Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 "It happened three years ago, in August." Rex began. "A cloud appeared in the sky from the west." "It looked like a thunderstorm was coming," Sven said. "But the cloud looked weird, all shiny," Peter added.

"It got closer and closer," Rex said. "There was this strange sound…" Peter started to click his tongue really fast. "That whole cloud was made of grasshoppers," Sven said. "There were millions." "Billions," Rex corrected. "The cloud was ten miles wide." "And then they all dropped out of the sky," Sven said. Suddenly the guys all started talking at once, their voices getting louder and louder, their words all swarming together. The grasshoppers were an inch long. They have huge eyes that bug out. They were everywhere! They'd cover your whole body. They'd crawl up your pants and down your shirt… And into your ears and up your nose. John squirmed as he listened. He felt as if hundreds of tiny feet were skittering across his

flesh. "The ground was totally covered with grasshoppers," Peter said. "They'd crunch when you stepped on them," said Rex. "My boots were covered with grasshopper guts." John felt queasy. "And then they ate all the wheat," Rex said. "All the wheat?" John asked. The guys nodded. "That's why they came — for the wheat," Rex said. "In just a couple of days they attacked every farm in Prairie Creek. We lost almost all of ours — twenty acres." "Us, too," Sven said. "We lost every stalk of wheat," Peter added. People tried everything to get rid of them. They set fires, shot guns, dumped water onto the wheat stalks. The grasshoppers stuck to the wheat like glue.

The attack lasted a week, until practically every stalk of wheat was chewed down to stubble. The grasshoppers devoured vegetable gardens, too. "We put blankets over the garden," Rex said. "But the grasshoppers ate the blankets." John listened in shock. "Then what happened?" he asked. "They laid their eggs and died." "We got lucky. We had a cold September, and the freezing cold killed the eggs. Otherwise, they would have hatched, and come back the next year." That's what had happened in Minnesota. "The grasshoppers attacked four years in a row," Rex went on. "Why haven't they come back here?" John asked. The guys all shook their heads and shrugged. Then Peter leaned forward. "I got it," he said. "Maybe Miss Ruell scared them away." They busted out in honks and snorts.

But then they all went quiet again. "What did people do without their wheat?" John asked. Growing and selling wheat was the only way to make money here, unless your pa owned a store or worked for the railroad. John couldn't imagine what Ma and Pa would have done if grasshoppers had eaten their wheat crop. They'd have no money to buy coal to keep warm, for clothes, for supplies. "It was bad," Peter said. "Lots of families left Dakota after that." "People that stayed helped each other," Rex said. "So we all made it through." But suddenly Peter's mouth dropped open. His eyes practically popped out of his head. A chilling sound filled the air. Shkshkshkshkshkshkshk And that's when John saw it, the most massive rattlesnake he'd ever seen — or imagined. There could be no doubt: It was King Rattler.

He wasn't in his hole. He was just ahead, on the bank of the creek. And he was coming right for them.