"An idiot, silly," said d.i.c.k. He walked up to old Will. "Good morning," he said. "You"re very busy. There"s always a lot to do on a farm, isn"t there?"
The old fellow looked at d.i.c.k out of his very blue eyes, and went on with his work. "Plenty to do and plenty of folk to do it, and not much done," he said, in a croaking kind of voice. "Never thought I"d be put to work with ninnies and idjits. Not ninnies and idjits!"
"There! What did I tell you?" said Jock, with a grin. "He"s always calling the other men that, so wejust have to let him work right away from them. Still, I must say he"s about right - most of the fellows here don"t know the first thing about work on a farm. I wish my stepfather would let us have a few proper workers instead of these fellows."
"Where"s your stepfather?" said Julian, thinking he must be rather peculiar to pour money into a little moorland farm like this, and yet choose the wrong kind of workers.
"He"s away for the day," said Jock. "Thank goodness!" he added, with a sideways look at the others.
"Why? Don"t you like him?" asked d.i.c.k.
"He"s all right," said Jock. "But he"s not a farmer, though he makes out he"s always wanted to be - and what"s more he doesn"t like me one bit. I try to like him for Mum"s sake. But I"m always glad when he"s out of the way."
"Your mother"s nice," said George.
"Oh, yes - Mum"s grand," said Jock. "You don"t know what it means to her to have a little farm of her; own again, and to be able to run it with the proper machinery and all."
They came to a large barn. The door was locked. "I told you what was in here before," said Jock. "Lorries! You can peek through that hole here at them. Don"t know why my stepfather wanted to buy up so many, but I suppose he got them cheap - he loves to get things cheap and sell them dear! He did say they"d be useful on the farm, to take goods to the market." i "Yes - you told us that when we were here yesterday, " said d.i.c.k. "But you"ve got heaps of wagons for that!"
"Yes. I reckon they weren"t bought for the farm at all, but for holding here till prices went high and he I could make a lot of money," said Jock, lowering his voice. "I don"t tell Mum that. So long as she gets what she wants for the farm, I"m going to hold my tongue." i The children were very interested in all this. They wished they could see Mr Andrews. He must be a peculiar sort of fellow, they thought. Anne tried toimagine what he was like.
"Big and tall and dark and frowny," she thought. "Rather frightening and impatient, and he certainly won"t like children. People like that never do." > They spent a very pleasant morning poking about the little farm. They went back to see Biddy the collie [ and her pups. Timmy stood patiently outside the shed, with his tail down. He didn"t like George to take so much interest in other dogs.
A bell rang loudly. "Good! Dinner!" said Jock. "We"d better wash. We"re all filthy. Hope you feel hungry, because I guess Mum"s got a super dinner for us."
"I feel terribly hungry," said Anne. "It seems ages since we had breakfast. I"ve almost forgotten it!"
They all felt the same. They went into the farmhouse and were surprised to find a very nice little bathroom to wash in. Mrs Andrews was there, putting out a clean roller towel.
"Fine little bathroom, isn"t it?" she said. "My husband had it put in for me. First proper bathroom I"ve ever had!"
A glorious smell rose up from the kitchen downstairs. "Come on!" said Jock, seizing the soap. "Let"s hurry. We"ll be down in a minute, Mum!"
And they were. n.o.body was going to dawdle over washing when a grand meal lay waiting for them downstairs!
7
Mr Andrews comes home
They all sat down to dinner. There was a big meat-pie, a cold ham, salad, potatoes in their jackets, and homemade pickles. It really was difficult to know what to choose.
"Have some of both," said Mrs Andrews, cutting the meat-pie. "Begin with the pie and go on with the ham. That"s the best of living on a farm, you know - you do get plenty to eat."
After the first course there were plums and thick cream, or jam tarts and the same cream. Everyone tucked in hungrily.
"I"ve never had such a lovely dinner in my life," said Anne, at last. "I wish I could eat some more but I can"t. It was super, Mrs Andrews."
"Smashing," said d.i.c.k. That was his favourite word these holidays. "Absolutely smashing."
"Woof," said Timmy, agreeing. He had had a fine plateful of meaty bones, biscuits and gravy, and he had licked up every crumb and every drop. Now he felt he would like to have a snooze in the sun and not do a thing for the rest of the day.
The children felt rather like that, too. Mrs Andrews handed them a chocolate each and sent them out of doors. "You go and have a rest now," she said. "Talk to Jock. He doesn"t get enough company of his own age in the holidays. You can stay on to tea, if you like."
"Oh, thanks," said everyone, although they all felt that they wouldn"t even be able to manage a biscuit. But it was so pleasant at the farm that they felt they would like to stay as long as they could.
"May we borrow one of Biddy"s puppies to have with us?" asked Anne.
"If Biddy doesn"t mind," said Mrs Andrews, beginning to clear away. "And if Timmy doesn"t eat it up!"
"Timmy wouldn"t dream of it!" said George at once. "You go and get the puppy, Anne. We"ll find a nice place in the sun."
Anne went off to get the puppy. Biddy didn"t seem to mind a bit. Anne cuddled the fat little thing against her, and went off to the others, feeling very happy. The boys had found a fine place against a haystack, and sat leaning against it, the sun shining down warmly on them.
"Those men of yours seem to take a jolly good lunch-hour off," said Julian, not seeing any of them about.
Jock gave a snort. "They"re bone lazy. I"d sack the lot if I were my stepfather. Mum"s told him how badly the men work, but he doesn"t say a word to them. I"ve given up bothering. I don"t pay their wages - if I did, I"d sack the whole lot!"
"Let"s ask Jock about the spook-trains," said George, fondling Timmy"s ears. "It would be fun to talk about them."
"Spook-trains? Whatever are they?" asked Jock, his eyes wide with surprise. "Never heard of them!"
"Haven"t you really?" asked d.i.c.k. "Well, you don"t live very far from them, Jock!"
"Tell me about them," said Jock. "Spook-trains - no, I"ve never heard of one of those."
"Well, I"ll tell you what we know," said Julian. "Actually we thought you"d be able to tell us much more about them than we know ourselves."
He began to tell Jock about their visit to the deserted railway yard, and Wooden-Leg Sam, and his peculiar behaviour. Jock listened, enthralled.
"Coo! I wish I"d been with you. Let"s all go there together, shall we?" he said. "This was quite an adventure you had, wasn"t it? You know, I"ve never had a single adventure in all my life, not even a little one. Have you?"
The four children looked at one another, and Timmy looked at George. Adventures! What didn"t they know about them? They had had so many.
"Yes. We"ve had heaps of adventures - real ones -smashing ones," said d.i.c.k. "We"ve been down in dungeons, we"ve been lost in caves, we"ve found secret pa.s.sages, we"ve looked for treasure - well, I can"t tell you what we"ve done! It would take too long."
"No, it wouldn"t," said Jock eagerly. "You tell me. Go on. Did you all have the adventures? Little Anne, here, too?"
"Yes, all of us," said George. "And Timmy as well. He rescued us heaps of times from danger. Didn"t you, T1""l> Tim?
"Woof, woof," said Timmy, and thumped his tail against the hay.
They began to tell Jock about their many adventures. He was a very, very good listener. His eyes almost fell out of his head, and he went brick-red whenever they came to an exciting part.
"My word!" he said at last. "I"ve never heard such things in my life before. Aren"t you lucky? You just go about having adventures all the time, don"t you? I say -do you think you"ll have one here, these hols?"
Julian laughed. "No. Whatever kind of adventure would there be on these lonely moorlands? Why, you yourself have lived here for three years, and haven"t even had a tiny adventure."
Jock sighed. That"s true. I haven"t." Then his eyes brightened again. "But see here - what about those spook-trains you"ve been asking me about? Perhaps you"ll have an adventure with those?"
"Oh, no, I don"t want to," said Anne, in a horrified voice. "An adventure with spook-trains would be simply horrid."
"I"d like to go down to that old railway yard with you and see Wooden-Leg Sam," said Jock longingly. "Why, that would be a real adventure to me, you know -just talking to a funny old man like that, and wondering if he was suddenly going to throw cinders at us. Take me with you next time you go."
"Well -1 don"t know that we meant to go again," said Julian. "There"s really nothing much in his story except imagination - the old watchman"s gone peculiar in the head through being alone there so much, guarding a yard where nothing and n.o.body ever comes. He"s just remembering the trains that used to go in and out before the line was given up."
"But the shepherd said the same as Sam," said Jock. "I say - what about going down there one night and watching for a spook-train!"
"NO!" said Anne, in horror.
"You needn"t come," said Jock. "Just us three boys."
"And me," said George at once. "I"m as good as any boy, and I"m not going to be left out. Timmy"s coming, too."
"Oh, please don"t make these awful plans," begged poor Anne. "You"ll make an adventure come, if you go on like this."
n.o.body took the least notice of her. Julian looked at Jock"s excited face. "Well," he said, "if we do go there again, we"ll tell you. And if we think we"ll go watching for spook-trains, we"ll take you with us."
Jock looked as if he could hug Julian. "That would be terrific," he said. "Thanks a lot. Spook-trains! I say, just suppose we really did see one! Who"d be driving it? Where would it come from?"
"Out of the tunnel, Wooden-Leg Sam says," said d.i.c.k. "But I don"t see how we"d spot it, except by the noise it made, because apparently the spook-trains only arrive in the dark of the night. Never in the daytime. We wouldn"t see much, even if we were there."
It was such an exciting subject to Jock that he persisted in talking about it all the afternoon. Anne got tired of listening, and went to sleep with Biddy"s puppy in her arms. Timmy curled up by George and went to sleep too. He wanted to go for a walk, but he could see that there was no hope with all this talking going on.
It was tea-time before any of them had expected it. The bell rang, and Jock looked most surprised.
"Tea! Would you believe it? Well, I have had an exciting afternoon talking about all this. And look here, if you don"t make up your minds to go spook-train hunting I"ll jolly well go off by myself. If only I could have an adventure like the kind you"ve had, I"d be happy."
They went in to tea, after waking Anne up with difficulty. She took the puppy back to Biddy, who received it gladly and licked it all over.
Julian was surprised to find that he was quite hungry again. "Well," he said, as he sat down at the table, "I didn"t imagine I"d feel hungry again for a week - but I do. What a marvellous tea, Mrs Andrews. Isn"t Jock lucky to have meals like this always!"
There were home-made scones with new honey. There were slices of bread thickly spread with b.u.t.ter, and new-made cream cheese to go with it. There was sticky brown gingerbread, hot from the oven, and a big solid fruit cake that looked almost like a plum pudding when it was cut, it was so black.
"Oh dear! I wish now I hadn"t had so much dinner," sighed Anne. "I don"t feel hungry enough to eat a bit of everything and I would so like to!"
Mrs Andrews laughed. "You eat what you can, and I"ll give you some to take away, too," she said. "You can have some cream cheese, and the scones and honey - and some of the bread I made this morning. And maybe you"d like a slab of the gingerbread. I made plenty."
"Oh, thanks," said Julian. "We"ll be all right tomorrow with all that. You"re a marvellous cook, Mrs Andrews. I wish I lived on your farm."
There was the sound of a car coming slowly up the rough track to the farmhouse, and Mrs Andrews looked up. "That"s Mr Andrews come back," she said. "My husband, you know, Jock"s stepfather."
Julian thought she looked a little worried. Perhaps Mr Andrews didn"t like children and wouldn"t be pleased to see them sitting round his table when he came home tired.
"Would you like us to go, Mrs Andrews?" he asked politely. "Perhaps Mr Andrews would like a bit of peace for his meal when he comes in - and we"re rather a crowd, aren"t we?"
Jock"s mother shook her head. "No, you can stay. I"ll get him a meal in the other room if he"d like it."
Mr Andrews came in. He wasn"t in the least like Anne or the others had imagined him to be. He was a short, dark little man, with a weak face and a nose much too big for it. He looked hara.s.sed and bad-tempered, and stopped short when he saw the five children.
"Hallo, dear," said Mrs Andrews. "Jock"s got his friends here today. Would you like a bit of tea in your room? I can easily put a tray there."
"Well," said Mr Andrews, smiling a watery kind of smile, "perhaps it would be best. I"ve had a worrying kind of day, and not much to eat."
Til get you a tray of ham and pickles and bread," said his wife. "It won"t take a minute. You go and wash."
Mr Andrews went out. Anne was surprised that he seemed so small and looked rather stupid. She had imagined someone big and burly, strong and clever, who was always going about doing grand deals and making a lot of money. Well, he must be cleverer than he looked, to make enough money to give Mrs Andrews all she.needed for her farm.
Mrs Andrews bustled about with this and that, laying a tray with a snow-white cloth, and plates of food. Mr Andrews could be heard in the bathroom, splashing as he washed. Then he came downstairs and put his head in at the door. "My meal ready?" he asked. "Well, Jock - had a good day?"
"Yes, thanks," said Jock, as his stepfather took the tray from his mother and turned to go. "We went all round the farm this morning - and we talked and talked this afternoon. And oh, I say - do you know anything about spook-trains, sir?"
Mr Andrews was just going out of the door. He turned in surprise. "Spook-trains? What are you talking about?"
"Well, Julian says there"s an old deserted railway yard a good way from here, and spook-trains are supposed to come out of the tunnel there in the dark of night," said Jock. "Have you heard of them?"
Mr Andrews stood stock still, his eyes on his stepson. He looked dismayed and shocked. Then he came back into the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
"I"ll have my tea here after all," he said. "Well, to think you"ve heard of those spook-trains! I"ve been careful not to mention them to your mother or to you, Jock, for fear of scaring you!"
"Gee!" said d.i.c.k. "Are they really true then? They can"t be."
"You tell me all you know, and how you know about it," said Mr Andrews, sitting down at the table with his tray. "Go on. Don"t miss out a thing. I want to hear everything."
Julian hesitated. "Oh - there"s nothing really to tell, sir -just a lot of nonsense."
"You tell it me!" almost shouted Mr Andrews. "Then I"ll tell you a few things. And I tell you, you won"t go near that old railway yard again - no, that you won"t!"
8