The Secret Series - Complete Collection. Enid blyton

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СКАЧАТЬ it would be too difficult to make windows, and they might let in the wind and the rain too much. So Willow House was rather dark and a bit stuffy when the door was shut - but nobody minded that ! It really made it all the more exciting!

      The children ran out of Willow House and looked around - all except Nora. She lay lazily on her back, looking up at the green ceiling, thinking how soft the heather was and how nice Willow House smelt. She was always the last out of bed!

      “Nora, you won’t have time for a dip before breakfast if you don’t come now,” shouted Peggy. So Nora ran out, too. What a lovely morning it was! The thunderstorm had cleared away and left the world looking clean and newly washed. Even the pure blue sky seemed washed, too.

      The lake was as blue as the sky. The trees still dripped a little with the heavy rain of the night before, and the grass and heather were damp to the foot.

      “The world looks quite new,” said Mike. “Just as if it had been made this very morning! Come on - let’s have our dip!”

      Splash! Into the lake they went. Mike and Jack could both swim. Jack swam like a fish. Peggy could swim a little way, and Nora hardly at all. Jack was teaching her, but she was a bit of a baby and would not get her feet off the sandy bed of the lake.

      Peggy was first out of the water and went to get the breakfast - but when she looked round their little beach, she stood still in disgust!

      “Look here, boys!” she cried. “Look, Nora! How those trippers have spoilt our beach!”

      They all ran out of the cold water, and, rubbing themselves down with their two towels, they stared round at their little beach, which was always such a beautiful place, clean and shining with its silvery sand.

      But now, what a difference! Orange-peel lay everywhere. Banana skins, brown, slippery, and soaked with rain, lay where they had been thrown. A tin that had once had canned pears in, and two cardboard cartons that had been full of cream, rolled about on the sand, empty. A newspaper, pulled into many pieces by the wind, blew here and there. An empty cigarette packet joined the mess.

      The children felt really angry. The little beach was theirs and they loved it. They had been careful to keep it clean, tidy, and lovely, and had always put everything away after a meal. Now some horrid trippers had come there just for one meal and had left it looking like a rubbish-heap!

      “And they were grown-up people, too!” said Jack, in disgust. “They ought to have known better. Why couldn’t they take their rubbish away with them?”

      “People that leave rubbish about in beautiful places like this are just rubbishy people themselves!” cried Peggy fiercely, almost in tears. “Nice people never do it.

      I’d like to put those people into a big dust-bin with all their horrid rubbish on top of them - and wouldn’t I bang on the lid, too!”

      The others laughed. It sounded so funny. But they were all angry about their beach being spoilt.

      “I’ll clear up the mess and burn it,” said Mike.

      “Wait a minute!” said Jack. “We might find some of the things useful.”

      “What! Old banana skins and orange-peel!” cried Mike. “You’re not thinking of making a pudding or something of them, Jack!”

      “No,” said Jack, with a grin, “but if we keep the tin and a carton and the empty cigarette packet in our cave-cupboard, we might put them out on the beach if anyone else ever comes - and then, if they happen to find the remains of our fire, or a bit of string or anything like that - why, they won’t think of looking for us - they’ll just think trippers have been here!”

      “Good idea, Jack!” cried everyone.

      “You really are good at thinking out clever things,” said Peggy, busy getting the fire going. Its crackling sounded very cheerful, for they were all hungry. Peggy put some milk on to boil. She meant to make cocoa for them all to drink.

      Mike picked up the cigarette packet, the tin, and one of the cardboard cartons. He washed the carton and the tin in the lake, and then went to put the three things away in their little cave-cupboard. They might certainly come in useful some day!

      Nora brought in five eggs for breakfast. Peggy fried them with two trout that Jack had caught on his useful lines. The smell was delicious!

      “I say! Poor old Daisy must be milked!” said Jack, gobbling down his breakfast and drinking his hot cocoa.

      Suddenly Nora gave a squeal and pointed behind him. Jack turned - and to his great astonishment he saw the cow walking towards him!

      “You wouldn’t go to milk her in time so she has come to you!” laughed Peggy. “Good old Daisy! Fancy her knowing the way!”

Chapter XI - Nora Gets into Trouble

       Table of Contents

      There seemed quite a lot of jobs always waiting to be done each day on the island.

      Daisy had to be milked. The hens had to be seen to. The fishing-lines had to be baited and looked at two or three times a day. The fire had to be kept going. Meals had to be prepared and dishes washed up. Willow House had to be tidied up each day, for it was surprising how untidy it got when the four children were in it even for an hour.

      “I’ll milk Daisy each morning and Mike can milk her in the evenings,” said Jack, as they sat eating their breakfast that morning. “Nora, you can look after the hens. It won’t only be your job to feed them and give them water and collect the eggs, but you’ll have to watch the fence round the hen-yard carefully to see that the hens don’t peck out the heather we’ve stuffed into the fence to stop up the holes. We don’t want to lose our hens!”

      “What is Peggy going to do?” asked Nora.

      “Peggy had better do the odd jobs,” said Jack. “She can look after the fire, think of meals and tidy up. I’ll see to my fishing-lines. And every now and again one or other of us had better go to the top of the hill to see if any more trippers are coming. Our plans worked quite well last time - but we were lucky enough to spot the boat coming. If we hadn’t seen it when we did, we would have been properly caught!”

      “I’d better go and get the boat out from where I hid it under the overhanging bushes, hadn’t I?” said Mike, finishing his cocoa.

      “No,” said Jack. “It would be a good thing to keep it always hidden there except when we need it. Now I’m off to milk Daisy!”

      He went off, and the children heard the welcome sound of the creamy milk splashing into a saucepan, for they still had no milking-pail. Mike and Jack were determined to get one that night! It was so awkward to keep milking a cow into saucepans and kettles!

      Peggy began to clear away and wash up the dishes. Nora wanted to help her, but Peggy said she had better go and feed the hens. So off she went, making the little clucking noise that the hens knew. They came rushing to her as she climbed over the fence of their little yard.

      Nora scattered the seed for them, and they gobbled it up, scratching hard with their strong clawed feet to СКАЧАТЬ