Chapter Two BACK AT KIRRIN COTTAGE
　　JULIAN, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy went straightaway to have buns and ginger-beer at thestation tearoom. It was good to be all together again. Timmy went nearly mad with joy at seeingthe two boys. He kept trying to get on to their knees.
　　'Look here, Timmy, old thing, I love you very much, and I'm jolly glad to see you,' said Dick,'but that's twice you've upset my ginger-beer all over me. Has he behaved himself this term,George?'
　　'Fairly well,' said George, considering. 'Hasn't he, Anne? I mean - he only got the joint¹ out of thelarder once - and he didn't do so much harm to that cushion he chewed - and if people will leavetheir galoshes all over the place, nobody can blame Timmy for having a good old game withthem.'
　　'And that was the end of the galoshes, I suppose,' said Julian, with a grin. 'On the whole, Timmy,you have a rather poor report. I'm afraid our Uncle Quentin will not award you the usual half-crown we get for good reports.'
　　At the mention of her father, George scowled³.
　　'I see George has not lost her pretty scowl²,' said Dick, in a teasing voice, 'Dear old George! Weshouldn't know her unless she put on that fearsome scowl half a dozen times a day!'
　　7
　　'Oh, she's better than she was,' said Anne, hurrying to George's defense⁴ at once.
　　George was not so touchy⁵ as she had once been, when she was being teased. All the same, Anneknew that there might be sparks flying over her father taking Kirrin Island these holidays, andshe didn't want George to fly into a temper too soon!
　　Julian looked at his cousin. 'I say, old thing, you're not going to take this business of KirrinIsland too much to heart, are you?' he said. 'You've just got to realize that your father's aremarkably clever man, one of the finest scientists we've got - and I think that those kind offellows ought to be allowed as much freedom as they like, for their work. I mean - if UncleQuentin wants to work on Kirrin Island for some peculiar⁶ reason of his own, then you ought tobe pleased to say "Go ahead,' Father!"

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