Free Lillipilly Hill by Eleanor Spence Page B

cats up in the hill behind O’Brien’s place.’
    â€˜Harriet wouldn’t be allowed,’ said Rose-Ann.
    â€˜What’s a platypus?’ asked Harriet.
    â€˜It has feet like a duck, and fur, and it swims in the creek. And I know where the bunyip lives, too. A bunyip,’ he went on, addressing the wide-eyed Rose-Ann, ‘is huge and black, and it howls like this—’
    He threw back his head and emitted a cry so blood-curdling that Rose-Ann turned quite pale.
    â€˜There are no such things as bunyips,’ said Harriet triumphantly. ‘Polly says so.’
    â€˜No one’s ever seen one,’ admitted Charles. ‘All the same, Bill Mackenzie’s absolutely sure that one lives in the cave on Maloney’s Hill—he’s heard it.’
    â€˜Bill Mackenzie would say anything,’ said Aidan scornfully.
    â€˜Don’t you like him, then?’ asked Charles curiously. ‘He’s awfully slow, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
    â€˜I don’t like any of them,’ muttered Aidan.
    Puzzled, Charles stood up.
    â€˜Come on, I’ll show you my pet bandicoot. His name’s Sniffy.’
    Sniffy proved to be a rather disappointing creature, being sound asleep in a dark corner underneath the house, and most unwilling to be disturbed. All that was visible was a mound of greyish fur and the tip of a long snout. But Rose-Ann was content to linger and gaze at him, and even plucked up courage to pat his unresponsive back.
    Aidan disappeared into the house, and Charles and Harriet were left alone in the quiet garden.
    â€˜What’s your brother so bad-tempered about?’ inquired Charles. ‘He doesn’t seem to like anything.’
    Harriet explained about Paddy Tolly and his friends, adding in conclusion: ‘So you see, all the others are waiting to see what Aidan will do. Only I think he’ll just do nothing. He hates fighting.’
    â€˜I’d punch Paddy myself, if it would help,’ said Charles cheerfully. ‘But that wouldn’t make any difference. Aidan will have to do it. He’s nearly as big as Paddy, and Paddy’s a coward, anyway. There wouldn’t be much fighting, really.’
    Harriet stared thoughtfully at the lace gables and at a row of magpies spaced at exactly equal intervals along the ridge-pole.
    â€˜Something will have to be done soon,’ she declared. ‘If Aidan tells Father that he absolutely hates this school, then Father might decide we ought to go back to London after all. We’re to give it a six months’ trial, you see, and it matters much more about Aidan than about Rose-Ann and me.’
    Charles sincerely wanted to help. He liked Harriet, and although he privately considered Aidan more than a little foolish, he still hoped that the other boy might prove to be a good companion. Charles loved company, and friends of his own age were scarce in Barley Creek.
    â€˜I think you ought to stay,’ he said. ‘I can’t see why anyone would want to go back to London after this. I don’t remember much about it myself, but I’msure it was awfully dull. If I arranged things so that Aidan just had to fight Paddy, would that help? I’m certain he’d beat Paddy easily, and then all the others would think a lot of Aidan, and he’d soon get to like the school.’
    â€˜It sounds quite a good idea,’ said Harriet gratefully. ‘Do you think you can do it?’
    â€˜Just leave it to me,’ said Charles confidently, and Harriet went in to tea feeling that she had found a staunch ally.
    Next morning, as she dressed for church, Harriet began to have a few misgivings.
    â€˜Rose-Ann,’ she said to her sister, who was lacing her boots with an air of intense concentration, ‘has Aidan ever fought anyone before?’
    â€˜Before when?’ asked Rose-Ann in surprise.
    â€˜Oh, no time in particular,’ said Harriet hastily. ‘I