BLYTON, Enid

Five on a Treasure Island

…..
"Anne wanted to take all her fifteen dolls with her last year," said Dick. "Do you remember, Anne? Weren't you funny?"

"No, I wasn't," said Anne, going red. "I love my dolls, and I just simply couldn't choose which to take – so I thought I'd take them all. There's nothing funny about that."

"And do you remember, the year before, Anne wanted to take the rocking-horse," said Dick, with a giggle.

Mother chimed in. "You know, I remember a little boy called Dick who put aside two golliwogs, one teddy bear, three toy dogs, two toy cats and his old monkey to take down to Polseath one year," she said.

Then it was Dick's turn to go red. He changed the subject at once.

"Daddy, are we going by train or by car?" he asked.

"By car," said Daddy. "We can pile everything into the luggage-hole at the back then. Well – what about Tuesday?"

"That would suit me well," said Mother. "Then we could take the children down, come back and do our own packing at leisure, and start off for Scotland on the Friday. Yes – we'll arrange for Tuesday."

So Tuesday it was. The children counted the days eagerly, and Anne marked one off the calendar each night. The week seemed a very long time in going. But at last Tuesday did come. Dick and Julian, who shared a room, woke up at about the same moment, and stared out of the nearby window.

"It's a lovely day, hurrah!" cried Julian, leaping out of bed. "I don't know why, but it always seems very important that it should be sunny on the first day of a holiday. Let's wake Anne."

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