On the Far Side of the Mountain

Sam heads to Bando’s cabin, telling himself that once he figures out where Alice is going, he will feel better and will go home to do chores. He finds Bando working on his Adirondack furniture and explains that Alice ran away. He asks to see Bando’s maps, and as they study them using a compass, Bando plots Alice’s direction on the map and hypothesizes that she is heading to the Helderberg Mountains, where a pair of goshawks (birds of prey) are nesting on the Helderberg Escarpment. Zella, also in the cabin, notes the many waterfalls on the way to the Helderbergs and mentions Alice’s interest in camping next to them. Bando doubts that Alice could climb waterfalls with her pig, Crystal, in tow, and both Bando and Sam lament the destruction that pigs cause. Zella, however, sees things differently. She knows Alice’s pig is smart enough to dig up bulbs and tubers and find water, and Sam realizes Zella is right, for just like Sam’s intuitive relationship with Frightful, Alice is able to communicate with Crystal well enough to convey her desire to find waterfalls.

Because Sam knows that Alice is heading south, he and Bando deduce that she is likely headed toward Peaks Brook, where she can walk downstream on easy terrain before heading east toward the closest waterfall.