11
　　A strange happening
　　It wasn’t long before Dinah suggested having something to eat, and went to the big panniers thathad been unloaded from the donkeys the night before. She pulled out some tins, thinking it wouldbe a change to have sardines¹, and tinned peaches, or something like that. Anything to take theirminds off David’s flight, and the disappearance² of the donkeys!
　　They sat down rather silently. Lucy-Ann kept very close to the boys. What with wolves andDavid’s fright she felt very scared herself!
　　‘I hope this won’t turn into one of our adventures,’ she kept saying to herself. ‘They alwayshappen so suddenly.’
　　Snowy the kid bounded up to Philip and knocked a tin flying from his hand. He nuzzledaffectionately against him and then butted³ him. Philip rubbed the furry⁴ little nose and then pushedthe kid away.
　　‘I’m glad you didn’t go off with the donkeys too!’ he said. ‘I’ve got used to having you aroundnow, you funny aggravating⁵ little thing. Take your nose out of that tin! Lucy-Ann, push him off –he’ll eat everything we’ve got!’
　　Kiki suddenly flew at Snowy, screaming with rage. She had had her eye on that tin of slicedpeaches, and to see Snowy nosing round it was too much for her. She gave him a sharp peck onthe nose, and he ran to Philip, bleating⁶. Everyone laughed and felt better.
　　They sat there, eating by the tents, occasionally glancing up at the mountain that towered up sosteeply above them. It had no gentle slope up to the summit, as most of the mountains around had,but was steep and forbidding.
　　‘I don’t much like this mountain,’ said Lucy-Ann.
　　‘Why?’ asked Dinah.
　　‘I don’t know. I just don’t like it,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I’ve got one of my “feelings” about it.’
　　The others laughed. Lucy-Ann often had ‘feelings’ about things, and really believed in them. Itwas just like her to start having ‘feelings’ about the mountain, when everyone was also havinguncomfortable ideas about wolves and other things.

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