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Tale of Daddy Long Legs, The

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<h2>XX</h2> <h3>LOST—A JACKKNIFE!</h3> Johnnie Green couldn't find his new jackknife anywhere. Since it was the third knife Johnnie had lost that summer, anyone might think that he wouldn't have cared much, being so used to losing jackknives. But Johnnie had been particularly proud of that knife. It had two blades, a small saw, a corkscrew, a gimlet, a leather-punch, and a hook for pulling a stone out of the hoof of the old horse Ebenezer. Johnnie had worked in the hayfield on many hot days to earn enough to buy that knife. So it was no wonder that he wanted to find it. He hunted for it carefully—in the woodshed (where he had gone for an armful of wood), in the barn (where he had helped milk the cows that morning), and under the big oak in the dooryard (into which he had chased the cat). And not finding his knife in any of those places, he went into the pantry, for he remembered getting some jam and cookies there between breakfast and dinner-time. The jackknife was not in the pantry. Johnnie even looked for it inside the cookie-jar. And failing to find the knife there, he consoled himself by taking three more cookies. Then he slipped out of the house and sat down behind the stone wall to enjoy his lunch. All the time he was munching his cookies Johnnie Green was trying to recall exactly what he had done and where he had been since he jumped out of bed that morning. If there was any place he had forgotten, he intended to go there at once and look for his lost jackknife. Having swallowed the last crumb of his goodies, Johnnie leaned back against the stone wall and closed his eyes in thought. He wondered if there wasn't some out-of-the-way nook he had visited that day. As he sat there, something tickled his ear. Then it tickled his cheek—and finally his nose. Johnnie Green couldn't help sneezing. And opening his eyes, whom should he see but Daddy Longlegs, standing on the tip of his nose. "My goodness!" Daddy exclaimed when Johnnie Green sneezed. "I didn't think the wind was going to blow to-day. But there's an awful blast! I'd better hurry home at once." He had scarcely turned to go back where he came from when Johnnie sat up; and seizing his visitor quickly—but carefully—Johnnie removed him from his perch and held him, a captive, in his hands. When he stepped from a stone to Johnnie's head Daddy Longlegs had no idea that he was not walking on another stone. Who would have expected to find the head of a boy lying motionless against a wall? As soon as he recovered from his surprise, Daddy Longlegs struggled to escape. But his captor guarded him with great pains. "You don't think I'm going to let you get away, do you?" Johnnie Green asked him. <hr class="chapter" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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