The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

'Billy,' said the Giraffe, 'what is the house called and how do we get there?'

'It is called Hampshire House,' I said. 'It's just over the hill. I'll show you the way.'

'We're off!' cried the Monkey. 'We're off to see the Duke!'

The Giraffe stooped low and went out through the tall door. The Monkey jumped off the window-sill on to the Giraffe's back. The Pelican, with me in his beak hanging on for dear life, flew across and perched on the very top of the Giraffe's head. And away we went.

It wasn't long before we came to the gates of Hampshire House, and as the Giraffe moved slowly up the great wide driveway, we all began to feel just a little bit nervous.

'What's he like, this Duke?' the Giraffe asked me.

'I don't know,' I said. 'But he's very very famous and very rich. People say he has twenty-five gardeners just to look after his flower-beds.'

Soon the huge house itself came into view, and what a house it was! It was like a palace! It was bigger than a palace!

'Just look at those windows!' cried the Monkey. 'They'll keep us going for ever!'

Then suddenly we heard a man's voice a short distance away to the right. 'I want those big black ones at the top of the tree!' the man was shouting. 'Get me those great big black ones!'

We peered round the bushes and saw an oldish man with an immense white moustache standing under a tall cherry tree and pointing his walking-stick in the air. There was a ladder against the tree and another man, who was probably a gardener, was up the ladder.

'Get me those great big black juicy ones right at the very top!' the old man was shouting.

'I can't reach them, Your Grace,' the gardener called back. 'The ladder isn't long enough!'

'Damnation!' shouted the Duke. '

I was so looking forward to eating those big ones!'

'Here we go!' the Pelican whispered to me, and with a swish and a swoop he carried me up to the very top of the cherry tree and there he perched. 'Pick them, Billy!' he whispered. 'Pick them quickly and put them in my beak!'

The gardener got such a shock he fell off the ladder. Down below us, the Duke was shouting, 'My gun! Get me my gun! Some damnable monster of a bird is stealing my best cherries! Be off with you, sir! Go away! Those are my cherries, not yours! I'll have you shot for this, sir! Where is my gun?'

'Hurry, Billy!' whispered the Pelican. 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!'

'My gun!' the Duke was shouting to the gardener. 'Get me my gun, you idiot! I'll have that thieving bird for breakfast, you see if I don't.'

'I've picked them all,' I whispered to the Pelican.

At once the Pelly flew down and landed right beside the furious figure of the Duke of Hampshire, who was prancing about and waving his stick in the air!

'Your cherries, Your Grace!' I said as I leaned over the edge of the Pelican's beak and offered a handful to the Duke.

The Duke was staggered. He reeled back and his eyes popped nearly out of their sockets. 'Great Scott!' he gasped. 'Good Lord! What's this? Who are you?'

And now the Giraffe, with the Monkey dancing about on her back, emerged suddenly from the bushes. The Duke stared at them. He looked as though he was about to have a fit.

'Who are these creatures?' he bellowed. 'Has the whole world gone completely dotty?'

'We are the window-cleaners!' sang out the Monkey.

'We will polish your glass

Till it's shining like brass

And it sparkles like sun on the sea!

We will work for Your Grace