Five Have Plenty of Fun (4 page)

„She looks al right," whispered back Anne. George frowned.

„She howled like anything when she came," she told Anne. „She"s a real baby. And she"s brought a dog!"

„Goodness - Timmy won"t like that," said Anne, startled. „Where is it?"

„Down in Timmy"s kennel," said George, stil whispering. „I haven"t seen it. It was in a closed basket last night and I didn"t dare open it in case it tore upstairs and had a row with Tim.

But it can"t be very big. I expect it"s a horrible Peke, or some sil y little lap-dog."

„Pekes aren"t horrible," said Anne. „They may be smal and have funny little pug-noses, but they"re awful y brave. Fancy having another dog! I can"t think what Timmy wil say!"

„It"s a pity Berta isn"t our kind," said George. „Look at her pale face - not a scrap of sun-tan! And she looks weedy, doesn"t she? I"m sure she couldn"t climb a tree, or row a boat, or..."

„Sh! She"s waking up," said Anne warningly.

Berta yawned and stretched herself. Then she opened her eyes and looked round. At first she had no idea where she was, and then she suddenly remembered. She sat up.

„Hal o!" said Anne, and smiled at her. „You weren"t here when I came to bed last night. I was surprised to see you this morning."

Berta took an immediate liking to Anne. „She"s got kind eyes," she thought. „She"s not like the other girl. I like this one!"

She smiled back at Anne. „Yes - I came in the middle of the night," she said. „I came by motor-boat, and the sea was so bumpy that I was frightful y sick. My father didn"t come with me but a friend of his did, and he carried me from the boat to Kirrin Cottage. Even my legs felt sea-sick!"

„Bad luck!" said Anne. „You didn"t real y enjoy the adventure then!"

„No. I can do without adventures!" said Berta. „I"m not keen on them. Especial y when Pops gets al excited and worried about me - he fusses round me like a hen, dear old Pops. I shall hate being away from him."

George was listening to all this. Not keen on adventures! Well, a girl like that wouldn"t be, of course!

„I"m not very keen on adventures either," said Anne. „We"ve had plenty, goodness knows.

I prefer adventures when they"re al over!"

George exploded. „Anne! How can you talk like that! We"ve had some smashing adventures, and we"ve enjoyed every one of them. If you feel like that we"ll leave you out of the next one."

Anne laughed. „You won"t! An adventure comes up al of a sudden, like a wind blowing up in the sky, and we"re all in it, whether we like it or not. And you know that I like sharing things with you. I say - isn"t it time we got up?"

„Yes," said George, looking at the clock on the mantelpiece. „Unless Berta wants to have her breakfast in bed? I bet she always does at home."

„No, I don"t. I hate meals in bed," said Berta. „I"m going to get up."

She leapt out of bed and went to the window. Immediately she saw the wide sweep of the bay, sparkling in the morning sun, as blue as cornflowers. The sea-sparkle was reflected into the bedroom, and made it very bright indeed.

„Oh! I wondered why our room was so ful of bril iant light," said Berta. „Now I know! What a view! Oh, how lovely the sea looks this morning! And what"s that little island out there?

What a lovely place it looks."

„That"s Kirrin Island," said George, proudly. „It belongs to me."

Berta laughed, thinking that George was joking. „Belongs to you! I bet you wish it did. It"s real y wunnerful!"

„Wunnerful!" said George imitating her. „Can"t you say “wonderful”? It"s got a D in the middle, you know."

„Yes. I"m always being told things like that," said Berta, stil staring out of the window. „I had an English governess and she tried to make me speak like you do. I do try, because I"ve got to go to an English school. My, my - I wish that island belonged to me. I wonder if my Pops could buy it."

George exploded again. „Buy it! You donkey, I told you it was mine, didn"t I?"

Berta turned round in surprise. „But - you didn"t mean it, did you?" she said. „Yours? But how could it be?"

„It is George"s," said Anne. „It has always belonged to the Kirrin family. That"s Kirrin Island.

George"s father gave it to her, after an adventure we once had."

Berta stared at George in awe. „Great snakes! So it is yours! Aren"t you the lucky one! Wil you take me to visit it?"

„I"l see," said George gruffly, glad to have impressed this American girl so much. Getting her „Pops" to buy the island indeed! George snorted to herself. What next!

A shout came from the next room. It was Julian. „Hey, you girls! Are you getting up? We"re all too late for a bathe before breakfast this morning. Dick and I have only just woken up."

„Berta"s here!" shouted back Anne. „We"ll get dressed, al of us, and then we"ll introduce Berta to you."

„Are they your brothers?" asked Berta. „I haven"t got any. Or sisters either. I shal be pretty scared of them-"

„You won"t be scared of Julian and Dick," said Anne, proudly. „You"l wish you had brothers like them. Won"t she, George?"

„Yes," said George, shortly. She was feeling rather annoyed just then because Timmy was standing by Berta, wagging his plumy tail. „Come here, Timmy. Don"t make a nuisance of yourself."

„Oh, he"s not," said Berta, and patted his big head. „I like him. He seems simply ENORMOUS after my Sally. But you"l love Sal y, George, you real y wil . Everyone says how sweet she is - and I"ve trained her beautiful y."

George took no interest in these remarks at al . She flounced off to wash in the bath-room, but Julian and Dick were there, and there was a lot of yelling and shouting as George tried to make them hurry up and get out. Berta laughed.

„That sounds nice and family-like," she said. „You don"t get that sort of thing if you"re an only child. What do I wear here?"

„Oh - something very simple," said Anne, looking at the suitcase open on the floor, showing a collection of Berta"s clothes. „That shirt and those jeans wil do."

They were ready just as the gong rang for breakfast. A delicious smel of frying bacon and tomatoes came up the stairs, and Berta sniffed in delight.

„I do like English breakfast," she said. „We haven"t gotten around to a proper breakfast in America yet! That"s bacon and tomatoes I smell, isn"t it? My English governess always said that bacon and eggs made the best breakfast in the world, but I guess the one we"re going to have wil taste pretty good."

Uncle Quentin was at the table when the children came down. He looked most surprised to see Berta, having quite forgotten that she was coming. „Who"s this?" he said.

„Now Quentin - don"t pretend you don"t know!" said his wife. „It"s Elbur"s girl - your friend Elbur. She came in the middle of the night, but I didn"t wake you, you were so sound asleep."

„Ah yes," said Uncle Quentin, and he shook hands with the rather scared Berta. „Glad to have you here, er - let me see now - what"s your name?"

„Berta," said everyone in a chorus.

„Yes, yes - Berta. Sit down, my dear. I know your father well. He"s doing some wonderful work."

Berta beamed. „He"s always at work!" she said. „He works all through the night sometimes."

„Does he? Well, what a thing to do!" said Uncle Quentin.

„It"s a thing you often do yourself, Quentin," said his wife, pouring out coffee. „Though I don"t suppose you even realize it."

Uncle Quentin looked surprised. „Do I real y? Bless us all! Don"t I go to bed some nights then?"

Berta laughed. „You"re like my Pops! Sometimes he doesn"t know what day of the week it is, even! And yet he"s supposed to be one of the cleverest guys in the world!"

„Guy?" said Uncle Quentin, surprised, immediately thinking of Firework Night. Everyone laughed. Anne patted her uncle"s knee. „It"s all right, Uncle," she said, „he"s not going to sit on the top of a bonfire!"

But Uncle Quentin was not listening. He had suddenly seen a letter marked „IMPORTANT"

on the top of his pile of correspondence, and he picked it up.

„Well, unless I"m much mistaken, here"s a letter from your father," he said to Berta. „I"l see what he says."

He opened the letter and read it to himself. Then he looked up. „It"s al about you - er -

er..."

„Her name"s Berta," said Aunt Fanny, patiently.

„About you, Berta," said Uncle Quentin. „But I must say your father has some very strange ideas. Yes, very strange."

„What are they?" asked his wife.

„Well - he says she must be disguised - in case anyone comes to find her here," said Uncle Quentin. „And he wants her name changed - and, bless us all, he wants us to buy her boys" clothes - and cut her hair short - and dress her up as a boy!"

Everyone listened in surprise. Berta gave a little squeal.

„I won"t! I WON"T be dressed up as a boy! I won"t have my hair cut off. Don"t you dare to make me! I WON"T!"

Berta looked so upset that Aunt Fanny acted quickly and firmly. „Don"t bother about that letter now, Quentin," she said. „We"ll go through it afterwards and decide what to do.

Let"s have our breakfast in peace."

„I won"t have my hair cut off," said Berta, again. Uncle Quentin was not used to being defied openly like this, and he scowled. He looked at his wife.

„Surely you are not going to let this - er what"s her name now - Bertha..."

„Berta," said everyone automatically.

„I said that we would not discuss this til after breakfast," said Aunt Fanny, in the kind of voice that made everyone, including Uncle Quentin, quite certain that she meant what she said. Her husband folded up the letter and opened the next one, frowning. The children looked at one another.

Berta to be a boy! Goodness! If ever anyone looked less like a boy it was Berta! George was most annoyed. She loved to dress like a boy, but she didn"t feel inclined to urge anyone else to! She looked at Berta, who was eating her breakfast with tears in her eyes.

What a baby! She wouldn"t even look like a boy, if she was dressed in boys" clothes. She would just look absolutely sil y.

Julian began a conversation with his aunt about the garden. She was grateful to him for breaking up the sudden awkwardness caused by the letter. She was very fond of Julian. „I can always depend on him," she thought, and talked gladly of the garden fruit, and who would pick the raspberries for lunch and whether the wasps would eat all the plums or not!

Dick joined in, and Anne, and soon Berta did too. Only George and her father remained gloomy. They both looked so exactly alike in solemn, rather frowning expressions that Julian nudged Dick and nodded towards them.

Dick grinned. „Like father, like daughter!" he said. „Cheer up, George. Don"t you like your breakfast?"

George was just about to answer crossly when Anne gave an exclamation. „Oh, look at Uncle Quentin! He"s putting mustard on his toast - Aunt Fanny, stop him - he"s just going to eat it!"

Everyone roared with laughter. Aunt Fanny managed to smack her husband"s hand down from his mouth, just as he was putting his toast and mustard up to it, reading a letter at the same time.

„Hey - what"s the matter?" he said, startled.

„Quentin - that"s the second time this month you"ve spread your toast with mustard instead of with marmalade," said his wife. „Do have a little sense."

After that everyone became very cheerful. Uncle Quentin laughed at himself, and George saw the funny side and laughed loudly too, which made Timmy bark, and Berta giggled. Aunt Fanny was quite relieved that her husband had done such a sil y thing.

„Do you remember when Father poured custard al over his fried fish once?" George said, entering into the talk for the first time. „And he said it was the best egg-sauce he had ever tasted?"

The conversation was very animated after that, and Aunt Fanny felt happier. „You girls can clear away and wash up the breakfast things for Joan," she said. „Or two of you can and the other can make the beds with me."

„What about my little dog?" said Berta, suddenly remembering her again. „I haven"t seen her yet, because I was only just in time for breakfast. Where is she?"

„You can go and get her now," said Aunt Fanny. „We"ve all finished. Are you going to start your work, Quentin?"

„Yes, I am," said her husband. „So I don"t want any yelling or shouting or barking outside my study door."

He got up and went out of the room. Berta stood up too. „Where"s the kennel?" she said.

„I"l show you," said Anne. „We"ll go and get your dog and introduce it to Timmy. Coming, George?"

„You can bring the dog in here, and we"ll see what Timmy says," said George, going al gloomy again. „If he doesn"t like the dog - and he won"t - it wil have to live out in the kennel."

„Oh no," said Berta, at once.

„Well, you don"t want Timmy to eat it, do you?" said George. „He"s very jealous of other dogs in the house. He might go for yours and savage it."

„Oh no!" said Berta, again, looking upset. „Timmy"s nice. He"s not a fierce dog."

„That"s all you know!" said George. „Well, I"ve warned you."

„Come on," said Anne, pul ing at Berta"s sleeve. „Let"s go and fetch Sal y. She must be wondering why nobody bothers about her. I bet Timmy won"t mind terribly."

As soon as the two had gone out, George spoke in Timmy"s ear. „You don"t like strange dogs who want to come and live here, do you, Tim? You"l growl and snarl like anything, won"t you? Growl your very fiercest! I know you won"t bite but if you could just growl your loudest, that wil be enough. Berta wil make that Sally-dog live out of doors then!"

Soon she heard footsteps returning, and Anne"s voice exclaiming in delight.

„Oh, she"s sweet! Oh, what a darling! Sal y, you"re a pet! Julian, Dick, Aunt Fanny - do come and see Berta"s dog!"

Everyone came into the room, led by Berta and Anne. Berta held the dog in her arms.

It was a tiny black poodle, whose wool y fur was cut away here and there to give it a very fashionable look. Sal y was certainly an attractive little thing! Her sharp little nose sniffed al the time she was carried into the room, and her quick little eyes looked everywhere.