The Secret Passage!
The children were half sleepy, half excited at breakfast-time. Dimmy couldn’t make them out at all.
“I don’t understand what’s the matter with you all to-day.” she said, as she passed them their cocoa. “First you yawn, then you giggle, then you rub your hands together in glee, then you yawn again. Are you planning any mischief?”
“Oh no, Dimmy,” said everyone together.
“Well, see you don’t,” said Dimmy.
“Dimmy, would you give us a picnic lunch, please?” said Jack. “We’d like to be out till tea.”
“Very well,” said Dimmy. “You shall have some little veal and ham pies that I made yesterday, some ginger cake, and some ripe plums and lemonade. Will that do? Oh, and you can have some hard-boiled eggs, too, if you like.”
“Lovely!” said everybody. Nora got up and hugged Dimmy. “You’re a dear!” she said. “It’s lovely staying with you!”
Dimmy prepared their lunch whilst the children collected electric torches, and also candles and matches in case their torches failed. They talked excitedly. It was lovely to be going to find a secret passage.
Dimmy gave them the lunch done up in two kit-bags. Jack put one on his back and Mike put the other on his. They called good-bye and ran off down the garden path to the cliff. Down the steep rocky steps they went, on to the beach.