Читать книгу Boys' and Girls' Circus Book - Enid blyton - Страница 10

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After a while Jerry came back again with the ladder. He laid it against the caravan, and whistled to the two children.

“Come on, Susy-Ann,” said Pip. He slid over the roof to the top of the ladder. Then down he went, and Susy-Ann followed. They looked at Jerry.

“You do look dirty,” said Jerry. And indeed they did! The top of the roof had been far from clean. Their clothes, faces, hands, and knees were black! Their hairs were untidy, and Susy-Ann’s golden head was no longer bright.

“Come on,” said Jerry. “We’d better see my mother now. Everybody is having a meal.”

He took the two children over to his blue caravan. Inside, his mother was cutting bread and butter, singing a little song.

“Mother,” called Jerry, “I’ve brought friends to see you.”

“Who are they?” said his mother. “Bring them in.”

Jerry pushed the two trembling children up the steps. His mother turned and saw them. Susy-Ann was afraid, and big tears spilled out of her blue eyes.

“Who are these children?” asked Jerry’s mother in astonishment. She sat down and took Susy-Ann on her lap. “Don’t cry, dear. What’s the matter?”

“I don’t want to be sent away to a Home,” wept Susy-Ann.

“To a Home!” said Jerry’s mother, puzzled. “What does she mean, Jerry?”

Then Jerry told his mother everything—all about how the two children had no mother, how their father had gone to Australia, and how Pip and Susy-Ann were to be separated and sent to different places.

“You see, Mother, I was sorry for them,” said kind-hearted Jerry. “So I brought them along, hidden in that old caravan.”

“Then they are the two children that those men were looking for to-day!” cried his mother. “But how was it they weren’t found? I know they searched that old caravan!”

“I put them up on the roof, Mother!” grinned Jerry. “Nobody thought of looking there.”

Susy-Ann leaned her golden head against Jerry’s mother. She had never sat on anybody’s lap before, and it was such a lovely, comfortable feeling. Mrs. Ronald, Jerry’s mother, looked down at the little girl. She had always wanted a small daughter, and she thought that Susy-Ann was a pet.

“Well, the children had better sleep here to-night,” said Mrs. Ronald. “We must decide what to do later.”

“But, Mother, you won’t send them away, will you?” begged Jerry. “Pip could help me in my jobs, you know, and now that the circus is so big there is plenty to do. Susy-Ann could help you in the caravan.”

“We won’t decide anything more for the present,” said Jerry’s mother, firmly. “I shall have to talk to Mr. Phillipino and your father, to begin with. And, anyway, it may be that the two children would not be allowed to stay here. Their own father would have to be written to.”

So it was left like that, and the two children and Jerry were sent out to sit on the dry grass to have a fine meal of bread and butter, hard-boiled eggs, lemonade, and bananas. They did enjoy themselves!

“When you’ve finished you must come inside the caravan and let me bath you,” said Mrs. Ronald, looking at the two dirty little children, who now had bits of hard-boiled egg round their mouths! “You do look little ragamuffins!”

So after their meal first Pip was well scrubbed and dried and then Susy-Ann. Their hair was washed too, and well brushed. Then Pip put on an old pair of shorts that Jerry had grown out of, and a blue jersey. Susy-Ann had only an old vest and a shawl to wear, for Mrs. Ronald had no girls’ clothes for her, and she said that those in the children’s bags were too dirty and creased to put on.

The circus folk looked astonished to see the two children outside the blue caravan. Susy-Ann sat on a tub, her freshly-washed golden curls drying in the evening sun. She had Mrs. Ronald’s big shawl round her and she looked really sweet. Pip was brushing Mister Binks, and he looked a sturdy little boy, black-haired and blue-eyed. Jerry went to get water for the three elephants.

Soon Mr. Phillipino heard of the two children, and he and Mr. Ronald, who was Juana the sword-swallower, came over to see who they were.

“Are they the two that all the fuss has been about to-day?” asked Mr. Phillipino, looking rather stern.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Ronald. “I’ll come across to your caravan, Mr. Phillipino, and tell you about them.”

So, leaving the three anxious children outside the blue caravan, Mrs. Ronald, Juana, and the ringmaster went across the field to have a talk.

The children watched them. Other men and women joined Mr. Phillipino, and listened to Mrs. Ronald as she explained about the two children. Delia came, and Madame Clara, Terry the sharp-shooter, and his little wife, Mr. Jummy the elephant man, and Mr. Hola, with one of his chimpanzees. They all stood or sat, listening, and joining in.

They were kindly folk, and fond of children. Jerry was a great favourite, and the circus folk loved him. When Jerry’s mother told them how the two children had no mother and no home, and how frightened they were of being separated, the circus folk shook their heads and looked sad.

Delia cried, for she was very tender-hearted. She mopped up her tears, and listened.

“What I want to know,” said Mrs. Ronald, “is whether we could keep the children. We can teach them as they grow, and they may be useful in the circus one day. We can look after them, and they will not be separated if we have them. That poor little Susy-Ann—so small—with no one, not even her own brother to love her. No, we cannot let such a thing happen.”

“You are right, Mitzi,” said Delia to Mrs. Ronald. Mitzi was the name that she was known by in the circus. “We must keep them.”

“We will all help,” said Mr. Jummy, generously.

“I can pay a little each week to help with their food,” said Mr. Hola. “They shall play with my chimpanzees just as Jerry does!”

“First we must tell the police,” said Mr. Phillipino. “And they must ask the children’s father if we may give them a home together until he wants them to go to him.”

“Where will they live?” asked Madame Clara. “I could have one in my caravan, though it is rather crowded with me and my three parrots already.”

“We will have to think about that,” said Juana, Jerry’s father. “Maybe we can squeeze them all into our own caravan. Jerry will be pleased to have friends!”

The three children sat quietly waiting whilst the circus folk talked about what to do with them. Susy-Ann felt certain that everything would be all right. She did like Mrs. Ronald so much. It must be lovely to have a mother like Jerry’s—someone whose knee you could sit on sometimes—someone who would love you and look after you!

“Look!” said Jerry. “They’ve finished their talk. Mother and Dad are coming over. I do wonder what they’ve decided.”

Pip looked rather white. He was older than Susy-Ann, and he wanted to stay with her and look after her. If only the circus folk would let him!

“Well, children,” said Mrs. Ronald, smiling. “It’s all decided. You are to stay here with us—that is, if your father agrees. But where we are going to put you I don’t know!”

Pip and Jerry went quite mad! It seemed wonderful to both boys that everything should suddenly be all right. Jerry danced round, doing a sort of gallop like a pony, snapping his fingers and shouting, and Pip yelled like a gorilla, and jumped up and down in the air as if he were a mad kangaroo! It was funny to see them.

Susy-Ann was very happy too. She took hold of Mrs. Ronald’s big warm hand and held tight. She felt safe now—and oh, how wonderful to live in a circus! Susy-Ann meant to know all the animals soon—she meant to help Mrs. Ronald, and she would live in a house on wheels! What fun!

“The only thing is—I can’t think where to put you all at night!” said Mrs. Ronald, laughing. “My family has grown suddenly, and I haven’t enough beds!”

But Jerry had an idea. Jerry always had. He was a wonderful boy for ideas!

“Mother, can’t we get the little old caravan cleaned and painted?” he cried. “Then we three children could live there together! We could always have it next to our blue caravan, and you’d have far more room in your caravan without me now I’m growing so big!”

“Good idea!” said Juana, Jerry’s father, coming up. “Wife, we will do that! To-morrow we set to work to make that old caravan into a house for the three children!”

“Ooooh!” yelled Pip, turning head-over-heels for joy. “A caravan of our own! What fun we’ll have!”

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Ronald!” said Susy-Ann, in delight, and she gave Juana a hug, which pleased him very much, for he loved little girls.

So it was all settled, and Pip and Susy-Ann joined the circus.