"Blyton, Enid - Adv 05 - Mountain of Adventure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"Well, they all look exactly alike to me!" said Mrs. Mannering. Bill spoke to Effans, asking him if he knew which donkey was the quietest. Effans turned to Trefor.

Trefor knew. He pointed out a little creature with a patient expression in its eyes, and said a few words in Welsh.

"He says that is the one for you," said Effans. "It is quiet and good. Its name is Patience."

"Oh, good — I'll choose her then," said Mrs. Mannering. "This is mine, children — the one with the black mark on her forehead."

"I want this one," cried Lucy-Ann, pulling at a sturdy animal that threw his head back continually, and stamped now and then. "I like him. What is his name, Trefor?"

Trefor said something nobody understood. Effans translated. "His name is Clover. This one is Grayling, and that one is Dapple. The other two are Buttercup and Daisy."

Lucy-Ann had Clover. Jack had Grayling, and Dinah had Dapple. Bill had Buttercup, and Philip had Daisy. Each of them was delighted with his or her own special donkey.

"Let's ride them now," said Jack, mounting his little beast. "Come on, Bill. Aunt Allie, get on. We'll go for our first ride now — up the path and back again."

With Effans and his wife looking on in delight, the six rode off on their donkeys. They would not go fast uphill, and Bill warned each child not to try and make them. "They'll trot coming down all right," he said. "But it's heavy going for them uphill, with our weight on their backs."

It was great fun riding the grey donkeys up the steep mountain path. Mrs. Mannering was nervous at first when she came to the rocky bits, but her donkey was as surefooted as the others, and went steadily along on even the stoniest parts.

Bill rode close by in case she needed help, but she didn't. The four children, of course, would have scorned any help. They were all used to riding horses, and the donkeys were very easy to manage.

"Now we'll turn back," called Bill. So they all turned and went homewards. Snowy came too, of course, having leapt and bounded ahead of them all the way, apparently under the impression that he was leading them.

"That was fun," said Lucy-Ann, as they trotted homewards, the donkeys going faster now that they were on a downhill road. Mrs. Mannering didn't like the trotting so much as the ambling.

"My donkey is a very bumpy one," she said to Bill. "When I go down he comes up and when I go up he goes down, so we keep meeting with a bump!"

Everyone laughed. They were all sorry when they reached the farm-house, for by that time they felt as if they could go trotting on forever. But a meal was ready for them on the table, and Mrs. Evans was beaming at the door, so they didn't lose much time in taking the donkeys to the field and carrying their harness to the stables.

"You'll be quite used to riding a donkey by next week," Bill said to Mrs. Mannering. "By the time Wednesday comes you'll be ready to set off and you'll feel as if you'd ridden a donkey all your life!"

"Oh yes, I'm sure I shall," said Mrs. Mannering. She felt something pecking at her foot and looked under the table. She saw a fat brown hen there and pushed it away. "Shoo! Stop pecking my foot!"

The hen shooed, only to be replaced by Snowy, who, pushed off Philip's knee as he sat at table, was amusing himself by trying to eat shoe-laces under the table. Mrs. Mannering pushed him away too, and Snowy went to chew the hem of Mrs. Evans' dress. She never noticed things like that, so Snowy had a nice long chew.

The next day the girls and Mrs. Mannering were so stiff with their donkey-ride that they could hardly walk. The boys and Bill were all right, but Mrs. Mannering groaned as she came down the stairs.

"Good gracious! I feel like an old old lady! I'll never be able to ride a donkey again!" she said.

But the stiffness wore off, and the six of them soon got used to riding their donkeys day after day into the mountains. There were some lovely rides and magnificent views. Snowy came with them always, never tired, leaping along gaily. Kiki rode on Jack's shoulder, occasionally taking a flight into the air to scare any bird that happened to be flying overhead. They flew off quickly, full of astonishment when Kiki told them to wipe their feet.

"Two days more and it's Wednesday," said Lucy-Ann happily. "We'll be quite ready then — able to ride for hours and hours."

"Yes — off to the Vale of Butterflies!" said Jack. "I wonder what it's like! I imagine it to be full of wings of all colours. Lovely!"

"Oh, hurry up and come, Wednesday!" said Dinah. "Only forty-eight hours — and then, off we go!"

But something unexpected happened in that forty-eight hours — something that quite upset their lovely plans!