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

THAT first meal in the Welsh farm-house was a very happy one. Mrs. Evans was excited to have visitors, and Effans, her husband, beamed all round as he carved great slices of ham, tongue and chicken. There were a lot of "look yous" and "whateffers," and Kiki was especially interested in the up-and-down sing-song way the two Welsh folk talked.

"Wipe your feet, whateffer," she said to Mrs. Evans suddenly. Mrs. Evans looked surprised. She hadn't heard the parrot speak before.

"Shut the door, look you," commanded Kiki, raising her crest. The children squealed with laughter.

"She's gone all Welsh already!" said Dinah. "Hey, watch her, Jack — she's absolutely wolfing those raspberries!"

Jack put a plate over the bowl, and Kiki was angry. She made a noise like the car changing gear and Effans looked startled.

"It's all right — it's only Kiki," said Jack. "She can make all kinds of noises. You should hear her give her imitation of a train whistling in a tunnel."

Kiki opened her beak and swelled up her throat as if she was about to make this horrible noise. Mrs. Mannering spoke hastily. "Jack! Don't let Kiki make that noise. If she does you'll have to take her upstairs and put her in your bedroom."

"Bad Kiki, naughty Kiki," said the parrot solemnly, recognising the stern tone in Mrs. Mannering's voice. She flew to Jack's shoulder and cuddled there, eyeing the plate that he had put over the bowl of raspberries. She gave his ear a little nip.

What a meal that was for six very hungry travellers who had had nothing but sandwiches all day long! Even Mrs. Mannering ate more than she had ever eaten before at one meal. Mrs. Evans kept beaming round as she filled the plates.

"There iss plenty more in the larder, look you," she said. "Effans, go fetch the meat-pie."

"No, no!" said Mrs. Mannering. "Please don't. We have more than enough here — it's only that we are extra hungry and the food is so very very good."

Mrs. Evans was pleased. "It iss plain country food, but it iss very good for the children," she said. "They will soon have good appetites in this mountain air, look you."

"Indeed to gootness they will," agreed Effans. "Their appetites are small yet. They will grow."

Mrs. Mannering looked rather alarmed. "Good gracious! I've never in my life seen them eat so much — if their appetites get any bigger I'll never be able to feed them at home!"

"And we shall starve at school," grinned Jack.

"The poor boy!" said Mrs. Evans. "It iss a big ham I must give him to take back, whateffer!"

At last nobody could eat any more. They sat back from the table, looking out of the wide, low windows and the big open door. What a view!

Great mountains reared up their heads in the evening light. Deep shadows lay across the valley, but the mountains still caught the sunlight, and gleamed enchantingly. It was all so different from the country round their home, and the children felt that they could never look long enough at the mountain-tops and the shadowed valleys below.

"You are very lonely here," said Bill. "I can't see a single house or farm anywhere."

"My brother lives on the other side of that mountain," said Mrs. Evans, pointing. "I see him at the market each week. That is ten miles away, or maybe eleven. And my sister lives beyond that mountain you can see there. She too has a farm. So we have neighbours, look you."

"Yes — but not next-door ones!" said Dinah. "Don't you ever feel cut-off and lonely here, Mrs. Evans?"

Mrs. Evans looked surprised. "Lonely? Indeed to gootness, what iss there to be lonely about, with Effans by my side, and the shepherd up on the hills, and the cow-herd and his wife in their cottage near by? And there iss plenty of animals, as you will see."

Hens wandered in and out of the open door, pecking up crumbs fallen from the table. Kiki watched them intently. She began a warm, clucking noise, and the hens clucked back. A cock came strutting in and looked round for the hen that had a cluck he didn't quite know.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" suddenly crowed the cock defiantly, catching sight of Kiki on Jack's shoulders.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" answered Kiki, and the cock immediately jumped up on to the table to fight the crowing parrot.