Читать книгу The Children of Cherry Tree Farm - Enid blyton - Страница 8

Table of Contents

Tammylan came out of the darkness holding a small bowl of water. Penny was surprised.

‘Have you got a tap at the back of the cave, Tammylan?’ she asked. Tammylan laughed.

‘No,’ he said. ‘But a little spring comes from a hole in the rock there, and then runs down through the floor of the cave. It is very cold and clear, and I use it for my drinking-water. Now, where’s that arm?’

Penny slipped off her coat, which was badly torn. Tammylan bathed her arm gently and then put some queer-smelling yellow ointment on it. Penny sniffed at it.

‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘I like the smell.’

‘Oh, it’s made of all kinds of herbs and roots,’ said Tammylan. ‘You wouldn’t know any of them. It will heal your cut more quickly than anything out of a chemist’s shop.’

‘It feels nice,’ said Penny. Tammylan took her handkerchief and bound up her arm neatly. Penny looked up at Rory.

‘I suppose you haven’t any sandwiches left?’ she asked. ‘I haven’t had any dinner and I’m so hungry.’

‘Not one,’ said Rory. ‘I’d have saved you some if I’d known, Penny.’

‘You shall soon have some food,’ said Tammylan, and he lighted a little fire at the doorway of his cave, on a flat stone that had been often used before. He cooked some broth in a pot, stirring it with a twig. It smelt simply delicious.

The others gazed enviously at Penny when the soup was ready and she was eating it. It made them feel hungry even to smell it. Penny said it was the nicest soup she had ever had in her life.

Tammylan suddenly saw that Benjy was wet and was shivering. He felt the boy’s coat.

‘So you fell into the pond where you were looking for frog spawn!’ he said. ‘Go to the back of the cave and take off your wet things. You will find an old rug there. Wrap yourself in it and come back to the fire. I will dry your things for you. You can’t go home like that.’

Very soon Benjy was sitting by a roaring fire, wearing an old red rug. He said he only wanted a few feathers in his hair to feel like a real Red Indian.

‘You live a sort of Red Indian life, don’t you, Tammylan?’ he asked. ‘Do you know, we heard all sorts of dreadful stories about you.’

‘Did you?’ said Tammylan, as if he was not at all interested.

‘Yes,’ said Rory. ‘We heard that you had shaken a boy called Dick Thomas till his head nearly flew off!’

‘That was quite true,’ said Tammylan. The children stared at him in surprise. Tammylan seemed so gentle and kind.

Tammylan spoke sternly. ‘Dick Thomas found a bird with a broken wing,’ he said. ‘And the poor thing couldn’t get away from him—so he tormented it. I won’t tell you how, but he was very cruel. That is why I shook him as I did.’

‘Oh,’ said Rory. He thought for a moment and then asked Tammylan another question. ‘Why did you throw two boys into the river?’

‘Dear me, so you heard that too, did you?’ said Tammylan. ‘Well, they had a dog they didn’t want—so they tied a brick to him and threw him into the river to drown. I came by, took out the dog—and threw the boys in. That’s all.’

‘Could they swim?’ asked Benjy.

‘Of course,’ said Tammylan. ‘I didn’t tie bricks to them! Don’t you think they deserved a ducking?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Rory. ‘I do.’

There was a pause—and suddenly Tammylan lifted up his hand to stop everyone from speaking. He had heard a small sound that had escaped everyone else’s ears.

The children sat still and looked towards the cave entrance. They saw a pair of big ears—then a pair of large, anxious eyes—and then a brown rabbit slipped round the fire and came into the cave. When it saw the children it stopped in fear. It sat up on its hind legs, its nose sniffing and woffling, and its whiskers trembling.

‘Well, Bobtail,’ Tammylan said in his deep, clear voice. ‘Have you come to pay me your usual visit? Don’t be afraid of the children.’

The rabbit came a little nearer, sniffed at Tammylan’s out-stretched hand, and then, frightened at a sudden movement made by Sheila, he turned and fled, his white bobtail showing as he went.

‘Oh!’ said Benjy, too delighted for words. ‘Tammylan! Is he a tame rabbit?’

‘No,’ said Tammylan. ‘He is a wild one. One night he got into a trap, and his leg was broken. He squealed pitifully, and I went to free him. I set his leg and it healed. Now he is one of my friends and comes to see me every day.’

‘One of your friends?’ asked Benjy at once. ‘How do you mean? Are other animals your friends too?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Tammylan. ‘Birds as well. They all come to me. They show me their homes and their little ones. I share their lives. I am as wild as they are, you see!’

‘Tammylan, please, Tammylan, will you show me your friends?’ begged Benjy, taking Tammylan’s brown freckled hand, that seemed more like a paw, it was so thin and brown. ‘I’ve read books about birds and animals for years, but I’ve always lived in London till now. I’ll never get a chance like this again—so will you please, please let me know your friends!’

‘And me too?’ asked Penny.

‘Do you want to make friends with badgers and foxes, with toads and frogs, otters and wild birds?’ asked Tammylan. ‘No! You children don’t care for any of those things nowadays! You want toys of all kinds—cinemas—bicycles to ride—roller skates. Oh, I know! All you want of animals is to tease them and frighten them—to take their eggs, to throw stones at them. No—my friends are my own, and I share them with nobody.’

‘Oh, Tammylan, you are wrong!’ cried Sheila. ‘Children aren’t like that—not the nice ones anyway. Just because you’ve seen a few that were cruel and stupid doesn’t mean that we are all like that. Can’t you give us a chance and see? Anyway, give Benjy a chance. Benjy has been mad on animals and birds all his life but he’s never even had a dog to call his own.’

Tammylan didn’t say anything for a minute. His long lean fingers pulled at his curly grey and brown beard, and his eyes looked far away.

‘Even Benjy cared so little for my woods this morning that he let the wind blow away your papers,’ he said at last. ‘They will go pulpy with the rain. They will wrap themselves around my primroses and violets, and will make my woods look ugly and untidy.’

The children went red. They remembered that Auntie Bess had told them not to litter the countryside with paper or bottles.

‘We shouldn’t have done that,’ said Benjy. ‘I’m sorry, Tammylan. We’ll look for the papers on our way home and pick them up. We’ll never spoil the country again like that.’

‘I have picked up your papers already,’ said Tammylan. ‘You didn’t see me, but I was there.’

The children all felt ashamed—except Penny, who had had no papers to throw away. But she was ashamed for the others.

‘Benjy may come and see me again,’ said Tammylan at last. ‘He has the low voice and the quiet hands of those who love the wild creatures. Benjy may come—and maybe, if my friends like him, I will let you others come sometimes too.’

‘Oh, thank you!’ cried Benjy, his face shining. ‘I’ll come! I won’t make a single noise or movement if you’ll let me see the friends that come to visit you. I’ll tell the others all about it, and then maybe you’ll let them come too, another time.’

‘I won’t make any promises,’ said Tammylan. ‘Now, Benjy, your clothes are dry and I am sure it must be long past your teatime. Get into them and go home. Come again after tea the day after to-morrow—by yourself.’

Benjy was overjoyed. He got quickly into his almost-dry clothes. Then they all said good-bye to Tammylan, and left his exciting cave, talking nineteen to the dozen.

‘Well, that was an adventure!’ said Benjy. ‘Fancy the wild man turning out to be such a grand person. Before you know it, I’m going to be friends with all the otters and badgers and hares and rabbits in the countryside!’

‘Don’t be too sure,’ said Rory, half-jealous. ‘Tammylan won’t stand any nonsense. You might get thrown into the river.’

‘I shan’t,’ said Benjy, and he knew quite well he wouldn’t. ‘I say—is that Uncle Tim coming to meet us?’

It was—he had come to find Penny, for when she had not gone in to her midday meal Auntie Bess had been very worried indeed. Now it was almost teatime.

Auntie Bess didn’t want to hear about Tammylan—she wanted to know where Penny had been, and what she had been doing! Penny found herself being well scolded!

‘Why didn’t you come and tell me you were going?’ scolded Auntie Bess.

‘Because I knew you wouldn’t let me,’ said Penny, beginning to cry. ‘Don’t be cross with me. I climbed a tree and I fell down, and I cut my arm, and I didn’t have any dinner....’

‘Well, that was your own fault,’ said Auntie Bess. ‘Now don’t you do such a thing again. Come along in and have tea. It’s all ready, and you must be as hungry as hunters.’

They were! There wasn’t much left of the veal and ham pie, the jam tarts, and the cherry cake when the four children had finished!

‘What an adventure we all had!’ said Benjy that night when they went to bed. ‘I did enjoy it—and to think it’s only just beginning! Aren’t we lucky!’

‘You are!’ said Rory. ‘You’re the one that’s going to have the luck, it seems to me.’

‘Well, I’ll do my best to share it with you,’ said Benjy sleepily. ‘I’ll tell you everything.’

Then off he went to sleep, to dream of a tame rabbit that came to clean his shoes and cook soup for him and dry his clothes!