Читать книгу The Family at Red Roofs - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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Molly Jackson was in the sixth and highest form at her school. She was a popular, hard-working and responsible girl, and she was glad that she was soon going to start her training as a teacher. Her school had a fine kindergarten for the little ones, and an excellent training department attached to it.

“I shall start being a student in September,” Molly told herself in glee. “I shall be seventeen by then, half grown-up! The K.G. children will call me Miss Jackson. I shall feel quite important.”

Some of the other girls in her form were leaving that term to take up various kinds of work. One or two were going to train as hospital nurses. Some were going into offices. Others were going on to college.

“What are you going to do, Prudence?” asked Molly. “Have you made up your mind yet? Surely you’re not going to stay at home and do nothing?”

“Well, there isn’t any need for me to take a job,” said Prudence. “I don’t see why I should. I should enjoy being at home, and going to parties and plays, and lazing about and reading. I can understand you don’t want to do that—living in that poky house of yours in that dirty street! I’d want to get out of it and have a job as quickly as possible if I lived there. I can’t think why your people don’t move.”

Molly went red. Prudence had a fine big house with a tennis court and a pretty pond. She had a lovely bedroom all to herself, with blue wallpaper, blue cushions on her chairs and a blue eiderdown. She always had pretty dresses and smart coats, and she was nice to look at—why did she always spoil things so by talking in that snobbish manner?

“Well, if you want to know, we are moving!” said Molly, rather snappily. “After all, we are a bigger family than you and cost more to bring up, so money isn’t so plentiful. But we are moving at last—into Red-Roofs, that dear little house up on the hillside, the other end of the town.”

Prudence looked at Molly in surprise. “That’s quite near us,” she said. “I’ve always thought it was such a pretty house. Dear me, you are going up in the world!”

Joan Rennie heard the last part of the conversation and came up. She lived in the same part of the town as the Jacksons, and was a plain and homely girl, kind and dependable, with a delicate mother to fuss round. She was leaving that term to go into an office.

“Oh, I wish you weren’t moving so far away!” she said, dolefully. “I was hoping we’d still be near enough to see something of one another after I’ve left, Molly. It will be horrid to leave school, I think—all the familiar routine we know, the fun and games and friendships. I’m not looking forward to it at all.”

“You’re such an old stick-in-the-mud,” said Prudence. “Fancy wanting to stay on at school—a school like this, anyway. I never did like this school—I always wanted my people to send me away to a decent boarding school, but Daddy doesn’t believe in them, so I had to come here. And I can tell you I’m jolly glad to be leaving!”

“There’s one thing you didn’t learn at school which most of us have learnt,” said Joan, in her straightforward way, “and that’s loyalty! You’re always talking against your people or your school, or your friends or something.”

“I am not!” cried Prudence, and she glared at Joan. “How dare you talk like that—you plain, common thing!”

Joan laughed and walked away. She had no time for Prudence, with her airs and graces, her little sneers and gibes. She thought it a great pity that the girl was not going to a job; maybe she would have learnt what it was to work then, and get down to things. She had never bothered to use what brains she had at school.

Prudence talked to Molly with tears in her eyes. She could always squeeze a tear or two out when she wanted a little sympathy. “Isn’t she a beast?” she said. “Well, anyway, Molly, whatever she says, I shan’t drop you when I leave. Now that we are going to live near one another we’ll see quite a lot of each other.”

Molly was too simple and trusting to see that these sudden sentiments sprang from resentment at Joan’s remarks, and not from affection for herself! She took Prudence’s arm and squeezed it hard. “That’s nice of you,” she said. “Joan shouldn’t have said that. All the same, I like her. She’s always been one of my best friends. But it would be nice, when we move away from our old friends, to have one or two like you near us, Prudence. So do let’s see a lot of one another. I shall pass your house whenever I go to the K.G. each morning for the next three years or so.”

“I think you’re silly to want to be a teacher,” said Prudence. “Always keeping a lot of silly kids in order and teaching them that h is for hat and m is for mat. I shan’t waste my time like that, you can be sure! I shall have a jolly good time and then get married to somebody rich.”

“Well, you’re pretty, and you’ve got lovely manners, and money enough to dress well,” said Molly, without the least trace of envy in her voice. “That’s all right for you. But I have to earn my own living—and as I love children and like being with them, I don’t see that I could do anything better than teach them and enjoy their funny little ways.”

“When are you going to move?” asked Prudence. “Soon?”

“At the beginning of June,” said Molly, feeling suddenly excited at the thought of living in the dear little house on the hill. “Golly, it will be fun!”

Peter, Michael and Shirley were finding it fun, too. Already things were being cleared up and packed into big crates sent by the furniture removers.

“I’m longing for the day we move,” said Shirley happily. “It will be exciting.”

“Not for you, Shirley,” said her mother. “You are to spend the whole day at school and have your lunch and your dinner there. So are Michael and Peter. You would only be in the way.”

“Oh!” said the two boys, indignantly. “We shouldn’t be in the way. We could help, you know we could.”

“I want to help too,” wailed Shirley. “What’s Molly going to do? Isn’t she going to stay at school too?”

“No, Molly must stay at home that day and give me a hand with the move,” said Mrs. Jackson, firmly. “Now don’t make a silly fuss, Shirley. Think how lovely it will be for you to go to school from this dark little house one morning—and go home in the evening to lovely Red-Roofs, up on the green hillside!”

“Yes—it will be exciting,” said Shirley, and the boys agreed with her. It was a shame not to share in the move itself—but still, there would be plenty to do when they got to their new home in the evening—enough to last them for a week or two. There would be toys and books to arrange in the new cupboards and shelves, and there would be all Michael’s bits and pieces, tools and instruments to pack away carefully somewhere. Michael passionately adored taking things to pieces and putting them together again. He could mend a clock or a watch, and even tinker about with a wireless set till he got it right. Mrs. Jackson was always complaining of the way he left his things about, but now he would have the joy of a cupboard all to himself. He would soon show his mother how tidy he could be once he had somewhere to put things!

May slipped away, and June came in, bright and warm, full of flowers and sweetness. It was a fine time to move. The little old house looked queer with its carpets up and its belongings packed away into crates. The back yard was full of straw and papers and rubbish.

The great day came at last. Shirley, Peter and Michael went off to school with excited faces. That night they would sleep at Red-Roofs! They said good-bye to the dark little house they had lived in all their lives, but they could not feel very sad about it. It had been so cramped and dark and noisy, far too small for such a big family.

THE SECOND VAN WAS STILL AT THE DOOR

Molly stayed behind to help her mother. Her father had a day off too. The sixteen-year-old girl felt very responsible and grown-up, for she had been given many things to do. Her mother was to go with the first van of furniture to Red-Roofs, and she and her father were to be in charge of the furniture that was to be put in the second one.

“Go into every room and see that nothing is left behind,” her mother said. “Daddy will go with the men in the second van, but you, Molly, must stay behind and see that everything is all right. The gas-man will come and see to the gas. The electric light man will come and turn off the electricity. You can borrow a broom from Mrs. Johnson next door and sweep out the straw from the rooms while you are waiting. Then lock up the house and take the keys to the house agent. After that catch the tram to the other end of the town, and walk up to Red-Roofs.”

“You can trust me to do everything all right, Mother,” said Molly, happily. It was nice to be treated almost as a grown-up, and left in charge like this.

She did everything just as she had been told, and about half-past twelve was walking up to her new home. There it was, shining white on the hillside, its red roofs glowing. There were creepers of various kinds climbing up the walls, and roses were out on an early rambler. No curtains were up yet, so the house looked rather empty, but a great bustle was going on! The second van was still at the door, and men were carrying furniture into the house. A woman who had been engaged to help in the move was busy unpacking a big crate. Mrs. Jackson was directing where the furniture was to go.

“Oh, Molly—that’s good, you’re here!” called her mother. “The men have put your bedroom furniture upstairs in your room. Go up and see if the bed is where you want it. If it is, start making your bed, and then make all the others up too. The linen and blankets are in that big crate over there.”

Soon Molly was working hard and happily. It was fun to see order come out of chaos and confusion, fun to see a neat and cheerful little bedroom coming out of a mess and muddle! She rejoiced when she looked round her new room. True, she was to share it with Shirley, and Shirley was not a very tidy little person—but all the same it was lovely to have a room like this, even if it had to be shared. The casement windows opened out on to the garden, and the fresh hillside breeze blew straight in. The sun slanted in too, and made everything very cheerful.

There was not much furniture in the room—a single bed for Molly against one wall, and a smaller bed for Shirley nearby. A big cupboard would hold their things, so there was no wardrobe. There was a triangular-shaped wooden washstand that fitted neatly into a corner, small and compact. There was a big and roomy chest-of-drawers which the two girls had to share, and two chairs. The carpet was on the floor—a new one, patterned in blue like the walls.

“Once I get my few pictures on the walls, and a vase or two of flowers, and some of my books and ornaments, it will all look simply lovely,” thought Molly. “But I mustn’t stop for that now—I must get along and make the other beds. Goodness, how hungry I am!”

So was everyone else. Moving was a hungry job! Mrs. Jackson called up to Molly.

“Come down and have some sandwiches before we do anything else. We’ve all worked so hard we could do with a rest.”

So Molly went down the stairs, and, sitting in the sunny little garden, the Jackson family munched their sandwiches contentedly—the first meal at the dear little house.