Five on a Hike Together

„Anne!" shouted George, running after her cousin as she went along to her classroom.

„Anne! I"ve just been down to the letterboard and there"s a letter from your brother Julian, I"ve brought it for you."

Anne stopped. „Oh thanks," she said. „What can Julian want? He only wrote a few days ago - it"s most extraordinary for him to write again so soon. It must be something important."

„Well, open it and see," said George. „Hurry up - I"ve got a math class to go to."

Anne ripped open the envelope. She pul ed out a sheet of notepaper and read it quickly.

She looked up at George, her eyes shining.

„George! Julian and Dick have got a few days off at our half-term week-end! Somebody"s won a wonderful scholarship or something, and the boys have got two days tacked on to a week-end to celebrate! They want us to join them in a hike, and all go off together."

„What a glorious idea!" said George, „Good old Julian. I bet he thought of that. Let"s read the letter, Anne."

But before she could read it a mistress came along. „Georgina! You should be in class -

and you too, Anne."

George scowled. She hated to be called by her ful name. She went off without a word.

Anne tucked the letter into her pocket and rushed off joyful y. Half-term with her brothers, Julian and Dick - and with George and Timmy the dog. Could anything be better?

She and George talked about it again after morning school. „We get from Friday morning til Tuesday," said George. „The boys are getting the same. What luck! They don"t usually have a half-term in the winter term."

„They can"t go home because the painters are in our house," said Anne. „That"s why I was going home with you, of course. But I"m sure your mother won"t mind if we go off with the boys. Your father never likes us in the middle of the term."

„No, he doesn"t," said George, „He"s always deep in the middle of some wonderful idea, and he hates to be disturbed. It wil suit everyone if we go off on a hike."

„Julian says he wil telephone to us tonight and arrange everything," said Anne. „I hope it wil be a nice fine week-end. It wil stil be October, so there"s a chance of a bit of warm sunshine."

„The woods wil be beautiful," said George. „And won"t Timmy enjoy himself, Let"s go and tell him the news."

The boarding-school that the two girls were at was one that allowed the children to bring their own pets to school, There were kennels down in the yard for various dogs, and Timmy lived there during term-time. The two girls went to get him.

He heard their footsteps at once and began to bark excitedly. He scraped at the gate of the kennel yard, wishing for the thousandth time that he could find out how to open it.

He flung himself on the two girls, licking and pawing and barking.

„Sil y dog. Mad dog!" said George, and thumped his back affectionately. „Listen, Tim -

we"re going off for the week-end with Julian and Dick! What do you think of that? We"re going on a hike, so you"l love it. Al through the woods and up the hil s and goodness knows where!"

Timmy seemed to understand every word. He cocked up his ears, put his head on one side and listened intently while George was speaking,

„Woof," he said, at the end, as if he approved thoroughly. Then off he went with the girls for his walk, his plumy tail wagging happily. He didn"t like term-time nearly as much as the holidays - but he was quite prepared to put up with kennel life so long as he could be near his beloved George.

Julian rang up that night as he had promised. He had got everything planned already.

Anne listened, thril ed.

'It sounds super," she said. „Yes - we can meet where you say, and we"ll be there as near as we can on time. Anyway, we can wait about if you others aren"t there. Yes - we"ll bring the things you say. Oh Julian, won"t it be fun?"

'What"s he say?" asked George impatiently when at last Anne put the receiver down.

„You might have let me have a word with Julian. I wanted to tel him all about Timmy."

„He doesn"t want to waste an expensive telephone call listening to you raving about Timmy," said Anne. „He asked how he was and I said “fine”, and that"s all he wanted to know about Tim. He"s made al the arrangements. I"l tel you what they are."

The girls went off to a corner of their common-room and sat down. Timmy was there too.

He was al owed in at certain times, and so were three other dogs belonging to the girls.

Each dog behaved well - he knew that if he didn"t he would be taken back to the kennels at once!

„Julian says that he and Dick can get off immediately after breakfast," said Anne. „So can we, so that"s all right. He says we"ve got to take very little with us - just night-things, tooth-brush, hair-brush and flannel and a rol ed-up mac. And any biscuits or chocolate we can buy, Have you any money left?"

„A bit," said George. „Not much. Enough to buy a few bars of chocolate, I think. Anyway, you"ve got all the biscuits your mother sent last week. We can take some of those."

„Yes. And the barley sugar one of my aunts sent,” said Anne. „But Julian says we"re not to take much because this is to be a proper hike, and we"ll get tired if we have to carry a heavy load. Oh, he said put in two pairs of extra socks."

„Right," said George, and she patted Timmy who was lying close beside her. „There"s going to be a long walky-walk, Tim. Won"t you love that!"

Timmy grunted comfortably. He wondered if there would be any rabbits on the walk. A walk wasn"t really exciting unless there were rabbits al over the place. Timmy thought it was a pity that rabbits were al owed to live down holes. They always disappeared most unfairly just when he had nearly caught one!

Anne and George went to see their house-mistress to tell her that they were not going to Kirrin Cottage after al , but were going walking.

„My brother says he has written to you," said Anne. „So you"l know all about it tomorrow, Miss Peters. And George"s mother wil be writing too. We can go, can"t we?"

„Oh, yes - it wil be a lovely half-term for you!" said Miss Peters. „Especial y if this sunny weather lasts. Where are you going?"

„Over the moors," said Anne. „In the very loneliest, most deserted parts that Julian can find! We might see deer and wild ponies and perhaps even a few badgers. We shall walk and walk."

„But where wil you sleep if the parts you are going to are so very lonely?" asked Miss Peters.

„Oh Julian is arranging all that," said George. „He"s been looking up little inns and farm-houses on the map, and we shall make for those at night. It wil be too cold to sleep out of doors."

„It certainly wil !" said Miss Peters. „Well don"t get into trouble, that"s al I know what you five are when you get together. I imagine Timmy is going with you too?"

„Of course!" said George. „I wouldn"t go if he didn"t go! I couldn"t leave him here alone."

The two girls got their things ready as Friday came near. The biscuits were taken out of the tin and put into paper bags. The barley sugar was put into a bag too, and the bars of chocolate.

Both girls had rucksacks with straps for their shoulders. They packed and repacked them several times. One by one more and more things were added. Anne felt she must take a book to read. George said they must each take a torch with a new battery.

„And what about biscuits for Timmy?" she said. „I simply must take something for him. He"d like a bone too - a big one that he can chew and chew and that I can put back into the bag for another time."

„Well, let me carry al the biscuits and chocolate then if you"re going to put a smelly old bone into your bag," said Anne. „I don"t see why you want to take anything for Timmy - he can always have something to eat when we do - wherever we have a meal."

George decided not to take the bone. She had fetched one from his kennel, and it certainly was big and heavy, and equal y certainly it was smel y. She took it back to the kennel again, Timmy following her rather puzzled. Why keep carrying his bone here and there? He didn"t approve at all.

It seemed a long time til Friday, but at last it came. Both girls woke up very early indeed.

George was out in the kennels before breakfast, brushing and combing Timmy to make him look spruce and tidy for Julian and Dick. He knew it was the day they were to set off and he was as excited as the two girls.

„We"d better eat a good breakfast," said Anne. „We might have to wait some time before our next meal. Let"s slip off immediately after breakfast. It"s lovely to feel free of school and bel s and time-tables-but I shan"t feel real y free til I"m outside the school grounds!"

They ate an enormous breakfast though really they were too excited to want much. Then they got their rucksacks, ready-packed the night before, said goodbye to Miss Peters, and went to fetch Timmy.

He was waiting impatiently for them, and barked madly when they came near. In a trice he was out of his kennel-yard and capering round them, almost tripping them up.

„Good-bye, Anne and George!" yelled one of their friends. „Have a good time on your hike - and it"s no good coming back on Tuesday and telling us you"ve had one of your usual hair-raising adventures, because we just shan"t believe it!"

„Woof," said Timmy, „Woof, woof!" Which meant that he was going to have adventures with hundreds of rabbits, anyway!

Julian and Dick were also on their way, very pleased to have such an unexpectedly long week-end.

„I never liked Wil is or Johnson much," said Dick, as they walked out of the school grounds.

„Awful swotters they were - never had any time for games or fun. But I take my hat off to them today! Because of their swotting they"ve won medals and scholarships and goodness knows what - and we"ve got a week-end off in celebration! Good old Wil is and Johnson!"

„Hear hear," said Dick. „But I bet they"l sit in a corner with their books all the week-end -

they won"t know if it"s a bril iant day like this, or pouring with rain like yesterday! Poor mutts!"

„They"d hate to go off on a hike," said Julian. „It would be utter misery to them. Do you remember how awful Johnson was at rugger? He never knew which goal he was playing against - always ran the wrong way!"

„Yes. But he must have got terrific brains," said Dick. „Why are we talking about Wil is and Johnson? I can think of plenty of more interesting things. Anne and George, for instance -

and old Tim. I hope they"l manage to get off in time all right."

Julian had careful y looked up a large-scale map of the moors that lay between the two schools that he and the girls went to. They were vast stretches of lonely heathery land, dotted with farms here and there, with a few small cottages, and some inns.

„We"ll keep right off the main roads, and the second-and third-grades," he said. „We"ll take the little lanes and paths. I wonder what Timmy wil say if we see deer. He"l wonder what in the world they are!"

„He"l only be interested in rabbits," said Dick. „I hope he"s not as fat as he was last hols. I think we must have given him too many ice-creams and too much chocolate!"

„Well, he won"t get that in term-time!" said Julian. „The girls don"t get as much pocket money as we do. Buck up - there"s the bus!"

They ran for the little country bus that rumbled along the country lanes, taking people to market, or to the tiny vil ages that lay here and there tucked away in the moor. It stopped most obligingly for them, and they leapt in.

„Ha! Running away from school?" said the conductor. „Have to report you, you know!"

„Very funny," said Julian, bored at this joke, which the conductor produced regularly every time a boy got on board with a rucksack over his shoulders.

They had to get out at the next vil age and cut across country to get to another bus-route, They managed to catch a bus there easily and settled down comfortably in their seats. It was half an hour"s run from there to where they had planned to meet the girls.

„Here you are, young sirs," cal ed the conductor, as the bus ran into a vil age. It had a wide green on which geese cackled, and a small pond for ducks. „You wanted Pippin Vil age, didn"t you? We don"t go any farther - we just turn round and go back."

„Thanks," said the boys and got out. „Now - are the girls here or not?" said Julian. „They have to walk from a tiny railway station about two miles away."

They were not there. Julian and Dick went to have a drink of orangeade at the vil age store. They had hardly finished when they saw the two girls looking in at the door.

„Julian! Dick! We guessed you"d be eating or drinking!" said Anne, and she rushed at her brothers. „We came as quickly as we could. The engine broke down - it was such a funny little train! Al the passengers got out and advised the engine-driver what to do!"

„Hal o!" said Julian, and gave Anne a hug. He was very fond of his young sister. 'Hal o, George! My, you"ve grown fat, haven"t you?"

„I have not," said George, indignantly. „And Timmy isn"t fat either, so don"t tell him he is."