Читать книгу The Saucy Jane Family - Enid blyton - Страница 3

Table of Contents

Mike, Belinda and Ann were three lucky children. They were at school all the week—and from Friday to Monday they lived in a caravan!

Mummy and Daddy lived in one caravan and the three children had the other. It was such fun. In the holidays they went to visit Uncle Ned and Aunt Clara. Then their two good horses, Davey and Clopper, pulled the caravans down many little winding lanes to Uncle Ned’s farm.

“It’s lovely to have a house on wheels!” cried Mike, when he sat at the front of his caravan and drove Clopper steadily on. “I wouldn’t like to live in a house that always stood still.”

When the summer holidays came, Daddy wondered whether they should all go to the sea. “Our caravans want cleaning and painting,” he said. “The stove wants something done to it, too.”

“Oh, Daddy—must we go and stay in a house!” said Ann, who, now that she had lived in a caravan on wheels, didn’t like living in a house at all. “Can’t we take the caravans with us?”

“No. We really must get them properly cleaned up,” said Daddy. “I’d like to take you to the sea, because you must learn to swim, and to handle a boat. All children should know how to swim.”

“I’d like to,” said Mike. “I’d like to dive as well. And swim under water like a fish. I’ve seen people doing it.”

It was very difficult to get rooms by the sea anywhere, because Daddy had left it rather late. He tried to hire a caravan by the sea, too, but they were all taken. It really seemed as if the children wouldn’t be able to go.

And then one day Mummy had a most exciting letter. She read it to herself first, and her eyes shone.

“Listen!” she said. “I wonder how you would like this, children?”

“What?” cried the three of them, and Daddy looked up from his newspaper.

“It’s a letter from an old friend of mine,” said Mummy. “She has a houseboat on a canal not very far from here—and she says she will lend it to us for the holidays if we like.”

“A houseboat?” said Ann, in wonder. “What’s that? Does she mean a boat-house—where boats are kept?”

Everyone laughed. “Isn’t Ann a baby?” said Mike. “Silly, it’s a proper boat that people live in—they make their home there, just as we make ours in the caravan.”

“Do they?” said Ann. “Do they really live on the boat all day and night? Oh, Mummy, I’d like to see a houseboat.”

“And I’d simply LOVE to live in one!” said Belinda. “Oh, I would! To hear the water all day and night, and to see fish jumping—and the little moorhens swimming about. Oh, Mummy!”

“Where’s this houseboat?” said Daddy. “It certainly does sound rather exciting.”

“It’s at Mayberry,” said Mummy. “On the canal there. It’s a very, very pretty part, I know. It’s a lovely houseboat—big enough to take all of us quite comfortably.”

“What’s the boat called?” asked Mike. “Does the letter say, Mummy?”

“Yes. It’s called the Saucy Jane,” said Mummy, smiling. “What a funny name!”

“It’s a lovely name!” said Belinda. “I like it. The Saucy Jane. We shan’t be the Caravan Family—we shall be the Family of the Saucy Jane.”

“Let’s go to-day,” said Ann. “Mummy, can we?”

“Of course not,” said Mummy. “You can’t do things all in a hurry like that. Daddy has got to arrange about the caravans being done—and we must find out what we can do with Davey and Clopper.”

“Oh, Mummy—we can’t leave Davey and Clopper behind,” cried Mike. “You know we can’t. They would be awfully miserable.”

“Well, we can’t have horses living on a boat,” said Daddy. “Be sensible, Mike.”

“They could live in a nearby field,” said Mike. He loved Davey and Clopper with all his heart, and looked after them well.

“We’ll see,” said Daddy. “They might perhaps be useful to us if we wanted to go up the canal a little way in the houseboat.”

“Oh—would Davey and Clopper pull our boat?” cried Ann. “Wouldn’t they feel queer, pulling a boat instead of a caravan?”

“Well—what about it, Daddy?” said Mummy, still looking rather excited. “Shall we try a holiday on a houseboat? The children could learn to swim and dive, and they could learn to handle a little boat too. Just what we want them to do.”

“It does seem as if we were meant to go,” said Daddy, smiling. “We can’t get in anywhere by the sea—so a river or a canal is the next best thing. Yes, write to your friend and tell her we’ll go and see the Saucy Jane.”

“And we’ll make up our minds whether to live in it for the holidays or not when we see it,” said Mummy.

“I’m going to tell Davey and Clopper all about it,” said Ann, and she ran off to where the two big horses stood close together in the field.

“Don’t be long,” called Mummy. “It’s almost time to go to bed.”

But when they were in their bunks in the caravan that night, the three children couldn’t go to sleep for a long time. They talked about the Saucy Jane, they planned what they would do—and when at last they did fall asleep they dreamt about her too.

The Saucy Jane! What would she be like? Just as nice as a caravan—perhaps nicer!