FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER by Enid Blyton

08 ALL TOGETHER AGAIN

It was wonderful to be all together again. Julian took hold of Anne's arm and squeezed it. "All right, Anne?" he said, rather worried at her pale face.

Anne nodded. She felt better at once, now she had Julian, George and Timmy, as well as Dick. "I'm only just terribly hungry," she said.

"I'll ask for breakfast straight away," said Julian. "All news later!"

The woman who had leaned out of the window shaking a duster the evening before, came up to them. "I expect it's a bit late for you," said Julian. "But we haven't had any breakfast. What have you got?"

"Porridge and cream," said the woman. "And our own cured bacon and our own eggs. Our own honey and the bread I bake myself. Will that do? And coffee with cream?"

"I could hug you," said Julian, beaming at her. The others felt the same. They went into a small, cosy dining-room and sat down to wait. Soon a smell of frying bacon and hot strong coffee would come into the room - what joy!

"Your news first," said Dick, patting Timmy. "Did you get to Spiggy House? Was Mr. Gaston there?"

"No, he wasn't," said Julian. "He was out somewhere. He had a very nice wife who made us wait for him, and said he wouldn't mind in the least looking at Timmy when he came back. So we waited and waited,..."

"We waited till half past seven!" said George, "and we felt rather awkward because we thought it might be getting near their meal-time. And then at last Mr. Gaston came."

"He was awfully kind," said Julian. "He looked at Timmy's leg, and then he did something, I don't know what - put it back into place, I suppose - and Timmy gave a yell and George flung herself on him, and Mr. Gaston roared with laughter at George..."

"Well, he was very rough with Timmy's leg," said George "But he knew what he was doing, of course, and now Timmy is perfectly all right, except for that bruise on his back, and even that is getting better. He can run as well as ever."

"I'm glad," said Anne. "I kept thinking of poor old Tim all last night." She patted him, and he licked her lavishly and wetly.

"What did you do then?" asked Dick.

"Well, Mrs. Gaston insisted on us staying to supper," said Julian. "She simply wouldn't take no for an answer, and I must say that by that time we were jolly hungry. So we stayed - and we had a jolly good meal too. So did Timmy! You should have seen his tummy afterwards - as round as a barrel. Good thing it's gone down today or I was thinking of changing his name to Tummy." They all laughed, George especially.

"Idiot," she said. "Well, we didn't leave till about nine o'clock. We didn't worry about you because we felt sure you would be safely at Blue Pond Farm-house and would guess we'd had to wait about with Timmy. And when we got there and found you hadn't arrived - well, we were in a state!"

"And then we thought you must have found somewhere else for the night," said Julian, "but we thought if we heard nothing we'd go down to the police first thing this morning and report your disappearance!"

"So down we came - without any breakfast either!" said George. "That shows how worried we were! Blue Pond Farm-house was nice. They gave us a bed each in two tiny little rooms, and Timmy slept with me, of course "

A wonderful smell came creeping into the little dining-room, followed by the inn-woman carrying a large tray. On it was a steaming tureen of porridge, a bowl of golden syrup, a jug of very thick cream, and a dish of bacon and eggs, all piled high on crisp brown toast. Little mushrooms were on the same dish.

"It's like magic!" said Anne, staring "Just the very things I longed for!"

"Toast, marmalade and butter to come, and the coffee and hot milk," said the woman, busily setting everything out. "And if you want any more bacon and eggs, just ring the bell."