'We'll come back after breakfast,' said Jennings.
But after breakfast it was too late. When the boys came back to the hall they saw no letters on the floor: the floor was clean.
'Somebody has cleaned the floor with a vacuum cleaner,' said Jennings.
For a moment they stood and looked at the clean floor. Then Jennings turned and went to the common room. Darbishire went after him.
'How am I going to write my letters now?' Jennings said.
'You can write something which doesn't have e's'
'Don't be funny,' said Jennings.
'During breakfast I decided to print a Form Three wall newspaper. We can print all the news about Form Three in it and hang it on the wall.'
'That will be wonderful.'
'Yes, but we can't print any news which has an e in it. Well, I can ask Aunt Angela to send me some e's.'
After tea that evening Jennings sat down at the table in the common room to answer his birthday letters. He wanted to try his printing outfit on his letters before he could begin to print a wall newspaper. He put x's in place of e's and soon the letter was ready. When Darbishire went into the common room Jennings showed him the letter.
'I say,' Jennings said. 'All that I must do now is...'
'Yes, but I have something to tell you,' Darbishire began
'Never mind! Look at this!'
'I was only going to say...
Jennings put the letter under Darbishire's nose.
'Not bad, is it?' he asked. 'Of course we must get these e's before we begin to print our well newspaper.'
Darbishire began to read the letter.
'Dxar Aunt Angxla! Thank you for your birthday prxsxnt. I likxd all thx birthday prxsxnts which I had. Fathxr sxnt mx a cavxra and...'
Darbishire stopped and said: 'Well, I know what you bean, of course, but...'
'You mean these x's. but I've written P.S. on Aunt Angela's letter. She will understand it.'
Darbishire read: 'P.S. Plxasx, sxnd mx somx of lxttxrs which comx bxtwxxn d and f.'
When Darbishire finished reading the letter he put his hand into his pocket and took out some rubber letters.
'These are the e's that I lost this morning,' he said and he put them on the table.
'What?'
'Yes, I've taken them out of the dust bag of the vacuum cleaner. Now you can write your letters using all the letters, can't you?'
'I can, but now that we have all the letters we must begin a Form Three wall newspaper.'
Chapter Three
Jennings and Darbishire go to the Harbour
All the pupils of Form Three liked the hobbies' hour because during the hobbies' hour they could do what they liked and how they liked.
During the hobbies' hour after tea on the next Monday Jennings and Darbishire sat at a table with some paper and pencils in front of them. They sat between Atkinson who was making a toy for his sister's birthday and Venables who was making a great noise.
'Now, Darbi, let's give our wall newspaper a name,' Jennings began. 'Let's call it the Form Three Times'
'That's a good name,' said Darbishire.
Then they decided to print the first issue of the Form Three Times next week.
When the other boys heard the news about the wall newspaper they came up to Jennings and Darbishire.
'If you want some news you can come to me for it, Jennings,' said Temple. 'I'm not pulling your leg. There was a disappearance.'
'Who has disappeared - Mr Wilkins?' asked Darbishire.
'No, my left football boot has disappeared. And if you want to know how a burglar could do it I can tell you. He left his car in the school yard when we were all in the classroom and... '
'Why did he take only one boot?' asked Jennings.
'Maybe he has only one leg.'
'If he has only one leg how can he play football?'
Temple could not answer that question.
'Well,' Jennings turned to Darbishire, 'if we want to make our newspaper interesting we must take some photos and put them in the newspaper.'
'Yes,' said Darbishire, 'I can take a photo of you when you are sitting down and you can take a photo of me when I'm...'
'No,' said Jennings. 'Who will want to see you when you are sitting down. We must take some interesting photos. We can go to the harbour and take a photo of a ship, for example.'
'All right,' said Darbishire, 'let's ask permission to go to the harbour next Sunday.'
When Sunday came it was raining. But after breakfast the sun came out and Jennings and Darbishire went to Mr Carter, the teacher on duty. They asked permission to go to the harbour. When Mr Carter gave them permission the boys took the camera and hurried to the harbour.
Soon they came to the harbour. It was a small harbour and there was only one fishing boat there that afternoon. The name of the boat was 'Sainte Marie'.
'It's French,' said Darbishire when he saw the name of the boat.
Five Frenchmen sat on deck mending their nets. The boys stood looking at them for a long time. At last Darbishire said: 'Why are we standing and looking at them? Let's go and ask permission to take a photo of them. My father says you must strike while the iron is hot.'
'All right, let's go,' said Jennings. And they went to the fishing boat.
'Excuse me,' said Jennings when they came up to the boat.
There was no answer from the boat. Five pairs of hands were working quickly.
'Excuse me,' repeated Jennings loudly.
The hands stopped working and the five fishermen turned their heads towards the boys.
'My friend and I want to ask permission to come on deck and take some photos of you for our newspaper,' said Jennings.
No answer. The fishermen looked at the boys with surprise.
'What I mean is there will be a wonderful picture of you mending your nets.'
'Comment?' said one of the fishermen.
'What did he say?' asked Darbishire.
'I don't know. Something like 'come on'.'
'No,' he said, 'comment' means, 'how many', or 'what' or something else in French.'
'I will tell him that I want to take only one photo,' Jennings said to Darbishire. And he said loudly, 'I want only one photo.'
But the fishermen did not understand Jennings.
'Comment?' another fisherman asked.
'It can't mean 'how many'. I've told him that I wanted to take only one photo and now he has asked again. Maybe he means 'come on'. Let's go,' Jennings said to Darbishire.
Soon the boys were on deck. The fishermen smiled at their visitors, but did not say a word because they did not speak English.
