Читать книгу Five Have a Wonderful Time - Enid blyton - Страница 6

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That first day they were all together was a lovely one. They enjoyed it thoroughly, especially George, who had fretted all by herself for two weeks at home. Timmy was very happy too. He tore after rabbits, most of them quite imaginary, up and down the field and in and out the hedges till he was tired out.

Then he would come and fling himself down by the four, panting like a steam-engine going uphill, his long pink tongue hanging out of his mouth.

‘You make me feel hot just to look at you, Timmy,’ said Anne, pushing him away. ‘Look, George—he’s so hot he’s steaming! One of these days, Timmy, you’ll blow up!’

They went for a walk in the afternoon, but didn’t quite get to the sea. They saw it from a hill, sparkling blue in the distance. Little white yachts dotted the blue water like far-off swans with wings out-spread. They had tea at a farmhouse, watched by a couple of big-eyed farm-children.

‘Do you want to take some of my home-made jam with you?’ asked the farmer’s jolly, red-faced wife, when they paid her for their tea.

‘Oh, yes, rather!’ said Dick. ‘And I suppose you couldn’t sell us some of that fruit-cake? We’re camping in caravans in Faynights Field, just opposite the castle—so we’re having picnic meals each day.’

‘Yes, you can have a whole cake,’ said the farmer’s wife. ‘I did my baking yesterday, so there’s plenty. And would you like some ham? And I’ve some good pickled onions too.’

This was wonderful! They bought all the food very cheaply indeed, and carried it home gladly. Dick took off the lid of the pickled onions half-way back to the caravans, and sniffed.

‘Better than any scent!’ he said. ‘Have a sniff, George.’

It didn’t stop at sniffs, of course. Everyone took out a large pickled onion—except Timmy who backed away at once. Onions were one thing he really couldn’t bear. Dick put back the lid.

‘I think somebody else ought to carry the onions, not Dick,’ said Anne. ‘There won’t be many left by the time we reach our caravans!’

When they climbed over the stile at the bottom of the field the sun was going down. The evening star had appeared in the sky and twinkled brightly. As they trudged up to their caravans Julian stopped and pointed.

‘Hallo! Look! There are two more caravans here—rather like ours. I wonder if it’s the fair-folk arriving.’

‘And there’s another one, see—coming up the lane,’ said Dick. ‘It will have to go to the field-gate because it can’t come the way we do—over the stile. There it goes.’

‘We shall soon have plenty of exciting neighbours!’ said Anne, pleased. They went up to their own caravans and looked curiously at the one that stood near to theirs. It was yellow, picked out with blue and black, and could have done with a new coat of paint. It was very like their own caravans, but looked much older.

There didn’t seem to be anyone about the newly-arrived vans. The doors and windows were shut. The four stood and looked curiously at them.

‘There’s a big box under that nearest caravan,’ said Julian. ‘I wonder what’s in it!’

The box was long, shallow and wide. On the sides were round holes, punched into it at intervals. George went to the caravan and bent down to look at the box, wondering if there was anything alive in it.

Timmy went with her, sniffing at the holes in curiosity. He suddenly backed away, and barked loudly. George put her hand on his collar to drag him off but he wouldn’t go with her. He barked without stopping!

A noise came from inside the box—a rustling, dry, sliding sort of noise that made Timmy bark even more frantically.

‘Stop it, Timmy! Stop it!’ said George, tugging at him. ‘Julian, come and help me. There’s something in that box that Timmy has never met before—goodness knows what—and he’s half-puzzled and half-scared. He’s barking defiance—and he’ll never stop unless we drag him away!’

An angry voice came from the bottom of the field by the stile. ‘Hey you! Take that dog away! What do you mean by poking into my business—upsetting my snakes!’

‘Oooh—snakes!’ said Anne, retiring quickly to her own caravan. ‘George, it’s snakes in there. Do get Timmy away.’

Julian and George managed to drag Timmy away, half-choking him with his collar, though he didn’t seem to notice this at all. The angry voice was now just behind them. George turned and saw a little dark man, middle-aged, with gleaming black eyes. He was shaking his fist, still shouting.

‘Sorry,’ said George, pulling Timmy harder. ‘Please stop shouting, or my dog will go for you.’

‘Go for me! He will go for me! You keep a dangerous dog like that, which smells out my snakes and will go for me!’ yelled the angry little man, dancing about like a boxer on his toes. ‘Ahhhhhh! Wait till I let out my snakes—and then your dog will run and run, and will never be seen again!’

This was a most alarming threat. With an enormous heave Julian, Dick and George at last got Timmy under control, dragged him up the steps of Anne’s caravan, and shut the door on him. Anne tried to quieten him, while the other three went out to the angry little man again.

He had dragged out the big, shallow box, and had opened the lid. The three watched, fascinated. What snakes had he in there? Rattlesnakes? Cobras? They were all ready to run for their lives if the snakes were as angry as their owner.

A great head reared itself out of the box, and swung itself from side to side. Two unblinking dark eyes gleamed—and then a long, long body writhed out and glided up the man’s legs, round his waist and round his neck. He fondled it, talking in a low, caressing voice.

George shivered. Julian and Dick watched in amazement. ‘It’s a python,’ said Julian. ‘My, what a monster. I’ve never seen one so close before. I wonder it doesn’t wind itself round that fellow and squeeze him to death.’

‘He’s got hold of it near the tail,’ said Dick, watching ‘Oh, look—there’s another one!’

Sure enough a second python slid out of the box, coil upon gleaming coil. It too wreathed itself round its owner, making a loud hissing noise as it did so. Its body was thicker than Julian’s calf.

Anne was watching out of her caravan window, hardly able to believe her eyes. She had never in her life seen snakes as big as these. She didn’t even know what they were. She began to wish their caravans were miles and miles away.

The little man quieted his snakes at last. They almost hid him with their great coils! From each side of his neck came a snake’s head, flat and shining.

Timmy was now watching out of the window also, his head beside Anne’s. He was amazed to see the gliding snakes, and stopped barking at once. He got down from the window and went under the table. Timmy didn’t think he liked the look of these new creatures at all!

The man fondled the snakes and then, still speaking to them lovingly, got them back into their box again. They glided in, and piled themselves inside, coil upon coil. The man shut down the lid and locked it.

Then he turned to the three watching children. ‘You see how upset you make my snakes?’ he said. ‘Now you keep away, you hear? And you keep your dog away too. Ah, you children! Interfering, poking your noses, staring! I do not like children and nor do my snakes. You KEEP AWAY, SEE?’

He shouted the last words so angrily that the three jumped. ‘Look here,’ said Julian, ‘we only came to say we were sorry our dog barked like that. Dogs always bark at strange things they don’t know or understand. It’s only natural.’

‘Dogs, too, I hate,’ said the little man, going into his caravan. ‘You will keep him away from here, especially when I have my snakes out, or one might give him too loving a squeeze. Ha!’

He disappeared into his van and the door shut firmly.

‘Not so good,’ said Julian. ‘We seem to have made a bad start with the fair-folk—and I had hoped they would be friendly and let us into some of their secrets.’

‘I don’t like the last thing he said,’ said George, worried. ‘A “loving squeeze” by one of those pythons would be the end of Timmy. I shall certainly keep him away when I see that funny little man taking out his snakes. He really seemed to love them, didn’t he?’

‘He certainly did,’ said Julian. ‘Well, I wonder who lives in the second newly-arrived caravan. I feel I hardly dare even to look at it in case it contains gorillas or elephants or hippos, or ...’

‘Don’t be an idiot,’ said George. ‘Come on, it’s getting dark. Hallo, here comes the caravan we saw down in the lane just now!’

It came slowly up the grassy hillside, bumping as it went. On the side was painted a name in large, scarlet letters.

‘Mister India-rubber.’

‘Oh—the rubber-man!’ said George. ‘Dick—is he the driver, do you think?’

They all stared at the driver. He was long and thin and droopy, and he looked as if he might burst into tears at any moment. His horse looked rather the same.

‘Well—he might be Mr. India-rubber,’ said Julian. ‘But certainly there doesn’t seem to be much bounce in him! Look—he’s getting down.’

The man got down with a supple, loose grace that didn’t seem to fit his droopy body at all. He took the horse out of the shafts and set it loose in the field. It wandered away pulling here and there at the grass, still looking as sad and droopy as its master.

‘Bufflo!’ suddenly yelled the man. ‘You in?’

The door of the second caravan opened and a young man looked out—a huge young man with a mop of yellow hair, a bright red shirt and a broad smile.

‘Hiya, Rubber!’ he called. ‘We got here first. Come along in—Skippy’s got some food ready.’

Mr. India-rubber walked sadly up the steps of Bufflo’s caravan. The door shut.

‘This is really rather exciting,’ said Dick. ‘An india-rubber man—Bufflo and Skippy, whoever they may be—and a man with tame snakes next to us. Whatever next!’

Anne called to them. ‘Do come in. Timmy’s whining like anything.’

They went up the steps of her caravan and found that Anne had got ready a light supper for them—a ham sandwich each, a piece of fruit cake and an orange.

‘I’ll have a pickled onion with my sandwich, please,’ said Dick. ‘I’ll chop it up and put it in with the ham. What wonderful ideas I do have, to be sure!’