'No, I don't remember anything from my school years which you could put in your wall newspaper, thank you very much,' said Mr Wilkins.
'I see, sir,' said Jennings. 'Well, sir, maybe we will write something about you if we know what your initials stand for, sir.'
'My name, little boy, is L. P. Wilkins,' said Mr Wilkins angrily. 'And what L. P. stands for is not your business.'
'No, sir, of course not. I'm sorry, sir,' said Jennings.
Then he decided to ask Mr Carter some question. Mr Carter did not make a secret of his first name. Jennings knew that Mr Carter's first name was Michael. He decided to ask Mr Carter how old he was. He knew that it was a difficult thing because grown-ups often gave very strange answers, like a hundred and six last birthday.
'Do you remember the first car, sir?' Jennings asked Mr Carter.
Mr Carter thought for a moment, then smiled and said, 'I see, Jennings. You want to know how old I am. Mr Wilkins told me that Form Three couldn't work out easy problems. So try to work this out. Five years ago I was twice as old as you will be in four years, and in ten years I shall be five times older than you were two years ago.'
'Oh, sir, this is worse than the problem about the man who walked at x miles an hour, sir,' said Jennings.
'Don't you have anything better to do than ask us a lot of silly questions?' said Mr Wilkins.
'I'm sorry, sir,' said Jennings and left the staff room.
'It's very difficult to make Mr Wilkins happy,' thought Jennings when he heard the bell for the next lesson. When he came into the classroom Darbishire asked him, 'Do you know anything about them now?'
'Nothing,' answered Jennings. 'I can only I say that Mr Carter is a man whose age is a problem for clever schoolboys '
'And what about Old Wilkie?'
'He's worse. He doesn't want to talk about his school years.'
They sat down at their desks and opened their exercise-books for the Headmaster's Latin lesson. When they were waiting for Mr Pemberton Jennings wrote the list of the famous and not so famous:
J. Caesar
Ch. Dickens
Mr M. Carter
Mr L. P. Wilkins
The late A. Grimshaw.
Chapter Twenty
Venables treats Jennings and Darbishire
It was after dinner on Friday. Jennings and Darbishire were sitting in the common room when Venables ran in.
'You're the people I'm looking for,' he began. 'I've decided to do you a favour because you were very decent to me last week.'
The very decent boys were surprised. 'Were we, really?' asked Jennings.
'Oh, yes!' answered Venables. 'I haven't forgotten how you gave me my Latin book as a prize last week.'
''Oh, forget it,' said Darbishire.
'All right, all right! I've received a ten-shilling note from my uncle, and in his letter he asks me not to spend it on selfish pleasure. So I ask myself what can be better than to invite two friends to Home-made Cakes and Bicycles Repaired to have some a doughnuts and lemonade on Saturday afternoon.'
'Oh, thank you very much, Venables,' said Darbishire happily,
'Wait a minute,' said Jennings. 'We'll all have Old Wilkie's detention lesson at a quarter past four tomorrow.'
'Oh, I've forgotten about it,' exclaimed Venables.
'But we can go next week, can't' we?' said Darbishire.
'A week is a long time,' said Jennings. 'Let's go tomorrow. We'll have a lot of time if we go after the football match is over at half past three. It'll take us ten minutes to go each way, and we'll have twenty minutes for doughnuts and lemonade. That will be enough, won't it?'
'All right, then; we'll do that,' said Venables. 'But we must be very quick.'
On Saturday morning the weather was cold and it was raining. But by the time the first football team was playing the match the sun was already shining brightly.
The game ended at half past three, and three minutes later Jennings, Darbishire and Venables were hurrying along the village street to where a notice in a small house window t said: Home-made Cakes and Bicycles Repaired.
'Here we are,' said Venables and opened the garden gate.
There was nobody in the garden, and the boys went into a small sitting-room of the house. There were usually not many visitors there and when they came they sat down at the little table on very old and shaky chairs.
'Sit down, boys,' Venables invited his friends, and the three boys sat down at the table. 'I have ten shillings, so you can ask for anything you like - except a home-made bicycle.'
Mrs Lumly, the owner of -the shop, came out of the kitchen to see her first visitors of the day.
'Yes?' she asked.
'A plate of home-made cakes and doughnuts and three bottles of lemonade, please,' said Venables after a short conversation with Jennings and Darbishire.
Mrs Lumly slowly went out.
'I hope she will do it quickly; it's a quarter to four already.'
Mrs Lumly had not hurried for the last forty years and did not want to do so now. She went slowly around the kitchen, washed some glasses, and saw if the cat's supper was ready. At last she came back to the sitting-room and put a plate with cakes and doughnuts and bottles on the table.
'Thank you very much,' said the visitors and began their feast. The doughnuts and cakes were really wonderful.
'It will not cost more than ten shillings, will it?' asked Darbishire, with his mouth full of doughnuts.
'Oh, no! That'll be three shillings,' said Mrs Lumly. 'But don't pay now, boys. Enjoy it, and I'll be in the kitchen if you want more doughnuts and cakes.' And she left the sitting-room.
For three minutes the boys did not speak - their mouths were too full of doughnuts and cakes to say a word. Then Jennings said, 'Aren't these cakes and doughnuts wonderful!
I haven't eaten anything like them since I was young-well, I mean younger than I am now.'
'Yes,' said Darbishire, 'it's very nice of you, Venables...' he suddenly stopped. 'I say, Ven, what's the matter? Are you all right?'
'What's that? Oh, yes, I'm all right, thank you', said Venables. But the expression his face showed that he was not.
Jennings looked up from his plate, too.
'What's the matter, Venables? Are you all right?' he asked.
'I'm all right, thank you. I just suddenly thought...'
'Don't worry about the detention class,' said Jennings. 'If we leave the place in five minutes we shall have enough time to go back to school.'
'It's not the detention class,' answered Venables. 'It was when you asked Mrs Lumly how much it all cost. I suddenly thought 'Gosh!''
'Well?' Jennings said. 'What happened after you thought 'Gosh!'?'
'Well, after I thought 'Gosh!', I thought again and then I thought 'Gosh!' I thought - I changed my jacket after dinner because Matron wanted to mend it.'
