7

on the way

with bill, mrs mannering, effans and mrs evans waving and calling goodbye, the party set off ontheir donkeys. they had to go up by trefor the shepherd’s little cabin, and the donkeys pickedtheir way steadily up the steep hillside.

snowy ran beside them, bobbing about under the donkeys’ bodies as he pleased. they seemedto like him, and dapple kept putting his head down to the kid whenever he came near. kiki wasperched as usual on jack’s shoulder, jogging up and down contentedly, snapping her beak, andmaking a few quiet remarks into jack’s ear.

they came to trefor’s cabin. he was on the hillside, seeing to a sick sheep. he came to meetthem, his untidy hair blowing in the wind, and his eyes shining as blue as forget-me-nots.

there was a conversation between the two men in welsh. david sounded rather complaining.

trefor seemed to be pooh-poohing what he said. david got out a map that bill had given him, andappeared to be saying that he didn’t understand it at all.

trefor then spoke earnestly, pointing in this direction and that, poking david with his fingerevery time he wanted to make a point go home. the children thought he must be telling david theexact way to go.

‘i hope david really does know the way,’ said jack. ‘he might have thought bill would helphim with the map if bill had been going. it looks to me as if he’s telling trefor he’s not too certainof the way.’

‘well, what does it matter?’ said philip, pushing snowy off with his hand as the kid tried tojump up on to his donkey with him. ‘i’d like to see the vale of butterflies – but so long as we gooff camping in those gorgeous mountains, that’s all that matters.’

‘yes. we shall see heaps of birds and animals anyway,’ said jack, feeling that philip was right.

‘come on, david! let’s go!’

david leapt on to his donkey at once. he called goodbye to trefor, and the little company set offonce more, taking a narrow path along the mountain-side that went neither very far up, nor veryfar down.

it was glorious riding there, so high, looking down on the valley far below. it was partly in thesun and partly in the shadow, for the sun was not yet high. swallows flew round them catchingflies, their steel-blue wings gleaming in the sun. kiki watched them out of her sharp eyes. she hadoften tried fly-catching herself, but she knew she was no good at it. anyway, flies didn’t taste asgood as fruit!

they ambled on until everyone felt hungry and thirsty. they came to a copse of birch-trees witha small stream near by.

‘let’s picnic here,’ said philip, sliding off his donkey. ‘in the shade of those trees. i’mabsolutely cooked with the sun.’

david saw to the donkeys, taking them to the stream for water. he then let them wander free,for they came most obediently at his call, and could be trusted not to go too far away. they wentto the shade of the trees and stood there, swishing their long grey tails, enjoying the rest.

snowy ran to them, and behaved like a spoilt child, letting the donkeys fuss him and stare athim. dapple put down his big head to the little kid, and nuzzled him in the neck. when snowy ranto the next donkey dapple followed him.

‘dapple wants to be friends with snowy,’ said dinah, unpacking the lunch parcel from one ofthe enormous panniers. ‘here, lucy-ann – take this tin and fill it with water from the stream. itmust be absolutely pure, i should think. we can put some of this lemonade essence with it. i’m sodreadfully thirsty!’

david was drinking at the stream, so the children felt that it must be all right. it gurgled along,fresh and clear, running through the pebbles and down the hillside at top speed. lucy-ann went tofill the tin.

there was a lovely lunch. the children had to call david to share it because he suddenlyseemed shy. he came and sat down a little way away from them.

‘no, david. come here with us,’ called jack, patting the ground. ‘we want to learn welsh!

come and talk to us!’

but the old welshman was very shy, and it was as much as the children could do to persuadehim to eat his share of the lunch. it was such a good lunch too!

there were five different kinds of sandwiches, fresh lettuce wrapped in a damp cloth, hard-boiled eggs to nibble, and great slices of jam tart. washed down with cold lemonade it was thefinest lunch anyone could wish.

‘nobody in the whole world, not even the very richest king, can possibly have a nicer lunchthan this,’ said lucy-ann, munching a chicken sandwich.

‘or a nicer place to eat it in,’ said philip, waving his sandwich at the magnificent view beforethem. ‘look at that! no king could have a better view from his palace than that! valleys andmountains, and yet more mountains, and then the clear blue sky! marvellous!’

they all gazed at the unbelievable view that lay in front of them. a rustle of paper made themlook round.

‘snowy! you greedy little kid! look here, he’s eaten the rest of the chicken sandwiches!’ criedjack indignantly, forgetting all about the lovely view. ‘philip, smack him. we can’t let him do thator our food won’t last out. he can jolly well eat the grass.’

philip gave snowy a smart tap on the nose. the kid retreated in a huff, taking with him amouthful of sandwich papers, which he proceeded to eat with apparent enjoyment. but soon hewas back with philip, pressing against him affectionately, anxious to be back in his good books.

dapple the donkey moved over to philip too, to be near the kid. he lay down beside him, andphilip at once leaned back against him.

‘thanks, old man! very nice! just what i wanted!’ said philip, and everyone laughed as hesettled himself against the donkey’s side.

‘have another sandwich, david?’ asked lucy-ann, holding out a packet to him. david had noteaten nearly as much as they had, either through shyness or because he hadn’t such an enormousappetite. he shook his head.

‘let’s have a bit of rest now,’ said philip sleepily. ‘there’s no hurry. we can take all the timewe like to get anywhere.’

jack began to ask david the names of things in welsh. it was silly not to be able to talk todavid. david apparently understood more english than he spoke, but even the few english wordshe said were pronounced so differently that the children found it hard to puzzle out what he wassaying.

‘come on, david, talk,’ said jack, who did not feel as sleepy as the others. ‘what’s this inwelsh?’ he held out his hand.

david began to realize that jack wanted a lesson in welsh, and he brightened up a little. he wasa trifle embarrassed by kiki, who insisted on repeating all the words he said too, and added a fewnonsense words of her own for good measure.

the girls and philip fell asleep in the shade, lucy-ann sharing philip’s donkey to lean against.

dinah would have liked to do the same but she was afraid that sally the slow-worm might comeout of philip’s pocket if she did, and nothing would make dinah go near the silvery creature!

jack patiently tried to learn a few welsh words, and then got tired of it. he threw a few pebblesdown the mountain-side, and gazed round at the many summits towering up in the distance. therewas one odd one, shaped like three teeth, that amused him. he decided to look it up on the map.

the map, however, was rather disappointing. it showed very few names in the district wherethey were, probably because it had been very little visited, and there were no farmhouses or otherbuildings to put on record. jack found a name that seemed to him to fit the mountain. ‘fangmountain,’ he read. ‘that might be it. gosh, what a lot of mountains there are about here! i betnobody has ever explored them all. i’d like to fly over them in an aeroplane and look down onthem. we haven’t seen a plane since we’ve been here. off the route, i suppose.’

david had gone to round up the donkeys. jack woke up the others. ‘come on, lazy things! we’dbetter get on, or david will think we mean to camp here for the night. there’s a heavenly wind gotup now. it will be gorgeous riding this afternoon.’

soon they were all on their donkeys again, jogging along round the mountain-side, enjoying thewind and the sun, gazing on the different vistas that opened up before them round every bend ofthe track. new mountains reared up far-away heads, new skylines appeared. for long stretches thechildren said nothing at all to one another, but simply drank in the beauty around them, and thesun and wind.

they travelled until six o’clock, having decided to keep to the high tea that mrs evans had atthe farm. jack spoke to david when six o’clock came.

‘david! we stop at half-past six. do you know a good place to camp for the night near here?’

david did not understand and jack repeated it more slowly. david smiled and nodded.

‘iss! iss!’ this meant ‘yes’, and jack looked as david pointed to a wooded spot some wayahead. david said something else in welsh, and jack caught a few words here and there which heunderstood. one was ‘water’, the other was ‘trees’.

‘david says there’s a good place to camp in a little way off!’ jack shouted back to the others.

‘there’s water there, and trees.’

‘gosh! however do you understand him?’ said philip in admiration. ‘jolly clever of you, jack!’

jack grinned all over his freckled face. ‘oh, i just caught the words “water” and “trees”, that’sall! come on, let’s get there in time to watch the sun sink over the mountains. i’d like to have asunset with my sandwiches!’

philip laughed. they all ambled on towards the spot pointed out by david. it was a little furtherthan they thought, but when they got there they all agreed it was just the right place to camp forthe night.

a spring gushed out beside the small wooded patch, as cold as ice. the trees sheltered thecampers from the night-wind, which could be very chilly at times. the donkeys were to be tied totrees so that they would not wander in the night. everything was perfect!

the children were tired but happy. they slid off their donkeys’ backs, and the little beasts, tirednow too, were taken to the spring to drink. they stood patiently waiting their turn, whilst snowyskipped about like a mad thing, not in the least tired with his long trip.

‘we’ll put up the tents after we’ve had a meal and a rest,’ said philip. ‘get out the food, lucy-ann and dinah. there’s a nice flat stone here we can use as a table.’

soon the supper, or high tea, was spread out on the big flat stone, and mugs of lemonade wereset by each plate. the children drained them at once, and jack was sent to get more ice-cold waterfrom the spring.

they all ate quickly, for they were very hungry again. they said very little until the first edge oftheir appetite had worn off, then they all talked with their mouths full, eager to make the othersremember the lovely day.

david ate too and listened. the donkeys pulled at the grass. snowy was with dapple, and kikiwas eating a tomato and dripping the juice down jacks neck. they all felt as if they couldn’tpossibly be happier.

‘now we’ll put up the tents,’ said jack at last. ‘come on, philip! it’ll be dark before we’ve putthem up if we don’t make haste!’