chapter 2 up on the moors
mr. luffy was not a good driver. he went too fast, especially round the corners, and many timesjulian looked behind at the trailer in alarm, afraid that everything would suddenly leap off it atsome sharp bend.
he saw the bundle of sleeping-bags jump high into the air, but fortunately they remained on thetrailer. he touched mr. luffy on the shoulder.
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'sir! could you go a bit slower, please! the trailer will be empty by the time we arrive, if theluggage leaps about on it much more.'
'my word! i forgot we had a trailer,' said mr. luffy, slowing down at once. 'remind me if i goover thirty-five miles an hour, will you? last time i took the trailer with me, i arrived with onlyhalf the goods on it. i don't want that to happen again.'
julian certainly hoped it wouldn't. he kept a sharp eye on the speedometer, and when it veeredtowards forty he tapped mr. luffy on the arm.
mr. luffy looked supremely happy. he didn't like term time, but he loved holidays. term timeinterfered with the study of his beloved insect-world. now he was off with four nice children heliked, for a holiday on a moorland he knew was alive with bees, beetles, butterflies and everyother kind of insect he wanted. he looked forward to teaching the four children quite a lot. theywould have been horrified if they guessed this, but they didn't.
he was an odd-looking fellow. he had very untidy, shaggy eyebrows over kind and gentle browneyes that always reminded dick of a monkey's. he had a rather large nose, which looked fiercerthan it was because, unexpectedly, it had quite a forest of hairs growing out of the nostrils. hehad an untidy moustache, and a round chin with a surprising dimple in the middle of it.
his ears always fascinated anne. they were large and turned rather forward, and mr. luffycould waggle the right one if he wanted to. to his great sorrow he had never been able to wagglethe left one. his hair was thick and untidy, and his clothes always looked loose, comfortable andrather too big for him.
the children liked him. they couldn't help it. he was so odd and gentle and untidy and forgetful- and yet sometimes unexpectedly fierce. julian had often told them the story of tom killin thebully.
mr. luffy had once found tom bullying a small new boy in the cloakroom, dragging him roundand round it by his belt. with a roar like an angry bull mr. luffy had pounced on the big bully,got him by the belt, lifted him up and stuck him firmly on a peg in the cloakroom.
'there you stay till you get someone to lift you down!' mr. luffy had thundered. i can get hold ofa belt too, as you can see!'
and then he had stalked out of the cloakroom with the small, terrified boy beside him, leavingthe bully hung up high on the peg, quite unable to free himself. and there he had to stay, becausenot one of the boys who came pouring in from a game of football would lift him down.
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'and, if the peg hadn't given way under his weight, he'd be stuck up there still,' julian had saidwith a grin.
'good old luffy! you'd never think he could be fierce like that, would you?'
anne loved that story. mr. luffy became quite a hero to her after that. she was pleased to sitnext to him in the car, and chatter about all kinds of things. the other three were squashed at theback with timmy on their feet. george firmly prevented him from climbing up on her kneebecause it was so hot. so he contented himself with trying to stand up with his paws on thewindow-ledge and his nose over the side.
they stopped about half past twelve for lunch. mr. luffy had indeed provided sandwiches foreveryone. and remarkably fine ones they were too, made the evening before by mrs. luffy.
'cucumber, - dipped in vinegar! ham and lettuce! egg! sardine! oooh, mr. luffy, yoursandwiches are much nicer than ours,' said anne, beginning on two together, one cucumber andthe other ham and lettuce.
they were all very hungry. timmy had a bit from everyone, usually the last bite, and watchedeach sandwich eagerly till his turn came. mr. luffy didn't seem to understand that timmy had tohave the last bite of any sandwich, so timmy simply took it out of his hand, much to his surprise.
'a clever dog,' he said, and patted him. 'knows what he wants and takes it. very clever.'
that pleased george, of course. she thought that timmy was the cleverest dog in the world, andindeed it did seem like it at times. he understood every word she said to him, every pat, everystroke, every gesture. he would be much, much better at keeping an eye on the four children andguarding them than forgetful mr. luffy.
they drank ginger beer and then ate some ripe plums. timmy wouldn't have any plums, but helicked up some spilt ginger beer. then he snuffed up a few odd crumbs and went to drink at alittle stream nearby.
the party set off again in the car. anne fell asleep. dick gave an enormous yawn and fell asleeptoo. george wasn't sleepy, nor was timmy, but julian was. he didn't dare to take his eye off thespeedometer, though, because mr. luffy seemed to be very much inclined to speed along too fastagain, after his good lunch.
'we won't stop for tea till we get there,' said mr. luffy suddenly, and dick woke up with a jumpat the sound of his booming voice. 'we should be there about half past five. look, you can seethe moorland in the distance now - all ablaze with heather!'
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everybody looked ahead, except anne, who was still fast asleep. rising up to the left for milesupon miles was the heather-covered moorland, a lovely sight to see. it looked wild and lonelyand beautiful, blazing with heather, and shading off into a purple-blue in the distance.
'we take this road to the left, and then we're on the moors,' said mr. luffy, swinging violently tothe left, and making the luggage in the trailer jump high again. 'here we go.'
the car climbed the high moorland road steadily. it passed one or two small houses, and in thedistance the children could see little farms in clearings. sheep dotted the moorland, and some ofthem stood staring at the car as it drove by.
'we've got about twenty miles to go, i should think,' said mr. luffy, jamming on his brakessuddenly to avoid two large sheep in the middle of the road. 'i wish these creatures wouldn'tchoose the centre of the road to gossip in. hi, get on there! let me pass!'
timmy yelped and tried to get out of the car. the sheep hurriedly decided to move, and the carwent on. anne was thoroughly awake by now, having been almost jerked out of her seat by thesudden stop.
'what a shame to wake you!' said mr. luffy, gazing down at her kindly, and almost running intoa ditch by the side of the road. 'we're nearly there, anne.'
they climbed steadily, and the wind grew a little cold. all around the children the moorsstretched for mile upon mile, never-ending. little streams sometimes splashed right down to theroadway, and ran beside it.
'we can drink the water in these streams,' said mr. luffy. 'crystal clear, and cold as ice! there'sone quite near where we're going to camp.'
that was good news. julian thought of the big canvas buckets they had brought. he didn'tparticularly want to carry those for miles. if there was a stream near their camping place it wouldbe easy to get the buckets filled with washing-water.
the road forked into two. to the right was a good road, leading on and on. to the left it becamenot much more than a cart-track. 'that's the one we take,' said mr. luffy, and the car jerked andjolted over it. he was forced to go slowly, and the children had time to see every little thing theypassed.
'i shall leave the car here,' said mr. luffy, bringing it to a standstill beside a great rock that stoodup bare and grey out of the moor. 'it will be sheltered from the worst winds and rain. i thoughtwe'd camp over yonder.'
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there was a little slope just there, backed by some enormous gorse bushes. thick heather greweverywhere. julian nodded. it was a good place for camping. those thick gorse bushes wouldprovide fine shelter from the winds.
'right, sir,' he said. 'shall we have tea first, or unpack now?'
'tea first,' said mr. luffy. 'i've brought a very good little stove for boiling and cooking things.
better than a wood fire. that makes kettles and saucepans so black.'
'we've got a stove, too,' said anne. she scrambled out of the car and looked all round. 'it's lovelyhere - all heather and wind and sun! is that the farm over there - the one we shall go to for eggsand things?'
she pointed to a tiny farmhouse on the hill opposite. it stood in a small clearing. in a field behindit were three or four cows and a horse. a small orchard stood at the side, and a vegetable gardenlay in front. it seemed odd to see such a trim little place in the midst of the moorland.
'that's olly's farm,' said mr. luffy. 'it's changed hands, i believe, since i was here three yearsago. i hope the new people are nice. now - did we leave something to eat for our tea?'
they had, because anne had wisely put away a good many sandwiches and bits of cake for tea-time. they sat in the heather, with bees humming all round them, and munched solidly for fifteenminutes. timmy waited patiently for his bits, watching the bees that hummed round him. therewere thousands of them.
'and now i suppose we'd better put up our tents,' said julian. 'come on, dick - let's unpack thetrailer. mr. luffy, we don't intend to camp on top of you, sir, because you won't want four noisychildren too near. where would you like your tent put?' mr. luffy was about to say that hewould like to have the four children and timmy quite close, when it suddenly occurred to himthat perhaps they might not want him too near. they might want to make a noise, or play sillygames, and if he were near it would stop them enjoying themselves in their own way.
so he made up his mind not to be too close. i'll pitch my tent down there, where that old gorsebush is,' he said. 'and if you'd like to put yours up here, where there's a half-circle of gorsebushes keeping off the wind, you'd be well sheltered. and we shan't interfere with one another atall.'
'right, sir,' said julian, and he and dick began to tackle the tents. it was fun. timmy got undereveryone's feet as usual, and ran off with an important rope, but nobody minded.
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by the time that dusk came creeping up the heather-covered moorland, all three tents were up,the ground-sheets were put down, and the sleeping-bags unrolled on them, two in each of thechildren's tents, and one in mr. luffy's.
'i'm going to turn in,' said mr. luffy. 'my eyes are almost shut. good night all of you. sleepwell!'
he disappeared into the dusk. anne yawned widely, and that set the others off too. 'come on -let's turn in, too,' said julian. 'we'll have a bar of chocolate each, and a few biscuits. we can eatthose in our sleeping-bags. good night, girls. won't it be grand to wake up tomorrow morning?'
he and dick disappeared into their tent. the girls crawled into theirs with timmy. theyundressed, and got into their warm, soft sleeping-bags.
'this is super!' said george, pushing timmy to one side. 'i never felt so cosy in my life. don't dothat, timmy. don't you know the difference between my feet and my middle? that's better.'
'good night,' said anne, sleepily. 'look, george, you can see the stars shining through theopening of the tent. don't they look enormous?'
but george didn't care whether they were enormous or not. she was fast asleep, tired out withthe day's run. timmy cocked one ear when he heard anne's voice, and gave a little grunt. thatwas his way of saying good night. then he put his head down and slept.
'our first night of camping,' thought anne, happily. 'i shan't go to sleep. i shall lie awake andlook at the stars and smell that heathery smell.'
but she didn't. in half a second she was sound asleep, too!
