Five Go Down to the Sea (9 page)

Mrs Penruthlan was seeing to their breakfast, and making bright conversation as usual.

She was never at a loss for words, and chattered all day long either to the children or to the dogs.

„Did you sleep wel with that howling gale blowing all night long?" she asked. „I slept like a top. So did Mr Penruthlan! He told me he never moved al night, he was that tired!"

The children kicked each other under the table, but said nothing. They knew quite a lot more about her husband"s nights than she did!

After that they had very little time to think of anything but picking fruit, podding peas, rushing here and there, carrying things for the Barnies, helping them to put up benches, barrels, boxes and chairs for the audience to sit on, and even mending tears in some of the stage clothes! Anne had offered to sew on a button, and at once found herself overwhelmed with requests to mend this, that and the other!

It was an extremely busy day. Yan appeared as usual and was greeted uproariously by Timmy, of course. Al the dogs loved him, but Timmy was quite sil y with him. Mrs Penruthlan sent Yan on endless errands, which he ran quickly and wil ingly.

„He may be a bit simple, but he"s quick enough when he thinks there"s some good food he"s going to share!" she said. So it was „Fetch this, Yan!" „Do that, Yan!" all day long.

The Barnies worked hard, too. They had a quick rehearsal in which every single thing went wrong; the Guv"nor raved and raged and stamped, making Anne wonder why they didn"t al run away and stay away!

First there was to be a kind of concert party such as pierrots give on the beaches. Then there was to be a play, most heart-rending and melodramatic, with vil ains and heroes and a heroine who was very hardly used. But everything came right for her in the end, Anne was relieved to find!

Clopper the horse was to have no definite performance of his own. He just wandered on and off the stage to get laughs and to please everyone, or to fil awkward gaps. There was no doubt he would do this to perfection!

Julian and Dick watched Mr Binks and Sid doing a small rehearsal on their own in a corner of the farmyard. How well those back legs and front legs worked together! How that horse danced, trotted, gal oped, marched, fel over, tied itself into knots, sat down, got up, went to sleep, and, in fact, did every comical thing that Sid and Mr Binks could think of.

They real y were very, very funny.

„Let me try the head on, Mr Binks," begged Julian. „Do let me. Just to feel what it"s like."

But it was no good. Sid wouldn"t let him. Mr Binks had no say in the matter at al . „Orders are orders," said Sid, picking up the head as soon as Mr Binks took it off. „I don"t want to lose my job. The Guv"nor says if this horse"s head is mislaid again, I"l be mislaid, too! So hands off Clopper!"

„Do you sleep with Clopper?" asked Dick, curiously. „Having to take charge of a horse"s head al the time must be a bore!"

„You get used to it," said Sid. „Yes, I sleep with old Clopper. Him and me have our heads on the pillow together. He sleeps sound, does old Clopper!"

„He"s the best part of the show," grinned Julian. „You"l bring the barn down with Clopper tonight!"

„We always do," said Mr Binks. „He"s the most important member of the Barnies, and he gets paid the worst. Shame."

„Yes, back-legs and front-legs are badly paid," said Sid. „They only count as one player, see, so we get half pay. Stil , we like the life, so there you are!"

They went off together, Sid carrying the horse"s head as usual under his arm. He real y was a funny little man, cheery and sil y and gay.

Julian suddenly remembered something at dinnertime. „Mrs Penruthlan," he said, „I suppose that awful wind didn"t cause any wrecks last night, did it?"

The farmer"s wife looked surprised. „No, Julian. Why should it? Ships keep right out to sea round these coasts now. The lighthouse warns them, you know. The only way any ship could come in now would be to nose into one of the caves at ful tide, and then she"d have to be very careful of rocks. The fishermen know the rocks as well as they know the backs of their hands, and they come into the coves at times. But no other craft come now."

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. The flashing light hadn"t caused a wreck last night, then.

That was a mercy! They went on with their meal. Mr Penruthlan was there, eating away as usual, and saying nothing at all. His jaws worked vigorously up and down, and it was impossible to think he had no teeth to chew with. Julian glanced at his hands, covered with black hairs. Yes, he had seen those hands last night, no doubt about that! Not wielding a knife and fork, but sliding into pockets.

The evening came at last. Everything was ready. A big table was placed in the kitchen, made of strong trestles and boards. Mrs Penruthlan gave the two girls a most enormous white cloth to lay over it. It was bigger than any cloth they had ever seen!

„It"s the one I use at harvest-time," said the farmer"s wife, proudly. „We have a wonderful harvest supper then, on that same table, but we put it out in the big barn because there"s not enough room here in the kitchen for al the farm workers. And we clear the table away afterwards and have a dance."

„What fun!" said Anne. „I do think people are lucky to live on a farm. There"s always something going on!"

„Town folk wouldn"t say that!" said Mrs Penruthlan. „They think the country is a dead-and-alive place, but, my word, there"s more life about a farm than anywhere else in the world.

Farm life"s the real thing I always say!"

„It is," agreed Anne, and George nodded, too. They had now spread out the snowy-white cloth and it looked lovely.

„That cloth"s the real thing, too," said Mrs Penruthlan. „It belonged to my great-great-great-grand-mother, and it"s nearly two hundred years old! As white as ever and not a darn in it! It"s seen more harvest suppers than any cloth made, and that"s the truth!"

The table was laid with plates and knives and forks, cruets and glasses. Al the Barnies had been invited, and there were the children, too, of course. One or two of the vil agers were staying as wel , to help. What a feast they would al have!

The larder was so crammed with food that it was difficult to get into it. Meat pies, fruit pies, hams, a great round tongue, pickles, sauces, jam tarts, stewed and fresh fruit, jel ies, a great trifle, jugs of cream - there was no end to the things Mrs Penruthlan had got ready.

She laughed when she saw the children peeping there and marvelling.

„You won"t get any high tea today," she told them. „You"l get nothing from dinner til supper, so that you can get up a good appetite and real y eat well!"

Nobody minded missing high tea with that wonderful supper to come. The excitement grew as the time came near for the show. „Here come the first vil agers!" cried Julian, who was at the barn door to help to sel the tickets. „Hurrah! It wil soon begin! Walk up, everyone! Finest show in the world. Come along in your hundreds! Come along!"

When the big barn was full of vil agers, and a few more boxes had been fetched for some of the extra children, the noise was tremendous. Everyone was laughing and talking, some of the children were clapping for the show to begin, and the excited farm dogs were yapping and barking at the top of their voices!

Timmy was excited, too. He welcomed everyone with a bark and a vigorous wag. Yan was with him, and George was sure that he was pretending that Timmy was his dog! Yan looked cleaner than usual. Mrs Penruthlan had actual y given him a bath!

„You don"t come to the show and you don"t come to the supper unless you bath yourself," she threatened. But he wouldn"t. He said he was „frit" of the bath!

„I"l be drowned in there," he said, backing away from it hurriedly. It was already half full of water for him!

„Frit, are you!" said Mrs Penruthlan grimly, lifting him up and plunging him into the water, clothes and al . „Well, you"l be fritter stil now! Take your clothes off in the water and I"l wash them in the bath when you"re clean. Oh, the dirty little varmint that you are!"

Yan screamed the place down as Mrs Penruthlan scrubbed him and soaped him and flannelled him. He hit out at her, but she gave him one sound spank on his smal behind, and he stopped very suddenly. He felt very much at her mercy, and decided not to annoy her in any way while he was in that dreadful bath!

She washed his ragged pants and shirt, too, and set them to dry. She wrapped him in an old shawl, and told him to wait til his things dried and then put them on.

„One of these days I"l make you some decent clothes," she said. „Little rapscal ion that you are! What a mite of a body you"ve got. I"ll need to feed you up a bit!"

Yan brightened up considerably. Feeding up was the kind of treatment he real y liked!

Now he was down in the barn, welcoming everyone with Timmy, and feeling quite important. He yelled with delight when he saw his old great-grandfather coming along!

„Grandad! You said you was coming, but I didn"t believe you. Come you in. I"l find you a chair."

„And what"s come over you, the way you look tonight?" said the old man, puzzled. „What you done to yourself?"

„I"ve took a bath. See?" said Yan, sounding proud. „Iss. I took a bath, Grandad. Same as you ought."

Grandad aimed a cuff at him, and then nodded to various people he knew. He had his big old shepherd"s crook with him, and he held on to it even when he sat down on a chair.

„Well, Grandad, it"s nigh on twenty year since we saw you down hereabouts," said a big, red-faced vil ager. „What you been doing with yourself al these years?"

„Minding my business and minding my sheep," said Grandad, in his slow, Cornish voice.

„Ay, and it"l mebbe twenty years afore you sees me again, Joe Tremayne. And if you want to know summat, I"l tel you this. It bain"t the show I"m come for, it"s the supper."

Everyone roared with laughter, and Grandad looked as pleased as Punch. Yan looked at him proudly. His old Grandad was as good as anyone, any day!

„Sh! Sh! Show"s going to begin!" said somebody, when they saw the curtain twitching. At once the talking and shuffling stopped, and all eyes turned to the stage. A faded, rather torn blue curtain was drawn across.

There came a chord from a fiddle behind the scenes, and then a gay tune sounded out.

The curtain was drawn back slowly, halting on its rings here and there, and the audience gave a long sigh of delight. They had seen the Barnies many times but they never tired of them.

Al the Barnies were on the stage, and the fiddler fiddled away as they struck up a rousing song with a chorus that all the vil agers joined in most heartily. Old Grandad beat time, banging his crook on the floor.

Everything was applauded heartily. Then someone called out loudly. „Where"s old Clopper? Where be he?"

And old Clopper the horse came shyly on, looking out of the sides of his eyes at the audience, and being so very bashful that old Grandad almost fel off his chair with laughing.

The fiddle struck up again and Clopper marched in time to it. It grew quicker, and he ran.

It grew quicker stil and he galloped, and fel right off the stage.

„Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" roared someone. „HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!" It was such an enormous guffaw that everyone turned round. It came from Mr Penruthlan, who was writhing and wriggling in his seat as if he was in great pain. But he was only laughing at Clopper.

Clopper heard the giant of a laugh and put a hoof behind one ear to listen to it. Grandad promptly fel off his seat with joy. Clopper caught his back legs in his front legs and fell over too. There was such a pandemonium of screams and guffaws and yells from the delighted audience that it was surprising the roof didn"t fal in.

„Off now," said a firm voice at the side of the stage. Julian looked to see who it was, as Clopper obediently turned to shuffle off, waving one back leg to the admiring vil agers.

The voice came from the Guv"nor who was standing where he could watch the whole show in detail. His face was stil unsmiling, even after Clopper"s antics!

The show was a great success, although it could not have been simpler. The jokes were old, the play acted was even older, the singing was a bit flat, and the dancing not as good as the third form of a girls" school, but it was so merry and smiling and idiotic and good-natured that it went with a terrific swing from start to finish.

As for Clopper, it was his evening! Every time his head so much as looked in on the stage, the audience rocked with joy. They would, in fact, have been delighted to have had one actor only, all the evening, and that actor, Clopper, of course. Julian and Dick watched him, fascinated. How they both longed to try on those back and front legs, and put on the head, and do a little „cloppering" themselves!

„Sid and Binks are awful y good, aren"t they?" said Dick. „Gosh, I wish we could get hold of legs and a head and do that act at the Christmas school concert, Ju! We"d bring the house down. Let"s ask Sid if we can have a shot some time."

„He won"t lend us the head," said Julian. „Stil , we could do without that, and just try the legs. I bet we could think of some funny things to do, Dick!"

Everybody was sad when the curtain went across the stage, and the show was over. The fiddle struck up „God Save the Queen", and everyone rose loyal y to stand and sing every word lustily.

„Three cheers for the Barnies!" yel ed a child, and the hip-hurrahing rose to the rafters.

Grandad waved his crook too vigorously and hit a very large farmer on the back of his neck.

„Now, old Grandad!" said the farmer, rubbing his neck, „you trying to pick a fight with me?

No, no, I"d be afeared to take you on, I would. You"d get me by my hind leg with that crook like you do your sheep, and down I"d go!"

Grandad was delighted. He hadn"t had such an evening for forty years! Maybe fifty. And now for that supper. That was what he had really come for. He"d show some of these sixty-year-old youngsters how to eat!

The vil agers went home, talking and laughing. Two or three of the women stayed on to help. The Barnies didn"t bother to change out of their acting clothes, but came into the kitchen as they were, grease-paint running down their cheeks in the heat. The barn had got very hot with so many people packed in close together.