Читать книгу The Secret Seven - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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‘We’d better have a meeting of the Secret Seven,’ said Peter to Janet. ‘We haven’t had one for ages.’

‘Oh, yes, let’s!’ said Janet, shutting her book with a bang. ‘It isn’t that we’ve forgotten about the Society, Peter—it’s just that we’ve had such a lot of exciting things to do in the Christmas holidays we simply haven’t had time to call a meeting.’

‘But we must,’ said Peter. ‘It’s no good having a Secret Society unless we use it. We’d better send out messages to the others.’

‘Five notes to write,’ groaned Janet. ‘You’re quicker at writing than I am, Peter—you write three and I’ll write two.’

‘Woof!’ said Scamper, the golden spaniel.

‘Yes, I know you’d love to write one, too, if you could,’ said Janet, patting the silky golden head. ‘You can carry one in your mouth to deliver. That can be your job, Scamper.’

‘What shall we say?’ said Peter, pulling a piece of paper towards him and chewing the end of his pen as he tried to think of words.

‘Well—we’d better tell them to come here, I think,’ said Janet. ‘We could use the old shed at the bottom of the garden for a meeting-place, couldn’t we? Mummy lets us play there in the winter because it’s next to the boiler that heats the greenhouse, and it’s quite warm.’

‘Right,’ said Peter, and he began to write. ‘I’ll do this message first, Janet, and you can copy it. Let’s see—we want one for Pam, one for Colin, one for Jack, one for Barbara—who’s the seventh of us? I’ve forgotten.’

‘George, of course,’ said Janet. ‘Pam, Colin, Jack, Barbara, George, you and me—that’s the seven—the Secret Seven. It sounds nice, doesn’t it?’

The Seven Society was one that Peter and Janet had invented. They thought it was great fun to have a little band of boys and girls who knew the password, and who wore the badge—a button with S.S. on.

‘There you are,’ said Peter, passing his sheet of paper to Janet. ‘You can copy that.’

‘It doesn’t need to be my best writing, does it?’ said Janet. ‘I’m so slow if I have to do my best writing.’

‘Well—so long as it’s readable,’ said Peter. ‘It hasn’t got to go by post.’

Janet read what Peter had written: ‘IMPORTANT. A meeting of the Secret Seven will be held to-morrow morning in the shed at the bottom of our garden at 10 o’clock. Please give PASSWORD.’

‘Oh, I say—what was the last password we had?’ said Janet in alarm. ‘It’s so long since we had a meeting that I’ve forgotten.’

‘Well, it’s a good thing for you that you’ve got me to remind you,’ said Peter. ‘Our latest password is Wenceslas, because we wanted a Christmassy one. Fancy you forgetting that!’

‘Oh, yes, of course. Good King Wenceslas,’ said Janet. ‘Oh, dear—now I’ve gone and made a mistake in this note already. I really mustn’t talk while I’m doing it.’

There was a silence as the two of them wrote their notes. Janet always wrote with her tongue out, which made her look very funny. But she said she couldn’t write properly unless her tongue was out, so out it had to come.

Peter finished first. He let Scamper lick the envelopes to stick down. He was good at that; he had such a nice big wet tongue.

‘You’re a very licky dog,’ said Peter, ‘so you must be pleased when you have things like this to lick. It’s a pity we’re not putting stamps on the letters, then you could lick those, too.’

‘Now shall we go and deliver the secret messages?’ said Janet. ‘Mummy said we could go out; it’s a nice sunny morning—but won’t it be cold!’

‘Woof! woof!’ said Scamper, running to the door when he heard the word ‘out.’ He pawed at the door impatiently.

Soon the three of them were out in the frost and snow. It was lovely. They went to Colin’s first. He was out, so they left the note with his mother.

Then to George’s. He was in, and was very excited when he heard about the meeting to be held in the shed.

Then to Pam’s. Jack was there too, so Peter left two notes. Then there was only Barbara left. She was away!

‘Bother!’ said Peter. But when he heard she was coming back that night he was pleased. ‘Will she be able to come and see us to-morrow morning?’ he asked Barbara’s mother, and she said yes, she thought so.

‘Well, that’s all five,’ said Janet as they turned to go home. ‘Come on, Scamper. We’ll go for a slide on the pond. The ice is as thick as anything!’

They had a lovely time on the pond, and how they laughed at poor Scamper! His legs kept sliding out from under him in all directions as he tried to run on the ice. In the end he slid along on his back, and the children had to haul him off the pond, weak with laughing.

Scamper was cross. He turned and growled at the pond. He didn’t understand it at all. He could drink it in the summer, and paddle in it—now look at it! Something queer had happened, and he didn’t like it.

That afternoon the two children and Scamper went down to the old shed. It was warm, because the gardener had got the boiler going well nearby, to heat the big greenhouse. Peter looked round.

‘It feels quite cosy. Let’s arrange boxes for seats—and get the old garden cushions out. And we’ll ask Mummy if we can have some lemonade or something, and biscuits. We’ll have a really proper meeting!’

They pulled out some boxes and fetched the old cushions. They laid sacks on the ground for a carpet, and Janet cleaned a little shelf to put lemonade and biscuits on, if Mummy let them have them.

‘There are only five boxes that are sittable on,’ said Peter. ‘Someone will have to sit on the floor.’

‘Oh, no—there are two enormous flower-pots in the corner over there,’ said Janet. ‘Let’s drag them out and turn them upside down. They’ll be fine to sit on then.’

So, with the five boxes and the two flower-pots, there were seats for everyone.

The bell rang for tea. ‘Well, we’ve just finished nicely,’ said Peter. ‘I know what I’m going to do to-night, Janet.’

‘What?’ asked Janet.

‘I’m going to draw two big letter S’s,’ said Peter, ‘and colour them green—cut them out, mount them on cardboard, and then stick them to the door of the shed.’

‘Oh, yes—S.S.—Secret Seven,’ said Janet. ‘That would be grand!’