Chapter 2 A VISITOR IN THE NIGHT
The Five were on the beach in two minutes, and Julian undid¹ the basket. It was full of neatly² packedsandwiches, and packets of biscuits and chocolate. A bag contained ripe plums, and there were twobottles of lemonade.
'Home-made!' said Dick, taking it out. 'And icy-cold. And what's this? A fruit cake - a whole fruitcake - we're in luck.'
'Woof,' said Timmy, approvingly, and sniffled inside the basket.
Wrapped in brown paper were some biscuits and a bone, together with a small pot of paste.
George undid the packet. 'I packed these for you, Timmy,' she said. 'Say thank you!'
Timmy licked her so lavishly³ that she cried out for mercy. 'Pass me the towel, Ju!' she said.
'Timmy's made my face all wet. Get away now, Timmy - you've thanked me quite enough! Get away,I said. How can I spread paste on your biscuits if you stick your nose into the pot all the time?'
'You spoil Timmy dreadfully,' said Anne. 'All right, all right - you needn't scowl⁴ at me, George! Iagree that he's worth spoiling. Take your bone a bit farther away from me, Tim - it's smelly!'
They were soon eating sardine⁵ sandwiches with tomatoes, and egg-and-lettuce sandwiches after that.
Then they started on the fruit cake and the lemonade.
6'I can't think why people ever have table-meals when they can have picnics,' said Dick. 'Think ofUncle and Aunt and those two men tucking into a hot meal indoors on a day like this. Phew!'
'I liked that big American,' said George.
'Aha! We all know why,' said Dick, annoyingly. 'He thought you were a boy. Will you ever grow outof that, George?'
'Timmy's trying to get at the cake!' said Anne. 'Quick, George, stop him!'
They all lay back on the sand after their picnic, and Julian began a long story of some trick that heand Dick had played on their form-master at school. He was most annoyed because nobody laughedat the funny part, and sat up to see why.
'All asleep!' he said, in disgust. Then he cocked his head just as Timmy pricked⁶ up his ears. A loudroaring noise came to him.
'Just the American

分享到：