Read Online Five on Finniston Farm by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online Page B

Durleston - Mr Durleston - and he"s a great authority on antiques.
    He"s going to give me some advice. You"l remember that you told me you had a quaint old hole in the wall in one of the bedrooms - where in the old days people used to heat embers for warming-pans, and bricks to put in between the bed-sheets. I thought I..."
    „You thought you could buy "em, I suppose!" suddenly shouted old Great-Grand-dad from his place at the head of the table. He thumped on the cloth with the handle of his knife. „Well, you ask my permission first, see? This place is stil mine. I"m an old man, I"m nearly ninety, but I"ve stil got all my wits about me. I don"t like this selling of things that have been in our family for donkeys" years! That I don"t! And..."
    „Now, now, Grand-dad, don"t excite yourself," said Mrs Philpot, in her gentle voice. „Surely it"s better to sel old things that we shal never use, in order to buy a new set of tools, or wood to mend the barns?"
    „Why can t we sell "em to our own folks, then?" shouted Great-Grand-dad, banging with his fork as well. „Taking them out of the country! Part of our history, they are! Sel ing our birthright, that"s what we"re doing - for a mess of pottage! That"s out of the Bible, let me tell you, Mr Henning, in case you don"t know."
    „SHURE I KNOW," said Mr Henning, getting up and shouting back at Great-Grand-dad.
    „I"m not as ignorant as you seem to think. You ought to be glad that a poor, run-down, back-dated country like Britain has got anything to sell to a fine upstanding one like America! You..."
    „That"s enough, Mr Henning," said Mrs Philpot, with such dignity that Mr Henning blushed red, and sat down in a great hurry. „Sorry, mam," he said. „But that old man, he gets under my skin. Sure he does! What"s gotten into him? Al I want is to buy things you want to sell.
    You want new tractors - I want old junk and I"m wil ing to pay for it. That"s all there is to it -
    buying and sel ing!"
    OLD JUNK!" shouted Great-Grand-dad again, banging with his glass now. „Do you call that great old cart-wheel you bought OLD JUNK? Why, that"s more than two hundred years old! My Great-Grand-dad made it - he told me so, when I was a mite of a boy. You won"t find another wheel like it in England. HOO - that wheel was made before the first American was born! I tell you..."
    „Now, now, Grand-dad, you know you"l feel il if you go on like this," said Mrs Philpot, and she got up and went to the old man, who was shaking with fury. „You belong to old times, and you don"t like the new times, and I don"t blame you. But things change, you know.
    Calm yourself, and come with me and have a lie-down."
    Surprisingly, the old fel ow allowed Mrs Philpot to lead him out of the room. The seven children had al sat silent while the shouting had been going on. Mr Philpot, looking worried, broke his habitual silence and addressed a few words to the equally worried-looking Mr Henning.
    „Storm in a tea-cup," he said. „Soon blow over."
    „Hmmmm," said Mr Henning. „Spoilt my dinner! Selfish, ignorant, rude old man."
    „He"s not," said one of the twins, in a voice trembling with anger. „He"s..."
    „Enough, Harry!" said his father, in such a stern voice, that Harry subsided at once, but began to grind his teeth, to show that he was stil angry, making a most remarkable noise at the now silent table. Junior had sat as stil as a mouse al the time, scared of the angry old man. Timmy had given a few smal growls, and Snippet had shot straight out of the kitchen as soon as Great-Grand-dad had begun to shout!
    Mrs Philpot came back, and sat down, looking sad and tired. Julian began to talk to her about Janie and the macaroons, and soon succeeded in making her smile. She even laughed out loud when George told her that they had six macaroons to give Bil for taking them out in the Land-Rover.
    „I know those macaroons," announced Junior. „I buy about thirty a week. They"re just wunnerful!"
    „Thirty! No