Read Online Nanny Piggins and the Pursuit of Justice by R. A. Spratt - Free Book Online Page A

going somewhere interesting like a scorpion farm, or a hot air balloon race, or at the very least, a cake factory. But no, Headmaster Pimplestock had organised it, so they were traipsing around The National Transport Museum. To Nanny Piggins’ way of thinking, museums were boring atthe best of times, but to have an entire museum that only featured different forms of transport was too boring to be true. If she had to look at another train or bus while the curator droned on and on about ‘kilowatts’ and ‘torque’, she was sure she would slip into a coma.
    The worst part was that the museum was supposed to be about transport but there was not a single room devoted to the history of the flying pig! Her own life story would be a thousand times more interesting than Adrian Krinklestein’s, the inventor of the cog, and he had a whole display.
    On top of that, the children were being forced to fill out a ridiculous questionnaire written by Headmaster Pimplestock to prove that they had listened to every word the curator said. Which totally prevented them from ignoring the curator and nipping off to the coffee shop for a few slices of cheesecake with their nanny.
    So Nanny Piggins was standing there, in a room full of antique Victorian water pumps, trying to keep herself awake by thinking up new recipes for chocolate ice-cream (perhaps more chocolate?), when something caught her eye. Through a doorway at the far end of the room she caught a glimpse of something red and shiny. Without thinking, hertrotters were drawn towards it.
    ‘Where are you going?’ whispered Samantha as her nanny began to wander away.
    ‘As far away from that dreadful curator as possible,’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘Then I’m coming too,’ said Michael, dumping his questionnaire in a bin.
    Derrick followed, reasoning he was the oldest so it would be irresponsible to let his little brother get in trouble all alone.
    And Samantha chased after them because, much as she did not want to get in trouble, she did not like being the one left behind to answer the angry and difficult questions.
    So Nanny Piggins and the children left the dreary Victorian water-pump room and entered a huge airy pavilion with a high glass ceiling, so they could see the sunshine and blue sky above. But that was not the best thing about the room. The best thing was that it was chock full of dozens and dozens of aeroplanes. There were modern jets, old propeller planes and funny looking water planes. Some hung from the ceiling, some stood up on pedestals and some were parked on the ground. But the brightest and shiniest of all was the one Nanny Piggins had spotted first. It was a bright red World War I tri-plane with German insignia, so it was much much more exciting than a Victorian water pump.
    ‘What a pretty machine,’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘What is it?’
    ‘It’s a German fighter plane from the first World War,’ explained Derrick. (He had been forced to study World War I only the previous term.)
    ‘That’s a plane?’ exclaimed Nanny Piggins. ‘I don’t believe it. Where does everybody sit?’
    ‘Well, the pilot sits there and the passenger sits there,’ said Derrick, pointing to the two openings in the chassis.
    ‘But where does the stewardess sit? And how does she get the drinks cart up and down?’ asked Nanny Piggins, totally baffled.
    ‘I don’t think they had drinks carts on World War I fighter planes,’ said Samantha.
    ‘No drinks carts!’ exclaimed a horrified Nanny Piggins. ‘Next you’ll be telling me they didn’t serve an in-flight meal!’
    ‘Well . . .’ began Samantha.
    ‘No in-flight meal!’ gasped Nanny Piggins. ‘No wonder they were at war. They must have been so unhappy.’ Nanny Piggins leaned her trotter on the wing of the plane, then immediately recoiled. ‘This isn’t a real plane! It’s a fake!’ cried NannyPiggins.
    ‘It is?’ said Michael, totally delighted. He enjoyed it when his nanny started denouncing people. And