Читать книгу The Pole Star Family - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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Mummy hurried back to the caravans with her news. The children saw her coming and flew to meet her. “How is Granny? Did you give her the heather we sent her? When is she coming out of the nursing-home?”

“Very soon now,” said Mummy. “Where’s Daddy? I’ve got some news for him.”

“Good news, or bad?” asked Mike. Belinda looked at him scornfully.

“Can’t you see Mummy’s face? It’s good news, of course, isn’t it, Mummy? What is it?”

“I can’t tell you yet,” said Mummy. “Ah, there’s Daddy.” She ran across the field to the stream, where Daddy was rinsing something.

“It would be nice to have some good luck for a change,” said Mike gloomily. “We’ve been a very bad-luck family lately. I hated having whooping-cough.”

“Well, you haven’t got it now,” said Ann. “You’ve stopped coughing. Or almost. And when you do cough it’s only just to remind yourself that you’ve had it!”

“Don’t be silly,” said Mike, and walked off. Mike wasn’t quite himself. He was rather bad-tempered and moody. Mummy said it was because he’d had whooping-cough so badly, and wanted a change.

Presently Mummy and Daddy both came over to where the children sat in a row on the steps of their caravan, one above the other. Mummy was smiling.

Ann suddenly felt excited. She jumped up and ran to her mother. “What is it? You look like Christmas-time, all happy and full of good secrets!”

“I feel like that too,” said Mummy. “Now listen, children—how would you like to miss school for a few weeks and go holidaying with me and Daddy and Granny?”

“Oooh,” said Ann, thrilled. Mike and Belinda looked at Mummy. They had been rather looking forward to going back to school—somehow these holidays had been too long.

“Where to?” asked Mike cautiously.

“Oh, to Portugal—and Spain—and the Canary Isles—and down to North Africa,” said Mummy, airily.

“But Mummy! Mummy, do you mean it? What, right away across the sea—in a ship?” shouted Mike.

“Yes, in a big steamer,” said Daddy, smiling. “It’s what you’ve always wanted to do, Mike, isn’t it?”

“I can’t believe it,” said Mike, looking as if he were about to burst with joy. His face went as red as the poppies in the field.

“Well, you haven’t told us if you’d like to go yet,” said Daddy, with a chuckle. The three children threw themselves on him and almost pulled him over.

“Daddy! You know we want to go. It would be too super for words. When are we going? How long for? What is our ship? How ...”

“Let’s all sit down and talk about it,” said Mummy, smiling happily. “Now listen—the doctor has said that Granny must go away on a cruise....”

“What’s a cruise?” asked Ann at once.

“A voyage in a ship,” said Mummy. “Well, Granny doesn’t want to go alone, she wants us all to go with her. In the ordinary way you couldn’t, because of school—but as you all look so pale and washed-out with that horrid whooping-cough, Daddy and I think it would be a good idea to do as Granny says—and all go off together!”

“Oh, Mummy—it’s glorious,” said Belinda. “Let’s make plans at once. Shall we go to-morrow?”

“Dear me, no,” said Mummy. “There are tickets to get and clothes to pack, the caravans to store somewhere, and the horses to see to.”

“But I can’t possibly wait more than a day,” said Ann.

Everyone laughed. That was so like Ann.

“Well, darling, would you like to go off by yourself?” said Mummy. “I daresay I could arrange it.”

But no—that wouldn’t do at all. “I’ll wait,” said Ann, with a sigh. “I do hope it comes quickly, though. Oh, fancy—we’ll be sleeping on board a big ship, right out to sea! You don’t think we shall get shipwrecked, do you, Daddy?” she asked after a moment’s thought.

“I shouldn’t think so,” said Daddy. “But there are plenty of lifeboats in case we do, you know. And anyway, we can all swim and float.”

“We’re a lucky family again,” said Mike. “We’ve been unlucky for weeks—now we’re lucky. Shall we start packing this very minute?”

“Darling, we are not going till the beginning of October,” said Mummy. “Two whole weeks to wait. Granny won’t be allowed to go till then. If I were you I’d find an atlas and see exactly where our ship will go. Daddy will tell you.”

So, for the next few hours, Mike, Belinda and Ann studied an atlas harder than they had ever studied one at school!

“We shall start at Southampton—here it is—and go down the Solent, look—and then down south. Here is Portugal—and we’ll go round a bit of Spain—and then to Madeira or on to the Canary Isles—what a lovely, lovely name!”

“And then to Africa. Will there be monkeys there?”

“There’ll be three extra when you arrive!” said Mummy. “What a lovely time we shall all have!”