chapter 2 off to magga glen

everything was soon settled. old mrs. jones, whose voice came remarkably clearly over the long-distance call, seemed delighted to take the four children.

'yes, mam. i understand. oh, their coughs won't last a day here, don't you be fretting, mam. andhow's my nephew, ifor jenkins, mam? it's hoping i am that he's still pleasing you. a wild boy hewas, and...'

'mother! tell her we're bringing a dog, too,' said julian, in his mother's ear. george had been makingwild gestures to him, pointing first to timmy, then to the telephone, where her aunt stood patientlylistening to old mrs. jones' gossipy talk.

'oh - er - mrs. jones - there'll be a dog, too!' said her aunt. 'what - you've seven dogs already?

good gracious! oh, for the sheep, of course...'

'seven dogs, timmy!' said george, in a low voice to tim, who wagged his tail at once. 'what do youthink of that? seven! you'll have the time of your life!'

'sh!' said julian, seeing his mother glance crossly at george. he felt thankful that this unexpectedholiday had been so quickly fixed up. like the others, he was beginning to feel very down and dull. itwould be wonderful to go away. he wondered where their skis were...

6everyone looked brighter when things had been settled. no school for some time! no lounging aboutthe house wishing something would happen! timmy would be able to go for long walks at last. theywould be on their own again, too, a thing the five loved.

jenkins was very helpful in looking out toboggans and skis. he brought them all into the house to beexamined and cleaned. something exciting to do at last! their exertions made them all cough badly,but they didn't mind so much now.

'only two days to wait - then we're off!' said dick. 'ought we to take our skates, do you think?'

'no. jenkins says there's no skating round about the farm,' said george. 'i asked him. i say - look atthat mound of woollen clothes your mother's just brought in, ju! we might be going to the northpole!'

'whew, mother! if we wear all those, we'll never be able to ski!' said julian. 'gosh, look - six scarves!

even if timmy wears one, that's one too many.'

'one or two may get wet,' said his mother. 'it won't matter how many clothes you take - you're goingby car, and we can easily get everything in.'

'i'll take my field-glasses, too,' said dick. 'you never know when they might be useful. george, oldthing, i do hope timmy will be friends with the farm dogs. it would be awful if he quarrelled withthem - and he does sometimes get fierce with other dogs, you know - especially if we make a fuss ofthem!'

'he'll behave perfectly,' said george. 'and there's no need to make a fuss of other dogs if we've gottimmy.'

'all right, teacher!' said dick, and george stopped her polishing and threw her duster at him. yes- certainly things were getting normal again!

when the time came for the children to set out on their journey they were feeling a good deal better -though their coughs were still almost as bad! 'i do hope you'll lose those awful coughs, julian, beforeyou come back,' said his mother. 'it worries me to hear you all cough, cough, cough, day and night!'

'poor old mother - you have had a time!' said julian, giving her a hug. 'you've been a brick.

what a sigh of relief you'll give when we're all safely away in the car!'

at last the car came, driving up the snowy path to the house. it was a hired car, a very big one, andthat was fortunate, as the children's luggage was truly colossal! the driver was a cheerful 7little man, and he and jenkins soon had the suit-cases, toboggans, skis and all the rest either in theboot of the car, or strapped on top.

'there we are, mam!' said the driver at last. 'everything made fast. we're making a nice early start,and we should be safe in magga glen before it's dark.'

'we're all ready to start!' said julian and the little man nodded and smiled, climbing into the driving-seat. dick sat beside him, and the other three sat at the back, with timmy on their feet.

not that he would stay there long! he liked to look out of the window just as much as the childrendid!

everyone heaved a sigh of relief as the car slid down the drive. they were off at last! jenkins was atthe gate, and waved as they went past.

'remember me to my old aunt now!' he shouted, as he shut the gate.

the driver was very chatty. he soon heard all about their miserable holidays, and how much theywere looking forward to their unexpected break before going back to school. in return he told themall about himself and his family - and as he had eleven brothers and sisters, his tale lasted for a goodpart of the journey!

they stopped for a meal in the car after some time, and found that they were hungry for the first timesince they had been ill.

'good gracious - i can really taste these sandwiches!' said george, in a surprised voice. 'can you,anne?'

'yes - they don't taste of cardboard - like all our meals have lately,' said anne. 'timmy - you're notgoing to fare so well, now that we're getting our appetites back!'

'he was a very good dustbin while we were ill, wasn't he?' said dick. 'he simply gobbled up all thebits and pieces we couldn't eat. ugh - that boiled fish! it tasted like stewed knitting!'

they laughed - and that set them off coughing again. the driver listened and shook his head.

'nasty coughs you've got!' he said. 'reminds me of the time when me and my family got whooping-cough - twelve of us together. my, when we all whooped, it sounded like a lot of fire-sirens goingoff!'

that made the children laugh again, and cough. but somehow nobody minded the irritating coughsnow - they would surely soon be gone, once they could get out into the country and try their legs atrunning and racing and skiing once again.

8it was a long drive. all the children fell asleep in the car after their meal, and the driver smiled to seethem lolling back against one another, looking very peaceful. only timmy was awake, and heclimbed cautiously up between george and the window, wishing the window was open, so that hecould put his big nose out into the wind, as he loved to do.

they stopped for a very early tea at a tea-shop in a village. 'better stretch your legs a bit,' said thedriver, getting out. 'i know i want to stretch mine. look - i'm going into that place over there for mytea. there's plenty of my pals there, and i'd enjoy a chat. you go and tuck in at this tea-shop here, andask for their buttered crumpets. best in the kingdom they are! be back for you in a quarter of an hour- not longer, or we shan't be at the farmhouse before dark. it's still about an hour's run, but there'll bea moon later on.'

they were all glad to stretch their legs. timmy bounded out as if he were on springs, barking madly.

he was disappointed to find that they were only making a short stop - he had hoped they were at theend of their journey. but he was pleased to be given a buttery crumpet all to himself in the tea-shop.

he licked every scrap of butter off first, much to the children's amusement.

'i'd rather like to do that myself, timmy,' said anne. 'but it's not really good manners, you know!

oh, don't make my shoe buttery - take your crumpet a bit farther away.'

they had time for two crumpets each, and a cup of hot tea. julian bought some chocolate biscuits, ashe felt unexpectedly hungry, even after two crumpets.

'marvellous to feel even a bit hungry, after not being able to look even bread and butter in the face!'

he said. 'i knew we must be jolly ill that day we couldn't eat even ice-cream though mother tried totempt us with some!'

'my legs are still a bit funny,' said anne, walking back to the car. 'but they're beginning to feel as ifthey belong to me, thank goodness!'

they set off again. they were in wales now, and mountains were beginning to loom up in thedistance. it was a very clear evening, and although the mountains were white with snow, thecountryside they passed was not nearly as snowy as their own home had been when they left.

'i hope to goodness the snow doesn't begin to melt, just as we've arrived,' said dick. 'it seems all rightup on the mountains at present - but down here in the valleys there's hardly any.'

they passed a sign-post, and julian looked to see what it said. he made out a word that looked likecymryhlli, and called to the driver.

'did you see that sign-post? should we look out for magga glen now?'

9'yes. we must be getting on that way,' said the driver. 'i've been looking out for it myself. i wonder ihaven't seen it yet.'

'goodness! i hope we haven't lost our way,' said anne. 'it will soon be dark.'

the car went on and on. 'better look out for a village,' said julian. but they didn't come to one -nor did they see any other sign-posts. the night was now coming on, but there was already a smallmoon, which gave a little light.

'are you sure we're right?' dick asked the driver. 'the road seems to be getting a bit rough - and wehaven't passed even a farmhouse for ages.'

'well - maybe we are on the wrong road,' admitted the driver, slowing down. 'though where we tookthe wrong turning i simply don't know! i reckon we're near the sea now.'

'look - there's a turning up to the right!' shouted george, as they went slowly on. 'it's got a signpost,too!'

they stopped by the sign-post, which was only a small one. 'it doesn't say magga glen,' said dick,disappointed. 'it says old towers - just that. would it be the name of a place, do you think- or a building? where's a map?'

the driver hadn't one. 'i don't usually need a map,' he said. 'but this here countryside isn't signpostedas it should be, and i wish i'd brought my route with me. i guess we'd better turn right and go up tosee this old towers. maybe they can put us on our road!'

so they swung up to the right, and the car went slowly, crawling up a long, steep, winding road.

'it's quite a mountain,' said anne, peering out of the window. 'oh - i can see something - a buildingon the side of the hill, look - with towers. this must be it.'

they came to stout wooden gates. on them was a large notice, with just two words on it in largeblack letters:

keep out

'well - that's nice and polite!' said the driver, angrily. 'keep out! why should we? wait a bit -there's a little lodge here. i'll go and ask our way.'

but the lodge was no more helpful than the big gate. it was in complete darkness, and when thedriver banged on the door, there was no answer at all. now what could they do?