Free The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee by Eleanor Estes Page B

the farthermost recess. They were his most valued items, his research library.
    He left the entranceway the way it always was in case, in a bad storm, a blizzard perhaps, a scared little field mouse or rabbit, even a hermit crab, might want to get in and be safe ... be refugees!
    Then Jimmy McGee made sure his hat was clamped down securely on his head. Inside was his special box with its thunder and lightning bolts and Little Lydia, who was buzzing around up there.
    He had a plan. He aimed to surprise Amy when she began to unpack. She would discover in her box her Little Lydia, no longer her lost best-loved doll. Amy would be puzzled, of course, but imagine her joy! First, of course, he had to make sure Little Lydia no longer had the zoomie-zoomies.
    Now then, he was ready to zoom down the wires to his home, his winter headquarters. How the winds hummed as he whizzed along! They sounded like the strumming on some strange stringed instrument.
    Suddenly Little Lydia, recharged from this lightning-like journey through the wires, hopped up and down in Jimmy McGee's stovepipe hat and bebopped, "
Fun! Funny fun!
"
    Like Wags, she was happy to be on the move again, even though she was locked up in a stovepipe hat and could not enjoy the view!
    "Oh, dear!" groaned Jimmy McGee.
    By the time she had finished a few more of these happy bebop messages, which she had turned into a quite pleasant little song, Jimmy McGee had zoomied into Mount Rose Park in Washington, D.C.
    Probably, back in Truro, Amy and her family had only just turned around the bend of the road. And Bear was looking out the window!

9. Jimmy McGee in His Winter Headquarters
    Home now, Jimmy McGee put thoughts of summertime behind him. He waited a moment longer behind the little waterfall at the entrance to his winter headquarters. He liked the way it smelled here, of moss and dampness and rocks. The little waterfall was like a silvery curtain between him and the world outside. He liked the sound of it splashing gently into the little brook below. On a sunny day all was sparkly, like little diamonds. And when the sun set, the streams of water took on the look of sparklers on the Fourth of July.
    It was good to be back. Violets lined the banks of the little brook. They were still in blossom. He stepped inside. His winter headquarters were under a little knoll. In the wintertime children went sledding down the knoll, through the tree-lined path to where the little brook joined a larger one.
    His headquarters had smooth earth-colored boulders. There were crevices between them for his pipes and scrolls and things. The boulders were wonderful, all of a different shape, some flat at the bottom, some rounded, and he used them for many purposes. Some went to the top of the cave like steps, and one was like the stone throne of an ancient king, its surface rounded and comfortable.
    Jimmy McGee always sat on his throne to bring his scrolls up to date or to polish his nuts and bolts. Also in the cave were tough roots of trees winding here and there, good for gymnastics. People taking a stroll overhead would never believe a place of such magic existed right under their very feet. The moss was thick up there, and also a creeping kind of flower called periwinkle.
    But now to work! Jimmy McGee slung his bombazine bag on a sturdy root near his throne. He kept his stovepipe hat clamped firmly on his head.
    The old gray Dodge could not travel with the six-sixty speed that he could! Probably it would not arrive until late afternoon.
    Anybody could tell that there was a storm coming. Winds were rising, and the sky was ominous! Just so Amy and her family arrived before the big storm struck! But to Jimmy McGee, the expert predictor, it seemed that it would hold off until late in the day, and the old gray Dodge would make it by then.
    First he tidied up his headquarters. Evidently there had been curious little animals in here now and then ... rabbits mainly, he thought. He made sure all his fine