"Blyton, Enid - Adv 03 - Valley of Adventure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

Kiki the parrot belonged to him. He had had her for years, an amusing and talkative parrot, with a gift for repeating anything she heard, and for imitating any noise, from a sewing-machine to an express train. She adored Jack and was miserable when she was not with him.

Jack had a passion for birds, and Philip had a great liking for animals of all kinds. He was wonderfully good with them, and they obeyed him and loved him in a marvellous manner. He always had some kind of queer pet about him, which caused quarrels between him and his sister Dinah, who was scared of most animals and of nearly all insects. But now all four were thinking of nothing whatever but their glorious flight in their friend Bill's new aeroplane.

Bill Smugs was their firm friend. He and they had had hair-raising adventures together. In one adventure they had gone down old copper-mines to track clever forgers. In another they had happened on a nest of dangerous spies. As Bill Smugs said, those children simply "fell into adventures."

Now Bill had actually been presented with a fine aeroplane, to help him in his work. The children had been wild with excitement when he had written to tell them this at school.

"I bet he'll take us up for a flight," said Jack. "I just bet he will."

"We'll make him," said Philip. But they didn't need to make him, for he was quite willing to show off his aeroplane to them, and to demonstrate how well he could fly it after only a short training.

"Mother, we went far, far higher than the clouds," said Dinah. "I looked down on them and they didn't look like clouds a bit. They looked like a great big snow-field. It gave me quite a funny feeling."

"I had a parachute strapped to me in case I fell, and Bill showed me the rip-cord I had to pull in case of danger," said Lucy-Ann, the youngest, her eyes shining. "But there wasn't any danger."

"We flew right over our old home, Craggy-Tops," said Philip. "It was so queer looking down on top of it. And we flew over here too, Mother, and our house looked like a toy one."

"Aunt Allie, Bill says it's frightfully exciting flying at night, and seeing the little pin-pricks of light shining up from the dark countryside," said Jack. "We begged and begged him to take us on a night flight, but he said he would have to ask you. You will say we can go, won't you? Golly! I can't imagine what the boys at school will say when I tell them about going up in a plane, day and night."

"Day and night," repeated Kiki. "Ding-dong bell."

"She's got ding-dong bell on the brain," said Jack. "There's a small child next door who keeps reciting nursery rhymes, and Kiki listens and picks up bits of them. Yesterday she kept moaning about 'three blind mice,' today it's 'ding-dong bell.' Don't know what it will be tomorrow."

"Humpy dumpy," said Kiki obligingly.

"Humpty, dumpty," corrected Jack. "Not humpy dumpy."

"Humpy dumpy bumpy," said Kiki solemnly, and scratched her head with a claw. "Humpy, dumpy . . ."

"All right, all right," said Jack. "Aunt Allie, can we go up at night with Bill? He's coming to ask you tomorrow, so do say yes."

"I suppose I shall have to," said Mrs. Mannering with a laugh. "You and Bill. So long as you don't go headlong into another awful adventure."

"Adventures aren't awful," said Philip. "They are simply lovely!"

"Not to the people who aren't in them," said Mrs. Mannering. "I feel quite ill sometimes when I think of the adventures you children have been in the middle of. No more, please."

"All right. We won't get into any more these summer holidays," said Lucy-Ann, giving her aunt a hug. "We won't worry you. I don't want any more adventures anyhow. I've had enough."

"Baby!" said Dinah scornfully. "Well, if we do have another, we'll leave you out of it, Lucy-Ann."

"No we won't," said Philip, giving Dinah a poke in the back. "We can't do without Lucy-Ann."

"Now, don't quarrel, you two," said Mrs. Mannering, foreseeing one of their everlasting squabbles boiling up. "You're tired now, all of you, after all your excitement. Go and do something quiet till supper-time."

"Sing for your supper," put in Kiki. The children laughed.

"You're an idiot, Kiki," said Jack affectionately. "Did you miss us today? Well, I was scared you might fly out of the aeroplane in fright, if we took you. But I expect you'd have been quite a sensible old bird, wouldn't you, and sat on my shoulder all the time?"