Читать книгу The Misadventures of Seldovia Sam - Susan Woodward Springer - Страница 13

Wrestling the Monster Clam

Sam grabbed his digging spade and raced to the spot. As he stepped on the soft mud next to the clam hole, another geyser shot up. Whooosh!

“Yeee-ha!!” hollered Sam. “This must be the king of all clams!”

Sam dug quickly. Neptune stood on her hind legs and snapped at the flying mud. The tip of Sam’s spade struck something hard.

Could it be?

But it was only a rock. Sam pried the rock out and kept digging. He hit another rock, and another, and another. Sam’s arms were getting tired. As he dug, cold seawater seeped into the hole, making it even harder.

Would he never find this monster clam?

Finally, Sam’s spade scraped something … it felt like the edge of …

… another rock? More water gurgled into the hole and the soft muddy sides started to cave in. Sam scooped out the icy water as fast as he could. He wouldn’t give up now. He was too close.

He found the hard object again. It was the edge of … dig, dig, dig … the shell of … dig, dig, dig … oh, my goodness … A VERY LARGE CLAM!

Sam threw down his spade and began digging out sand with his hands. He knew that the shell would break if he were careless and hit it too hard with the spade. Breaking the shell of a clam would kill it, and Sam knew that dead clams are not safe to eat. Besides, how could he show off a broken shell to Melody Chambers?

He sat back on his heels to rest a moment. Sweat was pouring off him now. Even with the shell still partly buried, Sam could tell that this was the biggest clam he had ever seen. Neptune whined in his ear.

“Settle down, girl. We’ve almost got him.”

Finally he was able to get his hands around the clam and pull. It didn’t budge. The suction of the mud was too strong.

Neptune whined again and nudged Sam’s arm with her nose. Sam pushed her away.

He gently worked the tip of his digging spade under the clam and pried up carefully. He scraped a little and pried a little. He scraped and pried a bit more, and then …

Sshhl-l-u-c-k! The clam popped loose with a big smacking noise. Sam lost his balance and fell down suddenly—kerplop—into the wet kelp. There, cradled in his hands like a muddy jewel was …

A VERY LARGE CLAM!

It was bigger than his hand.

It was bigger than both his hands cupped together.

It was even bigger than the foot of Sam’s boot!

Sam stood up triumphantly and said, “Come on, girl. We’d better get going. The tide will be coming in soon …”

But Neptune was gone.

As Sam turned toward shore, he saw his bucket float by. The big rock and the driftwood log were gone, covered by fast-rising water. The water was now between him and the shore.

Oh no! thought Sam, I’m trapped!