1 up in bill’s aeroplane

kiki the parrot was annoyed. she had been left all alone for a day, and she talked angrily toherself.

‘what a pity, what a pity, what a pity, poor, poor polly! ding-dong bell, polly’s down the well,good morning, good morning!’

mrs mannering put her head in at the door of the room where kiki was sitting.

‘kiki, don’t be so absurd! talking away to yourself all day like that! the children will soon beback.’

‘ding-dong bell,’ said kiki mournfully, and made a cracking noise with her beak.

‘i suppose you miss jack,’ said mrs mannering, coming into the room and shutting the doorcarefully behind her. ‘he won’t be long now, kiki. you’ll hear him and the others any minute.

now be a good bird and don’t make any more noise.’

kiki opened her beak, swelled up her throat and gave her famous imitation of an express trainscreeching on entering a tunnel. mrs mannering put her hands to her ears.

‘naughty kiki, naughty! how many times have we told you not to do that?’

‘how many times have i told you to shut the door, shut the door, shut the door,’ answered backkiki, and ruffled up her feathers so cheekily that mrs mannering gave her a tap on her beak.

‘funny old bird,’ she said. ‘ah, listen – that sounds like the children coming back. they’vebeen up in an aeroplane, kiki! fancy that! that’s why you had to be left alone all day!’

‘jack, jack, jack!’ screamed kiki, hearing the voice of her owner. four children burst into theroom, their faces red with excitement.

‘hallo, all of you!’ said mrs mannering. ‘how did you like it? was it fun being so high up inthe air?’

‘oh, mother! it was the greatest fun in the world!’

‘aunt allie, i shall buy an aeroplane of my own as soon as ever i’m grown up.’

‘mother, you ought to have come. bill piloted the plane and he was marvellous’.

‘i wasn’t airsick, aunt allie, though bill gave me a paper bag to be sick in.’

mrs mannering laughed. all the four spoke at once, and she had hard work to make out whatthey said. kiki gave a loving screech and flew to jack’s shoulder.

the four children sank into chairs and prepared to relate their day’s adventure. there werephilip and dinah, mrs mannering’s children, dark-eyed, dark-haired just as she was, and both withtufts of hair that insisted on sticking up in front. both dinah and philip were called tufty atschool. then there were the other two, jack and lucy-ann, brother and sister, who had no motherand father, and lived with ‘aunt allie’, as they called mrs mannering. all four were like onefamily.

jack and lucy-ann trent were very alike. they both had red hair and green eyes, and were socovered with freckles that it was quite impossible to find a bit of pink skin on their faces, arms orlegs. it was not surprising that jack was so often called freckles.

kiki the parrot belonged to him. he had had her for years, an amusing and talkative parrot, witha gift for repeating anything she heard, and for imitating any noise, from a sewing machine to anexpress train. she adored jack and was miserable when she was not with him.

jack had a passion for birds, and philip had a great liking for animals of all kinds. he waswonderfully good with them, and they obeyed him and loved him in a marvellous manner. healways had some kind of unusual pet about him, which caused quarrels between him and his sisterdinah, who was scared of most animals and of nearly all insects. but now all four were thinking ofnothing whatever but their glorious flight in their friend bill’s new aeroplane.

bill smugs was their firm friend. he and they had had hair-raising adventures together. in oneadventure they had gone down old copper mines to track clever forgers. in another they hadhappened on a nest of dangerous spies. as bill smugs said, those children simply ‘fell intoadventures.’

now bill had actually been presented with a fine aeroplane, to help him in his work. thechildren had been wild with excitement when he had written to tell them this at school.

‘i bet he’ll take us up for a flight,’ said jack. ‘i just bet he will.’

‘we’ll make him,’ said philip. but they didn’t need to make him, for he was quite willing toshow off his aeroplane to them, and to demonstrate how well he could fly it after only a shorttraining.

‘mother, we went far higher than the clouds,’ said dinah. ‘i looked down on them and theydidn’t look like clouds a bit. they looked like a great big snow field. it gave me quite a funnyfeeling.’

‘i had a parachute strapped to me in case i fell, and bill showed me the ripcord i had to pull incase of danger,’ said lucy-ann, the youngest, her eyes shining. ‘but there wasn’t any danger.’

‘we flew right over our old home, craggy-tops,’ said philip. ‘it was so strange, looking downon top of it. and we flew over here too, mother, and our house looked like a toy one.’

‘aunt allie, bill says it’s frightfully exciting flying at night, and seeing the little pinpricks oflights shining up from the dark countryside,’ said jack. ‘we begged and begged him to take us ona night flight, but he said he would have to askyou. you will say we can go, won’t you? golly! ican’t imagine what the boys at school will say when i tell them about going up in a private plane,day and night.’

‘day and night,’ repeated kiki. ‘ding-dong bell.’

‘she’s got ding-dong bell on the brain,’ said jack. ‘there’s a small child next door who keepsreciting nursery rhymes, and kiki listens and picks up bits of them. yesterday she kept moaningabout “three blind mice,” today it’s “ding-dong bell.” don’t know what it will be tomorrow.’

‘humpy dumpy,’ said kiki obligingly.

‘humpty, dumpty,’ corrected jack. ‘not humpy dumpy.’

‘humpy dumpy bumpy,’ said kiki solemnly, and scratched her head with a claw. ‘humpy,dumpy . . .’

‘all right, all right,’ said jack. ‘aunt allie, can we go up at night with bill? he’s coming to askyou tomorrow, so do say yes.’

‘i suppose i shall have to,’ said mrs mannering with a laugh. ‘you and bill! so long as youdon’t go headlong into another awful adventure.’

‘adventures aren’t awful,’ said philip. ‘they are simply lovely!’

‘not to the people who aren’t in them,’ said mrs mannering. ‘i feel quite ill sometimes when ithink of the adventures you children have had. no more, please.’

‘all right. we won’t get into any more these summer holidays,’ said lucy-ann, giving her aunta hug. ‘we won’t worry you. i don’t want any more adventures anyhow. i’ve had enough.’

‘well, if we do have another, we’ll leave you out of it, lucy-ann,’ said dinah scornfully.

‘no, we won’t,’ said philip, giving dinah a poke in the back. ‘we can’t do without lucy-ann.’

‘now, don’t quarrel, you two,’ said mrs mannering, foreseeing one of their everlastingsquabbles boiling up. ‘you’re tired now, all of you, after such a lot of excitement. go and dosomething quiet till supper time.’

‘sing for your supper,’ put in kiki. the children laughed.

‘you’re an idiot, kiki,’ said jack affectionately. ‘did you miss us today? well, i was scared youmight fly out of the aeroplane in fright, if we took you. but i expect you’d have been quite asensible old bird, wouldn’t you, and sat on my shoulder all the time?’

kiki pecked lovingly at jack’s ear, and made a crooning noise. she sat as close to him as shecould. the children began to talk about their exciting day.

‘wasn’t it lovely going to the aerodrome and getting in on our passes, and walking up to billjust as if we were grown-ups?’ said philip. ‘and golly, wasn’t bill’s aeroplane fine?’

‘i didn’t think it would be so big,’ said lucy-ann. ‘you know, it was funny – i sort of held mybreath when we started off, thinking i’d get a funny feeling when we left the ground, like i do in alift – and i never even knew when the wheels left the runway and we were in the air! i got quite ashock when i looked down and saw we were over the housetops.’

‘it seemed awfully easy to fly a plane,’ said jack. ‘easier than driving a car. i wish bill wouldlet me have a shot.’

‘well, he won’t,’ said philip. ‘i say, wasn’t it odd when we got into the air pocket and the planesuddenly dropped down without warning? my tummy sort of went up into my throat.’

the others laughed. ‘mine did too,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’m glad i wasn’t sick. it was a waste ofthat nice strong paper bag, but i’m glad i felt all right.’

‘we went hundreds of miles, i should think,’ said jack. ‘i felt a bit funny when we were overthe sea. it looked so enormous and so flat. i shouldn’t like to fall out over that! what a splash!’

‘i bet mother will say we can go on a night flight with bill,’ said dinah. ‘i could see in her facethat she was going to say yes. if only we could! bill said we could fly to his old home, land atdawn, and spend the rest of the night with him, sleeping all we liked in his two spare rooms – weneedn’t get up till twelve if we didn’t want to. fancy flying all night and going to bed at dawn!’

‘then we’d fly back in the afternoon, i suppose,’ said jack. ‘gosh, i’m glad we’ve got bill for afriend. i do think he’s an exciting sort of person. it’s thrilling, too, to know that he’s always onsome sort of secret job, and never says a word about it – always snooping out some deadly secret.

i wonder if he’s on any job now?’

‘you bet he is!’ said philip. ‘that’s why he’s got this aeroplane. may have to take off at anymoment after spies or somebody. hope i’m with him when he does.’

‘well, you won’t be,’ said dinah. ‘bill would never run us into danger.’

‘i shouldn’t mind if he did,’ said philip. ‘hallo, there’s the gong for supper! i’m jolly hungry.’

‘that’s nothing new,’ said dinah. ‘come on – let’s go and see what there is. smells like baconand eggs.’

they went to their supper. they were all hungry, and finished up the eggs and bacon and plumcake in no time. kiki helped herself to the plum cake too, till mrs mannering protested.

‘jack! will you stop kiki picking all the raisins out of that cake? look at the mess she’smaking! there won’t be any cake left soon. smack her on her beak.’

‘naughty kiki!’ said jack, and tapped her on her beak. ‘don’t eat it all.’

‘how many times have i told . . .’ began kiki, but jack was too tired to talk to her.

‘don’t argue,’ he said. ‘i’m so sleepy i’ll have to go to bed.’

everyone felt the same – so off they went, and were soon asleep and dreaming of flyingaeroplanes over the clouds, somersaulting and looping the loop in a most amazing but perfectlysafe manner.