The Secret Series - Complete Collection. Enid blyton

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СКАЧАТЬ crept out to light the fire. He could not possibly go to sleep again. The day was just creeping in at the cave entrance. The sky was a very pale blue, and the sun was trying to break through a thin mist in the east. It was going to be fine!

      When the fire was crackling merrily everyone woke up. Nora flung herself on her mother, for she could not believe she really had a mother again, and had to keep hugging her and feeling her. Soon the cave was filled with talk and laughter.

      Peggy and Nora got the breakfast. Mike showed his father the inner cave and their stores. Jack flew off to milk Daisy. The hens clucked outside, and Nora fetched in four brown eggs.

      Fish from Jack’s line, eggs, rolls, the rest of the potted meat, and a tin of peaches made a fine breakfast, washed down with hot tea. The fire died down and the sunshine came in at the cave entrance. Everyone went outside to see what sort of a day it was.

      The lake sparkled blue below. The bare trees swung gently in the breeze. Nora told her mother all about the wild raspberries and strawberries and nuts, and Peggy chattered about the seeds they had planted, and the baskets they could make.

      And then Captain Arnold said, “Well, I think it’s about time we were going.”

      The children looked up at him. “Going! What do you mean, Daddy? Leave our island?”

      “My dears,” said Captain Arnold, “you can’t live here always - besides, there is no need for you to, now. You are not runaways any more. You are our own children that we love, and we must have you with us.”

      “Yes,” said Mrs. Arnold. “We must all go back to a proper home, and you must go to school, my dears. You have been very brave and very clever - and very happy, too - and now you can have a lovely home with us, and we will all be happy together.”

      “But what about Jack?” asked Nora, at once.

      “Jack is ours, too,” said Mrs. Arnold. “I am sure his grandfather will be glad for us to have him for always. He shall have me for his mother, and your father shall be his, too! We will all be one big family!”

      Jack wanted to say such a lot but he couldn’t say a single word. It was very strange. His face just went red with joy, and he held Nora’s hand so tightly that he hurt her without meaning to. He was just about the happiest boy in the world at that moment.

      “Mummy, I shall so hate leaving our dear, dear island,” said Nora. “And Willow House, too - and our cosy cave and the bubbling spring - and everything.”

      “I think I might be able to buy the island for you,” said Daddy. “Then, in the holidays you can always come here and run wild and live by yourselves if you want to. It shall be your very own.”

      “Oh, Daddy!” shouted the children, in delight. “We shan’t mind going to school and being proper and living in a house if we’ve got the island to go back to in the holidays! Oh, what fun it will be!”

      “But I think you must leave it now and come back home for Christmas,” said Mrs.

      Arnold. “We have our own old home to go back to - you remember it, don’t you? Don’t you think it would be nice to have Christmas there - and a Christmas pudding - and crackers - and stockings full of presents?”

      “Yes, yes, yes!” shouted all the children.

      “It’s just what I longed for!” said Nora.

      “I was going to buy you some red crackers yesterday, Nora,” said Jack, "but I heard the great news before I had bought anything!”

      “You shall all have red crackers!” said Captain Arnold, with a laugh. “Now, what about getting off in the boat?”

      “Just give us time to say good-bye to everything,” said Peggy. “Mummy, come down and see Willow House. We made it ourselves and it’s so pretty in the summer, because you see, it’s a live house, and grows leaves all the time!”

      In an hour’s time everyone was ready to leave. The hens were bundled once more into a sack and were most annoyed about it. Daisy was left, and Captain Arnold said he would send a fisherman over for her. It was too cold for her to swim behind the boat. Most of the children’s stores were left, too. They would be able to use them when they next went to the island.

      Peggy took the rabbit-rug she had made. That was too precious to leave. They brought the books too, because they had got fond of those. They had stored everything carefully in the inner cave, and thrown sacks over them in case of damp. They couldn’t help feeling a bit sad to leave, although they knew they were going to their own happy home again.

      At last everyone was in the boat. Captain Arnold pushed off and the sound of oars came to Daisy’s ears as she stood pulling at the thin winter grass. She stood watching the boat as it bobbed away on the waves.

      “Good-bye, dear secret island,” said Nora.

      “Good-bye, good-bye!” said the others. “We’ll come back again! Good-bye, Daisy, good-bye, everything!”

      “And now let’s talk about all we’re going to do at Christmas-time,” said Mrs. Arnold, cheerfully, for she saw that the children were sad at leaving their beloved little island.

      It was not long before the four children and their father and mother (for Jack counted them as his parents too, now) were settled happily in their own home. There was such a lot of excitement at first, for the children had to have new dresses, new suits, new underclothes, new stockings, new shoes! Mrs. Arnold said that although Peggy had really done her best to keep them tidy, they were quite dropping to pieces!

      So off they went shopping, and came back feeling as grand as kings and queens, all dressed up in their new things! Peggy looked fine in a blue coat and skirt with a little blue hat. Nora wore red, and the two boys had suits and overcoats of dark blue.

      Jack felt queer in his. It was the first time in his life he had ever had anything new of his own to wear, for he had always gone about in somebody’s old things before! He felt very grand indeed.

      The children looked at one another and burst out laughing.

      “How different we look now!” said Mike. “Think of our dirty old rags on the island!

      But it’s good to be really properly dressed again - and the girls do look nice!”

      It was strange at first to sleep in a proper bed again. The girls slept in a pretty room and had a little white bed each. The boys slept in the next room, and had two brown beds. At first they all wondered where they were when they awoke in the morning, but after a few days they got used to it.

      Christmas drew near. They all went out to buy presents for one another. It was most exciting. They went to London and marvelled at the great shops there. They watched all kinds of ships and boats sailing along in a big tank. They saw clockwork trains tearing round and round a little countryside, going through tunnels, stopping at stations, just like a real train. It was all very exciting after living such a peaceful life on the island.

      Christmas was lovely. They hung up their stockings at the ends of their beds - and in the morning what fun they had finding the things packed tightly in the long stockings! Tiny dolls in the girls’ stockings, oranges, sweets, nuts, needle-books and balls - and in the boys’ СКАЧАТЬ