6 Terrible Dreams

6. TERRIBLE DREAMS "TENTACLE!" hollered Squawk. The parrot's screech woke Grandpa. A moment later, he felt something grab hold of his peg leg. He dragged his eyepatch from his good eye and

saw a massive tentacle wrapped around his wooden leg. Grandpa clung on to the edge of his hammock with his hand and his hook as the tentacle pulled him toward the open hatch. He kicked at it furiously with his good leg, while Squawk flew about the cabin, trying to peck at the tentacle. But still it yanked on Grandpa's leg.

Grandpa's cabin door swung open and slammed against the wall as the rest of the Jolley-Rogers came running to his aid. At exactly the same time, with a loud POP, the tentacle disappeared through the hatch, taking Grandpa's wooden leg with it into the darkness beyond.

"MY LEG!" shouted Grandpa, leaning out of the hatch. "GIVE ME BACK MY LEG, YE SCURVY BEAST!" Jim's mom pulled Grandpa back into his cabin. "Better it's just yer leg than the whole of ye," she said. "Did ye see the beast?" shouted Grandpa, bubbling with rage. "I'll hunt the varmint down! I'll get back me

precious leg! The monster picked the wrong pirate for a fight!" "We could make you a new leg?" suggested Nugget. "I don't want a new leg!" hollered Grandpa, waving his cutlass above his head. "I want me old leg! I've had that peg leg for fifty years! I whittled it from the mast of Black Bob's ship! His cursed cannon took my flesh and bone, so I sank him right there, leavin' just the very top of his mast pokin' above the waves. I took its timber for my peg, figurin' Black Bob wouldn't be needin' it deep down in Davy Jones's locker. It's as good a part o' me as the flesh that were there before.

I'll be gettin' that leg back if it's the last thing I do!" "Oh. OK," said Nugget quietly. "Even so, ye'll be needin' a temporary peg, Dad. Just until ye get yer old leg back," said Jim's mom. "We'll figure somethin' out tomorrow."