RARE BEASTS
Authors: Charles Ogden,Rick Carton
Edgar & Ellen
RARE
BEASIS
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Text and illustrations copyright © 2003 by Star Farm Productions, LLC.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Designed by Star Farm Productions, LLC.
The text of this book was set in Bembo, Auldroon, and Cheltenham.
The illustrations in this book were rendered in pen and ink and digitally enhanced in Photoshop.
Manufactured in the United States of
America First Aladdin edition January 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ogden, Charles.
Rare beasts / by Charles Ogden.
p. cm. — (Edgar & Ellen ; 1)
Summary: The sinister siblings, twins Edgar and Ellen, kidnap the pets of Nod’s Limbs’ youngest citizens and turn them into “rare beasts” in hopes of making money to finance future pranks.
[1. Pets—Fiction. 2. Moneymaking projects—Fiction. 3. Tricks—Fiction. 4. Twins— Fiction. 5. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 6. Humorous stories.] I. Title. II. Series.
PZ7.0333 Rar 2003
[Fic]—dc21
2003000623
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-1409-9
ISBN-10: 1-4169-1409-9
eISBN-13: 978-1-4424-0849-4
H
ERE IS MY DEDICATION
—
to Rick
, for seeding all those trees years ago
(I chopped them down for firewood),
to Sara
, for sending me long johns
to wear on the coldest days,
to Kat
, for humming,
to Trish
, for making sure I ate breakfast.
Sorry about those cuckoo wasps.
—C
HARLES
It Begins…
The warm night air had a weight to it and hung over the town like a dirty wet dishcloth. It was very late, well past midnight, and the only sounds were the steady chirping of crickets and the occasional hooting of owls.
Down by the river, two shadowy figures danced across the roof of a covered bridge. Flailing their arms and legs about to keep their balance on the steep pitch, they formed whirling silhouettes against the night sky.
“Watch
out
, Sister, you’re getting it all over me!”
“Well, if you had remembered a flashlight, I’d be able to see what I was doing, Brother.”
“Oh, you can see as well as me. You’re doing it on purpose.”
“Oops!” said Ellen as she dragged her brush across Edgar’s face.
“You’ll be sorry you did that,” he muttered, red paint dripping from the tip of his chin.
“Hush, I’m almost done.”
Ellen finished the last letter, and stood back to make sure she had spelled everything properly.
“You forgot the exclamation point!” said Edgar as he dumped what was left in the paint can over his sister’s head.
Edgar and Ellen tackled each other and tumbled off the roof, splashing into the water below. Standing in the waist-high river, soaking wet, with red paint flowing as if they were bleeding from terrible wounds, the twins admired their work.
“I like it, Brother.”
“It’s certainly better than it was before, Sister.”
They cackled over the sounds of crickets and owls and crept home.
1. Welcome to Nod’s Limbs, Friend
For the most part, Nod’s Limbs was a lovely place to live. It wasn’t a big town, but it wasn’t small either. It was, quite simply, an upstanding community of historic landmarks and charming shopping malls. The Running River cut through the center of town, although it really should have been called the Walking Stream or the Crawling Trickle since it wasn’t very wide and didn’t flow very fast. Seven covered bridges allowed people and cars to cross the river, and the townspeople were very proud of their covered bridges. It’s rare to see
one
covered bridge in a town these days, and Nod’s Limbs had
seven
. They
looked like big red barns spanning the river, identical except for what was painted on their roofs.