in monkeys I’m going,” said Mrs. Round. “Loony dogs I can put up with, beetles and such I can deal with—but monkeys, no. It’ll be elephants next, trampling up the stairs and down.”
Miss Pepper hurried downstairs to solve the monkey mystery. She saw Barney with the others; Miranda was on his shoulder. He nodded his head politely to her when the children introduced him. “Miss Pepper, this is Barnabas, and this is Miranda, his monkey. Isn’t she sweet?”
Miss Pepper wasn’t going to go so far as to say that. In her experience, monkeys were full of fleas and apt to bite people. She eyed Miranda mistrustfully.
“I’d rather you didn’t bring that animal indoors,” said Miss Pepper firmly. “Sweet or not, I’d rather she stayed outside.”
“Yes, certainly, Mam,” said Barney. “It isn’t everyone that likes monkeys.”
Miranda looked at Miss Pepper just as mournfully and pathetically as Loony sometimes looked at her. Oh dear—these animals! Why did they look at you like that? Miss Pepper ran to the kitchen, got a cucumber end and sliced it up. She ran out with the little slices on a plate.
“Monkeys like cucumber,” she said. “Here’s some for her. But please take her down the garden. Oh, do be careful Loony doesn’t chew her tail!”
Miranda’s tail hung down and Loony was eyeing it hopefully. It did look nice and chewy. He made a snap at it and Miranda gave a leap off Barney’s shoulder and sat on his head, chattering.
“Loony! If you dare to chew Miranda’s tail I’ll let her chew yours,” said Snubby. Loony promptly sat down on his as if he understood every word. Barney gave one of his uproarious laughs, and set everyone else laughing too. Even Mrs. Round opened the bedroom window and looked out to see what the joke was.
“Come on,” said Roger to Barney. “Let’s go down the garden. Oh, wait a bit. I say, Miss Pepper—Barney’s keen on reading Shakespeare’s plays. He’s read The Tempest and he wants me to lend him another. What would be a good one for him to read next?”
Miss Pepper was most surprised. What with his monkey, and his queer blue eyes, and now his liking for plays, this boy was puzzling. He looked quite a nice boy, and Miss Pepper wondered where he came from. She would have to ask Roger about him when he had gone.
“Well—he could try Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she said.
“Oh, yes—that’s a lovely play,” said Diana. “We did it once at school. I was Titania.”
They went down the garden to a tumbledown summer-house and sat there, with Loony on the floor trying to get another chew at Miranda’s tail, and Miranda first on Snubby’s shoulder and then Barney’s—always swinging her tail just a little out of Loony’s reach. She was very naughty. She took Diana’s hanky out of her pocket and produced a horrible sticky mass of toffee from Snubby’s shorts, which she proceeded to lick with great enjoyment before she threw the rest down to Loony.
“You’re not to eat it, Loony,” ordered Snubby. “You know what happened last time you ate toffee.”
“What happened?” asked Barney with interest.
“He got his top and bottom teeth stuck together,” said Snubby. “And he was in such a fright that he rushed straight out-of-doors and down the street and didn’t come back for hours, till the toffee had melted and gone. For a whole day after that he was scared. It’s the only day I’ve ever known him be really good from morning to night.”
“Miranda only licks it,” said Barney.
“She’s sensible,” said Diana. “Loony isn’t.”
“Let’s tell Barney what we want to do this morning,” said Roger. “Barney, we want to go and walk round that big old mansion whose chimneys you can just see from here. It’s empty now—nobody lives there—and there are all kinds of queer stories about it. We thought it would be fun to snoop round it.”
They all got up, Loony too, his tail wagging. Were they going for a walk? He didn’t like this sitting about. It was boring. They made their way through the overgrown paths, working their way steadily towards the old house.
“You almost have to hack your way through,” said Roger. “We’ll come to the drive soon—that’s fairly clear. Look—now you can see the house—enormous, isn’t it?”
It certainly was. Great chimneys stood up from the roof, scores of windows peered out dimly, half-covered with ivy and creeper, and there was an air of desolation and decay about the place.
“Come on,” said Roger. “We’ll explore—and I say—wouldn’t it be fun if we managed to get inside!”
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