The Return of the Railway Children by Lou Kuenzler

Author:Lou Kuenzler
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2018-05-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Secret Codes

The Snigsons never did turn up with the proper papers, of course, and the young pigs settled in well. Two old milk churns were left in front of the post office in the village and anyone with vegetable peelings or other leftovers could donate them to the pig club. Colonel Crowther kindly offered to drive the churns up to Three Chimneys in his motorcar whenever they were full.

Everyone referred to the twin piglets as the Twiglets, of course. Although, when it was discovered they were girls, Perky thought it was funny to encourage Greta to name them Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose, like the real princesses at Windsor Castle.

“Oh, Perky, you are terrible!” cried Maisie Gills, who had come to look after Greta. “You can’t name a piglet after a princess!” The poor young babysitter got such a terrible attack of the giggles that the cup of tea she was drinking went right up her nose. Her already pink cheeks turned scarlet and things were only made worse when Greta insisted on thumping her on the back – quite hard.

“Stop!” she squealed. “I don’t care what you call the wretched piglets, just let me get a hankie and blow my nose.”

Unfortunately for Perky, his suggestion was also overheard by the colonel, who had driven up early that morning to deliver the churns.

“Have some respect, lad,” he barked. Poor Perky looked as if he wished a hole in the ground would open up and swallow him. “You cannot name piglets after members of the British Royal Family. That sort of thing’s no good for morale.”

“It was only a spot of fun,” Perky mumbled.

“Silly boy,” said Greta, shaking her head as if she would never have dreamed of naming a piglet after a princess, even though her eyes had lit up at the thought.

“Just remember, young man,” said Colonel Crowther. “Princess Elizabeth will be our queen one day.”

“Do you know them, Colonel? The princesses, I mean,” said Edie, trying to draw attention away from poor Perky, whom she knew hadn’t meant any real harm. The old colonel seemed so proud and proper, she wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was personally acquainted with royalty.

“I did meet their Royal Highnesses on one occasion,” he said. “When I was dining with the king.”

“Oh,” gasped Edie. “How exciting.”

“Did they have their crowns on?” asked Greta.

“Of course.” He chuckled. “That’s how I knew they were proper princesses.”

“Golly!” Greta squealed with excitement. “Were they sitting on thrones?” she asked. “Did they have unicorns?”

“I believe they did,” teased the colonel.

But Aunt Roberta stepped in. “Come along, now. We mustn’t hold the poor colonel up. He is a very busy man. Thank you so much for bringing the churns, Colonel Crowther.”

“My pleasure,” he said, almost bowing to Aunt Roberta as if she was a queen. “I think this pig club of yours was a wonderful idea, my dear lady. And don’t you worry, I’ve got my eye on those Snigson brothers. They’re both in the Home Guard, you know.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.