David ate too and listened. The donkeys pulled at the grass. Snowy was with Dapple, and Kiki was eating a tomato and dripping juice down Jack’s neck. They all felt as if they couldn’t possibly be happier.
“Now we’ll put up the tents,” said Jack at last. “Come on, Philip! It’ll be dark before we’ve put them up if we don’t make haste!”
Chapter 8
FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP
THE girls washed the dirty crockery in the cold spring water while David and the boys unpacked the tents from the donkey that carried them. They took off the whole of his pack, and also unstrapped the heavy panniers from the other donkey. Both were delighted to be rid of their loads. They lay down on the ground and rolled, kicking their legs up into the air.
Kiki couldn’t understand this at all, and flew up into a tree. “She thinks they’ve gone mad,” said Jack. “It’s all right, Kiki, they’re only feeling glad because their packs have gone!”
Kiki made a noise like a train screeching in a tunnel, and the two rolling donkeys leapt to their feet in alarm and raced some way down the hill. David also jumped violently, and then called to the donkeys.
“Kiki, if you do that again I’ll tie your beak up!” threatened Jack. “Spoiling this lovely peaceful evening with that horrible screech!”
“Wipe your feet, wipe your feet!” screamed Kiki and danced from foot to foot on her branch.
The tents were soon put up, side by side. David did not want to sleep in one. He preferred to sleep outside. He had never slept in a tent, and he thought they were quite unnecessary.
“Well, I’d just as soon he slept outside,” said Jack to Philip. “I don’t believe he’s ever had a bath in his life, do you?”
“Let’s leave the tent-flaps open,” said Lucy-Ann, coming up with the clean crockery. “Then we can look out down the mountainside. I wouldn’t mind a bit sleeping in the open air, like David, as a matter of fact.”
“Wind’s too cold,” said Jack. “You’ll be glad to have a cosy sleeping-bag, Lucy-Ann! David must be very hardy — he’s only got a thin rug to cover himself with, and he’s apparently going to sleep on the bare ground!”
The sun had now disappeared completely. It had gone behind the mountains in a perfect blaze of colour, and all the summits had gleamed for a while, and then darkness had crept up to the very tops, leaving only a clear sky beyond. Stars were now winking here and there, and a cold wind was blowing up the mountain.
The donkeys were tied loosely to trees. Some of them were lying down. Dapple was looking out for Snowy, but the kid had gone to Philip, and was waiting for him to go into his tent.
They all washed at the spring — all, that is, but David, who seemed rather astonished to see the four children solemnly splashing themselves with the cold water. He had drawn his thin rug over him and was lying quite still, looking up to the starry sky.
“He’s not what you might call a very cheerful companion, is he?” said Jack. “I expect he thinks we’re all quite mad, the way we joke and laugh and fool about. Buck up, Philip, and get into the tent.”
The girls were already in their tent. They had slid down into their sleeping-bags and tied them up loosely at the neck. Each bag had a big hood to come over the head. They were comfortable, quite roomy, and very warm.
Lucy-Ann could see out of the tent opening. Stars twinkled in the sky, looking very big and bright. There was no sound at all, except of the trickle-trickle of the spring, and the sound of the wind in the trees.
“We might be all alone in the world,” said Lucy-Ann to Dinah. “Dinah, imagine that we are. It gives you an awfully queer feeling. It’s wizard!”
But Dinah hadn’t got Lucy-Ann’s imagination and she yawned. “Go to sleep,” she said. “Are the boys in their tent yet? I wish they were a bit further away. I’ve got an awful feeling that slow-worm will come slithering in here in the night.”
“It won’t hurt you if it does,” said Lucy-Ann, snuggling down in her sleeping-bag. “Oh, this is super! I do think we have lovely holidays, don’t you, Dinah?”
But Dinah was asleep already. Her eyes had shut and she was dreaming. Lucy-Ann stayed awake a little longer enjoying the sound of the running spring and the wind. She still felt rather as if she was on her donkey, jogging up and down. Then her eyes closed too.
The boys talked for a little while. They had thoroughly enjoyed their day. They gazed out of the open flap of the tent. “It’s pretty wild and desolate here,” said Jack sleepily. “It’s surprising there’s a track to follow, really. Decent of Bill and Aunt Allie to let us come by ourselves!”
“Mmmmmmm!” said Philip, listening, but too sleepy to answer.
“Mmmmmmm!” imitated Kiki from the top of the tent outside. It was too hot for her in it.
“There’s Kiki,” said Jack. “I wondered where she was. Philip, aren’t you hot with Snowy on top of you?”
“Mmmmmmm!” said Philip, and again there came the echo from the tent-top. “Mmmmmmm!”
Snowy was almost on top of Philip. He had tried his hardest to squeeze into the boy’s sleeping-bag with him, but Philip was quite firm about that.
“If you think you’re going to stick your sharp little hooves into me all night long, you’re wrong, Snowy,” he said, and tied up his bag firmly at the neck, in case Snowy should try any tricks in the night. The slow-worm was somewhere about too. Philip was too sleepy to bother to think where. Sally slid about where she pleased. Philip was now quite used to the sudden slithering movement that occurred at times somewhere about his body, and which meant that Sally was on the move again.
There were a few more quiet remarks from Kiki, who was apparently talking to herself. Then silence. The little camp slept under the stars. The night-wind nosed into the tent, but could not get into the cosy sleeping-bags. Snowy felt too hot, walked over Philip, trod on Jack and went to lie in the tent opening. He gave a tiny bleat and Kiki bleated in answer.
David was up and about before the children the next day. He was looking at his donkeys when Philip put a towsled head out of the tent opening to sniff at the morning. “Lovely!” he said. “Stop butting me, Snowy! Your little head is jolly hard! Jack! Stir yourself. It’s a gorgeous morning.”
Soon all the campers were out of their sleeping-bags and running about. They splashed at the spring, laughing at nothing. Snowy bounded everywhere, quite mad too. Kiki hooted like a car, and startled the donkeys. Even David smiled to see such early-morning antics!
They had breakfast — tongue, cream cheese and rather stale bread, with a tomato each. There was no lemonade left because they had been so lavish with it the day before, so they drank the cold spring water and vowed it was just as nice as lemonade.
“David! Shall we get to the Vale of Butterflies today?” asked Jack, and then repeated it again slowly, flapping his arms to show David that he was talking about butterflies. It took David a minute or two to realise this. Then he shook his head.
“Tomorrow?” asked Philip, and David nodded. He went to strap the packs on the donkeys again and to put on the big pannier baskets. All the little grey creatures were waiting impatiently to set off. Already the sun was getting well above the mountains, and, for David and the donkeys at any rate, it was late!
They set off at last, though Jack had to gallop back to get his field-glasses which he had left behind, hanging from a tree-branch. Then they were all in a line, one donkey behind the other, ambling over the mountains with the wind in their hair.
Jack felt sure he saw a couple of buzzards that day and rode most of the time with his field-glasses in his hand, ready to clap them to his eyes at the first sight of specks in the sky. The others saw red squirrels, shy but tame, among the trees they passed. One shared the children’s lunch, darting up for tit-bits, but keeping a wary eye for Kiki and Snowy.
“It wants to come with you, Philip,” said Lucy-Ann, amused when the red squirrel put a paw on Philip’s knee.
Philip stroked the pretty little thing gently. It quivered, half frightened, but did not bound away. Then Kiki swooped down and the squirrel fled.
“You would spoil things, you jealous bird!” said Philip. “Go away. I don’t want you. Go to Jack, and let the squirrels come to me.”