So that night all four slept on the floor of their bedrooms in their sleeping-bags, and voted them very comfortable and as warm as toast.
‘The only thing is, Timmy kept wanting to come right inside mine,’ said George, ‘and honestly there isn’t enough room. Besides, he’d be cooked.’
‘Well, he seemed to spend half the night on my tummy,’ grumbled Julian. ‘I shall jolly well keep the bedroom door shut if Timmy’s going to spend the
night flopping on everyone’s bag in turn.’
‘I don’t mind the flopping, so much as the frightful habit he’s got of turning himself round and round and round before he flops down,’ complained Dick. ‘He did that on me last night. Silly habit of his.’
‘He can’t help it,’ said George at once. ‘It’s a habit that wild dogs had centuries and centuries ago – they slept in reeds and rushes, and they got into the way of turning themselves round and round in them, to trample them down and make themselves a good sleeping-place. And our dogs go on turning themselves round now, before they go to sleep, even though there aren’t any rushes to trample down.’
‘Well! I wish Timmy would forget his doggy ancestors were wild dogs with rushy beds, and just remember he’s a nice tame dog with a basket of his own,’ said Dick. ‘You should see my tummy today! It’s all printed over with his foot-marks.’
‘Fibber!’ said Anne. ‘You do exaggerate, Dick. Oh, I do wish Tuesday would come. I’m tired of waiting.’ ‘It’ll come all right,’ said Julian. And so, it did, of course. It dawned bright and sunny, with a sky that was a deep blue, flecked with tiny white clouds.
‘Good-weather clouds,’ said Julian, pleased. ‘Now let’s hope old Luffy has remembered it’s today we’re starting off. He’s due here at ten o’clock. We’re taking sandwiches for the whole party. Mother thought we’d better, in case Luffy forgot his. If he’s remembered them it won’t matter, because we’re sure to be able to eat them ourselves. And there’s always Timmy to finish things up!’
Timmy was as excited as the four children. He always knew when something nice was going to happen. His tail was on the wag the whole time, his tongue hung out, and he panted as if he had been
running a race. He kept getting under everyone’s feet, but nobody minded.
Mr Luffy arrived half an hour late, just when everyone was beginning to feel he had forgotten to come. He was at the wheel of his big old car, beaming. All the children knew him quite well, because he lived not far away and often came to play bridge with their father and mother.
‘Hallo, hallo!’ he cried. ‘All ready, I see! Good for you! Pile the things on the trailer, will you? Mine are there too but there’s plenty of room. I’ve got sandwiches for everyone, by the way. My wife said I’d better bring plenty.’
‘We’ll have a fine feast today then,’ said Dick, helping Julian to carry out the folded-up tents and sleeping-bags, while the girls followed with the smaller things. Soon everything was on the trailer and Julian made them safe with ropes.
They said goodbye to the watching grown-ups and climbed excitedly into the car. Mr Luffy started up his engine and put the lever into first gear with a frightful noise.
‘Goodbye!’ called all the grown-ups, and Julian’s mother added a last word. ‘DON’T get into any awful adventure this time!’
‘Of course they won’t!’ called back Mr Luffy cheerfully. ‘I’ll see to that. There are no adventures to be found on a wild and deserted moor. Goodbye!’
Off they went, waving madly, and shouting goodbye all the way down the road. ‘Goodbye! Good-byeeeeee! Hurrah, we’re off at last!’
The car raced down the road, the trailer bumping madly after it. The holiday had begun!
2 Up on the moors
Mr Luffy was not a good driver. He went too fast, especially round the corners, and many times Julian looked behind at the trailer in alarm, afraid that everything would suddenly leap off it at some sharp bend.
He saw the bundle of sleeping-bags jump high into the air, but fortunately they remained on the trailer. He touched Mr Luffy on the shoulder.
‘Sir! Could you go a bit slower, please! The trailer will be empty by the time we arrive, if the luggage leaps about on it much more.’
‘My word! I forgot we had a trailer,’ said Mr Luffy, slowing down at once. ‘Remind me if I go over thirty-five miles an hour, will you? Last time I took the trailer with me, I arrived with only half the goods on it. I don’t want that to happen again.’
Julian certainly hoped it wouldn’t. He kept a sharp eye on the speedometer, and when it veered towards forty he tapped Mr Luffy on the arm.
Mr Luffy looked supremely happy. He didn’t like term time, but he loved holidays. Term time interfered with the study of his beloved insect-world. Now he was off with four nice children he liked, for a holiday on a moorland he knew was alive with bees, beetles, butterflies and every other kind of insect he wanted. He looked forward to teaching the four children quite a lot. They would have been horrified if they guessed this, but they didn’t.
He was an odd-looking fellow. He had very untidy, shaggy eyebrows over kind and gentle brown eyes that always reminded Dick of a monkey’s. He had a rather large nose, which looked fiercer than it was because, unexpectedly, it had quite a forest of hairs growing out of the nostrils. He had an untidy moustache, and a round chin with a surprising dimple in the middle of it.
His ears always fascinated Anne. They were large and turned rather forward, and Mr Luffy could waggle the right one if he wanted to. To his great sorrow he had never been able to waggle the left one. His hair was thick and untidy, and his clothes always looked loose, comfortable and rather too big for him.
The children liked him. They couldn’t help it. He was so odd and gentle and untidy and forgetful – and yet sometimes unexpectedly fierce. Julian had often told them the story of Tom Killin the bully.
Mr Luffy had once found Tom bullying a small new boy in the cloakroom, dragging him round and round it by his belt. With a roar like an angry bullr Mr Luffy had pounced on the big bully, got him by the belt, lifted him up and stuck him firmly on a peg in the cloakroom.
‘There you stay till you get someone to lift you down!’ Mr Luffy had thundered. 7 can get hold of a belt too, as you can see!’
And then he had stalked out of the cloakroom with the small, terrified boy beside him, leaving the bully hung up high on the peg, quite unable to free himself. And there he had to stay, because not one of the boys who came pouring in from a game of football would lift him down.
‘And, if the peg hadn’t given way under his weight, he’d be stuck up there still, ‘Julian had said with a grin.
‘Good old Luffy! You’d never think he could be fierce like that, would you?’
Anne loved that story. Mr Luffy became quite a hero to her after that. She was pleased to sit next to him in the car, and chatter about all kinds of things. The other three were squashed at the back with Timmy on their feet. George firmly prevented him from climbing up on her knee because it was so hot. So he contented himself with trying to stand up with his paws on the window-ledge and his nose over the side.
They stopped about half past twelve for lunch. Mr Luffy had indeed provided sandwiches for everyone. And remarkably fine ones they were too, made the evening before by Mrs Luffy.
‘Cucumber, -dipped in vinegar! Ham and lettuce! Egg! Sardine! Oooh, Mr Luffy, your sandwiches are much nicer than ours,’ said Anne, beginning on two together, one cucumber and the other ham and lettuce.
They were all very hungry. Timmy had a bit from everyone, usually the last bite, and watched each sandwich eagerly till his turn came. Mr Luffy didn’t seem to understand that Timmy had to have the last bite of any sandwich, so Timmy simply took it out of his hand, much to his surprise.
‘A clever dog,’ he said, and patted him. ‘Knows what he wants and takes it. Very clever.’
That pleased George, of course. She thought that Timmy was the cleverest dog in the world, and indeed it did seem like it at times. He understood every word she said to him, every pat, every stroke, every gesture. He would be much, much better at keeping an eye on the four children and guarding them than forgetful Mr Luffy.