The Lightning Bolt Read Online Free PDF Page A

expect visitors. Come along in. You look like you’ve come a long way.’ She looked them up and down, and said, ‘I expect you’ll want a wash.’
    She led them round to a small stone room on the side of the cottage. Inside was a deep sink with a pump with a most beautiful ornate iron handle. Buckets, basins and watering cans were all lined up in a perfect row on a shelf, while various tools were hung neatly on hooks on the wall. The stone floor was scrubbed white.
    â€˜Your feet are very dirty,’ the girl said disapprovingly, laying the roses down in the sink. ‘Why don’t you sit out there on the bench and I’ll bring you a basin to wash them in.’
    Luka and Emilia were glad to sit on the bench, and even gladder to put their hot, dusty feet into the basins of cold water she brought them. She gave them a long-handled scrubbing brush andsome hunks of brown soap, and obediently they washed their feet and dried them on her linen towels, Zizi slapping the water with her paw and sending it spraying everywhere.
    Rollo lay beside them, panting, and she brought him a bowl of water which he lapped up thirstily. ‘The dog and the monkey had better stay outside,’ she said, looking them over dubiously.
    â€˜Then we’ll have to stay outside too,’ Emilia cried, and glanced furiously at Luka, who for once had not leapt immediately to his monkey’s defence. He was staring at the black-haired girl as if he had never seen a girl before.
    She looked apologetic. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but the monkey is bound to have fleas. And the way your dog wags his tail, he’ll knock everything off the shelves and smash them.’
    Rollo at once wagged his tail furiously.
    â€˜He’ll lie quiet,’ Emilia said. ‘He does whatever I tell him to! And Zizi does not have fleas!’
    She was rather inclined to take a dislike to this neat girl with her perfect plait and shiny shoes. But then Rollo licked the Smith girl’s face, and she laughed. ‘He’s trying to clean me up too!’ she cried. ‘No, stop it! I’m quite clean enough.’
    Emilia decided at that moment to be amused instead of offended.
    Zizi, who always liked to copy whatever her loved ones were doing, dipped her tiny paws into the basin too, then daintily dried them on the towel, before dabbing her wizened brown face. ‘Oh, what a little dear!’ the girl cried. ‘Are you sure she doesn’t have fleas?’
    â€˜Quite sure,’ Luka answered, crossing his fingers behind his back.
    â€˜Then I suppose she may come in, as long as she does not make a mess,’ the girl said. ‘Come on into the scullery and wash up.’
    As soon as they were clean as soap and a scrubbing brush could make them, the girlmopped up all the water they had spilt, rinsed the towels and hung them neatly back over the rail, and put the basins back in the exact same position they had been in before. When the scullery was spick and span, she opened a door and led them into the kitchen.
    This room was as trim and tidy as the scullery. The dark oak furniture gleamed, smelling of beeswax, and the big iron stove and oven had recently been blackened. A fire glowed behind a beautifully wrought iron grille, and a pair of bellows were hung, one on either side of the fireplace, at exactly the same height. Lined up along the mantelpiece was a row of pewter plates, as precise as soldiers on parade. On the top shelf of the dresser were jars of honey, arranged in order of colour from the darkest to the lightest. Each had a square of green and white checked cloth tied over the top to keep out the flies. A cushion of the same material was set very neatlyon the rocking chair by the fire. It looked as though it was never sat upon.
    â€˜You must be hungry,’ the girl said, and pulled out some chairs for them. She took a loaf of bread out of a tin and neatly cut off a few slices. ‘Do you