chapter 7 in the morning

dick stood up and stretched himself. he felt dirty and untidy. also he was very hungry. he wonderedif the old woman would let him buy some bread and cheese and a glass of milk.

'anne must be hungry too,' he thought. 'i wonder if she's all right.' he went cautiously outside andlooked up at the tiny window of the loft where anne had spent the night. her anxious face wasalready there, watching for dick!

'are you all right, anne?' called dick, in a low tone. she pushed open the tiny window and smiled athim.

'yes. but i daren't go down because that son is downstairs. i can hear him shouting at the deaf oldwoman every now and again. he sounds very bad-tempered.'

'i'll wait for him to go out to his work then, before i go and see the old woman,' said dick. 'i must payher something for letting you sleep up in that loft - and perhaps i can persuade her to let us havesomething to eat.'

'i wish you could,' said anne. 'i've eaten all the chocolate i had in my bag. shall i wait till i hear youcall me?'

dick nodded and disappeared into the barn in a hurry. he had heard footsteps!

a man came into sight - a broad, short, hunched-up man, with a shock of untidy hair. he was the manthat dick had seen in the barn the night before. he was muttering to himself and looked very bad-tempered indeed. dick decided to keep out of his way. he crouched down in the barn.

but the man did not go in there. he walked past, still muttering. dick listened for his footsteps to dieaway. he heard the opening of a gate somewhere, then it crashed behind the man.

'i'd better take my chance now,' thought dick, and he went quickly out of the barn and up to the littlewhite house. it looked very tumble-down and neglected in the daylight, and had a most forlorn air.

dick knew that it was no good knocking, because the old woman wouldn't hear him. so he walkedright into the house and found the woman washing up a few dishes in a cracked old sink.

she stared at him in dismay.

'i'd forgotten about you! and the girl too! is she still up there? get her down quickly before my soncomes back! and then go, both of you!'

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'can you sell us some bread and cheese?' shouted dick. but the old woman really was stone deaf, andall she did was to push dick away towards the door, jabbing at him with the wet cloth in her hand.

dick slipped aside and pointed to some bread on a table.

'no, no - i tell you, you're to go,' said the old woman, obviously terrified in case her son should comeback. 'get the girl, quickly!'

but before dick could do anything, there were footsteps outside and in came the hunched-up fellowwith the shock of hair! he was back already, holding some eggs he had been to find.

he walked into the kitchen and stared at dick. 'clear out!' he said, angrily. 'what do you want here?'

dick thought he had better not say he had slept the night in the barn. there were queer goings-onhere, and the man might be very savage if he knew dick had slept the night nearby.

'i wanted to know if your mother could sell us some bread,' he said, and could have bitten his tongueout. he had said 'us'! now the man would guess there was someone with him.

'us? who's ''us''?' said the man, looking round. 'you fetch him and i'll tell you both what i do to boyswho come stealing my eggs!'

'i'll go and fetch him,' said dick, seizing the chance to get away. he ran to the door. the man made aclumsy dart at him and almost caught him. but dick was out and away, running down the path. hehid behind a shed, his heart thumping. he had to wait for anne. somehow he had to go back and gether.

the man stood at the door, shouting angrily after dick. but he didn't chase him. he went back intothe house and after a while came out again with a pail of steaming food. dick guessed he was goingto feed the chickens wherever they were.

he had to take this chance of fetching anne. he waited till he heard the crash of the distant gateagain and then he rushed to the house. anne's face was at the window, scared. she had heard all thatthe man had said to dick, and then to his mother about allowing boys to come to the house.

'anne! come down at once. he's gone,' shouted dick. 'hurry!'

anne's face disappeared from the window. she ran to the door, tumbled quickly down the stairs, andran through the kitchen. the old woman flapped a cloth at her, screaming at her.

dick ran into the kitchen and put twenty pence on the table. then he caught anne's arm and bothchildren tore out of the house and down the path. they came to the hedge they had followed the nightbefore.

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anne was quite scared. 'that awful man!' she said. 'oh dick - what a horrible place. honestly i thinkjulian must be mad to choose a place like that to sleep in for the night - horrible little house! and itdidn't look a bit like a farm. there were no cows or pigs that i could see and not even a farm-dog!'

'you know, anne, i don't think it could possibly have been blue pond farm-house,' said dick, asthey walked beside the hedge, looking for the gate that they had come through the night before.

'we made a mistake. it was an ordinary cottage. if we hadn't lost our way we'd have come to theproper blue pond farm-house i'm sure.'

'whatever will george and julian be thinking?' said anne. 'they'll be dreadfully worried, won't they,wondering what has become of us. do you suppose they're at the real blue pond farmhouse?'

'we'll have to find out,' said dick. 'do i look very messy and untidy, anne? i feel awful.'

'yes. haven't you a comb?' said anne. 'your hair's all up on end. and your face is very dirty.

look, there's a little stream over there. let's get our flannels out and wash our hands and faces withthem.'

they did a little washing in the cold water of the stream, and dick combed back his hair.

'you look a lot better,' said anne. 'oh dear - i wish we could have some breakfast. i'm really starving!

i didn't sleep awfully well, did you, dick? my mattress was so hard, and i was rather scared, up inthat funny little room all alone.'

before dick could answer, a boy came whistling through the gate. he looked astonished to see dickand anne.

'hallo!' he said. 'you hiking?'

'yes,' said dick. 'can you tell me if that place up there is blue pond farm-house?'

he pointed back to the old woman's house. the boy laughed.

'that's no farm-house. that's mrs. taggart's place, and a dirty old place it is. don't you go there, orher son will drive you off. dirty dick we call him - he's a terror! blue pond farm-house is downalong there, see? past the three shepherds inn and away up to the left.'

'thanks,' said dick, feeling very angry indeed with the man who had said 'ar' and sent them all wrongthe day before. the boy waved, and set off across a moorland path.

'we certainly went the wrong way last night,' said dick, as they walked over the fields they hadcrossed in the dark the night before. 'poor anne! dragging you all that way in the dark and the 29rain to a horrible place that wasn't blue pond farm-house after all. i can't think what julian is goingto say to me.'

'well, it was my fault too,' said anne. 'dick, let's go down to the three shepherds and telephone bluepond farm-house from there, shall we? if it's on the phone, that is. i don't somehow feel as if i wantto walk for miles and perhaps not find blue pond farm-house again.'

'good idea,' said dick. 'the three shepherds was where that woman was shaking a duster out of thewindow, wasn't it? she told julian the way to spiggy house. i wonder how old timmy is. i hope he'sbetter. i say - this hike isn't as good as we hoped it would be, is it?'

'well, there's still time for it to be all right!' said anne, much more cheerfully than she felt. she sobadly wanted her breakfast that she felt quite bad-tempered!

'we'll telephone to julian from the three shepherds to say what happened to us,' said dick, as theycame to the lane where they had floundered in the mud the night before. he helped anne over thestile and they jumped down to the narrow road. 'and what's more, we'll have breakfast at the threeshepherds - and i bet we eat more than ever the three shepherds did, whoever they were!'

anne felt more cheerful at once. she had thought they would have to walk all the way to find bluepond farm-house before they had breakfast!

'see - a stream does flow right across the road here,' she said. 'no wonder i got my feet wetyesterday! come on - the thought of breakfast makes my legs want to run!'

they at last arrived in beacons village, and made their way to the inn. on the sign three shepherdswere painted, looking rather gloomy.

'they look like i feel,' said anne, 'but i shall soon feel different. oh dick - think of porridge -and bacon and eggs - and toast and marmalade!'

'we must telephone first,' said dick, firmly - and then he suddenly stopped, just as he was going intothe inn. someone was calling him.

'dick! dick! anne! look, there they are! hey, dick, dick!'

it was julian's voice! dick swung round in delight. he saw julian, george and timmy racing alongthe village street, shouting and waving. timmy was first to reach them of course - and there was nosign of limping either! he leapt on them, barking madly, and licked every bare part of them he couldreach.

'oh, ju! i'm so glad to see you!' said anne, in rather a trembling voice. 'we lost our way last 30night. george, is timmy all right?'

'quite, absolutely,' said george. 'you see...'

'have you had breakfast?' interrupted julian. 'we haven't. we were so worried about you we werejust going to see the police. but now we can all have breakfast together and tell our news!'