Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons (Complete Series)

The Swallows and Amazons looked at each other. Did everybody know everything?

“Porridge,” said Roger.

“Aye, porridge,” said Mrs. Dixon. “There’s no room in anybody for a cold if they’re full up with hot porridge, so I always say. Have you any spoons?”

“Lots.”

“I’ll just slop the milk into the bucket and give it a stir round. I put the sugar in up at the farm.”

In another minute the four Swallows and the two Amazons were spooning hot porridge and milk out of the bucket and feeling each mouthful go scalding down their throats.

“This really is eating out of the common dish,” said Titty.

Then came Captain Flint.

“Good for you, Mrs. Dixon,” were his first words. “I ought to have thought of that. Porridge was the very thing. One, two, three, four, five, six. That’s all right. Nobody washed away in the night.”

“Seven,” said Titty. “You’ve forgotten my parrot. He said ‘Pretty Polly’ at the lightning and ‘Pieces of eight’ when it thundered.”

“Seven,” said Captain Flint. “And two of the tents gone, I see. I was afraid they would. It was a wild go while it lasted. It was tough work bucketing into it even now, though the wind’s dropped and the lake’s nothing to what it was. It settles very quickly.”

Then came mother from Holly Howe, rowed by that powerful native, Mr. Jackson. She had brought three big thermos flasks full of boiling cocoa.

“Good morning, Mrs. Dixon,” she said. “That was very kind of you, to think of coming across. I was afraid they’d not be able to get their fire lit.”

“It’s a wonder they have,” said Mrs. Dixon.

“We haven’t been able to boil a kettle yet,” said Susan. “We couldn’t have lit it at all if Nancy hadn’t thought of keeping some sticks dry.”

“And you are the Amazons?” said mother, looking at Nancy and Peggy.

“Yes,” said Nancy, “and this is Captain Flint. His other name is Turner.”

“How do you do?” said mother, and Captain Flint said how sorry he was he had not made friends with the Swallows before. “You don’t know how much I owe to these children,” he said.

“Children!” snorted Nancy Blackett.

“Explorers and pirates,” Captain Flint corrected himself. “If it hadn’t been for them I should have lost all the work I’ve done this summer.”

“I heard something about it last night from Mrs. Jackson,” said mother. “I’m sure I’m very glad they’ve been of some use. Their father seems to think they are not duffers, but sometimes I’m not so sure.”

“Mother!” said John, and mother laughed.

“He’s given me a parrot,” said Able-seaman Titty, and mother had to go and look at it.

“He’s going to give me a monkey,” said Roger.

“What?” said mother.

Captain Flint explained, and mother said that it must be a very little one.

“It shall be, ma’am,” said Captain Flint.

Mother looked at the wrecked tents.

“They’re no good in a wind,” she said. “I remember once in the bush . . . I was in a tent like that and it ripped to ribbons and was blown clean away. . . . Well,” she said, “it’s a good thing you haven’t got to sleep in them to-night, and a pity you didn’t come home yesterday.”

“I can hardly think so, ma’am,” said Captain Flint.

“We wouldn’t have found the treasure if we had,” said Titty.

“The first thing to do is to put on some dry clothes,” said mother. “I’ve brought a dry change for each of you four.”

“Roger never got wet,” said Susan.

“That’s a good thing,” said mother, “but you did, and so did John, and Titty looks like a dishcloth. Run down to the boat and ask Mr. Jackson for that bundle.”

Then came the launch, chug, chugging in to the landing-place, and running its nose gently aground close by the three boats that were already there. The landing-place was so crowded that it was almost as bad as Rio Bay. Captain Flint ran down there to meet the launch, and Mrs. Blackett jumped ashore into her brother’s arms. She was a very little woman, not really much bigger than Nancy, and very like her. In the native talk that followed, her tongue went fastest. Captain Flint and Mrs. Walker just put in a word sometimes.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Mrs. Blackett said to Captain Flint. “Now then, Ruth . . .”

“Nancy, when she’s a pirate, my dear,” said Captain Flint. “Give her her right name.”

“Nancy then, and Peggy, skip into the launch, you harum-scarums, and get into dry things. You’ll find them in the cabin. How do you do, Mrs. Walker? You’ve met my brother, I see. And my wild young ones. And so these are the Swallows who turned out to be so much better than somebody thought they were.”

She too had heard the news, even though she lived at the other side of the lake from Rio.

“Well,” said Mrs. Dixon, “I think I’ll be going now, if you’ve done with that bucket. I’ve the chickens to feed, and Dixon’ll be wanting to get to his sheep.”

Both the mothers and Captain Flint and all the Swallows and Amazons thanked her for bringing such a good breakfast.

“Aye, there’s nothing like porridge,” said Mrs. Dixon. “Well, I suppose I shan’t be seeing any of you in the morning. I shall quite miss it. I’ve come to be in the way of looking for you. But perhaps you’ll be coming again next year.”

“Every year. For ever and ever,” said Titty.

“Aye,” said Mrs. Dixon, “we all think that when we’re young.”

Mr. Dixon, who was waiting down by the boat, had said “Good morning,” when he came, and now he said “Good day to you,” as he rowed Mrs. Dixon away. He was always a very silent native.

The others were not. They talked and talked, all native talk, about the storm and the burglary. Sometimes they asked questions which the Amazons found a little difficult to answer, though Captain Flint helped them out. Even Mr. Jackson, the powerful strong native from Holly Howe, wanted to know exactly how the Swallows had found the box.

At last the native talk began to slacken.

“What about packing up?” said Mrs. Blackett to the Amazons. “You can put everything in the launch, and come in it with me, and we can tow the Amazon.”

“Tow Amazon!” said Nancy in horror. “We’re coming home under sail. We want no salvage.”

“Everything’s so wet here,” said the mother of the Swallows. “You’d better come back with me to Holly Howe.”

“Not now,” begged Titty. “We’re quite dry, and we’ve got a whole tin of pemmican left, and lots of bunloaf, and it’s our last day.”

It would have been very dreadful to be swept home in a flood of natives, even of the nicest sort. Half the pleasure of visiting distant countries is sailing home afterwards. Besides, she had to say good-bye to the island. John, Susan, and Roger also begged to be allowed to stay. Nancy and Peggy flatly refused to go.

“What if it comes on to blow again?” said the Swallows’ mother.

Here Captain Flint spoke.

“It’s not going to do that,” he said. “It was just the first of our autumn thunderstorms. It’s blown itself out now, and I shouldn’t be surprised if there’s a dead calm before evening. It may rain again to-morrow, but I’ll almost guarantee good weather for to-day.”

And so it was agreed. Everything not wanted for the day was to be packed into Mr. Jackson’s boat if it was to go to Holly Howe, and into the launch if it belonged to the Amazons. The launch would tow Mr. Jackson and his boat as far as the Holly Howe Bay, so that the two mothers could be together in the cabin. “We have a lot more to say to each other,” said Mrs. Blackett.

“About coming next year?” said Peggy and Titty together.