“I see,” said Miss Lawson, looking very doubtful. “I’m not very much used to parrots, Mrs. Mannering. I suppose, of course, that this bird will not come away with us? I could not be responsible 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. Kiki growled like a very fierce dog, and Miss Lawson looked startled. Jack caught the parrot, winked at the 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 a sigh 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 her brother, she thought. Then she looked at Philip and Dinah, each dark-eyed and dark-haired, with a queer tuft that stuck up in front. She would make them brush it down properly, thought Miss Lawson.
Dinah came forward politely and shook hands. She thought that Miss Lawson would be very proper, 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 he clutched at one leg of his shorts. Then he clapped a hand over his middle. Miss Lawson stared at him in amazement.
“Excuse me — it’s only my rats,” explained Philip, and to Miss Lawson’s enormous horror she saw Squeaker running round his collar, Nosey making a lump here and there over his tummy, and Woffles 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, Mrs. Mannering. I really can’t.”
Chapter 2
A GLORIOUS IDEA
AFTER Miss Lawson had hurriedly said good-bye to Mrs. Mannering, and the front door had shut after her, Mrs. Mannering came back into the children’s playroom looking very cross.
“That was too bad of you, really! I feel very annoyed and angry. How could you let Kiki behave like that, Jack! — and Philip, there was no need at all for you to make those rats all appear at once.”
“But, Mother,” argued Philip, “I can’t go away without my rats, so it was only fair to let Miss Lawson know what she was in for — I mean, I was really being very honest and . . .”
“You were being most obstructive,” said Mrs. Mannering crossly. “And you know you were. I consider you are all being really unhelpful. You know you can’t go back to school yet — you all look thin and pale, and you really must pick up first — and I’m doing my best to give you a good holiday in the care of somebody responsible.”
“Sorry, Aunt Allie,” said Jack, seeing that Mrs. Mannering really was upset. “You see — it’s the kind of holiday we’d hate. We’re too big to be chivvied about by Miss Lawson. Now — if it was old Bill . . .”
Old Bill! Everyone brightened up at the thought of old Bill Smugs. His real name was Cunningham, but as he had introduced himself as Bill Smugs in their very first adventure, Bill Smugs he remained. What adventures they had had with him!
“Golly, yes! — if we could go away with Bill,” said Philip, rubbing Squeaker’s nose affectionately.
“Yes — and dive into the middle of another dreadful adventure,” said Mrs. Mannering. “I know Bill!”
“Oh no, Aunt Allie — it’s us children who have the adventures, and drag old Bill into them,” said Jack. “Really it is. But we haven’t heard from Bill for ages and ages.”
This was true. Bill seemed to have disappeared off the map. He hadn’t answered the children’s letters. Mrs. Mannering hadn’t heard a word. He was not at his home and hadn’t been there for weeks.
But nobody worried much about that — Bill was always on secret and dangerous missions, and disappeared for weeks at a time. Still, this time he really had been gone for ages without a word to anyone. Never mind — he would suddenly turn up, ready for a holiday, grinning all over his cheerful ruddy face.
If only he would turn up now, this very afternoon! That would be grand. Nobody would mind missing the glorious summer term for a week or two if only they I could go off with Bill.
But no Bill came — and something had to be decided about this holiday. Mrs. Mannering looked at the mutinous children in despair.
“I suppose,” she said suddenly, “I suppose you wouldn’t like to go off to some place somewhere by the sea where you could study the wild sea-birds, and their nesting habits? I know Jack has always wanted to — but it has been impossible before, because you were all at school at the best time of year for it . . . and — ”
“Aunt Allie!” yelled Jack, beside himself with joy. “That’s the most marvellous idea you’ve ever had in your life! Oh, I say . . .”
“Yes, Mother — it’s gorgeous!” agreed Philip, rapping on the table to emphasise his feelings. Kiki at once rapped her beak too.
“Come in,” she ordered solemnly, but no one took any notice. This new idea was too thrilling.
Lucy-Ann always loved to be where her brother Jack was, so she beamed too, knowing how happy Jack would be among his beloved birds. Philip too, lover of animals and birds, could hardly believe that his mother had made such a wonderful suggestion.
Only Dinah looked blue. She was not fond of wild animals, and was really scared of most of them, though she was better than she had been. She liked birds but hadn’t the same intense interest in and love for them that the boys had. Still — to be all by themselves in some wild, lonely place by the sea — wearing old clothes — doing what they liked, picnicking every day — what joy! So Dinah began to smile too, and joined in the cheerful hullabaloo.
“Can we really go? All by ourselves?”
“When? Do say when!”
“Tomorrow! Can’t we go tomorrow? Golly, I feel better just at the thought of it!”
“Mother! Whatever made you think of it. Honestly, it’s wizard!”
Kiki sat on Jack’s shoulder, listening to the babel of noise. The rats hidden about Philip’s clothes burrowed deeply for safety, scared of such a sudden outburst of voices.
“Give me a chance to explain,” said Mrs. Mannering. “There’s an expedition setting out in two days’ time for some of the lonely coasts and islands off the north of Britain. Just a few naturalists, and one boy, the son of Dr. Johns, the ornithologist.”
All the children knew what an ornithologist was — one who loved and studied birds and their ways. Philip’s father had been a bird-lover. He was dead now, and the boy often wished he had known him, for he was very like him in his love for all wild creatures.
“Dr. Johns!” said Philip. “Why — that was one of Daddy’s best friends.”
“Yes,” said his mother. “I met him last week and he was telling me about this expedition. His boy is going, and he wondered if there was any chance of you and Dinah going, Philip. You weren’t at all well then, and I said no at once. But now . . .”
“But now we can!” cried Philip, giving his mother a sudden hug. “Fancy you thinking of somebody like Miss Lawson, when you knew about this! How could you?”
“Well — it seems a long way for you to go,” said Mrs. Mannering. “And it wasn’t exactly the kind of holiday I had imagined for you. Still, if you think you’d like it, I’ll ring up Dr. Johns and arrange for him to add four more to his bird-expedition if he can manage it.”
“Of course he’ll be able to manage it!” cried Lucy-Ann. “We shall be company for his boy, too, Aunt Allie. I say — won’t it be absolutely lovely to be up so far north, in this glorious early summer weather?”
The children felt happy and cheerful that tea-time as they discussed the expedition. To go exploring among the northern islands, some of them only inhabited by birds! To swim and sail and walk, and watch hundreds, no, thousands of wild birds in their daily lives!
“There’ll be puffins up there,” said Jack happily. “Thousands of them. They go there in nesting time. I’ve always wanted to study them, they’re such comical-looking birds.”