Five Get Into a Fix (5 page)

The little girl looked towards the hut, and saw Julian and Dick. She turned at once and ran back the way she had come. Julian got up and shouted to her.

“It"s al right! We shan"t hurt you! Look - here"s a bit of meat for your dog!”

The girl stopped and looked round, poised ready to run again at once. Julian waved the bit of ham left over from their meal. The little dog smelt it on the wind, and came running up eagerly. He snapped at it, got it into his mouth and ran back to the girl. Hc didn"t attempt to eat it, but just stood there by her, looking up.

She bent down eagerly, and took it. She tore it in half and gave one piece to the eager dog, who swallowed it at once - and the other piece she ate herself, keeping a sharp eye on the two boys as she did so. The lamb came nosing round her, and she put one thin arm round its neck.

“What a queer little thing,” said Julian to Dick. “Where can she have come from? She must be absolutely frozen!”

Dick called to the child.

“Hallo! Come and talk to us!”

She shot off at once as soon as he shouted. But she didn"t go very far. She half hid behind a bush, peeping out now and again.

“Get some of those biscuits,” said Julian to Dick. “We"ll hold some out to her. She"s like a wild thing.”

So Dick held out a handful of biscuits, and called: “Biscuits! For you! And your dog!”

But only the lamb came gambol ing up, a toy-like creature, with a tail that frisked and whisked all the time. It tried to get on to Dick"s knee, and bumped its little black nose against his face.

“Fany, Fany!” cal ed the small girl, in a high, clear voice. The lamb tried to get away but Dick held on to it. It seemed to be al legs!

“Come and get it!” shouted Dick. “We shan"t hurt you!”

The little girl couldn"t bear to leave her lamb. She came out from the bush, and took a few hesitating steps towards the boys. The dog ran right up to them, snuffling at their hands for more ham. Julian gave him a biscuit and he crunched it up at once, giving sidelong glances at his watching mistress as if to apologise for eating it all himself! Julian patted the little thing and it licked him joyful y.

The little girl came nearer. Her legs looked blue with cold, but although she had so little on, she didn"t seem to be shivering. Julian held out another biscuit. The dog jumped up and took it neatly in his mouth, running up to the little girl with it. The boys burst into laughter, and the smal girl smiled suddenly, her whole face lighting up.

“Come here!” cal ed Julian. “Come and get your pretty lamb. We"ve got some more biscuits for you and your dog.”

At last the child came near to them, as watchful as a hare, ready to run at a moment"s notice. The boys sat stil and patient, and soon the girl was near enough to snatch a biscuit and retreat again. She sat down on one of the black stones marking the path, and munched her biscuit, staring at them all the time out of her big dark eyes.

“What"s your name?” asked Dick, not moving from his place, afraid that the child would leap off like a frightened goat.

The girl didn"t seem to understand. Dick repeated his question, speaking slowly.

“What - is - your - name? What - are - you - called?”

The child nodded her head and then pointed to herself.

“Me - Aily,” she said.

She pointed at the dog.

“Dave,” she said, and he leapt up at his name and covered her with licks. Then she pointed to the lamb, which was now gambol ing round the boys like a mad thing. “Fany,”

she said.

“Ah - Aily - Dave - Fany,” said Julian, solemnly, and he too pointed at first one then the other. Then he pointed to himself. “Julian!” he said, and then pointed to Dick. “Dick!”

The little girl gave a high, clear laugh, and suddenly poured out quite a long speech. The boys couldn"t understand a word of it.

“She"s speaking in Welsh, I suppose,” said Dick, disappointed. “What a pity - it sounds lovely, but I can"t make head or tail of it.”

The child saw that they had not understood. She frowned, as if thinking hard.

“My Dadda - he up high - sheep!” she said.

“Oh - your father"s a shepherd up there!” said Dick. “But you don"t live with him, do you?”

Aily considered this, then shook her head.

“Down!” she said, pointing. “Aily down!” Then she turned to the dog and the lamb, and cuddled them both. “Dave mine,” she said, proudly. “Fany mine!”

“Nice dog. Nice lamb,” said Julian, solemnly, and the little girl nodded in delight. Then, for no reason that the boys could see, she stood up, leapt down the hil , followed by the lamb and the dog, and disappeared.

“What a funny little creature!” said Dick. “Like a pixie of the hil s, or an elf of the woods. I quite expected her to disappear in smoke, or something. I should think she runs completely wild, wouldn"t you? We"ll ask Mrs. Jones about her when we get back!”

“My goodness - come on, the sun"s getting quite low,” said Julian, getting up in a hurry.

“We"ve got to put the things away, and fold up the rugs, and lock up. Buck up - once the sun goes it wil be dark almost at once, and we"ve quite a long way to go.”

It didn"t take them long to tidy up and lock the little house careful y. Then down the path they went at top speed. The sun had melted most of the snow farther down, and the going was easy. The boys felt exhilarated by their day on the mountainside and sang as they went, until they were quite out of breath.

“There"s the farmhouse,” said Dick, and both boys were glad to see it. Their legs were tired now, and they longed for a good meal and a rest in a warm room.

“I hope George has recovered a bit by now - and is stil at the farm!” said Julian, with a laugh. “You never know with old George! I hope she"l like the sound of that hut. We"ll ask Mrs. Jones about it tonight, when we"ve talked it over with Anne and George.”

“Here we are,” said Dick, thankful y, as they went up to the house. “Anne! George! We"re back - where are you?”

Anne came running to meet Dick and Julian. “Oh, I"m glad you"re back!” she said. “It"s beginning to get dark, and I was afraid you"d lose your way!”

“Hallo, George!” said Julian, seeing her behind Anne, in the darkness of the passage.

“How"s Timmy?”

“Al right, thank you,” said George, sounding quite cheerful. “Here he is!”

Timmy barked loudly and jumped up at the boys in welcome. He was very glad to see them, for he had been afraid that they had gone back home. They all went into the living-room, where there was an enormous wood-fire, looking very cheerful indeed. Julian and Dick fell into the two most comfortable chairs and spread their legs out to the fire.

“Ha! This is good!” said Dick. “I couldn"t have walked another step. I don"t believe I can even go up the stairs to wash. We"ve walked MILES!”

They told the girls about their day, and when they described the little summer chalet, the two girls listened eagerly.

“Oh - I wish we"d gone with you,” said Anne, longingly. “Timmy would have been quite al right, wouldn"t he, George? We"ve decided it"s only a skin-wound. Actually, you can hardly see it now.”

“But all the same, I"m going back home tomorrow,” said George, determinedly. “I"m sorry I made such a fuss this morning - but honestly I thought Timmy had been badly bitten.

Thank goodness he wasn"t. Stil , I"m not risking such a thing again. If I stay on here with him, he"s sure to have those three dogs attacking him sometime or other, and he might be kil ed. I don"t want to upset your holiday - but I can NOT stay on here with Tim.”

“Al right, old thing,” said Julian, soothingly. “Don"t get so up-in-the-air about it. There -

you"ve gone and started your cough again! Do you know, Dick and I haven"t coughed once today!”

“Nor have I,” said Anne. “The air is marvel ous here. I think I ought to go back with George, though, Ju. She"d be miserable all by herself at home.”

“Listen,” said Julian. “We"ve got an idea, Dick and I - one that means old George won"t have to go home, and...”

“Nothing wil make me stop here,” interrupted George at once. “NOTHING!”

“Give me a chance to tell you what I"ve got up my sleeve,” protested Julian. “It"s about that mountain-hut we"ve been to - Dick and I thought it would be a marvel ous idea if we could all five of us go and spend our time there - instead of here. We"d be ABSOLUTELY on our own then - the way we like to be!”

“Oh yes!” said Anne at once, delighted. They all three looked at George. She smiled suddenly.

“Yes - that would be fun. I"d like that. I don"t suppose those dogs would come near there.

And how heavenly to be on our own! ”

“Mrs. Jones said that her son Morgan told her we"re going to have heavy fal s of snow!”

said Anne. “We could spend all day long on those slopes with our toboggans and skis. Oh, George - what a pity Timmy can"t ski! We"ll have to leave him at the hut when we go off skiing!”

“Do you suppose Mrs. Jones wil mind us going off there?” said Dick.

“I don"t think so,” said Anne. “She was telling us today that parties of children go there alone in the summer, while their parents stay and have a peaceful time down here. I don"t see why she shouldn"t let us go. We"ll ask her when she comes in with our high tea. I said we wouldn"t have tea and supper - we"d just have one big meal. We didn"t know what time you"d be back - and George and I had such an enormous dinner in the middle of the day that we knew we wouldn"t want tea.”

“Yes. I"d rather have a big meal now, too,” said Julian, yawning widely. “I"m afraid al I shal want to do afterwards is to go up to bed and fall asleep. I"m marvel ouslp tired. In fact, I could go to sleep this very minute! I suppose you girls have been indoors al day long because of Timmy?”

“No. We took it in turns to go for a walk without him” said Anne. “George hasn"t let him put his nose outside the door. Poor Timmy - he just couldn"t understand it, and he whined and whined!”

“Never mind - he"ll enjoy himself if we can go up to that hut,” said George, who was very cheerful indeed now. “I do hope we can. It would be glorious fun.”

“Ju - come and wash,” said Dick, seeing that Julian had his eyes closed already. “Julian!

Come up and wash, I tell you - you don"t want to miss your meal, do you?”

Julian groaned and dragged himself up the stone stairway. But once he had sluiced himself in cold water he felt much better, and very hungry indeed. So did Dick.

“We didn"t tell the girls about that funny little creature - what was her name now - Aily!

And Dave her dog and Fany the lamb. We mustn"t forget to ask Mrs. Jones about them,”

said Julian.

They went downstairs, feeling much fresher and were delighted to see that Mrs. Jones had been in and laid the table. They went up to see what there was for their high tea.

“Pork pie - home made, of course,” said Dick. “And what"s this - golly, it"s a cheese! How enormous! Smel it, Julian - it"s enough to make you start eating straightaway! And more of that home-made bread! Can"t we start?”

“No - there are new-laid boiled eggs to begin with,” said Anne, with a laugh. “And an apple pie and cream to end with. So I hope you real y are hungry, you two!”

Mrs. Jones came in with a pot of hot tea. She smiled at the boys as she set the big brown teapot down on the table.

"Is it a nice day you"ve had, away up on the mountain?” she said. “You look fine, both of you. Did you find the hut all right?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Julian. “Mrs. Jones, it"s a marvel ous hut. We...”

“Yes, yes - it"s a good hut,” said Mrs. Jones, “and it"s sorry I was the two girls didn"t go with you, such a fine day as it was, and the dog not real y hurt! And to think that the girls want to go back home! It"s sad I"ve been this day in my thoughts!”

She really did seem hurt and grieved, and George looked very guilty. Julian patted Mrs.

Jones on the arm, and spoke comfortingly.

“Don"t you worry about us, Mrs. Jones. I"ve got a fine idea to tell you. What we"d real y like is to go and live up at that hut, the five of us - then we"d be out of your way and Timmy would be out of the way of the farm dogs too! Do you think we might do that? Then George wouldn"t have to go home, as she had planned to do.”

“Well now! To go to that hut in this weather! What an idea!” said Mrs. Jones. “Most uncomfortable you would be, with no one to look after you, and see to your wants, and cook for you this cold weather. No, no...”

“We"re used to looking after ourselves,” said Dick. “We"re awfully good at it, Mrs. Jones.

And, my word, the food you"ve got up there is enough to feed an army! And there are cups and plates and dishes - and knives and forks - and al kinds of bedding...”

“We"d have a smashing time,” said George, joining in eagerly. “I don"t real y want to go home, Mrs. Jones. It"s so lovely in these mountains - and if the snow comes down, as your Morgan says, we"d be able to have winter sports all on our own!”

“Oh, do say it"s all right,” begged Anne. “We shal be quite safe and happy there - and we do promise to come down here again if we can"t manage, or if anything goes wrong.”

“I"l see that things go all right,” said Julian, speaking in his most grown-up voice.

“Well - well, it"s a queer idea you have,” said Mrs. Jones, stil taken aback. “I"l have to talk to my Morgan about it first. Now set you down and eat your meal. I"l get my Morgan to decide.”

She went out of the room, shaking her head, her mouth pursed up in disapproval. No fire!

No hot meals! No one to “manage” for them. What a dreadful time those children would have up in that hut in this weather!

The five set to work to demolish the good food on the table. George allowed Timmy to sit up on a chair too, and fed him with titbits for a treat. He was perfectly good and very well-mannered indeed.

“I almost expect him to hand me a plate of something!” said Anne, with a giggle. “Tim, dear - do pass me the salt!”

Timmy put a paw on the table exactly as if he meant to obey Anne, and George hastily made him put it down again! What a meal that was! The pork pie was so good that everyone had two slices, as well as their boiled eggs. Then they started on the cheese, which even Timmy liked. There was very little room indeed for the apple pie that Mrs.