it was! Inside it was very dark, and there was little space to stand, because of the hundreds of things that the shop sold! The goods were piled on the floor, they hung from the walls, they swung from the ceiling!
“It must sell simply everything in the world!” said Diana in astonishment. “Eatables, drinkables, china, pots and pans, fishing-nets, pails, potatoes, spades, stools—goodness, Miss Pepper, it’s like a shop out of an old fairy-tale!”
“And here’s the witch!” whispered Roger, and got a frown from Miss Pepper, as an old old woman waddled behind the small counter. Her face was a mass of wrinkles, and her snowy white hair was tucked away under a little cap of black net. But old though she looked, her eyes were startlingly bright and piercing.
She spoke to them in Welsh, which they didn’t understand. Diana pointed to a card that said “Ice-Cream” and the old lady nodded, and smiled suddenly.
“Two? Three? Four?” she said in English.
“Oooh—twenty!” said Roger at once, and everyone laughed, the old woman too.
“How big are your ice-creams?” asked Diana. The old woman took a scoop and scooped some from an ice-box—a good large helping, which she slapped between wafers.
“Ah—I think two each will be enough for the children,” said Miss Pepper, “and one each for the grown-ups. What about Miranda, Barney?”
“Oh, one for her,” said Barney. “She’ll probably put most of it on the top of her head, because she’s so hot!”
“There is a big seat outside,” said the old lady, nodding her head, as the children took the ice-creams, and they took the hint and went to sit on the hard old wooden bench.
“Not much taste—but very creamy and deliciously cold,” said Barney. “Miranda, please go and sit on the ground. I do not like you to dribble ice-cream all down my neck. Nor do I like it held against my ear. Sit on the ground!”
The little monkey leapt down to the ground, chattering, holding her ice-cream tightly in her paw. The old lady, who was very interested in Miranda, came out to watch her.
“Very good little monkey,” she said, in her lilting Welsh voice. “You come far?”
“Quite a long way,” said Barney.
“You go far?” said the old lady.
“We don’t know. We are looking for somewhere quiet to stay,” said Barney. “Somewhere near here, perhaps. It is such lovely country. We don’t want a big place, with big hotels—but perhaps a quiet old inn, and... ”
“Ah, then you go up there, see?” said the old lady, and pointed up to the strange, half-ruined place they had seen on the hills. “Quiet, very quiet—and the food, it is so good, so good. And here, it is beautiful, with the sea so blue, and the sand so white, and... ”
“But—is that old place occupied then?” said Mr. Martin, astonished. “I thought it was just an empty ruin.”
“No, no—my son, he keeps it,” said the old lady proudly. “It is an inn, sir, you understand? And what food! Big men come there, sir, important men—they say how good the food, how good!”
Nobody could believe that important people would stay at the half-ruined place. The old woman saw that they did not believe her, and she grasped Mr. Martin’s arm.
“I speak the truth,” she said. “To my son’s inn come Sir Richard Ballinor, and Professor Hallinan, and... ”
Mr. Martin knew those names. “One is a famous botanist, and the other is a well-known ornithologist—a man who studies birds,” he told the astonished children. He turned to the old lady.
“There are many flowers here, then?” he said. “And rare birds?”
“Yes, many, many—up in the hills—and round the coves and on the cliffs,” said the old lady, nodding her head. “Big men come to study them, I tell you, sir. My son, he knows them all. His cooking pleases them, sir, it is good, very good. You go to stay there too, sir? He has not many people now, it is a good time. Very good cooking, sir.”
“Well—we might as well go up and see the old place,” said Mr. Martin, taking out some money to pay for the ice-creams. “Thanks very much, Mrs. Jones. We enjoyed your ice-creams. Is there a road up to the old inn?”
“It is very rough, sir. You must go slowly,” said the old woman, smiling delightedly at the thought that they were really going to see her son’s place. “Cooking very good, sir, very very good.”
They all went off to their car. “She’s got good cooking on the brain,” said Roger. “I wonder what the old place is like? It might be fun to stay there—there’s all we want here, really—fine bathing... ”
“Wonderful walks, I should think,” said Barney, who loved walking. “And a jolly fine view.”
“Fishing,” said Roger, watching a small fishing-boat on the bay, its sails filling out with the wind.
“No trippers,” said Miss Pepper.
“And birds for me!” said Diana happily.
“You and your birds!” said Roger scornfully, and Diana immediately gave him a punch.
“Well—up to the inn we go!” said Mr. Martin, as they started off slowly up the steep track, leaving the caravan behind for the time being. “And what shall we find there, I wonder?”
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