Chapter 4 SPOOK-TRAINS
　　The boys and George were full of talk about the farm. 'It's a nice little place,' said Julian, sittingdown while Anne began to cook breakfast for Mr. Luffy. 'Pretty farmhouse¹, nice little dairy,well-kept sheds. And even a grand piano in the drawing-room.'
　　'Gracious! You wouldn't think they'd make enough money to buy a thing like that, would you?'
　　said Anne, turning over the bacon in the pan.
　　'The farmer's got a fine car,' went on Julian. 'Brand new. Must have cost him a pretty penny. Hisboy showed it to us. And he showed us some jolly good new farm machinery² too.'
　　'Very interesting,' said Mr. Luffy. 'I wonder how they make their money, farming that bit ofland? The last people were hard-working folk, but they certainly couldn't have afforded a newcar or a grand piano.'
　　'And you should have seen the lorries they've got!' said Dick. 'Beauties! Old army ones, I shouldthink. The boy said his father's going to use them for carting things from the farm to the market.'
　　'What things?' said Mr. Luffy, looking across at the little farmhouse. 'I shouldn't have thoughtthey needed an army of lorries for that! An old farm wagon³ would carry all their produce.'
　　'Well, that's what he told us,' said Dick. 'Everything certainly looked very prosperous, I must say.
　　He must be a jolly good farmer.'
　　'We got eggs and butter and fruit, and even some bacon,' said George. 'The boy's mother didn'tseem worried about how much we had, and she hardly charged us anything. We didn't see thefarmer.'
　　17
　　Mr. Luffy was now eating his breakfast. He was certainly very hungry. He brushed away theflies that hung round his head, and when one settled on his right ear he waggled it violently. Thefly flew off in surprise.
　　'Oh, do that again!' begged Anne. 'How do you do it? Do you think if I practised hard for weeks Icould make my ear move?'
　　'No, I don't think so,' said Mr. Luffy, finishing his breakfast. 'Well, I've got some writing to donow. What are you going to do? Go for a walk?'
　　'We might as well take a picnic lunch and go off somewhere,' said Julian. 'How about it?'
　　'Yes,' said Dick. 'Can you pack us dinner and tea, Anne? We'll help. What about hard-boiledeggs?'
　　It wasn't long before they had a picnic meal packed in greaseproof paper.
　　'You won't get lost, will you?' said Mr. Luffy.
　　'Oh no, sir,' said Julian, with a laugh. 'I've got a compass, anyway, and a jolly good bump oflocality, too. I usually know the way to go. We'll see you this evening, when we get back.'

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