Five Have a Wonderful Time (5 page)

"He will probably be a skinny little fellow who trots along like a pony," said Julian.

"There's someone coming out of his caravan now," said George. "Look."

"It's a woman," said Anne. "His wife, I expect. How tiny she is — rather sweet. She looks Spanish, she's so dark."

"
This
must be the fire-eater, coming behind her," said George. "Surely it is! And he's JUST like you imagined him, Dick. How clever of you!"

A great big fellow came down the steps behind his tiny wife. He certainly looked very fierce, for he had a lion-like mane of tawny hair, and a big red face with large, gleaming eyes. He took enormous strides as he went, and his little wife had to run to keep up with him.

"
Just
my idea of a fire-eater," said Dick, pleased. "I think we'll keep out of his way until we know if he also dislikes children, like the snake-man. What a tiny wife he has! I bet he makes her run around him, and wait on him hand and foot."

"Well, he's fetching water from the stream for her, anyway," said Anne. "Two huge pails. My word, he really does look like a fire-eater, doesn't he?"

"There's somebody else, look," said Dick. "Now who would
he
be? Look at him going to the stream — he walks like a tiger or a cat — all slinky and powerful."

"The man who can set himself free from ropes no matter how he's tied!" said Anne. "I'm sure he is."

It was most exciting to watch the new arrivals. They all seemed to know one another. They stopped to talk, they laughed, they visited one another's caravans, and finally three of the women set off together with baskets.

"Going off to shop," said Anne. "That's what
I
ought to do. Coming George? There's a bus that goes down to the village in about ten minutes. We can easily clear up when we come back."

"Right," said George, and got up too. "What are the boys going to do while we're gone?"

"Oh, fetch more water, find sticks for the fire, and see to their own bunks," said Anne, airily.

"Are we
really
?" said Dick, grinning. "Well, we might. On the other hand, we might not. Anyway, you two go, because food is getting rather low. A very serious thought, that! Anne, get me some more tooth-paste, will you? And if you can spot some of those doughnuts at the dairy, bring a dozen back with you."

"Yes — and see if you can get a tin of pineapple," said Julian. "Don't forget we want milk too."

"If you want many more things you'll have to come and help us carry them," said Anne. "Anything else?"

"Call at the post office and see if there are any letters," said Dick. "And don't forget to buy a paper. We may as well find out if anything has happened in the outside world! Not that I feel I can take much interest in it at the moment."

"Right," said Anne. "Come on, George — we shall miss that bus!" And off they went with Timmy at their heels.

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THE two boys decided they
would
fetch the water and stack up some firewood while the girls were gone.

They "made" their bunks too, by the simple process of dragging off all the clothes and bundling them on the shelf, and then letting down the bunks against the wall.

That done there didn't seem much else to do except wait for the girls. So they took a walk round the field.

They kept a good distance from the snake-man, who was doing something peculiar to one of his pythons.

"It
looks
as if he's polishing it, but he surely can't be," said Julian. "I'd like to go near enough to watch but he's such a hot-tempered little fellow he might quite well set one of those enormous pythons on to us!"

The snake-man was sitting on a box, with one snake spread over his knee, some of its coils round one of his legs, the other coils round his waist. The head appeared to be under his arm-pit. The man was rubbing away hard at the snake's scaly body, and it really seemed as if the python was enjoying it!

Bufflo was doing something with a whip. It had a magnificent handle, set with semi-precious stones that caught the sun and glittered in many colours.

"Look at the lash," said Julian. "Yards and yards long! I'd like to see him crack it!"

Almost as if he heard him, Bufflo got to his feet, and swung the great whip in his hand. Then he raised it —

and a moment later there was a sound exactly like a pistol-shot! The lash cracked as it was whipped through the air, and the two boys jumped, not expecting such a loud noise.

Bufflo cracked it again. Then he whistled and a small plump woman came to the steps of his caravan.

"You mended it yet?" she called.

"Perhaps," said Bufflo. "Get a cigarette, Skippy. Hurry!"

Skippy put her hand into the caravan, felt along a shelf, and brought out a packet of cigarettes. She didn't go down the steps, but stood there, holding out the cigarette between her finger and thumb.

Bufflo swung his whip. CRACK! The cigarette disappeared as if by magic! The boys stared in amazement.

Surely the end of the lash hadn't whipped that cigarette from Skippy's fingers? It didn't seem possible.

"There it is," said Bufflo, pointing some distance away. "Hold it again, Skippy. I reckon this whip is okay now."

Skippy picked up the cigarette and put it in her mouth!

"No!" called Bufflo. "I ain't sure enough of this lash yet. You hold it like you did."

Skippy took it out of her mouth and held out the cigarette in her finger and thumb once more.

CRACK! Like a pistol-shot the whip cracked again, and once more the cigarette disappeared.

"Aw, Bufflo — you've gone and broken it in half," said Skippy, reproachfully, pointing to where it lay on the ground, neatly cut in half. "That was real careless of you."

Bufflo said nothing. He merely turned his back on Skippy, and set to work on his lash again, though what he was doing neither of the boys could make out. They went a little nearer to see.

Bufflo had his back to them but he must have heard them coming. "You clear out," he said, hardly raising his voice. "No kids allowed round here. Clear out — or I'll crack my whip and take the top hairs off your head!"

Julian and Dick felt perfectly certain he would be able to carry out his threat, and they retreated with as much dignity as they could. "I suppose the snake-man told him what a disturbance old Timmy made yesterday with the snakes," said Dick. "I hope it won't spoil things for us with all the fair-folk."

They went across the field and on the way met Mr. India-rubber. They couldn't help staring at him. He honestly looked as if he were made of rubber — he was a curious grey, the grey of an ordinary school rubber, and his skin looked rubbery too.

He scowled at the two boys. "Clear out," he said. "No kids allowed in our field."

Julian was annoyed. "It's our field as much as yours," he said. "We've got a couple of caravans here — those over there."

"Well, this has always
been
our field," said Mr. India-rubber. "So you clear out to the next one."

"We haven't any horses to pull our caravans, even if we wanted to go, which we don't," retorted Julian, angrily. "Anyway, why should you object to us? We'd like to be friendly. We shan't do you any harm, or make a nuisance of ourselves."

"Us-folk and you-folk don't mix," said the man, obstinately. "We don't want you here — nor them posh caravans down there, neither," and he pointed to the three modern caravans in one corner of the field. "This has always been
our
field."

"Don't let's argue about it," said Dick, who had been looking at the man with the greatest curiosity. "Are you really so rubbery that you can wriggle in and out of pipes and things? Do you —"

But he didn't have time to finish his question because the rubber-man flung himself down on the ground, did a few strange contortions, nicked himself between the boys' legs — and there they both were, flat on the ground! The rubber-man was walking off, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Well!" said Dick, feeling a bump on his head. "I tried to grab his legs and they honestly felt like rubber! I say — what a pity these people resent us being in their field. It's not going to be very pleasant to have them all banded against us. Not fair either. I should
like
to be friendly."

"Well, perhaps it's just a case of us-folk and you-folk," said Julian. "There's a lot of that kind of feeling about these days, and it's so silly. We're all the same under the skin. We've always got on well with anyone before."

They hardly liked to go near the other caravans, though they longed to have a closer view of Alfredo the Fire-Eater.

"He looked so
exactly
like what I imagined a fire-eater ought to be," said Dick. "I should think he's probably chief of all the fair-folk here—if they've got a chief."

"Look — here he comes!" said Julian. And sure enough, round the corner came Alfredo, running fast. He came towards the boys, and Julian at first thought that he was coming to chase them away. He didn't mean to run from Alfredo, but it wasn't very pleasant standing still, either, with this enormous fellow racing towards them, his cheeks as red as fire, his great mane of hair flopping up and down.

And then they saw why Alfredo was running! After him came his tiny little dark wife. She was shrieking at him in some foreign language, and was chasing him with a saucepan!

Alfredo lumbered by the two boys, looking scared out of his life. He went down to the stile, leapt over it and disappeared down the lane.

The little dark woman watched him go. When he turned to look round she waved the saucepan at him.

"Big bad one!" she cried. "You burn breakfast again! Again, again! I bang you with saucepan, big bad one.

Come, Alfredo, come!"

But Alfredo had no intention of coming. The angry little woman turned to the two boys. "He burn breakfast," she said. "He no watch, he burn always."

"It seems queer for a fire-eater to burn something he's cooking," said Julian. "Though, on second thoughts, perhaps it's not!"

"Poof! Fire-eating, it is easy!" said Alfredo's hot-tempered little wife. "Cooking is not so easy. It needs brains and eyes and hands. But Fredo, he has no brains, his hands are clumsy — he can only eat fire, and what use is that?"

"Well — I suppose he makes money by it," said Dick, amused.

"He is my big bad one," said the little woman. She turned to go and then turned back again with a sudden smile. "But he is very good sometimes," she said.

She went back to her caravan. The boys looked at one another. "Poor Alfredo," said Dick. "He looks as brave as a lion, and he's certainly a giant of a man—but he's as timid as a mouse. Fancy running away from that tiny little woman."

"Well, I'm not so sure I wouldn't too, if she came bounding over the field after me, brandishing that dangerous-looking saucepan," said Julian. "Ah—who's this?"

The man that Anne had thought might be the one who could set himself free when bound with ropes was coming up from the stile. He walked easily and lightly, really very like a cat. Julian glanced at his hands — they were small but looked very strong. Yes — he could certainly undo knots with hands like that. They gazed at him curiously.

"No kids allowed here," said the man, as he came up.

"Sorry, but we're caravanners too," said Dick. "I say — are you the fellow that can undo ropes when he's tied up in them?"

"Could be," said the man, and walked on. He turned round suddenly. "Like me to tie
you
up?" he called.

"I've a good mind to try. Don't you try interfering with us, or I'll do it!"

"Dear me — what a nice, pleasant lot they are!" said Julian. "Quite different from the other circus folk we've known. I begin to feel we shan't make friends as fast as I thought!"

"We'd better be careful, I think," said Dick. "They seem to resent us, goodness knows why. They may make things jolly unpleasant. Don't let's snoop round any more this morning. Let's keep away from them till they get a bit used to us. Then perhaps they'll be more friendly."

"We'll go and meet the girls," said Julian. So they went down to the stile and walked to the bus-stop. The bus came panting up the hill at that very moment, and the girls stepped off, with the three fair-women behind them.

The girls joined the boys. "We've done a lot of shopping," said Anne. "Our baskets are awfully heavy.

Thanks, Julian, if you'll carry mine. Dick can take George's. Did you see those women who got off with us?"

"Yes," said Julian. "Why?"

"Well, we tried to talk to them but they were very unfriendly," said Anne. "We felt quite uncomfortable.

And Timmy growled like anything, of course, which made things worse. I don't think he liked their smell. They did smell rather unwashed."

"
We
didn't get on too well either, with the rest of the fair-folk," said Julian. "In fact I can't say that Dick and I were a success at all. All they wanted us to do was to clear out."

"I got a paper for you," said Anne, "and George found a letter at the post office from her mother. It's addressed to all of us so we didn't open it. We'll read it when we get to the caravans."

"I
hope
it's nearly time for dinner," said George. "What do you think, Timmy?"

Timmy knew the word dinner! He gave a joyful bark and led the way. Dinner? There couldn't be a better idea!

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GEORGE opened her mother's letter when they had finished their meal. Everyone voted that it was a truly wizard lunch — two hard-boiled eggs each, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, mustard and cress, and potatoes baked in the fire in their jackets — followed by what Julian had asked for — slices of tinned pineapple, very sweet and juicy.

"Very nice," said Julian, lying back in the sun. "Anne, you're a jolly good housekeeper. Now, George, let's hear what Aunt Fanny has got to say in her letter."

George unfolded the note-paper and smoothed it out. "It's to all of us," she said.