chapter 6 day at the farm

the next day the children were up very early, as early as mr. luffy, and they all had breakfasttogether. mr. luffy had a map of the moorlands, and he studied it carefully after breakfast.

'i think i'll go off for the whole day,' he said to julian, who was sitting beside him. 'see that littlevalley marked here - crowleg vale - well, i have heard that there are some of the rarest beetles inbritain to be found there. i think i'll take my gear and go along. what are you four going to do?'

'five,' said george at once. 'you've forgotten timmy.'

'so i have. i beg his pardon,' said mr. luffy, solemnly. 'well - what are you going to do?'

'we'll go over to the farm and get more food,' said julian. 'and ask that farm-boy if he's heard thetale of the spook-trains. and perhaps look round the farm and get to know the animals there. ialways like a farm.'

'right,' said mr. luffy, beginning to light his pipe. 'don't worry about me if i'm not back tilldusk. when i'm bug-hunting i lose count of the time.'

'you're sure you won't get lost?' said anne, anxiously. she didn't really feel that mr. luffy couldtake proper care of himself.

'oh yes. my right ear always warns me if i'm losing my way,' said mr. luffy. 'it waggles hard.'

he waggled it at anne and she laughed. 'i wish you'd tell me how you do that,' she said. 'i'm sureyou know. you can't think how thrilled the girls at school would be if i learnt that trick. they'dthink it was super.'

mr. luffy grinned and got up. 'well, so long,' he said. 'i'm off before anne makes me give her alesson in ear-waggles.'

he went off down the slope to his own tent. george and anne washed-up, while the boystightened some tent ropes that had come loose, and generally tidied up.

'i suppose it's quite all right leaving everything unguarded like this,' said anne, anxiously.

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'well, we did yesterday,' said dick. 'and who's likely to come and take anything up here in thiswild and lonely spot, i'd like to know? you don't imagine a spook-train will come along andbundle everything into its luggage-van, do you, anne?'

anne giggled. 'don't be silly. i just wondered if we ought to leave timmy on guard, that's all.'

'leave timmy!' said george, amazed. 'you don't really think i'd leave timmy behind every timewe go off anywhere, anne? don't be an idiot.'

'no, i didn't really think you would,' said anne. 'well, i suppose nobody will come along here.

throw over that tea-cloth, george, if you've finished with it.'

soon the tea-cloths were hanging over the gorse bushes to dry in the sun. everything was putaway neatly in the tents. mr. luffy had called a loud goodbye and gone. now the five were readyto go off to the farm.

anne took a basket, and gave one to julian too. 'to bring back the food,' said she. 'are you readyto go now?'

they set off over the heather, their knees brushing through the honeyed flowers, and sendingscores of busy bees into the air. it was a lovely day again, and the children felt free and happy.

they came to the trim little farm. men were at work in the fields, but julian did not think theywere very industrious. he looked about for the farm-boy.

the boy came out of a shed and whistled to them. 'hallo! you come for some more eggs? i'vecollected quite a lot for you.'

he stared at anne. 'you didn't come yesterday. what's your name?'

'anne,' said anne. 'what's yours?'

'jock,' said the boy, with a grin. he was rather a nice boy, anne thought, with straw-colouredhair, blue eyes, and rather a red face which looked very good-tempered.

'where's your mother?' said julian. 'can we get some bread and other things from her today? weate an awful lot of our food yesterday, and we want to stock up our larder again!'

'she's busy just now in the dairy,' said jock. 'are you in a hurry? come and see my pups.'

they all walked off with him to a shed. in there, right at the end, was a big box lined with straw.

a collie dog lay there with five lovely little puppies. she growled at timmy fiercely, and hebacked hurriedly out of the shed. he had met fierce mother-dogs before, and he didn't like them!

the four children exclaimed over the fat little puppies, and anne took one out very gently. itcuddled into her arms and made funny little whining noises.

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'i wish it was mine,' said anne. 'i should call it cuddle.'

'what a frightful name for a dog,' said george scornfully. 'just the kind of silly name you wouldthink of, anne. let me hold it. are they all yours, jock?'

'yes,' said jock, proudly. 'the mother's mine, you see. her name's biddy.'

biddy pricked up her ears at her name and looked up at jock out of bright, alert eyes. he fondledher silky head.

'i've had her for four years,' he said. 'when we were at owl farm, old farmer burrows gave herto me when she was eight weeks old.'

'oh - were you at another farm before this one, then?' asked anne. 'have you always lived on afarm? aren't you lucky?'

'i've only lived on two,' said jock. 'owl farm and this one. mum and i had to leave owl farmwhen dad died, and we went to live in a town for a year. i hated that. i was glad when we camehere.'

'but i thought your father was here!' said dick, puzzled.

'that's my stepfather,' said jock. 'he's no farmer, though!' he looked round and lowered hisvoice. 'he doesn't know much about farming. it's my mother that tells the men what to do. still,he gives her plenty of money to do everything well, and we've got fine machinery and wagonsand things. like to see the dairy? it's slap up-to-date and mum loves working in it.'

jock took the four children to the shining, spotless dairy. his mother was at work there with agirl. she nodded and smiled at the children. 'good morning! hungry again? i'll pack you upplenty of food when i've finished in the dairy. would you like to stay and have dinner with myjock? he's lonely enough here in the holidays, with no other boy to keep him company.'

'oh, yes - do let's!' cried anne, in delight. i'd like that. can we, ju?'

'yes. thank you very much, mrs. - er – mrs. . . .' said julian.

'i'm mrs. andrews,' said jock's mother. 'but jock is jock robins - he's the son of my firsthusband, a farmer. well, stay to dinner all of you, and i'll see if i can give you a meal that willkeep you going for the rest of the day!'

this sounded good. the four children felt thrilled, and timmy wagged his tail hard. he likedmrs. andrews.

'come on,' said jock, joyfully. i'll take you all round the farm, into every corner. it's not very big,but we're going to make it the best little farm on the moorlands. my stepfather doesn't seem to29

take much interest in the work of the farm, but he's jolly generous when it comes to handing outmoney to mum to buy everything she wants.'

it certainly seemed to the children that the machinery on the farm was absolutely up-to-date.

they examined the combine, they went into the little cowshed and admired the clean stone floorwith white brick walls, they climbed into the red-painted wagons, and they wished they could trythe two motor-tractors that stood side by side in a barn.

'you've got plenty of men here to work the farm,' said julian. 'i shouldn't have thought there wasenough for so many to do on this small place.'

'they're not good workers,' said jock, his face creasing into frowns. 'mum's always getting wildwith them. they just don't know what to do. dad gives her plenty of men to work the farm, buthe always chooses the wrong ones! they don't seem to like farm-work, and they're alwaysrunning off to the nearest town whenever they can. there's only one good fellow and he's old.

see him over there? his name's will.'

the children looked at will. he was working in the little vegetable garden, an old fellow with ashrivelled face, a tiny nose and a pair of very blue eyes. they liked the look of him.

'yes. he looks like a farm-worker,' said julian. 'the others don't.'

'he won't work with them,' said jock. 'he just says rude things to them, and calls them ninniesand idjits.'

'what's an idjit?' asked anne.

'an idiot, silly,' said dick. he walked up to old will. 'good morning,' he said. 'you're very busy.

there's always a lot to do on a farm, isn't there?'

the old fellow looked at dick out of his very blue eyes, and went on with his work. 'plenty to doand plenty of folk to do it, and not much done,' he said, in a croaking kind of voice. 'neverthought i'd be put to work with ninnies and idjits. not ninnies and idjits!'

'there! what did i tell you?' said jock, with a grin. 'he's always calling the other men that, so wejust have to let him work right away from them. still, i must say he's about right - most of thefellows here don't know the first thing about work on a farm. i wish my stepfather would let ushave a few proper workers instead of these fellows.'

'where's your stepfather?' said julian, thinking he must be rather peculiar to pour money into alittle moorland farm like this, and yet choose the wrong kind of workers.

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'he's away for the day,' said jock. 'thank goodness!' he added, with a sideways look at theothers.

'why? don't you like him?' asked dick.

'he's all right,' said jock. 'but he's not a farmer, though he makes out he's always wanted to be -and what's more he doesn't like me one bit. i try to like him for mum's sake. but i'm always gladwhen he's out of the way.'

'your mother's nice,' said george.

'oh, yes - mum's grand,' said jock. 'you don't know what it means to her to have a little farm ofher; own again, and to be able to run it with the proper machinery and all.'

they came to a large barn. the door was locked. 'i told you what was in here before,' said jock.

'lorries! you can peek through that hole here at them. don't know why my stepfather wanted tobuy up so many, but i suppose he got them cheap - he loves to get things cheap and sell themdear! he did say they'd be useful on the farm, to take goods to the market.'

'yes - you told us that when we were here yesterday, ' said dick. 'but you've got heaps ofwagons for that!'

'yes. i reckon they weren't bought for the farm at all, but for holding here till prices went highand he could make a lot of money,' said jock, lowering his voice. 'i don't tell mum that. so longas she gets what she wants for the farm, i'm going to hold my tongue.'

the children were very interested in all this. they wished they could see mr. andrews. he mustbe a peculiar sort of fellow, they thought. anne tried to imagine what he was like.

'big and tall and dark and frowny,' she thought. 'rather frightening and impatient, and hecertainly won't like children. people like that never do.'

they spent a very pleasant morning poking about the little farm. they went back to see biddythe collie and her pups. timmy stood patiently outside the shed, with his tail down. he didn't likegeorge to take so much interest in other dogs.

a bell rang loudly. 'good! dinner!' said jock. 'we'd better wash. we're all filthy. hope you feelhungry, because i guess mum's got a super dinner for us.'

'i feel terribly hungry,' said anne. 'it seems ages since we had breakfast. i've almost forgotten it!'

they all felt the same. they went into the farmhouse and were surprised to find a very nice littlebathroom to wash in. mrs. andrews was there, putting out a clean roller towel.

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'fine little bathroom, isn't it?' she said. 'my husband had it put in for me. first proper bathroomi've ever had!'

a glorious smell rose up from the kitchen downstairs. 'come on!' said jock, seizing the soap.

'let's hurry. we'll be down in a minute, mum!'

and they were. nobody was going to dawdle over washing when a grand meal lay waiting forthem downstairs!