The Secret Series - Complete Collection. Enid blyton
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“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 find any they had missed. Nora gave them some water, too. Then she took a look round the fence to see that it was all right.
It seemed all right. The little girl didn’t bother to look very hard, because she wanted to go off to the raspberry patch up on the hillside and see if there were any more wild raspberries ripe. If she had looked carefully, as she should have done, she would have noticed quite a big hole in the fence, where one of the hens had been pecking out the bracken and heather. But she didn’t notice. She picked up a basket Peggy had made of thin twigs, and set off.
“Are you going to find raspberries, Nora?” called Peggy.
“Yes!” shouted Nora.
“Well, bring back as many as you can, and we’ll have them for pudding at dinner-time with cream!” shouted Peggy. “Don’t eat them all yourself!”
“Come with me and help me!” cried Nora, not too pleased at the thought of having to pick raspberries for everyone.
“I’ve got to get some water from the spring,” called back Peggy; “and I want to do some mending.”
So Nora went alone. She found a patch of raspberries she hadn’t seen yesterday, and there were a great many ripe. The little girl ate dozens and then began to fill her basket with the sweet juicy fruit. She heard Jack taking Daisy the cow back to her grassy field on the other side of the island. She heard Mike whistling as he cut some willow stakes down in the thicket, ready for use if they were wanted. Everyone was busy and happy.
Nora sat down in the sun and leaned against a warm rock that jutted out from the hillside. She felt very happy indeed. The lake was as blue as a forget-me-not down below her. Nora lazed there in the sun until she heard Mike calling:
“Nora! Nora! Wherever are you! You’ve been hours!”
“Coming!” cried Nora, and she made her way through the raspberry canes, round the side of the hill through the heather and bracken, and down to the beach, where all the others were. Peggy had got the fire going well, and was cooking a rabbit that Jack had produced.
“Where are the raspberries?” asked Jack. “Oh, you’ve got a basketful! Good! Go and skim the cream off the milk in that bowl over there, Nora. Put it into a jug and bring it back. There will be plenty for all of us.”
Soon they were eating their dinner. Peggy was certainly a good little cook. But nicest of all were the sweet juicy raspberries with thick yellow cream poured all over them. How the children did enjoy them!
“The hens are very quiet to-day,” said Jack, finishing up the last of his cream. “I haven’t heard a single cluck since we’ve been having dinner!”
“I suppose they’re all right?” said Peggy.
“I’ll go and have a look,” said Mike. He put down his plate and went to the hen-yard. He looked here - and he looked there - he lifted up the sack that was stretched over one corner of the yard for shelter - but no hens were there!
“Are they all right?” called Jack.
Mike turned in dismay. “No!” he said. “They’re not here! They’ve gone!”
“Gone!” cried Jack, springing up in astonishment. “They can’t have gone! They must be there!”
“Well, they’re not,” said Mike. “They’ve completely vanished! Not even a cluck left!”
All the children ran to the hen-yard and gazed in amazement and fright at the empty space.
“Do you suppose someone has been here and taken them?” said Peggy.
“No,” said Jack sternly, “look here! This explains their disappearance!”
He pointed to a hole in the fence of the hen-yard. “See that hole! They’ve all escaped through there - and now goodness knows where they are!”
“Well, I never heard them go,” said Peggy. “I was the only one left here. They must have gone when I went to get water from the spring!”
“Then the hole must have been there when Nora fed the hens this morning,” said Jack.
“Nora, what do you mean by doing your job as badly as that? Didn’t I tell you this morning that you were to look carefully round the fence each time the hens were fed to make sure it was safe? And now, the very first time, you let the hens escape! I’m ashamed of you!”
“Our precious hens!” said Peggy, in dismay.
“You might do your bit, Nora,” said Mike. “It’s too bad of you.”
Nora began to cry, but the others had no sympathy for her. It was too big a disappointment to lose their hens. They began to hunt round to see if by chance the hens were hidden anywhere near.
Nora cried more and more loudly, till Jack got really angry with her. “Stop that silly baby noise!” he said. “Can’t you help to look for the hens, too?”
“You’re not to talk to me like that!” wept Nora.
“I shall talk to you how I like,” said Jack. “I’m the captain here, and you’ve got to do as you’re told. If one of us is careless we all suffer, and I won’t have that!
Stop crying, I tell you, and help to look for the hens.”
Nora started to hunt, but she didn’t stop crying. She felt so unhappy and ashamed and sad, and it was really dreadful to have all the others angry with her, and not speaking a word to her. Nora could hardly see to hunt for the hens.
“Well, they are nowhere about here!” said Jack, at last. “We’d better spread out and see if we can find them on the island somewhere. They may have wandered right to the other side. We’ll all separate and hunt in different places. Peggy, you go that way, and I’ll go over to Daisy’s part.”
The children separated and went different ways, calling to the hens loudly. Nora went where Jack had pointed. She called to the hens, too, but none came in answer.
Wherever could they be?
What a hunt there was that afternoon for those vanished hens! It was really astonishing that not one could be found. Jack couldn’t understand it! They were nowhere on the hill. They were not even in the little cave where Jack had hidden them the day before, because he looked. They were not among the raspberry canes.
They were not in Daisy’s field. They were not under the hedges. They were not anywhere at all, it seemed!
Nora grew more and more unhappy as the day