“This is just too good to be true!” said Nora, dancing round in joy. She bumped into a porter wheeling a barrow. “Oh — Sorry, I didn’t see you. I say, Mike, we’d better get our luggage. Can you see a porter with an empty barrow?”
All the porters had been engaged, so the five children had to wait. They didn’t mind. They didn’t mind anything! It was so marvellous to be going off to Paul’s country the next day.
“We thought we were going to the seaside with Daddy and Mummy,” said Nora.
“So we were,” said Jack. “But when Paul’s father cabled yesterday, saying he was sending the aeroplane to fetch Paul, he said we were all to come too, if we were allowed to.”
“And you know how Daddy and Mummy like us to travel and see all we can!” said Mike. “They were just as pleased about it as we were — though they were sorry not to have us for the holidays, of course.”
“We are not to take many clothes,” said Jack. “Paul says we can dress up in Baronian things — they are much more exciting than ours! I shall feel I’m wearing fancy dress all the time!”
The girls sighed with delight. They imagined themselves dressed in pretty, swinging skirts and bright bodices — lovely! They would be real Baronians.
“Look here, we really must get a porter and stop talking,” said Nora. “The platform is almost empty. Hi, porter!”
A porter came up, wheeling an empty barrow. He lifted the girls’ two trunks on to it and wheeled them down to the barrier. He got a taxi for the children and they all crowded into it. They were to go to their parents’ flat for the night.
It was a very happy family party that sat down to a big tea at the flat. Captain and Mrs. Arnold smiled round at the five excited faces. To come home for holidays was thrilling enough — but to come home and be told they were all off to Baronia the next day was almost too exciting for words!