoulders. She approached slowly, and from her open mouth came the dreadful song:
    “Aie-e-e-e, Aie-e-e
    Stop and listen to my song,
    Listen well and listen long.
    Soon its beauty weaves a spell,
    Soon you love its tones so well,
    Just to hear it you will give
    Your greatest gift—your will to live.
    Aie-e-e, Aie-e-e”
    In vain Pamela tried to pull Ponyboy towards safety, but it was like trying to move a statue. Finally she turned to run herself, but it was too late. All around them was a circle of sharp black snouts, gleaming red eyes and clicking white tusks.
    The Pig Woman was closer now, and the air rang with her song. Pamela stared at her with fascinated horror. And then the feeling that she must remember something was back—stronger than ever; she must remember, and quickly!
    She covered her eyes and forced herself to think, and suddenly she knew: A story Aunt Elsie had read to her—about ancient times—an evil woman who lured men to their fate by singing and—and ...the rest wouldn’t come. Pamela opened her fingers and looked between them. The Pig Woman was very close now, her strange eyes glowing weirdly in her dead white face.
    Pamela closed her eyes again and strained to remember. Someone else sang—that was it! Someone else sang so beautifully that the song of evil was drowned, and its victims escaped.
    Without hesitation Pamela began to sing. She didn’t sing an ordinary song like those her father had taught her. This song came from somewhere deeper than memory, and it seemed to sing itself through Pamela’s lips. Without words, as a bird sings of happiness, Pamela sang of freedom and courage and hope, of friendship and laughter and adventure. She sang with all the strength within her.
    When Pamela began to sing, the Pig Woman’s face became twisted with anger. She tried to sing louder and louder. As she strained to drown out Pamela’s song, the evil woman’s beautiful voice became hoarse and shrill. Little by little its awful beauty faded until it seemed to be no more than the screeching of an evil bird of prey.
    When Pamela felt Ponyboy grab her arm, she knew that she was winning. She felt Solsken push his velvet nose against her hand, but she did not stop singing. She sang until she saw the black pigs, who surrounded them, stop snapping their long tusks and their glowing red eyes changed to dull black. She sang as she and Ponyboy and Solsken began to move slowly backward towards the swamp. When they reached the edge of the circle of pigs, the pigs fell back and let them through.
    Seeing this, the Pig Woman clenched her fists and her song became an ear-splitting screech of rage. But when she saw her pigs following after Pamela quietly like a pack of well-trained dogs, she stopped singing altogether.
    She jumped up and down and pulled her long hair in fury, screaming, “Come back! Come back! You can’t leave! You can never leave!” But the pigs did not stop. As if they heard nothing but the angry cawing of a crow, they continued to follow slowly and tamely after the children.
    Suddenly the Pig Woman flung her clawlike hands above her head, gave a violent scream and, running to the edge of the island, jumped far out over the deep