6

off to the vale of butterflies

it happened the very next day. it was when mrs mannering had gone with mrs evans to the bigbarn. the door suddenly blew shut, and caught her hand in it, trapping it tightly.

mrs mannering screamed. mrs evans ran to open the door, but poor mrs mannering’s hand wasbadly bruised and crushed.

bill was very concerned. ‘i must take you down to the doctor,’ he said. ‘i’ll get the car. whereare the children? out on their donkeys? tell them where we’ve gone, mrs evans, when they comeback. they needn’t worry. i’ll have mrs mannering’s hand seen to, and properly bandaged. i don’texpect it will be very much, but i’d like her to have it x-rayed in case any small bone is broken.’

looking rather white, mrs mannering was driven off by bill, down the steep mountain road tothe town that lay some way off in the next valley. it was about fifteen miles and soon mrsmannering was in hospital having her hand x-rayed and bound up.

the children were very upset when they heard what had happened. ‘poor mother!’ said philip.

‘it must have hurt dreadfully when her hand got caught in that heavy door.’

‘indeed to gootness, it did,’ said mrs evans, who looked quite upset too. ‘she gave one scream,poor soul, and then made not a sound, whateffer. now don’t look so sadly – she’ll be backtonight.’

‘will she be able to go off to the mountains tomorrow?’ asked lucy-ann. ‘how can she ridewith a bad hand?’

‘well, there now, she can’t,’ said mrs evans. ‘but she can stay here with me and i’ll look afterher for you. you can go with mr cunningham and david.’

‘but will bill go if mother’s hurt?’ wondered philip. ‘he thinks the world of her. oh, blow! it’sbad luck for this to happen just when we had such a lovely plan. poor mother! i do hope herhand’s better now.’

mrs mannering arrived back in bill’s car that evening, just before high tea. she looked better,and made light of her hand.

‘we’ve had it x-rayed,’ said bill. ‘she’s broken a tiny bone just here,’ and he showed themwhere, on the back of his hand. ‘it’s got to be bandaged and kept at rest. i’m to take her down tohave it seen again in three days’ time.’

‘i’m so sorry, dears,’ said mrs mannering. ‘and bill, you don’t need to take me down, youknow. i’m quite able to drive myself down even with an injured hand. take the children on theirtrip tomorrow. i can’t bear to have them disappointed.’

‘what! and leave you like this!’ said bill. ‘don’t be silly, allie. i shall take you down myself inthe car on friday. the children can go with david, if he’ll take them on by himself. it’s a perfectlyordinary trip, and they’ll be back in a few days’ time. they can all ride their donkeys as easily asdavid – and probably they’ll enjoy a trip without us!’

‘we’d much rather you and aunt allie came,’ said jack. ‘but as you can’t, it’s decent of you tolet us go alone. we’ll be perfectly all right, bill. david knows the way, and we can all look afterourselves.’

so it was settled that the four children should go by themselves on the donkeys with their guidedavid, taking with them tents, bedding and food. philip questioned bill to make sure that hismother’s hand was not seriously hurt.

‘oh, no – it will soon be right,’ said bill. ‘but i want to be sure she doesn’t use it, and i want totake her down to the doctor in three days’ time. i’m sorry not to come with you – but you’ll be allright by yourselves. i don’t see that you can get into any trouble, or any startling adventure, goingdonkey-riding in the mountains with david. maybe we can all go together, later on.’

the children were very excited that night, getting ready the things they wanted to take. theyhad two small tents, a sleeping-bag each, two ground-sheets, cameras, field-glasses, a change ofclothes – and food.

the food was mrs evans’ care. bill watched her packing up what she thought they would eat inthe next few days.

‘i didn’t like to stop her,’ he told the others. ‘but, honestly, she’s packed enough for a month.

she’s put in a whole ham!’

‘golly!’ said jack. ‘what else?’

‘a tongue or two, hard-boiled eggs, tins of all kinds, plum-cake and goodness knows what!’

said philip. ‘we shall feast like kings.’

‘well,’ began lucy-ann, ‘i always think that we eat twice as much in the open air, becausefood tastes so . . .’

‘much nicer!’ chorused everyone. lucy- ann always said that at least a dozen times eachholidays. she laughed.

‘well, anyway, it will be nice to have as much as ever we can eat. there’s david too – we’vegot to take food for him as well.’

‘he doesn’t look as if he’d eat much,’ said dinah. ‘skinny little fellow, he is!’

‘you’d better go to bed early, children,’ said mrs mannering a little later. ‘you’ll have a longride tomorrow, according to effans.’

‘all right. it’ll make tomorrow come all the sooner!’ said lucy-ann. ‘how’s your hand feel,aunt allie?’

‘it’s quite comfortable, thank you,’ said mrs mannering. ‘i’m sure i could have gone with youtomorrow, really!’

‘well, you couldn’t,’ said bill hastily, half afraid that mrs mannering would try to be foolishand go with the others after all. she laughed.

‘don’t worry! i’m going to be sensible – and, dear me, it will be quite a change to be rid of fournoisy ruffians and an even noisier bird for a few days, bill, won’t it?’

all the children were awake very early the next day. snowy the kid, who was a real sleepy-headin the mornings, didn’t want to wake up at all, and snuggled deeper into philip’s blankets as theboy tried to get out of bed.

kiki took her head from under her wing and scratched her poll. ‘dithery slithery,’ sheremarked, which meant that she had spied philip’s slow-worm. it was coiled up in a corner of theroom. it would very much have liked to sleep on philip’s bed, but it was afraid of snowy, who hada habit of nibbling anything near him.

the boys got up and looked out of the window. it was a really perfect day. the mountainstowered up into the fresh morning sky, as beautiful as ever.

‘they look as if someone had just been along and washed them,’ said jack. ‘the sky lookswashed too – so very very clean and new.’

‘i like the feel of an early morning,’ said philip, putting on his shorts. ‘it has a special new feelabout it – as if it was the first morning that ever happened!’

snowy went over to the corner where sally the slow-worm was, and the slow-worm at oncewriggled away under the chest of drawers. philip picked her up and she slid gracefully into hispocket.

‘have to get you a few flies for breakfast, sally,’ said philip. ‘shut up, kiki – you’ll wake therest of the household with that awful cough.’

kiki could give a terrible, hollow cough at times, which she had copied from an old uncle ofjack’s, and she was practising it now. she stopped when philip spoke to her, and hopped to jack’sshoulder.

‘funny bird, silly bird,’ said jack affectionately, scratching her neck. ‘come on, philip – let’ssee if the girls are up.’

they were just getting up, both of them thrilled at the fine day and the idea of going camping inthe mountains. ‘have you got that horrid slow-worm on you?’ asked dinah fearfully, looking atphilip.

‘yes, somewhere about,’ said philip, feeling all over him. ‘there’s one thing about sallyslithery – she does get about!’

dinah shuddered and went to wash in the bathroom. snowy the kid was there, nibbling the corkbath-mat, which he evidently thought was delicious.

‘oh, snowy! mrs evans won’t be at all pleased with you!’ said dinah, and shooed the kid outof the door. he went to find philip. he was quite one of the family now.

mrs mannering’s hand was stiff and sore that morning, but she said very little about it, notwanting to upset the children. she was glad it was such a lovely day for them, and watched withamusement as mrs evans carefully packed up all the food she had prepared for the children to takewith them.

‘if you eat all that you’ll never be able to ride home on the donkeys,’ she said. ‘you’ll be toofat.’

‘they must not go hungry,’ said kind mrs evans. ‘there! i think i have thought of everything.

children, you must use one donkey for the food and the other for everything else, look you. i willsee that david straps everything on well.’

the children listened to her kind, lilting voice as they sat at breakfast. they felt very happy, andthe only thing that spoilt their pleasure was the fact that bill and mrs mannering were not comingwith them. on the other hand, they would be freer without grown-ups!

kiki gave a hiccup, with one eye on mrs mannering. she looked at the parrot severely. ‘kiki!

you did that on purpose. do you want your beak smacked?’

‘pardon,’ said kiki, and went off into a cackle of laughter. effans choked over his bacon, tryingto laugh with his mouth full, and went purple in the face. his bacon went down the wrong way,and he got the hiccups too.

‘pardon, look you!’ he said to mrs mannering, with such a horrified look on his face thateveryone roared with laughter.

‘now here is david, all ready for you!’ cried mrs evans from the door, where she had gone tochase away a turkey that had suddenly appeared. it made a gobbling noise that scared snowyterribly. kiki, of course, at once gobbled too, and the turkey looked into the kitchen in amazement.

‘shoo!’ said mrs evans. ‘good morning, david, it’s early you are, and a nice day you havebrought with you!’

‘indeed to gootness i have,’ said david and smiled timidly at the company in the big kitchen.

his donkeys crowded round him, sturdy and patient, their harness clinking and glinting.

‘come on!’ yelled jack, suddenly feeling too excited to sit at the table any longer. ‘come on!

let’s pack the things on the donkeys and go!’

they all rushed out. soon david and effans were strapping everything on two donkeys. onedonkey had big panniers each side for food. the other had the things strapped across his broadlittle back. they stood perfectly still, their ears twitching as a fly or two settled on them.

‘well – are we ready to start?’ said philip. ‘i think we’ve got everything. oh, gosh, where aremy field-glasses?’

at last everyone and everything was ready. it had been explained to david that bill and mrsmannering could not come, and effans had said he would care for the two extra donkeys till thechildren came back. david did not seem too pleased to think he was to go alone with the children.

he looked rather alarmed, bill thought. poor fellow! bill wished it was effans who was going withthe children, not david. still, the children were used to camping out and could be trusted to besensible.

‘goodbye!’ called everyone. ‘see you in a few days’ time. take care of your hand, mother!

now we’re off – off to the vale of butterflies! goodbye, everyone!’