‘do you know, it’s may the fifth already!’ said jack, in a very gloomy voice. ‘all the fellows willbe back at school today’
‘what a pity, what a pity!’ said kiki the parrot, in just as gloomy a voice as jack’s.
‘this awful measles!’ said lucy-ann. ‘first philip had it as soon as he came home for the hols,then dinah, then she gave it to me, and then you had it!’
‘well, we’re all out of quarantine now,’ said dinah, from her corner of the room. ‘it’s just sillyof the doctor to say we ought to go away and have a change before we go back to school. isn’t itenough change to go back to school? i do so love the summer term too.’
‘yes – and i bet i’d have been in the first eleven,’ said philip, pushing back the tuft of hair hehad in front. ‘golly, i’ll be glad to get my hair cut again! it feels tickly, now it’s grown so long!’
the four children had all had a bad attack of measles in the holidays. jack especially had had avery nasty time, and dinah’s eyes had given her a lot of trouble. this was partly her own fault, forshe had been forbidden to read, and had disobeyed the doctor’s orders. now her eyes keptwatering, and she blinked in any bright light.
‘certainly no school work for dinah yet,’ the doctor had said sternly. ‘i suppose you thoughtyou knew better than i did, young lady, when you disobeyed orders. think yourself lucky if youdon’t have to wear glasses a little later on!’
‘i hope mother won’t send us away to some awful boarding-house by the sea,’ said dinah. ‘shecan’t come with us herself, because she’s taken on some kind of important job for the summer. ihope she doesn’t get us a governess or something to take us away.’
‘a governess!’ said philip in scorn. ‘i jolly well wouldn’t go. and anyway she wouldn’t staynow that i’m training young rats.’
his sister dinah looked at him in disgust. philip always had some kind of creature about him,for he had a great love of animals. he could do anything he liked with them, and lucy-annsecretly thought that if he met a roaring tiger in a jungle, he would simply hold out his hand, andthe tiger would lick it like a dog, and purr happily like a cat.
‘i’ve told you, philip, that if you so much as let me see one of your young rats i’ll scream!’
dinah said.
‘all right, then scream!’ said philip obligingly. ‘hey, squeaker, where are you?’
squeaker appeared above the neck of philip’s jersey collar, and true to his name squeakedloudly. dinah screamed.
‘you beast, philip! how many of those things have you got down your neck? if we had a cat i’dgive them all to her.’
‘well, we haven’t,’ said philip, and poked squeaker’s head down his collar again.
‘three blind mice,’ remarked kiki the parrot, with great interest, cocking her head on one sideand watching for squeaker to appear again.
‘wrong, kiki, old bird,’ said jack, lazily putting out a hand and pulling at his parrot’s tailfeathers. ‘far from being three blind mice, it’s one very wide-awake rat. i say, kiki, why didn’tyou catch measles from us?’
kiki was quite prepared to have a conversation with jack. she gave a loud cackle, and then puther head down to be scratched. ‘how many times have i told you to shut the door?’ she cried.
‘how many times have i told you to wipe your feet? wipe the door, shut your feet, wipe the . . .’
‘hey, you’re getting muddled!’ said jack and the others laughed. it was always comical whenkiki mixed up the things she loved to say. the parrot liked to make people laugh. she raised herhead, put up her crest, and made a noise like a mowing-machine outside in the garden.
‘that’s enough,’ said jack, tapping her on the beak. ‘now stop it, kiki!’
but kiki, pleased with the noise, flew up to the top of the curtains, and went on being amowing-machine, one that wanted oiling.
mrs mannering put her head in at the door. ‘children! don’t let kiki make such a noise. i’minterviewing someone, and it’s very annoying.’
‘who’s come for an interview?’ said philip at once. ‘mother! you haven’t gone and got agoverness or something awful to take us away for a change, have you? is she here?’
‘yes, she is,’ said mrs mannering. all the children groaned. ‘well, dears, you know i can’tspare the time to take you myself,’ she went on. ‘i’ve taken on this new job, though, of course, ifi’d known you were going to be measly for so long, and then be so peaky afterwards . . .’
‘we’re not peaky!’ said philip indignantly. ‘what an awful word!’
‘peaky squeaky,’ said kiki at once, and cackled with laughter. she loved putting the same-sounding words together. ‘peaky squeaky!’
‘shut up, kiki!’ called jack, and threw a cushion at her. ‘aunt allie – we can quite well goaway by ourselves. we’re old enough to look after ourselves perfectly.’
‘jack, as soon as i let you out of my sight in the holidays, you plunge into the middle of themost hair-raising adventures,’ said mrs mannering. ‘i shan’t forget what happened in the lastsummer holidays – going off in the wrong aeroplane and being lost for ages in a strange valley.’
‘oh, that was a marvellous adventure!’ cried philip. ‘i wish we could have another. i’m fed upwith being measly so long. do, do let us go away by ourselves, mother, there’s a darling!’
‘no,’ said his mother. ‘you’re going to a perfectly safe seaside spot with a perfectly safegoverness for a perfectly safe holiday.’
‘safe, safe, safe!’ shrieked kiki. ‘sound and safe, sound and safe!’
‘other way round, kiki,’ said jack. mrs mannering put her fingers to her ears.
‘that bird! i suppose i’m tired with nursing you all, but honestly kiki gets dreadfully on mynerves just now. i shall be glad when she’s gone with you.’
‘i bet no governess will like kiki,’ said jack. ‘aunt allie, have you told her about kiki?’
‘not yet,’ admitted mrs mannering. ‘but i suppose i’d better bring her in and introduce her toyou all and to kiki too.’
she went out. the children scowled at one another. ‘i knew it would happen. instead of havingfun at school we shall mope about with somebody we can’t bear,’ said dinah gloomily. ‘phil –can’t you do something with those awful rats of yours when she comes in? if she knew you werethe kind of boy that likes mice and rats and beetles and hedgehogs living down his neck and in hispockets, she’d probably run for miles.’
‘jolly good idea, dinah!’ said everyone at once, and philip beamed at her. ‘it’s not often youget a brainwave,’ he said, ‘but that’s one all right. hey, squeaker! come along out. woffles, whereare you? nosey, come out of my pocket!’
dinah retreated to the furthest corner of the room, watching the young white rats in horror.
however many had philip got? she determined not to go near him if she could possibly help it.
‘i think kiki might perform also,’ said jack, grinning. ‘kiki – puff-puff-puff!’
that was the signal for the parrot to do her famous imitation of a railway engine screeching in atunnel. she opened her beak and swelled out her throat in delight. it wasn’t often that she wasbegged to make this fearful noise. lucy-ann put her hands to her ears.
the door opened and mrs mannering came in with a tall, rather stern-looking woman. it wasquite plain that no adventure, nothing unusual, would ever be allowed to happen anywhere nearmiss lawson. ‘perfectly safe’ was written all over her.
‘children, this is miss lawson,’ began mrs mannering, and then her voice was drowned inkiki’s railway-engine screech. it was an even better imitation than usual, and longer drawn-out.
kiki was really letting herself go.
miss lawson gave a gasp and took a step backwards. at first she did not see kiki, but looked atthe children, thinking that one of them must be making the terrible noise.
‘kiki!’ thundered mrs mannering, really angry. ‘children, how could you let her? i’mashamed of you!’
kiki stopped. she put her head on one side and looked cheekily at miss lawson. ‘wipe yourfeet!’ she commanded. ‘shut the door! where’s your handkerchief? how many times have i toldyou to . . .’
‘take kiki out, jack,’ said mrs mannering, red with annoyance. ‘i’m so sorry, miss lawson.
kiki belongs to jack, and she isn’t usually so badly behaved.’
‘i see,’ said miss lawson, looking very doubtful. ‘i’m not very much used to parrots, mrsmannering. i suppose, of course, that this bird will not come away with us? i could not beresponsible for pets of that kind – and i don’t think that a boarding-house . . .’
‘well, we can discuss that later,’ said mrs mannering hastily. ‘jack, did you hear what i said?
take kiki out.’
‘polly, put the kettle on,’ said kiki to miss lawson, who took absolutely no notice at all. kikigrowled like a very fierce dog, and miss lawson looked startled. jack caught the parrot, winked atthe others and took kiki out of the room.
‘what a pity, what a pity!’ mourned kiki as the door shut behind them. mrs mannering gave asigh of relief.
‘jack and lucy-ann trent are not my own children,’ she said to miss lawson. ‘lucy-ann,shake hands with miss lawson. lucy-ann and her brother are great friends of my own children,and they live with us, and all go off to boarding-school together,’ she explained.
miss lawson looked at the green-eyed, red-haired little girl and liked her. she was very like herbrother, she thought. then she looked at philip and dinah, each dark-eyed and dark-haired, with aqueer tuft that stuck up in front. she would make them brush it down properly, thought misslawson.
dinah came forward politely and shook hands. she thought that miss lawson would be veryproper, very strict and very dull – but oh, so safe!
then philip came forward, but before he could shake hands, he clutched at his neck. then heclutched at one leg of his shorts. then he clapped a hand over his middle. miss lawson stared athim in amazement.
‘excuse me – it’s only my rats,’ explained philip, and to miss lawson’s enormous horror shesaw squeaker running round his collar, nosey making a lump here and there over his tummy, andwoffles coming out of his sleeve. goodness, how many more had the awful boy got!
‘i’m sorry,’ said miss lawson faintly. ‘i’m very sorry – but i can’t take this post, mrsmannering. i really can’t.’
