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　　All set for a summer holiday
　　Four children were singing at the tops of their voices in a car that was going up a steep mountain-side road.
　　A parrot was also joining in, very much out of tune¹, cocking up her crest² in excitement. Theman at the wheel turned round with a grin.
　　‘I say! I can’t even hear the car hooter. What’s the matter with you all?’
　　Philip, Jack³, Dinah and Lucy-Ann stopped singing and shouted answers at him.
　　‘It’s the beginning of the hols!’
　　‘And we’re going to have a donkey each to ride in the mountains!’
　　‘Pop goes the weasel!’ That was Kiki the parrot, of course, joining in.
　　‘We’ve got eight weeks of fun all together.’
　　‘And you’ll be with us, Bill, as well as Mother! Mother, aren’t you excited too?’
　　Mrs Mannering smiled at Philip. ‘Yes – but I hope you’re not going to be as noisy as this all thetime. Bill, you’ll have to protect me from this rowdy crowd of children.’
　　‘I’ll protect you all right,’ promised Bill, swinging the car round another bend. ‘I’ll knock alltheir heads together once a day at least – and if Lucy-Ann starts getting tough with me I’ll …’
　　‘Oh Bill! said Lucy-Ann, the youngest and least boisterous⁴ of the lot. ‘Jack’s always saying I’mnot tough enough. I ought to be by now, though, considering all the adventures I’ve been through.’
　　‘Tough enough, tough enough!’ chanted Kiki the parrot, who loved words that sounded alike.
　　‘Tough enough, tough …’
　　‘Oh, stop her,’ groaned⁵ Mrs Mannering. She was tired with their long car journey, and washoping it would soon be over. She had eight weeks of the children’s holidays before her, and wasquite sure she would be worn out before the end of it.
　　Philip and Dinah were her own children, and Jack and Lucy-Ann, who had no parents, livedwith her in the holidays and loved her as if she were their own mother. Bill Cunningham was theirvery good friend, and had had some hair-raising adventures with them.

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