chapter 1 five make a holiday plan

'really, quentin, you are most difficult to cope with!' said aunt fanny to her husband.

the four children sat at the table, eating breakfast, and looking very interested. what had unclequentin done now? julian winked at dick, and anne kicked george under the table. would unclequentin explode into a temper, as he sometimes did?

uncle quentin held a letter in his hand, which his wife had just given back to him after she had readit. it was the letter that was causing all the trouble, uncle quentin frowned - and then decided not toexplode. instead he spoke quite mildly.

'well, fanny dear - how can i possibly be expected to remember exactly when the children's holidayscome, and if they are going to be here with us or with your sister? you know i have my scientificwork to do - and very important it is too, at the moment. i can't remember when the children's schoolsbreak up or go back!'

'you could always ask me,' said aunt fanny, exasperated. 'really, quentin - have you forgotten howwe discussed having julian, dick and anne here these easter holidays because they all enjoy kirrinand the sea so much at this time of the year? you said you would arrange to go off to yourconferences after they had had their holidays - not in the very middle of them!'

'but they've broken up so late!' said uncle quentin. 'i didn't know they were going to do that.'

'well, but you know easter came late this year, so they broke up late,' said aunt fanny, with a sigh.

'father wouldn't think of that,' said george. 'what's the matter, mother? does father want to go awayin the middle of our holidays, or what?'

'yes,' said aunt fanny, and she stretched out her hand for the letter again. 'let me see - he wouldhave to go off in two days' time - and i must certainly go with him. i can't possibly leave you childrenalone here, with nobody in the house. if joanna were not ill it would be all right - but she won't beback for a week or two.'

joanna was the cook. the children were all very fond of her, and had been sorry to find her missingwhen they had arrived for the holidays.

'we can look after ourselves,' said dick. 'anne is quite a good little cook.'

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'i can help too,' said george. her real name was georgina, but everyone called her george. hermother smiled.

'oh george - last time you boiled an egg you left it in the saucepan till it boiled dry! i don't think theothers would like your cooking very much.'

'it was just that i forgot the egg was there,' said george. 'i went to fetch the clock to tune it, and onthe way i remembered timmy hadn't had his dinner, and . . .'

'yes, we know all about that,' said her mother with a laugh. 'timmy had his dinner, but your fatherhad to go without his tea!'

'woof,' said timmy from under the table, hearing his name mentioned. he licked george's foot justto remind her he was there.

'well, let's get back to the subject,' said uncle quentin, impatiently. 'i've got to go to theseconferences, that's certain. i've to read some important papers there. you needn't come with me,fanny - you can stay and look after the children.'

'mother doesn't need to,' said george. 'we can do something we badly wanted to do, but thought we'dhave to put off till the summer hols.'

'oh yes,' said anne, at once. 'so we could! do let's!'

'yes - i'd like that too,' said dick.

'well - what is it?' asked aunt fanny. 'i'm quite in the dark. if it's anything dangerous, i shall say no.

so make up your minds about that!'

'when do we ever do anything dangerous?' cried george.

'plenty of times,' said her mother. 'now, what's this plan of yours?'

'it's nothing much,' said julian. 'it's only that all our bikes happen to be in first-class order, auntfanny, and you know you gave us two small tents for christmas - so we just thought it would begreat fun sometime to go off on our bikes, taking our tents with us - and do a little exploring roundthe countryside.'

'it's grand weather now - we could have fine fun,' said dick. 'after all, you must have meant us to usethe tents, aunt fanny! here's our chance!'

'i meant you to use them in the garden, or on the beach,' said aunt fanny. 'last time you wentcamping you had mr. luffy with you to look after you. i don't think i like the idea of you going offby yourselves with tents.'

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'oh, fanny, if julian can't look after the others he must be a pretty feeble specimen,' said her husband,sounding impatient. 'let them go! i'd bank on julian any time to keep the others in order and see theywere all safe and sound.'

'thanks, uncle,' said julian, who was not used to compliments from his uncle quentin! he glancedround at the other children and grinned. 'of course, it's easy to manage this little lot -though anne sometimes is very difficult!'

anne opened her mouth indignantly. she was the smallest and the only really manageable one.

she caught julian's grin - he was teasing her, of course. she grinned back. 'i promise to be easy tomanage,' she said in an innocent voice to her uncle quentin.

he looked surprised. 'well, i must say i should have thought that george was the only difficult one to. . .' he began, but stopped when he saw his wife's warning frown. george was difficult, but it didn'tmake her any less difficult if that fact was pointed out!

'quentin, you never know when julian is pulling your leg or not, do you?' said his wife. 'well - if youreally think julian can be put in charge - and we can let them go off on a cycling tour - with their newtents . . .'

'hurray! it's settled then!' yelled george, and began to thump dick on the back in joy. 'we'll go offtomorrow. we'll . . .'

'george! there's no need to shout and thump like that,' said her mother. 'you know your fatherdoesn't like it - and now you've excited timmy too. lie down, timmy - there he's off round the roomlike a mad thing!'

uncle quentin got up to go. he didn't like it when meal-times turned into pandemonium. he almostfell over the excited timmy, and disappeared thankfully out of the room. what a household it waswhen the four children and the dog were there!

'oh aunt fanny - can we really go off tomorrow?' asked anne, her eyes shining. 'it is such lovelyapril weather - honestly it's as hot as july. we hardly need to take any thick clothes with us.'

'well, if you think that, you won't go,' said aunt fanny, firmly. 'it may be hot and sunny today -but you can never trust april to be the same two days together. it may be pouring tomorrow, andsnowing on the next day! i shall have to give you money, julian, so that you can go to an hotel anynight the weather is bad.'

the four children immediately made up their minds that the weather would never be too bad!

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'won't it be fun?' said dick. 'we can choose our own sleeping-place every night and put our tentsthere. we can bike half the night if it's moonlight, and we want to!'

'ooooh - biking in moonlight - i've never done that,' said anne. 'it sounds super.'

'well - it's a good thing there is something you want to do while we are away,' said aunt fanny.

'dear me - i've been married all these years to quentin - and still he makes this kind of muddlewithout my knowing! well, well - we'd better get busy today, and decide what you're to take.'

everything suddenly seemed very exciting. the four children rushed to do their morning jobs ofmaking the beds and tidying their rooms, talking at the tops of their voices.

'who would have thought we'd be off on our own tomorrow!' said dick, pulling his sheets andblankets up in a heap together.

'dick! i'll make your bed,' cried anne, shocked to see it made in such a hurried way. 'you can'tpossibly make it like that!'

'oh, can't i!' cried dick. 'you just wait and see! and what's more i'm making julian's like that too, soyou clear off and do your own, anne - tuck in every corner, smooth the pillow, pat the eiderdown -do what you like with your own bed, but leave me to make mine my own way! wait till we're off onour biking tour - you won't want to bother about beds then - you'll roll up your sleeping-bag and thatwill be that!'

he finished his bed as he spoke, dragging on the cover all crooked, and stuffing his pyjamas under thepillow. anne laughed and went to make her own. she was excited too. the days stretched before her,sunny, full of strange places, unknown woods, big and little hills, chattering streams, wayside picnics,biking in the moonlight - did dick really mean that? how wizard!

they were all very busy that day, packing up into rucksacks the things they would need, folding upthe tents into as small a compass as possible to tie on to their carriers, ferreting in the larder for foodto take, looking out the maps they would want.

timmy knew they were going off somewhere, and, of course, felt certain he was going too, so he wasas excited as they were, barking and thumping his tail, and generally getting into everyone's way allday long. but nobody minded. timmy was one of them, one of the 'five', he could do almosteverything but speak - it was quite unthinkable to go anywhere without dear old timmy.

'i suppose timothy can keep up with you all right, when you bike for miles?' aunt fanny askedjulian.

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'goodness yes,' said julian. 'he never minds how far we go. i hope you won't worry about us, auntfanny. you know what a good guard timmy is.'

'yes - i know,' said his aunt. 'i wouldn't be letting you go off like this with such an easy mind if ididn't know timmy would be with you! he's as good as any grown-up at looking after you!'

'woof, woof,' agreed timmy. george laughed. 'he says he's as good as two grown-ups, mother!'

she said, and timmy thumped his big tail on the floor.

'woof, woof, woof' he said. which meant, 'not two - but three!'