The Haystack by Jack Lasenby Page B

garden, the pigs, and Horse, and keeping an eye on you.”
    “Does he keep an eye on me?”
    “All last summer, when school was closed because of the epidemic, and I had to go to work, he kept an eye on you. So did Mr Bryce, and a whole lot of others around Waharoa.”
    “I didn’t see them.”
    “They don’t go around staring at you.” Dad walked around the kitchen, turning his head and staring till I giggled. “But, if anything went wrong, you know you can go to them for a hand. And they’d let me know at once.”
    I thought about that. “What about Mrs Dainty? Would she give me a hand and let you know?”
    “Mrs Dainty’s too worried about herself to be of much help.”
    “Is she as old as Mr Bluenose?”
    “It’s as if she is. Now, what about this story? Jump into bed, or sit in front of the stove?”
    “Sit in front of the stove, so I can put my feet in the oven.”
    “Then pop on your pyjamas, and you and Milly can sit in the wicker chair.” He looked for the place.
    “I know where we were. Bagheera was talking, and he said ‘…and now we must go to the Cold Lairs’, and there was that bit about the tanks holding a little water.”

Chapter Eighteen
The Dance of the Hunger of Kaa, How You Go to the Lavatory in Hospital, and Why Freddy Jones Tiptoed Down the Other Side of the Road.
    “W HAT A MEMORY YOU’VE GOT .” Dad found the place in the Jungle Book.
    “‘“It is half a night’s journey—at full speed,” said Bagheera, and Baloo looked very serious. “I will go as fast as I can,” he said, anxiously’”
    “Baloo’s so fat, he can’t run fast,” I explained to Milly.
    Bagheera and Kaa left Baloo behind. And when they came to a stream, Bagheera left Kaa behind.
    Inside the Lost City, Mowgli was sore, sleepy, and hungry, but the monkeys were too busy chattering to give him anything to eat.
    “‘“We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true!”’”
    Outside, Bagheera and Kaa waited for a cloud to cover the moon.
    “‘“Good hunting!” said Kaa, grimly…’”
    “Good hunting,” I whispered to Milly, and shivered. “Don’t stop, Dad. Milly wants to hear the rest.”
    “It’s pretty scary.”
    “I’ll put my hands over Milly’s eyes.”
    Dad nodded.
    “As long as the goodies win,” I told him.
    “The goodies always win.” Dad laughed and read on. “‘The cloud hid the moon, and as Mowgli wondered what would come next he heard Bagheera’s light feet on the terrace.’”
    The fighting began, and the Bandar-log shoved Mowgli into the summer-house, but it was full of cobras. Mowgli gave the Snake’s Call: “We be of one blood, ye and I!” so they didn’t bite him.
    “We be of one blood, ye and I,” I whispered into Milly’s ear, which flicked. I blew, and it flicked again. Twice.
    Kaa saved both Bagheera and Baloo, let Mowgli out of the summer-house, and then told them, “Go and sleep, for the moon sets, and what follows it is not well that thou shouldst see.”
    “Milly wants to see,” I told Dad. And he read: “The Dance of the Hunger of Kaa.” I was so busy covering Milly’s eyes and putting my fingers in her ears at what Kaa did to the Bandar-log, I saw and heard it all myself.
    When Baloo and Bagheera took one stiff step forward with the monkeys towards Kaa, and Mowgli laid hishands on their shoulders to wake them, I felt dizzy and laid my own hands on Milly. “I’m stopping you from walking down Kaa’s throat,” I told her. Then she was purring at the last bit about Bagheera giving Mowgli a hiding for playing with the Bandar-log, and carrying him home on his back.
    “‘Now,’ said a strange voice, ‘jump up on my back, Little Brother, and we will go home.’” And Milly and I were carried to bed on the back of the Black Panther.
    “I think we could let Milly have a look outside the back door,” Dad said in the morning.
    “What if she runs