The Secret of Galleybird Pit by Malcolm Saville

Author:Malcolm Saville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

6. Humf's Day

Humf was getting bored with life at the Blackbirds. Saturday, when he had carried the posters and they had all done so well at the cafe, had been O.K., but the truth was that in Midchester he had plenty of friends of his own age. Here, in their new life, he was always the youngest and he was getting tired of being called "Young Humf". He was also rather tired of Lucy who was very pleased with herself now that she was so friendly with Mark, John and Peggy.

The week went by uneventfully enough, with the cafe doing excellent business each day, until Wednesday evening, when Humf asked his sister whether she had seen Mark again and what they were going to do tomorrow.

Lucy had been in one of her priggish moods and said, "Yes, Humf. I did see him. We shall have to see what we're going to do when tomorrow comes, shan't we?"

Humf was reminded of this at breakfast on Thursday morning. He had been rudely awakened by Lucy as usual, and had promptly turned over and gone to sleep again as a matter of principle. Then his mother had come up and been rather cross and stood over him to see that he washed himself properly. And so he was cornflakes and bacon behind the others when he came down to breakfast.

His father was talking excitedly as Humf tried to sit down without being noticed, but he was the sort of small boy who would always be noticed and Mervyn looked as if he had been waiting to pounce on him.

"Ha! So there you are, my boy. Why do you have to be late? We all set you a good example and now I suppose you will expect us to wait while you gobble up your food?"

"No, I won't, Dad. Nobody need wait. I'm sorry. I went to sleep again. I couldn't help it. Honestly I'm better at getting up if Lucy doesn't wake me the first time."

Lucy smiled sweetly at him and he was tempted to throw the milk jug at her.

Then his mother spoke up. "Don't scold him any more. He's said that he's sorry and I know he is. Get on with your breakfast, Humf. What were you saying, dear?"

"I was observing that our success last Saturday was due to inspired planning and-----"

"---and hard work, Mervyn. Everyone worked hard and specially the children, but we must never allow them to do that sort of thing again."

Mervyn waved his tea cup.

"That may be, my dear. That may be so... I believe we can safely say that our troubles are over. We cannot go wrong on the Blackbirds now. The people of Malling have already shown us that they are going to rally round. When our first clients tell others we shall be crowded out. I expect to be full up from eleven onwards today. It's cold outside and looks as if it will snow. If it does, people will come in for hot drinks.

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.