Читать книгу The Boy Next Door - Enid blyton - Страница 3

Betty could hardly keep still one fine day at the end of July. “Robin’s coming home from boarding school,” she told everyone. “And my Cousin Lucy is coming to stay to-day. Two people on one day—I shall have fun after being all alone!”

Betty did have rather a lonely life. Her brother Robin went off to boarding school each term, and Betty had lessons at home with her governess, Miss Thomas, because there was no school near. Betty’s parents lived in a lonely spot, in beautiful country, with hills and rivers all round. The only house near was a big empty one built as a pair to Betty’s own house, which stood in its own grounds nearby.

But now Betty’s cousin Lucy was coming to stay—and her brother was coming home. It would be marvellous to have two companions.

“Robin’s eleven, Lucy is ten and I am nine,” she thought. “We’re like a step-ladder. Won’t Robin be pleased to find Lucy here, too!”

Lucy arrived first, by car. She was not much bigger than Betty, but was quite different. Betty was fair, with blue eyes, like Robin—but Lucy was very dark, with short, curly hair and deep brown eyes. Betty rushed to meet her when the car drew up.

“Lucy! I’m so glad you’ve come! Robin isn’t here yet, but he will be soon. Mummy, can I take Lucy to my room? Lucy, you’re to share a bedroom with me!”

“Dear me, Betty, let me just get a look at Lucy!” said Mummy, with a laugh. “Did you travel all by yourself, Lucy? How grown-up you are!”

“Well—I didn’t travel quite by myself,” said Lucy, and she turned back towards the car. “Oh, Aunt Jane, I hope you won’t mind—but I just had to bring Sandy!”

“Who in the world is Sandy?” said Mummy, astonished.

“This is Sandy,” said Lucy—and out of the car jumped a brown and white fox-terrier, not much bigger than a puppy. “Aunt Jane, he got into the train with me and got under the seat when no one was looking—and the train went off with him—so I couldn’t very well make him go back, could I? Will it matter having him, do you think? He’s awfully good. He doesn’t need a kennel. He can sleep on my bed at night.”

“I don’t think I want him to do that,” said her aunt. “But as he’s here we can’t do anything but welcome him. Do you want a bone, Sandy?”

“Wuff!” said Sandy politely. He was on his very best behaviour.

“I hope you haven’t any cats,” said Lucy, going indoors with her cousin. “Sandy is awful with cats. Honestly, he thinks they’re only made to chase.”

“Well, we’ve got Tiger,” said Betty. “But no dog has ever chased Tiger yet. She’s too fierce. She’s a ginger cat with stripes. I should think she’ll quite probably chase Sandy. Come on. Let’s go upstairs. I’m dying to hear all your news. I hope Robin will be here soon. He’ll be awfully pleased to see you.”

But Robin didn’t seem too pleased to see Lucy. He arrived soon afterwards, and shook hands very politely. But Betty could tell that he wasn’t as pleased as she had expected. She followed him into his bedroom when he went to unpack.

“Robin, don’t you like Lucy? Aren’t you glad to be home again with me? Robin, Lucy has brought a dog called Sandy.”

“Oh, I’m pleased to be home,” said Robin, unstrapping a trunk. “But it’s going to be a bit dull with only two girls to play with. I hope you won’t want me to play with your dolls.”

“Robin! Don’t be horrid!” said Betty. “You know I don’t play with dolls when you’re home. I like tree-climbing and things like that then. I thought you’d like having two people to play with in the holidays instead of one.”

“Well, it’s a pity one of them isn’t a boy, that’s all,” said Robin, emptying all the things out of his trunk on to the floor. “After all, I live with boys all the term—and I feel pretty feeble when I get home and play with two little girls. Girls can’t even catch!”

“I can catch!” said Betty indignantly. “You know I can. And I bet Lucy can, too. Oh, look—here’s Sandy!”

Sandy came running in, wagging his tail. He went straight up to Robin, put his paws up on his legs, and licked him with a wet pink tongue.

“Oh, you’re a nice little dog!” said Robin, pleased. “I bet you’ll come out with me for walks, won’t you? You won’t want to stick with girls all the time!”

“Wuff,” said Sandy, and wagged his tail so fast that it looked like smoke at the end of him.

“I don’t expect Lucy will want him to go for walks with you without us,” said Betty, looking so mournful that Robin suddenly laughed. He stretched out his hand and pulled Betty down beside him.

“I feel rather grown-up these hols,” he said. “I’ve been put into another form, you know, and we all think a lot of ourselves, because we’re not juniors any more! Cheer up! We’ll have some fun together—but I DO wish there was another boy somewhere for me to play with.”

Betty told Mummy what Robin had said. “He seems too grown-up for girls now,” she said seriously. “It’s all right for Lucy and me because we’ve got one another for company. But it would be nice for Robin to have a boy. Haven’t we a boy cousin we can ask to stay, Mummy?”

“No,” said Mummy, laughing at Betty’s solemn face. “Don’t worry about Robin. He’ll want you to go off walking and boating and climbing with him when he has settled down again! Anyway—there may perhaps be a boy coming to live next door!”

“Mummy! Next door—but it’s an empty house!” said Betty. “No one’s lived there for a long time.”

“Well, I’ve heard that people have taken the house and are staying there for the summer,” said Mummy. “It’s to be let furnished, you know—the last people left it with all the furniture in. So, for all we know, there may be a boy for Robin to play with—in fact there might even be a whole family of children!”

This was exciting. The three children watched for the new family to come. They arrived in two or three days’ time, but as they came just as night was falling, it was difficult to see how many there were.

Robin saw them quite by chance. He was in bed, and heard a car on the road. He hopped out and went to see if it stopped next door. It did. It looked a very big and expensive car. Out of it got three or four people, as far as Robin could see from his window, which had a view of the drive that ran round the front of the next-door house. One person seemed fairly small.

“Hope it’s a boy!” said Robin to himself as he hopped back into bed. “We’ll find out to-morrow. Maybe we’ll hear him shouting about—or he’ll go down to the village to shop or something.”

But the boy, if it was a boy, didn’t appear at all. The three children watched carefully the next day, but they neither saw nor heard anything of the boy. The tradesmen drove up to the house and delivered goods, and a chauffeur was seen cleaning the car outside the garage. But there was no sign of a boy.

“You must have been mistaken,” said Lucy to Robin. “Look—there’s the grocer coming. Let’s ask him if he knows if there are any children next door now.”

So they asked him. “I think there’s a boy,” said the grocer. “I had to take some things round the back way, and I believe I saw a boy. You’ll see him soon enough if there is.”

But the boy didn’t appear. “It’s funny,” said Robin. “I wonder what he does with himself. He never goes for walks. We never hear him in the garden. Let’s climb a tree and see if we can see him anywhere. There’s a big chestnut at the side of our garden, near next-door’s garden. If we climbed that we could look down on their lawn, I should think.”

They all three went to the big chestnut tree. Robin climbed up first, to show the girls where to put their feet. Betty was quite good at climbing, but Lucy wasn’t so good. It took her ages to get up high. But how lovely it was sitting astride a branch at the top of the tree, looking down into their own garden, and into the next one, too!

“Isn’t it untidy and overgrown!” said Robin. “I can’t see anyone, can you?”

“Yes, look—over there!” said Lucy suddenly. The others looked where she pointed, and they saw a small summer-house. Outside it, in a deck-chair, sat rather a fierce-looking woman, knitting. As they watched she put down her knitting, settled herself comfortably, yawned, and seemed to go to sleep.

“No sign of any boy,” said Lucy. And then all three children stared hard, down into the untidy space where the fierce-looking woman sat, asleep in her chair. Someone was creeping out of the hedge nearby! Someone was on hands and knees, crouching behind the chair!

“A Red Indian!” said Betty, amazed. “Look at those gorgeous feathers. What’s he going to do?”

The Red Indian suddenly rose to his feet, gave an ear-splitting yell, ran round and round the chair in a very fierce manner, and then disappeared into the hedge again. The woman woke and sat up angrily.

“Kit! I won’t have these tricks played on me. I’ve told you that before. Come and take off your Red Indian things at once. I’ve told you you can’t wear them because you always behave so badly when you’ve got them on.”

But Kit didn’t appear. The woman went to the hedge and began to poke about with a stick.

“Come out! I shall tell Mr Barton of you. Your tutor told you not to make any noise at all, and you know perfectly well why. Yelling like that in my ear!”

The stick at last found the hiding Kit, and he wriggled out of the hedge, grinning. His face was painted in a very peculiar manner, with bright-coloured stripes across it.

“Sorry, Miss Taylor,” he said, “but I’m just tired of hanging around here and never doing anything. I’m going to go mad just for a few minutes and then I’ll take these things off and settle down.”

And, to the watching children’s great delight, Kit proceeded to go completely mad, dancing about round the angry Miss Taylor, brandishing what looked like a chopper, and yelling in a really fearsome manner. He then did a kind of war-dance, which was marvellous to watch, pulled off his wonderful feathered head-dress at the end, and bowed gravely to Miss Taylor.

“The show is now ended,” he said, and took off his Red Indian costume. The children saw that he was a boy, well-grown, of about eleven or twelve, with dancing eyes, short-cropped hair and a wide grin. He lay down on the grass and began to read, with Miss Taylor grumbling away nearby.

“I think,” said Robin, “I rather think—we’re going to know that boy! Golly, what a war dance! I say—he’s American, I should think, wouldn’t you? He spoke with a kind of drawl.”

“He’s fun, anyway,” said Betty. “How can we get to know him? Oh—I know! Let’s all dress up in our Red Indian things, and squeeze through the hedge to-morrow! We’ll pounce on him and give him an awful fright! That will be fun!”

“Right!” said Robin, sliding down the tree. “We will!”