when we’re well away from here. Those painted chaps can have their boss wallah back once we’ve crossed the river.
Break camp, Sergeant.”
Torgoch, looking fresh as a daisy, saluted stiffly. “Right y’are, sah! Midge, Riffle, move y’selves. Tare’n’Turry,
make sure that fire’s well doused before y’leave. Rockjaw, sling that h’injured vermin over y’shoulder. Officers lead
off, other ranks bringin1 up the rear!”
Rockjaw threw the rat over one shoulder, chatting to Lieutenant Mono as he did.
“Wot does the Major mean by ’arboreal verdance,’ sah?”
“Hmm, arboreal verdance, lemme see, I rather think it means treetops, leafy green ones.”
“Oh! Then why didn’t ’e say treetops?”
“Why should he when he knows how t’say words like arboreal verdance?”
Rockjaw cuffed the moaning rat lightly. “Hush thy noise, or I’ll give thee summat to moan about an y’won’t see
your arboreal verdance again!”
They crossed the river at the ford, which was littered with huge rocks, providing good stepping-stones. Behind
them the foliage rustled and trembled as the Painted Ones followed, anxious as to the fate of their Chieftain. Perigord
soon dispelled their fears by frog-hopping the hobbled rat back to the last stepping-stone, where he left him to be
rescued by his own kind. But not without a severe warning.
Fearlessly the Major drew his saber and pointed it at the swaying tree cover. “Listen up now, every slackjawed one
o’ ye! My name is Major Perigord Habile Sinistra, but don’t for a moment think that ’cos I’m left-pawed I can’t use
this blade! If y’don’t improve your ways I’ll return here, me an’ my warriors, an’ we’ll chop y’all up an’ eatcha, got
that! We didn’t eat your leader simply because he’s a coward an’ a bully an’ that’d make him taste bad. If I were you
chaps I’d set about findin’ a new commander today! Now if you’ve understood all that, an’ you probably haven’t if
you’re as dense as oP Shavvachops here, then take heed because I’m perilous an’ don’t make idle threats. I bid ye
good morn!”
Throwing up an elegant front salute with his saber, Perigord wheeled on one paw and marched back to his patrol.
Torgoch nodded admiringly. “Does yore ’eart good t’see a h’officer with steel in ’is backbone layin’ down the law
to vermin, don’t it, Rock!”
The giant hare dusted off his shoulder as if he had been carrying some unspeakable bundle of garbage there. “Aye,
by ’ecky thump! But if’n I’d a been him I’d ’ave told ’em I’d chop off their arboreal verdancy. Sithee, that’d make yon
vermin sit up straight!”
Breakfast time slipped by unnoticed. Having picked up the vermin trail, the patrol marched swiftly onward over the
grasslands in the fine spring morning. Between them, the twins Tare and Turry struck up a lively marching chant.
“As I marched out one sunny day,
O lairo lairo lay!
I met a hare upon the way,
O lairo lairo lay dee!
With ears like silk, and eyes so brown,
And fur as soft as thistledown,
She smiled at me an’ that was that,
My poor young heart went pitter pat!
O pitter pat an’ eyes of brown,
She looked me up an’ looked me down,
I ask you now, what could I do,
I said, ‘Please, may I walk with you?’
We walked together all that day, O lairo lairo lay!
As laughingly I heard her say,
O lairo lairo laydee!
‘Pray tell to me, O brave young sir,
Are you a wild an’ perilous hare
Who thinks of nought from morn ’til night
But march an’ sing an’ charge an’ fight?’
O march an’ sing, O perilous hare,
So I said to this creature fair,
‘To march an’ fight is my intent,
The Long Patrol’s my regiment!’
And then upon that sunny day,
O lairo lairo lay!
She turned from me an’ skipped away,
O lairo lairo laydee!
She said, ‘I fear that we must part,
Sir, I would not give you my heart,
That Long Patrol, alas alack,
Those hares march off an’ ne’er come back!’
O ne’er,come back an’ Long Patrol, While rivers flow an’ hills do roll, I’ll march along my merry way, An’ look
for pretty hares each day!”
Two hours into noon, woodlands were sighted. However, this was no copse but vast expanses of mighty trees.
Russa picked up the pace, smiling fondly. “Yonder lies Mossflower, an’ the Abbey of Redwall within a few days.
What d’yer think o’ that, young Tamm?”
Before Tammo could answer, Perigord interrupted sharply: “Only a few days to the Abbey, you say? By the left!
We’d best put on a stride an’ catch up with those vermin!”
Doubling the pace to a swift lope, they headed toward the shady green vastness of the sprawling woodlands. The
first thing Tammo noticed on entering Mossflower was the silence. It was complete and absolute. The sudden call of a
cuckoo nearby made him start momentarily. Overawed by the ancient wide-girthed splendor of oak, beech, elm,
sycamore, and other towering giants, the young hare found himself whispering to Russa, “Why is it so bally quiet in
here?”
The squirrel shrugged. “Dunno, I’ve never given it a thought. May’aps because out in the open y’can hear the wind,
an’ distant sounds travel on the breeze, but in ’ere, well, ’tis sort o’ closed in like.”
Stirring the moist carpet of dead vegetation with his saber-tip, the Major commented, “Cap’n Twayblade, let ’em
rest their paws awhile here and scrape up a quick snack—no cookin’ fire. Russa, you come with me and we’ll track
ahead. They’ve left plenty o’ trail in this loam.”
When the pair had left, Tammo sat with his friends in dappled sunlit shadows. They munched dried apples, nuts,
and oatcake, washed down with beakers of water.
“I’ve never been to Redwall Abbey, what’s it like?” he whispered to Pasque.
“Can’t help you there, chum. I haven’t either. Neither has Riffle, Tare’n’Turry, or any of us younger ones. Cap’n
Twayblade has.”
The Captain put aside her beaker. “Well, I’ll tell you, chaps, I don’t wish to appear disloyal to Salamandastron, but
Redwall Abbey, by m’life, there’s a place an’ a half! I was only there once, with Torgoch an’ Rockjaw, we were
carryin’ dispatches from Lady Cregga to the of Mother Abbess, con-gratulatin’ her on a onescore season Jubilee, as I
recall. Anyhow, we arrived at Redwall in time for the feast. Remember feat, eh, Rock?”
The burly Rockjaw Grang grinned and nodded, speaking in his odd way. “Bah gum, that were a do I’ll not forget!
Sithee, I’ve ne’er clapped eyes on so much luvly grub in one place: puddens’n’pies, cakes, turnovers, pasties, tarts, you
name it an’ it were there. Trifles, cream, cheeses, soups, an’ more .kinds o’ fresh-baked breads than y’could twitch an
ear at! But by ’ecky thump, I’ve tasted nought like that October Ale they brew at yon Abbey ....”
He sat with a dreamy look on his craggy face as the Sergeant contributed his reminiscences. “Ho yerss, they ’ad all
manner o’ fizzy cordials an’ berry wines too. We sang an’ danced an’ feasted for more’n three days. I declare, you
ain’t never met such obligin’ creatures as those Redwallers, ’omely an’ friendly as the season’s long, they was. If’n
I’m still around when I gets too old to patrol, I’d like nothin’ better than to retire meself to Redwall Abbey, ’tis the
’appiest place I’ve ever seen in all me seasons!”
Riffle could not resist rubbing his paws together gleefully. “Good egg! An’ we’re going to be there in a few days,