Five Go Off to Camp by Enid Blyton Page B

George, who didn't look very much as if she wanted to, all the same.
    'Are you going to the yard again?' asked Jock, eagerly. 'I'm not scared. Not a bit. It would be an adventure to go and watch for a spook-train.'
    'We might go,' said Julian. 'We'll take you with us, if we do. But the girls aren't to come.'
    'Well, I like that!' said George angrily. 'As if you could leave me behind! When have I been scared of anything? I'm as brave as any of you.'
    'Yes. I know. You can come as soon as we find out it's al a sil y story,' said Julian.
    'I shal come whenever you go,' flashed back George. 'Don't you dare to leave me out.
    I'l never speak to you again if you do.'
    Jock looked most surprised at this sudden flare-up of temper from George. He didn't know how fierce she could be!
    'I don't see why George shouldn't come,' he said. 'I bet she'd be every bit as good as a boy. I thought she was one when I first saw her.'
    George gave him one of her sweetest smiles. He couldn't have said anything she liked better! But Julian would not change his mind.
    'I mean what I say. The girls won't come if we do go, so that's that. For one thing, Anne certainly
    wouldn't want to come, and if George came without her she'd be left al alone up at the camp. She wouldn't like that.'
    'She could have Mr Luffy's company,' said George, looking sulky again.
    'Idiot! As if we'd want to tell Mr'Luffy we were going off exploring deserted railway yards watched over by a mad, one-legged fel ow who swears there are spook-trains!' said Julian. 'He'd stop us going. You know what grown-ups are like. Or he'd come with us, which would be worse.'
    'Yes. He'd see moths all the time, not spook-trains,' said Dick, with a grin.
    'I'd better go back now,' said Jock. 'It's been a grand day. I'll come up tomorrow and picnic with you. Good-bye.'
    They called good-bye to Jock, and went on their way to the camp. It was quite nice to see it again, waiting for them, the two tents flapping a little in the breeze. Anne pushed her way through the tent-flap, anxious to see that everything was untouched.
    Inside the tent it was very hot. Anne decided to put the food they had brought under the bottom of the big gorse bush. It would be cooler there. She was soon busy about her little jobs. The boys went down to see if Mr Luffy was back, but he wasn't.
    'Anne! We're going to bathe in the stream!' they called. 'We feel hot and dirty. Are you coming? George is coming too.'
    'No, I won't come,' Anne cal ed back. 'I've got lots of things to do.'
    The boys grinned at one another. Anne did so enjoy 'playing house'. So they left her to it, and went to the stream, from which yel s and howls and shrieks soon came. The water was colder than they expected, and
    nobody liked to lie down in it - but everyone was well and truly splashed, and the icy-cold drops falling on their hot bodies made them squeal and yell. Timmy didn't in the least mind the iciness of the water. He rol ed over and over in it, enjoying himself.
    'Look at him, showing off!' said Dick. 'Aha, Timmy, if I could bathe in a fur coat like you, I wouldn't mind the cold water either.'
    'Woof,' said Timmy, and climbed up the shal ow bank. He shook himself violently and thousands of icy-cold silvery drops flew from him and landed on the three shivering children. They yelled and chased him away.
    It was a pleasant, lazy evening. Mr Luffy didn't appear at al . Anne got a light meal of bread and cream cheese and a piece of gingerbread. Nobody felt like facing another big meal that day. They lay in the heather and talked comfortably.
    'This is the kind of holiday I like,' said Dick.
    'So do I,' said Anne. 'Except for the spook-trains. That's spoilt it a bit for me.'
    'Don't be sil y, Anne,' said George. 'If they are not real it's just a sil y story, and if they are real, well, it might be an adventure.'
    There was a little silence. 'Are we going down to the yard again?' asked Dick lazily.
    'Yes, I think so,' said Julian. 'I'm not going to be