Читать книгу The Castle of Adventure - Enid blyton - Страница 6

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Certainly Castle Hill was a very lonely place, for, after they had explored it, there seemed to be only their own cottage on it, Tassie’s tumbledown home, and a farm some way off, where they got their eggs and milk. The village lay in the valley below.

But although the great hill was almost empty of people, it was full of wild life: birds for Jack, and animals of all kinds for Philip. Squirrels ran everywhere, rabbits popped up wherever they walked, and red foxes slunk by, not seeming at all scared.

“Golly! I wish I could get a baby fox, a little cub!” said Philip. “I’ve always wanted one. They’re like small and lively puppies, you know.”

Tassie, the gypsy-like girl, was with them when he said this. She often joined up with them now, and was quite invaluable because she always knew the way home. It seemed very easy to get lost on the vast hill, but Tassie could always show them a short cut.

She was a queer girl. Sometimes she would not come near them but hovered about, some yards off, looking at Kiki with fascinated eyes. Sometimes she walked close to them, and listened to their talk, though she never said very much herself.

She looked with admiration and envy on the simple clothes of the two girls. Sometimes she took the stuff they were made of between her fingers and felt it. She never wore anything but a ragged frock that looked as if it had been made from a dirty sack. Her wild, curly hair was in a tangle, and she was always dirty.

“I don’t mind her being dirty, but she smells a bit strong sometimes,” said Lucy-Ann to Dinah. “I don’t believe she ever has a bath.”

“Well, she’s probably not seen a bath in her life,” said Dinah. “She looks awfully healthy though, doesn’t she? I’ve never seen anyone with such bright eyes and pink cheeks and white teeth. Yet I bet she never cleans her teeth.”

On enquiry, it was found that Tassie didn’t know what a bath was. Dinah took her into Spring Cottage and showed her the big tin bath they all used. Her mother was there and looked at the wild little girl in amazement.

“Whoever is that dirty little girl?” she asked Lucy-Ann in a low voice. “She’d better have a bath.”

Lucy-Ann knew Mrs. Mannering would say that. Mothers thought a lot about people being clean. But when Dinah explained to Tassie what having a bath meant, Tassie looked scared. She shrank back in horror at the thought of sitting down in water.

“Now you listen to me,” said Mrs. Mannering firmly. “If you like to let me give you a bath and scrub you well, I’ll find an old cotton frock of Dinah’s for you, and a ribbon for your hair.”

The thought of this finery thrilled Tassie to such an extent that she consented to have a bath. So she was shut up in the kitchen with Dinah’s mother, a bath of hot water and plenty of soap.

After a bit such agonised shrieks came from the kitchen that the children in the garden outside wondered what could be happening. Then they heard Mrs. Mannering’s firm voice.

“Sit down properly. Get wet all over. Now don’t be silly, Tassie. Think of that pretty blue cotton frock over there.”

More shrieks. Evidently Tassie had sat down but didn’t like it. There came the sound of scrubbing.

“Your mother’s doing the job thoroughly,” said Jack, with a grin. “Pooh, what a smell of carbolic!”

In half an hour’s time Tassie came out of the kitchen, looking quite different. Her brown face and arms were now only dark with sunburn, not with dirt. Her hair was washed and brushed, and tied back with a blue ribbon. She wore a blue cotton frock of Dinah’s, and on her feet she actually had a pair of old rubber shoes!

“Oh, Tassie—you look fine!” said Lucy-Ann, and Tassie looked pleased. She fancied herself very much indeed in her new clothes, and kept stroking the blue frock as if it was a cat.

“I smell nice,” she said, evidently liking the smell of carbolic soap better than the others did. “But that bath was dreadful. How often do you have a bath? Once a year?”

Tassie was extraordinarily stupid in some things. She could not read or write, and yet, like a Red Indian, she could read the signs in the woods and fields in a way that really astonished the children. She was more like a very intelligent animal than a little girl. She attached herself to Philip and also to Kiki, and plainly thought that he and the parrot were the most admirable members of the party.

The day after her bath, she came down to the cottage and looked in at the window. She held something in her arms and the others wondered what it was.

“There’s Tassie,” said Lucy-Ann. “She’s got her blue frock on, and looks quite nice. But her hair’s all in a tangle again. And whatever has she got round her neck?”

“Her shoes!” said Philip with a grin. “I knew she wouldn’t wear those long! She’s so used to being barefooted that shoes would hurt her. But she can’t bear to part with them, so she’s strung them round her neck.”

“What has she got in her arms?” said Dinah curiously. “Tassie, come in and show us what you’ve got.”

Tassie grinned, showing all her even white teeth, and went round to the back door. She appeared in the kitchen, and Philip gave a yell.

“It’s a fox-cub! Oh, the pretty little thing! Tassie, where did you get it?”

“From its den,” said Tassie. “I knew where a fox family lived, you see.”

Philip took the little cub in his arms. It was the prettiest thing imaginable, with its sharp little nose, its small brush-tail and its thick red coat. It lay quivering in Philip’s arms, looking up at him.

Before many seconds had passed the spell that Philip seemed to put on all animals fell upon the fox-cub. It crept up to his neck and licked him. It cuddled against him. It showed him in every way it could that it loved him.

“You’ve got a wonderful way with animals,” said his mother. “Just like your father had. What a dear little cub, Philip! Where are you going to keep it? You will have to keep it in some sort of cage, won’t you, or it will run off.”

“Of course not, Mother!” said Philip scornfully. “I shall train it to run to heel, like a puppy. It will soon learn.”

“Well, but foxes are such wild creatures,” said his mother doubtfully. But no creature was wild with Philip. Before two hours had gone by the cub was scampering at Philip’s heels, begging to be taken into his arms whenever the boy stopped.

Philip’s liking for the little gypsy girl increased very much after that. He found that she knew an amazing amount about animals and their ways.

“She’s like Philip’s dog, always following him about,” said Dinah. “Fancy anyone wanting to follow Philip!”

Dinah was not feeling very fond of her brother at that moment. He had four beetles just then, which he said he was training to be obedient to certain commands. He kept them in his bedroom, but they wandered about in a manner that was most terrifying to poor Dinah.

Kiki disliked Philip’s fox-cub very much and scolded it vigorously whenever she saw it. But Tassie she loved, and flew to her shoulder as soon as she saw her, murmuring nonsense into her ear. Tassie, of course, was delighted about this, and felt enormously proud when Kiki came to her.

“You may think Tassie simply adores you but you come second to Kiki, all the same!” Dinah told Philip with a laugh.

“I wish Kiki would leave Button alone,” said Philip. Button was the name he had given to the little fox-cub, which, like Tassie, followed him about whenever it could. “Kiki is really behaving badly about Button. I suppose she’s jealous.”

“How many times have I told you to wipe your feet?” Kiki demanded of Button. “Where’s your handkerchief? God save the weasel! Pop goes the king!”

The children yelled with laughter. It was always funny when Kiki got mixed up in her sentences. Kiki regarded them solemnly, head on one side.

“Attention, please! Open your book at page 6.”

“Shut up, Kiki! You remind me of school!” said Jack. “I say, you others—I saw that eagle again today. It was soaring over the hill-top, and its wing-spread was terrific. I’m sure it’s got a nest up there.”

“Well, let’s go up and find it,” said Dinah. “I’m longing to have a squint at that old castle, anyway. Even if we can’t go up the road that has land-slided—or is it land-slid?—we can get as close to it as possible and see what it’s like.”

“Yes—let’s do something exciting,” said Lucy-Ann. “Let’s take our tea out, and go up the hill as far as we can. You can look for eagles’ nests, Jack, and we’ll have a look at the old castle. It looks so strange and mysterious up there, frowning down at the valley, as if it had some secret to hide.”

“It’s empty, you know,” said Philip. “Probably full of mice and spiders and bats, but otherwise empty.”

“Oooh, don’t let’s go inside then,” said Dinah at once. “I’d rather find an eagle’s nest than get mixed up with bats inside the old castle!”