6
the days go by
the girls had decided to have the two rooms. they were such small rooms,and it would be easier to keep two rooms tidier than one, if two people wereto have them.
‘there would never be room for anything it we tried to keep all ourthings in one room,’ said dinah, and lucy-ann agreed. she had been up tosee the tower-room and liked it very much. she would have liked a roomwithout glass panes too. it was almost as good as sleeping out-of-doors,thought the little girl, as she leaned out of one of the windows, and felt thesea-breeze streaming through her hair.
the girls’ two rooms looked out over the sea, but in a different directionfrom the boys’. the isle of gloom could never be seen from there. jack toldlucy-ann what joe had said, and lucy-ann looked rather alarmed.
‘you needn’t worry. joe’s full of strange beliefs and strange stories,’ saidphilip with a laugh. ‘there’s nothing in his stories, really – i believe he justlikes frightening people.’
it was strange to sleep for the first time at craggy-tops. lucy-ann layawake for a long time, listening to the muffled roar of the waves breakingon the rocks below. she heard the wind whistling too, and liked it. howdifferent it all was from the quiet little town uncle geoffrey lived in! thereeverything seemed half dead – but here there was noise and movement, thetaste of salt on her lips, the feel of the wind through her hair. it wasexciting. anything might happen at lonely craggy-tops.
jack lay awake in the tower-room too. philip was asleep on the mattressbeside him. jack got up and went to the window. the room was full of thewind, sweeping in at the sea-windows. jack put his head out, and lookeddown.
there was a little moon rushing through the clouds. down below was theswirling water, for the tide was in, beating over the black rocks. spray flewup on the wind, and jack felt sure he could feel a little on his cheek, highthough his room was. he licked his lips. they tasted deliciously salty.
a bird cried in the night. it sounded sad and mournful, but jack liked it.
what bird was it? one he didn’t know? the sea pounded away below andthe wind swept up in gusts. jack shivered. it was summer time, but craggy?tops was built in such a wind-driven spot that there were always draughtsblowing around.
then he jumped violently, for something touched his shoulder. his heartthumped, and then he laughed. it was only kiki.
kiki always slept with jack, wherever he was. usually she sat on the railat the head of his bed, her big head tucked under her wing, but there was norail this time, only a flat mattress laid on the floor.
so kiki had found an uncomfortable perch on the edge of the chest – butwhen she heard jack at the window she had flown to her usual perch, on hisshoulder, making him jump violently. she nestled against him.
‘go to bed, naughty boy,’ she said. ‘go to bed.’
jack grinned. it was funny when kiki by chance hit on the rightsentences. he scratched her poll, talking in a low voice to her, so as not towake philip.
‘i’ll rig you up a perch of some sort tomorrow, kiki,’ he said. ‘you can’tsleep properly on the edge of that chest, i know. now i’m going to bed. it’sa wild night, isn’t it? but i like it.’
he went back to bed, cold and shivering. but he soon got warm, cuddledup against philip’s back, and fell asleep, to dream of thousands of sea-birdswalking tamely up to be photographed.
life at craggy-tops was strange to jack and lucy-ann at first, after allthe years they had spent in an ordinary little house in an ordinary littletown.
there was no electric light. there was no hot or cold water coming out oftaps. there were no shops round the corner. there was no garden.
there were oil lamps to clean and trim each day, and candles to be putinto candlesticks. there was water to be pumped up from a deep, deep well.
jack was interested in the well.
there was a small yard behind the house, backing on to the rocky cliff,and in it was the well that gave the household their water. jack and lucy-ann were surprised that the water was not salty.
‘no, it’s pure drinking water all right,’ said dinah, lifting a heavy bucketfrom the chain. ‘the well goes right down in the rocks, far below the sea?bed, to pure water, crystal clear and icy cold. taste it.’
it was good to drink – as good as any iced water the children had drunkon hot summer days. jack peered down the dark, deep well.
‘i’d like to go down in that bucket and find out how deep the well-bottomis,’ he said.
‘you’d feel funny if you got stuck and couldn’t get up again,’ said dinah,with a giggle. ‘come on, help me, jack. don’t stand dreaming there. you’realways dreaming.’
‘and you’re always so quick and impatient,’ said philip, nearby. dinahgave him an angry look. she flared up very quickly, and it was easy toprovoke her.
‘well, if you had to do as much as lucy-ann and i have been told to do,you’d be a bit quicker too,’ she snapped back. ‘come on, lucy-ann. let’sleave the boys to get on with their jobs. boys aren’t much good, anyway.’
‘yes, you’d better go, before i slap you,’ yelled philip after her, and thendarted away before the angry dinah could come after him. lucy-ann waspuzzled and rather shocked at their continual quarrels, but she soon saw thatthey were over as quickly as they arose, and got used to them.
shopping was quite a business. it meant that joe had to get out the oldcar, and go off with a long list to the nearest village twice a week. ifanything was forgotten, it had to be done without till the next visit.
vegetables were got from a small allotment that joe worked at himself, in asheltered dip of the cliff away behind the house.
‘let’s go with joe and have a ride in the car,’ suggested lucy-ann onemorning. but philip shook his head.
‘no good,’ he said. ‘we’ve asked joe heaps of times, but he won’t takeus. he just refuses, and says he’ll push us out of the car if we get in it to gowith him. i did get in once, and he kept his word and pushed me out.’
‘the old beast!’ said jack, astonished. ‘i wonder you put up with him.’
‘well, who else would come here and work for us in this desolate place?’
said dinah. ‘nobody else. joe wouldn’t either if he wasn’t so strange.’
still, lucy-ann did ask joe if she could go with him when he wentshopping.
‘no,’ snapped the man, and scowled.
‘please, joe,’ said lucy-ann, looking at him pleadingly. usually she gother own way when she badly wanted it – but not with joe.
‘i said no,’ repeated the man, and walked off, his powerful armsswinging by his sides. lucy-ann stared after him. how horrid he was! whywouldn’t he take any of them in the car when he went shopping? just badtemper, she supposed.
it was fun being at craggy-tops, in spite of so many things beingdifficult. hot baths, for instance, could only be had once a week. at least,they could be taken every day, if someone lighted the copper fire, and waswilling to carry pails of hot water down miles of stone passages to the oneand only bath, set in a small room called the bathroom.
after doing this once, jack decided that he didn’t really care whether hehad any more hot baths or not whilst he was at craggy-tops. he’d bathe inthe sea two or three times a day, and make that do instead.
the girls were given household tasks to do, and did them as best theycould. aunt polly did the cooking. uncle jocelyn did not appear even formeals. aunt polly took them to him in his study, and the children hardlyremembered he was in the house.
the boys had to get in the water from the well, bring the wood in for thekitchen fire, and fill the burners in the oil stove with oil. they took it inturns with the girls to clean and trim the lamps. nobody liked doing that, itwas such a messy job.
joe looked after the car and the allotment, did rough scrubbing, cleanedthe windows when they became clogged up with salty spray, and did allkinds of other jobs. he had a boat of his own, a sound and good one with asmall sail.
‘would he let us use it?’ asked jack.
‘of course not,’ said philip scornfully. ‘and you’d better not try, withoutpermission. he’d beat you if you did. that boat is the apple of his eye. weare not allowed to set foot in it.’
jack went to have a look at it. it was a very good boat indeed, and musthave cost a lot of money. it had recently been painted and was in first-classorder. there were oars, mast and sail, and a good deal of fishing tackle.
jack would dearly have loved to go out in it.
but even as he stood looking at it, wondering if he dared to put his footinto it and feel the boat rocking gently beneath him, the handymanappeared, his usual scowl even deeper.
‘what are you doing?’ he demanded, his eyes roving, so the whitesshowed plainly. ‘that’s my boat.’
‘all right, all right,’ said jack impatiently. ‘can’t i look at it?’
‘no,’ said joe and scowled again.
‘naughty boy,’ said kiki, and screeched at joe, who looked as if hewould like to wring the bird’s neck.
‘well, you certainly are a pleasant fellow,’ said jack, stepping away fromthe boat, feeling suddenly afraid of the unfriendly man. ‘but let me tell youthis – i’m going out in a boat, somehow, and you can’t stop me.’
joe looked after jack with eyes half closed and his mouth turned inangrily. that interfering boy! joe would certainly stop him doing anythingif he could!
