4

up on the mountain-side

trefor the shepherd had a small cabin-like cottage a good way up the mountain-side. around himfor miles grazed the sheep. nearer in were that year’s lambs, now grown into sturdy little beasts,their woolly coats showing up against the sheared bodies of the older sheep.

the shepherd was having a simple meal when they got to his hut. he had bread, butter, creamcheese and onions, and beside him a great jug of milk that he had cooled by standing it in thestream that ran down the mountain-side near by.

he nodded his head to the children as they came up. he was a curious-looking old fellow, withlongish untidy hair, a straggling beard, and two of the brightest blue eyes the children had everseen.

he spoke welsh, which they didn’t understand. ‘can you speak english?’ asked jack. ‘we can’tunderstand what you say.’

trefor knew a few words of english, which, after much thought and munching of onions, hespoke.

‘donkeys. tomorrow.’

he added something the children didn’t understand, and waved his hand down the mountain-side towards the farmhouse.

‘he means the donkeys will arrive tomorrow at the farm,’ said jack. ‘good! perhaps aunt allieand bill will come for a picnic on the donkeys.’

trefor was very interested in kiki. he had never in his life seen a parrot. he pointed at kiki andlaughed a hoarse laugh. kiki at once copied it.

trefor looked startled. ‘wipe your feet,’ said kiki sternly. ‘how many times have i told you toshut the door? three blind mice!’

trefor stared at the parrot, amazed. kiki cackled loudly. ‘look you, whateffer, look you,whateffer, look…’

the children laughed. jack tapped kiki on the beak. ‘now, now, kiki – don’t show offsnowy butted against philip’s legs. he didn’t like so much attention being given to kiki. philipturned, and the little creature leapt straight into his arms. trefor seemed most amused and sent outa flood of welsh words that nobody could understand at all. he tapped philip on the arm, and thenpointed to the ground to show the children that he wanted them to sit down.

they sat down, wondering what he wanted. he went a little way down the hillside, making asoft baaing noise. from everywhere around the woolly lambs looked up. they came running to theshepherd, bleating, and even little snowy left philip and ran too. the shepherd knelt down and thelambs crowded round him, nuzzling against him. trefor had had them when they were tiny – hehad looked after them, even fed some of them from bottles if their mothers had died – and whenthey heard his soft call that once they had known so well, they remembered and came to him, theirfirst friend.

a lump came into lucy-ann’s throat. there was something very touching in the sight of thatsolemn, lonely, long-haired old shepherd, calling to his lambs and being answered. snowy the kid,eager to get close to him, leapt on to the woolly backs of the lambs, and butted his head againsthim.

‘look at snowy! isn’t he a cheeky rascal of a kid!’ said dinah. ‘my goodness, you can hardlysee trefor now, he’s so surrounded by lambs!’

trefor came back, smiling, his eyes very blue in his old brown face. he offered the childrensome bread and onions, but the onions were big and strong-smelling, and jack felt certain mrsmannering wouldn’t approve if they all came back smelling strongly of trefor’s onions.

‘no, thank you,’ he said politely. ‘will you be down to see your brother tomorrow, when hebrings the donkeys?’

trefor seemed to understand this. he nodded. ‘i come. tomorrow. donkeys.’

‘getting quite talkative, isn’t he?’ said jack to the others. ‘right, trefor. see you tomorrowthen.’

they set off down the hill again. they stopped once more at the little spring to drink. they saton the grass, looking at the towering mountains round them.

‘effans says that all those mountains over there have hardly anyone living on them, becausethey are difficult to get at,’ said jack. ‘i bet there are some interesting animals and birds there.

wish we could go and see.’

‘i don’t see why we shouldn’t if bill and mother would come with us,’ said philip, trying tostop snowy from walking on his middle. ‘stop it, snowy. get off my tummy. your hooves aresharp. it would be fun to go off into the mountains on donkeys and take food with us for a fewdays.’

‘and have tents, do you mean?’ said jack. ‘i say – that’s an idea, philip. we could take ourcameras and get some fine pictures. i might see some rare birds.’

‘i bet you would!’ said philip. ‘hallo, here comes sally slither!’

out of his pocket glided the slow-worm, and curled itself up in the crook of philip’s elbow, inthe sun. dinah removed herself to a safe distance at once. kiki looked down with interest from herperch on jack’s shoulder.

‘sally slither! what a nice name!’ said lucy-ann, running her finger down the slow-worm’ssilvery back. ‘look – my finger’s tickling her – she’s going all dithery!’

‘slithery dithery,’ said kiki, at once. she had a real talent for putting together words of the samesound. ‘dithery slithery slithery dithery …’

‘all right, all right,’ said philip. ‘we don’t want to hear it again, kiki. you’re a clever old bird,we all know that. jack, look at this slow-worm. it’s not a scrap frightened now.’

‘i do think you’re mean to keep it,’ began dinah, from a safe distance. ‘you know how i hatesnakes. all right, all right, i know it isn’t a snake – though i wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it bit meif i came near it, so there!’

‘i wouldn’t be surprised at anything biting you when you’re so nervous,’ said philip crossly. ‘ifeel like biting you myself. come here, dinah. run your fingers down sally slither’s back – lookat her sharp little eyes …’

dinah gave a scream. ‘i couldn’t bear it! no, don’t come near me, philip. it’s worse than thoseawful white rats you had a few months ago. but at least they grew up and you let them go!’

‘sally can go whenever she wants to,’ said philip. ‘i never keep any pet when it wants to go. doyou want to go, sally slither?’

‘slithery dithery, musty dusty fusty,’ said kiki, trying to remember the various collections ofwords she had picked up at one time or another. ‘huffin and puffin.’

‘come on – let’s go,’ said dinah. ‘perhaps that horrible thing will go back into your pocket ifwe go. and i’m getting hungry.’

the slow-worm slid back somewhere in philip’s clothes. he got up and snowy bounded roundhim. ‘now just see if you can walk without getting your head between my legs all the time,’ saidphilip to snowy. ‘you’ll send me flying in a minute. you’re a bit too friendly at times, snowy.’

they went back to the farmhouse, enjoying the sunshine and the constant breeze that blew overthe mountain-side. by the time they reached the farmhouse they were all terribly hungry, andvisions of ham, chicken, salad and raspberries and cream kept coming into their minds.

bill and mrs mannering had been for a walk too, but down the mountain, not up. they had beenback for a little while, and were just beginning to wonder where the children were. snowy wentbounding up to them.

‘he’s a pet!’ said mrs mannering. ‘i suppose we shall have him at our heels the whole of thisholiday now. it’s a pity kids have to grow up into goats. don’t think you’re going to take snowyback home with you, philip. i’m not going to have a goat in the garden, whilst you’re at school,eating the vegetables out of the beds, and the clothes off the line!’

‘mother, trefor says his brother will arrive at the farmhouse tomorrow with the donkeys,’ saidphilip. ‘can we each choose our own? how many will there be?’

‘yes, you can choose your own if you want to,’ said mrs mannering. ‘i don’t know how manythere will be – six, i suppose. i only hope i choose a sure-footed one!’

‘they’ll all be sure-footed,’ said jack. ‘as sure-footed as goats. but not so leapy i shouldn’tcare to ride one of these mountain goats, and find myself leaping about from rock to rock.’

‘good gracious, what a horrible thought!’ said mrs mannering. ‘i shall choose the quietest,staidest, placidest, best-tempered donkey of the lot – one without a single bound or leap in him.’

everyone laughed. effans came over to them, beaming to see them happy. ‘it iss dinner-time,’

he said. ‘mrs effans has it ready.’

‘i shall soon begin to talk in a sing-song voice myself,’ said lucy-ann, getting up from thestone wall. ‘indeed to gootness i shall!’

they all laughed at the lilting way she spoke. snowy galloped ahead into the kitchen. mrsevans didn’t seem to mind at all, but she shooed him down when he leapt into a chair. a henscuttled out from under the table. kiki went up to a rafter, sat on a ham wrapped up in a cloth, andcocked her eye down to the table to see what fruit there was.

‘pop goes the weasel,’ she announced, and made a popping noise like a cork coming out of abottle. effans looked up in admiration.

‘such a bird!’ he said. ‘never have i seen such a bird, look you!’

kiki began hiccuping, and effans went off into a roar of laughter. mrs mannering frowned.

‘kiki! stop that! how many times am i to tell you i don’t like that noise?’

‘how many times have i told you to wipe your feet?’ retorted kiki, and screeched. effansalmost died of laughter. kiki began to show off, snapping her beak open and shut, putting her crestup and down and making peculiar noises.

‘kiki! come here!’ said jack sternly, and kiki flew down to his shoulder. jack tapped hersmartly on her beak. ‘any more nonsense from you and i’ll shut you in the bedroom upstairs. badbird! silly bird!’

‘poor polly! bad polly!’ said kiki, and nipped jack’s ear. he smacked her on the beak again.

‘be quiet! not another word!’ he ordered. kiki put her head under her wing in disgrace, andvarious whispering sounds came to everyone’s ears. but nobody could hear what she said, thougheffans strained his ears hopefully. what a bird! he wished he could have one like it.

the dinner was as good as the high tea and breakfast had been. the children set to work andmrs evans felt very pleased to see how much her good food was appreciated. she kept pressingsecond and third helpings on everyone, but soon even the boys could eat no more.

‘there iss no four o’clock tea,’ she kept saying. ‘nothing till six o’clock. so eat, look you, eat!’

‘dithery slithery,’ announced kiki suddenly, and dinah gave a scream. the slow-worm wasgliding out of philip’s sleeve! he pushed it back hurriedly, hoping that no one had seen it. billhad. his sharp eyes had caught sight of it at once. he grinned.

‘another member added to the family?’ he said. ‘very nice too! what with snowy and kiki and– er – slithery, we look all set for a most interesting holiday.’