Chapter Six

A FUNNY LITTLE CREATURE

The boys were tired, but not too tired to examine the little hut thoroughly - though it really was more like a one-roomed house. It faced across the deep valley, and the sun shone straight into it. Julian opened cupboard after cupboard, exclaiming in delight.
“Bedding! Towels! Crockery - and cutlery! And look at these tins of food - and bottles of orangeade and the rest! My word, people who come to stay at Magga Glen in the summer must have a fine time!”
“We could light the stove to heat the room,” suggested Dick, pulling the oil-stove into the middle of the room.
“No. We don’t need to,” said Julian. “The sun is pouring in, and it really isn’t cold in here. We could wrap ourselves round in the rugs from that cupboard if we want to.”
“Do you think we’d be allowed to come up here, instead of living down at the farm?” said Dick, opening a tin of ham with a tin-opener that hung on a nail by the cupboard. “It’s so much nicer to be quite on our own and independent! George would simply love it!”
“Well, we can ask,” said Julian, taking the cap off a bottle of orangeade. “Can we find some biscuits to eat with this ham? Oh yes - here are some cream-cracker biscuits. I say - I’m really ravenous!”
“So am I,” said Dick, his mouth full. “Pity George was such an ass - she and Anne could have enjoyed this too.”
“Well - perhaps on the whole it’s as well they didn’t come,” said Julian. “I think Anne would have been too tired to come all this way on her first day - and George certainly had a worse cold and cough than anyone. A day at the farm will probably do her good. Gosh - she’s absolutely fearless, isn’t she? I’ll never forget her standing up to those three savage dogs! I was jolly scared myself.”
“I’m going to get a rug and wrap it round me and sit out on the doorstep in the sun,” said Dick. “That view is too marvellous for words!”
He and Julian took a rug each, and then sat out on the wooden door-step, munching their ham and biscuits. They stared across at the great hill opposite.
“Is that a house on the slope over there - near the top, look,” said Dick, suddenly.
Julian stared across at the opposite hill, but could make out nothing.
“It can’t be,” he said. “The roof would be covered with snow, and we’d never see it. Besides, who would build a house so high up?”
“Plenty of people,” said Dick. “It’s not everyone who likes towns and shops and cinemas and traffic and the rest. I can imagine an artist building a house on one of these mountains, just for the view! He’d be quite happy looking at it and painting it all day long.”
“Well - I like a bit of company, I must say,” said Julian, “This is all right for a week or two - but you’d need to be an artist or a poet - or a shepherd or something, to stand it all the time!”
He yawned. Both boys had finished their meal, and felt comfortably full and at peace. Dick yawned too, and lay back on his rug. But Julian pulled him upright.
“Oh no! We’re not going to take naps up here! We’d sleep like logs again, and wake up in the dark. The sun’s going down already, and we’ve got all that long walk back to the farm - and no torch to light our way if we go wrong!”
“There are those black stones,” said Dick, with another yawn. “All right, all right - I agree with you! I certainly don’t want to stumble down this mountain in the pitch dark!”
Julian suddenly clutched Dick’s arm, and pointed upwards, where the path still wound on and on. Dick turned - and stared. Someone was up there, skipping down the path towards them, with a lamb gambolling around, and a small dog scampering after.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” said Julian, in wonder. “My word - it must be cold, whichever it is!”
It was a small girl coming along, a wild-looking little creature with a mass of untidy black curls, a face as brown as an oak-apple - and very few clothes! She wore a dirty pair of boy’s shorts, and a blue blouse - or it might have been a shirt. Her legs were bare, and she had old shoes on her feet. She was singing as she came, in a high sweet voice like a bird’s.
The dog with her began to bark, and she stopped her song at once. She spoke to the dog, and he barked again, facing towards the hut. The lamb gambolled round without stopping.
The little girl looked towards the hut, and saw Julian and Dick. She turned at once and ran back the way she had come. Julian got up and shouted to her.
“It’s all right! We shan’t hurt you! Look - here’s a bit of meat for your dog!”
The girl stopped and looked round, poised ready to run again at once. Julian waved the bit of ham left over from their meal. The little dog smelt it on the wind, and came running up eagerly. He snapped at it, got it into his mouth and ran back to the girl. Hc didn’t attempt to eat it, but just stood there by her, looking up.
She bent down eagerly, and took it. She tore it in half and gave one piece to the eager dog, who swallowed it at once - and the other piece she ate herself, keeping a sharp eye on the two boys as she did so. The lamb came nosing round her, and she put one thin arm round its neck.
“What a queer little thing,” said Julian to Dick. “Where can she have come from? She must be absolutely frozen!”
Dick called to the child.
“Hallo! Come and talk to us!”
She shot off at once as soon as he shouted. But she didn’t go very far. She half hid behind a bush, peeping out now and again.
“Get some of those biscuits,” said Julian to Dick. “We’ll hold some out to her. She’s like a wild thing.”
So Dick held out a handful of biscuits, and called: “Biscuits! For you! And your dog!”
But only the lamb came gambolling up, a toy-like creature, with a tail that frisked and whisked all the time. It tried to get on to Dick’s knee, and bumped its little black nose against his face.
“Fany, Fany!” called the small girl, in a high, clear voice. The lamb tried to get away but Dick held on to it. It seemed to be all legs!
“Come and get it!” shouted Dick. “We shan’t hurt you!”
The little girl couldn’t bear to leave her lamb. She came out from the bush, and took a few hesitating steps towards the boys. The dog ran right up to them, snuffling at their hands for more ham. Julian gave him a biscuit and he crunched it up at once, giving sidelong glances at his watching mistress as if to apologise for eating it all himself! Julian patted the little thing and it licked him joyfully.
The little girl came nearer. Her legs looked blue with cold, but although she had so little on, she didn’t seem to be shivering. Julian held out another biscuit. The dog jumped up and took it neatly in his mouth, running up to the little girl with it. The boys burst into laughter, and the small girl smiled suddenly, her whole face lighting up.
“Come here!” called Julian. “Come and get your pretty lamb. We’ve got some more biscuits for you and your dog.”
At last the child came near to them, as watchful as a hare, ready to run at a moment’s notice. The boys sat still and patient, and soon the girl was near enough to snatch a biscuit and retreat again. She sat down on one of the black stones marking the path, and munched her biscuit, staring at them all the time out of her big dark eyes.
“What’s your name?” asked Dick, not moving from his place, afraid that the child would leap off like a frightened goat.
The girl didn’t seem to understand. Dick repeated his question, speaking slowly.
“What - is - your - name? What - are - you - called?”
The child nodded her head and then pointed to herself.
“Me - Aily,” she said.
She pointed at the dog.
“Dave,” she said, and he leapt up at his name and covered her with licks. Then she pointed to the lamb, which was now gambolling round the boys like a mad thing. “Fany,” she said.
“Ah - Aily - Dave - Fany,” said Julian, solemnly, and he too pointed at first one then the other. Then he pointed to himself. “Julian!” he said, and then pointed to Dick. “Dick!”
The little girl gave a high, clear laugh, and suddenly poured out quite a long speech. The boys couldn’t understand a word of it.
“She’s speaking in Welsh, I suppose,” said Dick, disappointed. “What a pity - it sounds lovely, but I can’t make head or tail of it.”
The child saw that they had not understood. She frowned, as if thinking hard.
“My Dadda - he up high - sheep!” she said.
“Oh - your father’s a shepherd up there!” said Dick. “But you don’t live with him, do you?”
Aily considered this, then shook her head.
“Down!” she said, pointing. “Aily down!” Then she turned to the dog and the lamb, and cuddled them both. “Dave mine,” she said, proudly. “Fany mine!”
“Nice dog. Nice lamb,” said Julian, solemnly, and the little girl nodded in delight. Then, for no reason that the boys could see, she stood up, leapt down the hill, followed by the lamb and the dog, and disappeared.
“What a funny little creature!” said Dick. “Like a pixie of the hills, or an elf of the woods. I quite expected her to disappear in smoke, or something. I should think she runs completely wild, wouldn’t you? We’ll ask Mrs. Jones about her when we get back!”
“My goodness - come on, the sun’s getting quite low,” said Julian, getting up in a hurry. “We’ve got to put the things away, and fold up the rugs, and lock up. Buck up - once the sun goes it will be dark almost at once, and we’ve quite a long way to go.”
It didn’t take them long to tidy up and lock the little house carefully. Then down the path they went at top speed. The sun had melted most of the snow farther down, and the going was easy. The boys felt exhilarated by their day on the mountainside and sang as they went, until they were quite out of breath.
“There’s the farmhouse,” said Dick, and both boys were glad to see it. Their legs were tired now, and they longed for a good meal and a rest in a warm room.
“I hope George has recovered a bit by now - and is still at the farm!” said Julian, with a laugh. “You never know with old George! I hope she’ll like the sound of that hut. We’ll ask Mrs. Jones about it tonight, when we’ve talked it over with Anne and George.”
“Here we are,” said Dick, thankfully, as they went up to the house. “Anne! George! We’re back - where are you?”