Читать книгу Hollow Tree House - Enid blyton - Страница 6

Table of Contents

Peter slipped into Susan’s room very early the next morning. ‘Susan! Listen! We’d both better give Aunt Margaret the shells and seaweed we brought back. If we don’t try to put her in a good temper she will scold all day long. It’s Saturday, so we shan’t be able to get away to school.’

‘All right,’ said Susan, sleepily. She looked at the seaweed hanging down from a knob on her chest of drawers. It was such an nice piece. She didn’t want to give it away at all.

Aunt Margaret was still in a bad temper. She was angry with the children for deceiving her, she was angry to think they had managed to get the two pounds and wouldn’t tell her where they had got it, and she was angry because she had accused Uncle Charlie of giving it to them when he hadn’t. It put her in the wrong, and she didn’t like that.

‘Now,’ said Uncle Charlie, setting the newspaper up in front of him at the breakfast table. ‘Now, Margaret, just you hold your tongue this morning. The children have told you I didn’t give them the money, so you wasted your breath yesterday telling me I did! Let’s have a little peace.’

‘Aunt Margaret, here are some shells I brought back for you,’ said Peter, and he put a handful of pretty little shells beside his aunt’s plate. Susan came up with the seaweed.

‘And here’s a lovely bit of seaweed,’ she said, trying to smile at her aunt.

‘Do you think that seaweed and shells can make up for being mean, deceitful children?’ said her aunt, in a scornful voice. She got up from the table, taking the shells and seaweed with her. To the children’s horror, she went to the kitchen range, lifted up the round lid from the top of the fire, and stuffed their seaweed and shells into the flames below!

‘Oh, Aunt Margaret! I did so like my seaweed!’ cried Susan, tears coming into her eyes as she heard it sizzling in the fire. ‘If you don’t want it, you might have let me keep it.’

‘Hold your tongue!’ said her aunt, in the kind of voice that meant a slap would soon be coming. ‘I don’t want to see either of you today. You can take your lunch and tea and get out. Don’t come back till bedtime.’

Nobody said anything more. Uncle Charlie read the paper, then folded it up and went out. The children washed up the breakfast things, and hung around wondering if their aunt was going to give them their picnic dinner and tea. She kept them waiting for a good while, and then cut sandwiches of bread and cheese and bread and jam.

She slapped them down on the table. ‘I hope you’re ashamed of yourselves,’ she said. ‘Here am I giving you a home and being a mother to you, when there’s little enough to feed you on—and the first time you earn a bit of money you keep it for yourselves.’

‘It’s not a home, and you aren’t being a mother!’ said Susan, before she could stop herself. Peter gave her a sharp nudge. It was silly to say things like that to Aunt Margaret.

‘One of these days I’ll turn you out!’ began Aunt Margaret, fiercely. But the children fled, taking their sandwiches with them. They felt that they could not bear to listen to another word.

They went to the wood and waited for Angela to come. If Miss Blair let her, she would come, they knew. And very soon she did. Susan cried out in delight when she saw her.

‘Oh, you’ve brought Barker! Oh, darling Barker, I’m so pleased to see you!’

Barker was a puppy of seven months, a black spaniel with melting brown eyes, drooping ears and a plumy black tail. He belonged to Angela and she loved him with all her heart.

‘I’ve brushed his silky coat well today. Doesn’t it shine beautifully?’ said Angela, proudly. ‘Barker, show how you can shake hands. Shake hands, now!’

Barker sat down, and put up his left paw, cocking his head on one side in a very knowing way.

‘Oh, no, Barker, no,’ said Angela. ‘The other paw, please!’

Barker obligingly put up the other paw and Angela shook it. ‘How do you do?’ she said.

‘Woof, woof,’ answered Barker, in a polite voice.

‘Isn’t he clever?’ said Susan. ‘Barker, shake hands with me now!’

Barker did so, first with one paw and then the other. The children thought he was wonderful. They all loved him and felt sure he was the nicest dog in the world. He often played with them and entered into their pretend games, being a horse, or a dragon, or a tiger, whatever it was they wanted.

‘Has he been naughty lately?’ asked Susan, holding one of Barker’s droopy ears in her hand.

‘Yes, awfully,’ said Angela, looking rather sad. ‘I wish he wasn’t. I know Mummy won’t keep him if he goes on being so awfully naughty.’

‘What has he done?’ asked Peter.

‘Well, he got on Mummy’s bed last night and chewed the top of her eiderdown to pieces,’ said Angela. ‘And this morning he went into the larder and somehow got a steak pie off the shelf and ate it all. Cook was so angry she said she would give notice and go.’

‘Oh, Barker, Barker, can’t you be good?’ said Susan, looking into the spaniel’s big brown eyes. ‘You look so very, very good—doesn’t he, Peter? Barker, do you want to lose your lovely home and darling mistress? Because you will, if you go on being naughty.’

‘It’s just mischief really,’ said Angela. ‘But he ought to be growing up a bit now, and be sensible. He can’t go on behaving badly. Barker, you made me sad the other day when you chewed Josephine’s arm off! That was very bad, wasn’t it?’

‘Woof,’ agreed Barker, putting a paw out, as if shaking hands would make things better.

‘And you chewed the chimneys off my dolls’ house,’ said Angela. ‘You are a very chewy dog. But no matter what you did to my things I’d never, never send you away. It’s only serious when you do mischief to other people. I’m sure if you steal things from the larder again you’ll get a whipping. And you won’t like that, you know.’

‘Woof,’ said Barker, looking solemn.

‘He understands every word,’ said Peter, tickling Barker’s sides. ‘Angela, we’ve got our dinner and tea with us. We haven’t got to go back home at all today. Can’t you get Miss Blair to let you bring your dinner and tea out, too, and we could really do a bit of exploring in the wood? We could go quite a long way into it.’

‘We might get lost,’ said Susan, opening her eyes wide in fright at the thought.

The children looked back into the wood. It was a very big one, and the trees seemed very thick and dark behind them. People had been lost in the wood. Once even Peter had been lost when he had gone in just a little way, and it was by luck that he had found the right path again.

Angela’s eyes lighted up in the way they always did when she got a good idea.

‘I know! We’ll go right into the heart of the woods today, for miles and miles! But we won’t lose our way because we’ll use the idea we read of in that story the other day! You know—where they tied silver string to a tree, and then unravelled the ball as they walked to the middle of the wood. Then, when they wanted to find their way out, they only had to follow the string back again!’

‘I say! That would be a good idea!’ said Peter, sitting up. ‘We could act that story. We could act that we were escaping through the wood, and had gone to hide from our enemies—and used the string to get out of the wood when our enemies had gone! Shall we?’

‘Oh yes!’ said the girls, and Angela jumped up. ‘I’ll go and ask Miss Blair if I can have my dinner and tea in the woods with you—and I’ll get the very biggest ball of string I can find. I know Daddy keeps some big ones in a cupboard off the hall. I’ll ask him if I can have one.’

‘That will be fun,’ said Susan. ‘While you are gone we’ll make one or two baskets, Angela. We mustn’t forget we have twenty to make altogether.’

‘Leave Barker with us,’ said Peter. ‘He can look for rabbits.’

But Barker wouldn’t stay. Where Angela went he had to go too. He loved her as much as she loved him. So off the two went together, Barker close to Angela’s flying heels.

‘We’ll get the rushes from the stream,’ said Peter, getting up. ‘Angela won’t be back for an hour, I should think. We can make a few baskets in that time. You’ve still got to make a handle for your first one, too, haven’t you?’

Peter brought back some rushes, and the two set to work on more baskets. They were glad to think they need not go back to their aunt till bedtime. They knew how their uncle felt, too, when he went out of the house and didn’t come back for hours. What a pity Aunt Margaret had such a bad temper and such a sharp tongue!

They worked hard, and soon three or four pretty little baskets, light yet strong, lay on the grass beside them.

‘When they are filled with wild raspberries they will look lovely,’ said Peter. ‘It was a good idea of Angela’s. There are plenty of raspberries deeper in the wood.’

‘Won’t it be thrilling to go right into the heart of the wood?’ said Susan. ‘We’ve never done that before. It’s a very, very big wood, isn’t it, Peter?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Peter. ‘Maybe no one has ever gone right into the middle of it, Susan. Perhaps we shall be the very first ones!’

Susan felt a delicious shiver creep down her back. Woods were mysterious. You didn’t know what you might find in the very heart of them.

‘I suppose there aren’t any witches nowadays, are there?’ said Susan.

Peter shook his head. ‘No. We shan’t find any witches’ cottages in this wood, so don’t expect that, Susan! We might find an old woodcutter’s cottage, but that’s about all. There won’t be any paths either, further in—only little rabbit paths. But we shall have old Barker with us, so you needn’t be afraid.’

‘I’m not afraid!’ said Susan, indignantly. ‘I’m never afraid when I’m with you. I wouldn’t be afraid of a witch either.’

‘Well, I don’t expect we shall find anything very thrilling really,’ said Peter, finishing off a basket. ‘Just more and more trees, thicker and thicker together, and the sunlight peeping here and there, lying like golden freckles on the ground. That’s all.’

Almost an hour went by, and then they heard Angela’s excited voice.

‘Where are you? Here I am! I’ve got my dinner and tea, and I’ve got the most enormous ball of string you ever saw! I’ve remembered to bring a bone for Barker, too. And I’ve got some ginger beer for everyone!’

‘Oh good!’ said Peter, pleased. ‘Mind my baskets, Barker! Take your big paws off that one! Well, are we ready to explore? Come on, then!’