Читать книгу The Queen Elizabeth Family - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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Mike woke first the next morning, and he remembered at once that it was Saturday—and that they were all going to see the big ship, Queen Elizabeth. He sat up and rubbed his hands in joy.

“Wake up, girls! It’s Queen Elizabeth day!” he called, and Belinda and Ann woke with a jump. They too remembered what was going to happen, and they leapt out of their comfortable little bunks like rabbits springing from their holes.

Belinda flew down the steps of the caravan to help with the breakfast. Mike ran to see if there was plenty of wood for the fire. Ann made the bunks very neatly and tidily. There wouldn’t be much time for jobs after breakfast to-day!

They didn’t even have time to wash up the breakfast things before Granny’s car arrived at the field-gate! “Honk! honk!” the horn sounded. “Honk, honk!”

“There’s the car!” cried Ann, in excitement, and nearly knocked the milk over. “Mummy, Mummy, we aren’t ready!”

“Well, we soon shall be—but not if you knock everything over,” said Mummy. “Belinda, just pack all the things into the little sink so that we can wash them when we come back. Ann, Mike, go and get your hats and coats.”

Soon everyone was running over to the field-gate. Granny was in the car, looking out anxiously for them. Daddy opened the door and gave her a kiss.

“Hullo, hullo!” he said. “Punctual as always. Good-morning, James. I hear you are going to be good enough to look after the caravans and the two horses for me to-day.”

The driver touched his cap. “Yes, sir, I’d be delighted. Nice to have a day in a caravan in the country! And I’ll see to the horses, sir. Davey and Clopper, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” said the children. Ann touched his arm. “You will go and talk to them, won’t you?” she asked. “They don’t like it when we all go off for the day and nobody comes near them.”

“Don’t you worry, miss—I’ll ask them all their news,” said the driver, and he helped Mummy into the front seat.

Daddy got into the driving-seat. Ann sat on Mummy’s knee in front. Mike and Belinda got in at the back, trying hard not to squash Granny too much. But she was a very little person and didn’t really take up much more room than they did.

“Well, what a treat this is going to be!” said Granny. “I was so surprised when Daddy rang me up last night. I’ve always wanted to see the Queen Elizabeth—our most magnificent ship!”

It was quite a long way to Southampton. They had lunch on the way, sitting in the sun on a grassy hillside, looking down over a valley. Little fields separated by green hedges spread out before them.

“It’s rather like a patchwork quilt,” said Belinda. “All bits and pieces joined together by hedges. Is America like this, I wonder?”

“Oh no!” said Daddy. “You wouldn’t see any tiny fields like this, with hedges between. You’d see miles upon miles of great rolling fields, as far as the eye can reach. One field in America would take a hundred of our little fields—sometimes a thousand or more!”

“It must be a very, very big country then,” said Ann. “I should get lost in it.”

“You probably would!” said Granny. “But as you’re not going, you can feel quite safe here with me. Now—have we all finished our lunch? We ought to be setting off again.”

After a while they arrived at a big town. Daddy said it was a port. “It’s the port of Southampton,” he said, “where big ships—and little ships too—come to harbour.”

“What a lot of cranes everywhere!” said Mike, watching a crane in the distance pulling up a great package. “I suppose they’re used to unload ships, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” said Daddy. “Do you see that little box-like house near the bottom of the crane? Well, a man sits in there all day long, and works the crane.”

“I’d rather like to do that,” said Mike. “I once built a little crane with my Meccano, and it worked just like that big one.”

“Look! Aren’t those the funnels of the Queen Elizabeth?” suddenly said Mummy, and she pointed beyond the crane. Daddy slowed down the car.

Two enormous red funnels showed above the tops of the buildings beyond the crane. “Yes,” said Daddy. “That’s the Queen Elizabeth.”

The children stared in awe. “Are those her funnels?” said Ann, hardly believing her eyes. “Good gracious— if her funnels are higher than houses, what a very big ship she must be! Why, you could almost drop a house down one of her funnels!”

“Not quite,” said Mummy. The car went on again through the crowded streets of Southampton, and at last came to the docks. What a wonderful place!

Mike couldn’t take his eyes from the ships there. Great big ships—smaller ships—quite small ships. Fussy little tugs bustling here and there. Boats everywhere. Hootings and sirens, and hammerings and shouts! What a wonderful place to live!

“I wish we lived at Southampton,” said Mike. “I’d be down at the docks every day. I think I shall be a sailor when I grow up, Daddy.”

“Not an engine-driver after all?” said Daddy, stopping the car at a gate, and showing some tickets to the policeman there. “Can we go through? Thank you.”

“The Queen is up beyond,” said the policeman, and saluted.

The car ran through the gateway, and Daddy put it in a parking-place where there were many other cars. Then they made their way to the Queen Elizabeth.

Ann didn’t even know the Elizabeth when they came in sight of her. She hadn’t expected anything so enormous. But the other two children gasped in surprise.

“Mummy! She’s the biggest ship that was ever built!” cried Mike, as his eyes went up and up the sides of the great ship, past deck after deck, to the topmost one of all—then to the funnels that now towered far above him, higher than any house.

“She’s grand,” said Daddy, proudly. “I’m glad she’s British. No one can beat us at ship-building. We’ve been shipbuilders for centuries—and here’s our grandest ship so far!”

“Let’s go aboard—oh, do let’s hurry up and go aboard!” cried Belinda. “I want to see what she’s like inside!”