it would be fun to explore a new place—and there would be riding and perhaps boating. Things might be worse!
“Time to go,” said Miss Pepper. “We’re having dinner on the train. I hope you’ll enjoy that. We shall be at Rockingdown by tea-time. Well, come along—and cheer up, Diana dear—I expect you’ll enjoy the holidays just as you usually do!”
CHAPTER II
ROCKINGDOWN COTTAGE
Rockingdown Village was a tiny little place with a butcher’s shop, a baker’s and a general store, and plenty of farms and cottages around. The church tower showed above the trees, and the church bell could be heard quite clearly in the cottage where the children were to stay for the holidays.
This proved to be a very exciting little place. “It’s more than a cottage,” said Diana approvingly. “It’s a jolly nice old house, with lots of rooms.”
“It used to belong to a big mansion about half a mile off—this cottage is actually in the grounds of the mansion,” said Miss Pepper. “It was what is called the Dower House.”
“What’s that?” asked Diana.
“It was a house set aside for the mistress of the big mansion when her husband died and her son and his wife came to take over the mansion,” said Miss Pepper. “She was then called the dowager mother, and came to live here, in this house, with her own servants. I expect the grand-children loved to come and visit her.”
“It’s very old, isn’t it?” said Diana, looking at the oak panelling of the dining-room in which they were having tea. “And I like the wide staircase—and the tiny little back staircase that winds up from the kitchen. We could have wizard games of hide-and-seek here.”
“I like my bedroom,” said Roger. “It’s got a ceiling that slants almost to the floor, and I’ve had to break away strands of ivy across one of the windows, Miss Pepper—it was so overgrown!”
“And I like the way the floors go up and down,” said Diana. “And the funny little steps down to this dining-room and up to the kitchen.”
They were just what Miss Pepper didn’t like. She was rather short-sighted, and in this old house she seemed to stumble everywhere. Still, no doubt she would get used to it!
“This tea is wizard,” said Roger approvingly. “Did you make the scones, Miss Pepper?”
“Dear me, no—I’m afraid I’m no cook,” said Miss Pepper. “Mrs. Round made them. She’s a village woman who comes in each day to do the cleaning and cooking.”
“Is she like her name?” said Diana at once. Miss Pepper considered.
“Well, yes,” she said. “She is rather plumpish—and her face certainly is very round. Yes—Mrs. Round seems a very good name for her.”
The children explored the house after they had had tea—and a very good tea it was, with home-made jam, home-produced honey, scones, and a big fruit cake.
“This is the kind of fruit cake I like,” said Diana, taking a third slice. “You don’t have to look and see if you’ve got any fruit in your slice—there’s plenty all over the cake.”
“You’re a pig, Di,” said Roger.
“People are always pigs at your age,” said Miss Pepper. “Some are worse pigs than others, of course.”
“Am I a worse pig?” demanded Diana.
“Sometimes,” said Miss Pepper, her eyes twinkling behind their glasses. Roger roared at Diana’s indignant face.
“Miss Pepper, Di can eat a whole tin of Nestle’s milk by herself,” he began, and got a kick under the table.
“So could I, once,” said Miss Pepper, surprisingly. The children stared at her. It was quite impossible to imagine the thin, prim Miss Pepper as ever having been greedy enough to devour a whole tin of Nestle’s milk by herself.
“Go on, now, finish your tea,” said Miss Pepper. “I want to do your unpacking.”
They explored, whilst Miss Pepper unpacked their school trunks, exclaiming over the dirty clothes, and looking with horror at the rents and tears in most of Diana’s things. Anyone would think that the girl spent all her time climbing thorny trees, judging by the state of her clothes. Miss Pepper thought of having to unpack Snubby’s trunk the next day, and shuddered. Really, children nowadays were quite impossible!
“Is the old mansion empty?” asked Roger that evening. “We saw it from a distance. There was no smoke coming from the chimneys. It looked a dead place.”
“Yes. I believe it is,” said Miss Pepper. “Roger, where are all the socks you took back to school with you? It says you took back eight on this list, but I can only find one pair, very holey and dirty.”
“I’ve got one pair on,” said Roger helpfully. “That makes two.”
“Miss Pepper, can we go and look over the mansion if it’s empty?” asked Diana.
“No, I shouldn’t think so for a moment,” said Miss Pepper. “Diana, it says on your list that you took four blouses back to... ”
Diana fled. It was dreadful the way grown-ups always put you through a cross-examination about clothes as soon as you got back from school. She and Roger rushed upstairs—and then tiptoed down the little back-stair and out into the garden.
Miss Pepper followed them upstairs in a moment or two, with another list of questions—but they had mysteriously disappeared. She looked round Diana’s room and groaned. How could any girl make a perfectly neat room into such a terrible mess one hour after she had taken possession of it? It didn’t seem possible.
Roger was pleased that night when the two of them went up to bed. “It’s going to be a wizard place for birds, this,” he told Diana. “And there are badgers here too—in these very grounds. That old fellow we met told me. One of these nights I’m going to get up and watch for them.”
“Well, don’t badger me to come with you!” said Diana, and shrieked as Roger aimed a punch at her for her pun.
“You sound like Snubby,” he said. “He’s always making silly puns and jokes. For goodness’ sake leave it to him!”
Their bedrooms were side by side under the slanting roof. Snubby’s bedroom was across the landing, a tiny one looking to the back of the house, across the grounds. Miss Pepper slept on the first floor. Tucked away in another corner of the first floor were two other rooms.
“We’ll have to meet Snubby to-morrow,” said Roger, calling from his bedroom as he undressed. “And Loony.”
“Yes. We’ll walk over to the station,” said Diana, flinging all her clothes on the floor one by one, although she knew perfectly well she would have to get out of bed and pick them up as soon as Miss Pepper arrived to say good night. “It’s only about two miles. I could do with a good long walk. We can bus back if Snubby’s got a lot of things.”
The next day was brilliantly fine. Snubby’s train was due in at half-past twelve.
“We’ll go and meet him,” said Roger to Miss Pepper. “You needn’t come unless you want to, Miss Pepper. I expect there are lots of things you want to do.”
They set off at twelve o’clock to walk to the station. They decided that the shortest way would be to go through the grounds of the old mansion. They were horrified to see how overgrown everywhere was. Even the paths were almost lost in the nettles and brambles that spread all round. Only one broad drive seemed to be at all well-kept, and that was now beginning to show signs of being covered with weeds.
“Funny,” said Diana. “You’d think that whoever owned this place would want to keep it up decently, so that he could sell it at a good price, even if he didn’t have any intention