'If we can't get that parcel back soon he will not be able to sit in his room. Soon he'll begin to wonder what's going on in his room.'
'Let's better think out a plan how we can get the parcel back,' said Darbishire.
'Let's.' Jennings thought and then said, 'We'll have a football game on Wednesday. Old Wilkie will be the referee. At the end of the game I'll hurry to his room, and you'll ask Old Wilkie some questions about the game and keep him on the field. All right?'
'All right,' said Darbishire, he liked the plan.
Then they began to print the Form three Times. For a while they put the rubber letters in the printing block. After three quarters of an hour passed they were already tired. They began to understand that to print a short letter was one thing, and to print a big wall newspaper was another.
'We shall never finish it,' said Jennings. We must print twelve pages for the newspaper. After three quarters of an hour we are only on the second line of page one. It'll take us...' he thought, 'ninety-six weeks to print twelve pages.'
'I don't want to say anything bad about your Aunt Angela's present, but if we had had a typewriter...'
'We don't know how to type and we haven't a typewrite.'
'No, but Mr Carter has,' said Jennings quickly.
'I don't think Mr Carter will let us borrow his typewriter.'
'I don't think so either. But I think he may type the newspaper for us.'
Mr Carter was correcting mistakes in his pupils' exercise-books when he heard a knock at his door.
'Come in!' he called.
Jennings and Darbishire came into Mr Carter's room.
'Well, boys, what can I do for you?' asked Mr Carter.
'Well, sir, Darbishire and me would like you to do us a favour, sir,' Jennings began.
'No, Darbishire and I would like you to do us a favour, Jennings,' he corrected.
Jennings looked at Mr Carter in surprise.
'Did you, sir? Darbishire never told me,' said Jennings.
'I mean, Jennings, that you must say 'Darbishire and I', not 'Darbishire and me'.'
'Yes, sir. Well, will you do Darbishire and I a favour, please, sir?'
'This time, Jennings, it's correct to say 'Darbishire and me'.'
'All right, sir. Darbishire and I or me are writing a wall newspaper and we wondered if you could lend us your typewriter to type the newspaper.'
'I don't think I can lend you me typewriter. It's not a toy, you know.'
'I know, sir. It's not a toy, sir,' said Jennings. 'We think so, too. Excuse me, sir.'
But the boys were not going to leave the room. They stood and hoped. Mr Carter understood what that hope meant.
'Of course,' he said, 'I may type it for you. But let me see what you are going to write in your newspaper.'
Jennings gave Mr Carter the exercise book. Mr Carter read it slowly, then said, 'Very well. I'll type it for you. Is this all?'
'No, sir. We want to organize one or two competitions,' answered Darbishire, 'but we haven't decided yet what they are going to be.'
'Why not have a handwriting competition,' said Mr Carter.
'Very good, sir,' said Darbishire. 'That will be one competition. And for the second competition we can have... what?'
Mr Carter spoke again.
'Why not ask your readers to write a poem or something like that.'
'Wonderful!' said Jennings. 'And we can give the winners big cakes.'
'But we haven't any big cakes,' said Darbishire.
'I know, but if I ask my Aunt Angela to send me two big cakes for the competition she will certainly do it.'
Chapter Eight
The Form Three Times
The following morning Jennings and Darbishire hung the first issue of the Form Three Times on the notice- board. There were a lot of boys near it and they liked the newspaper. There was only one boy who did not like it. It was Temple. He did not like it because there wasn't a story about his football boot. He had already found his boot, but he was ready to hide it again because he wanted to read his story in the newspaper.
There was another boy who could not say anything good about the newspaper. He could not say anything bad about it either. He did not see the newspaper. It was Bromwich.
Jennings saw him in the tuck-box room. Bromwich was making a toy bus for his little brother.
'Have you seen my newspaper,' Jennings began.
'No, I haven't,' answered Bromwich. 'All the time you lose your things and think that every boy must know where they are.'
'No, I haven't lost it! I mean have you seen it up in the wall?'
Bromwich looked at Jennings in surprise.
'How could it get up there?' he asked.
Jennings explained, and Bromwich decided to go and see the newspaper.
When they came to the common room a lot of boys were still standing near the wall newspaper. They were talking about the two competitions and the two big cakes.
'I could do with one of these big cakes,' said Temple.
'I think I'll try to write a poem,' said Atkinson. He turned to Venables who was standing near him. 'You can take part in the other competition - you have a beautiful handwriting.'
'I don't know,' said Venables. 'I haven't decided yet which competition I shall take part in.' He came up to the notice-board and began to read the rules: 'Those who want to take part in the competitions must send their poems or twenty lines of their best handwriting by Friday. Do not write on one side of the paper...' here Venables stopped. 'I say, Darbishire, came here. I don't understand this rule. If we can't write on one side of the paper, what can we do?
Darbishire came up. He was the author of the rules. 'You can write on the other side, can't you?' he asked.
'How shall we know which the other side is?'
'It doesn't matter. I mean that it will be better if you only write on one side at a time, or..'
'You want to say we mustn't write on more that two sides of the paper?' asked Atkinson.
'No, you mustn't write on more that one side of the paper,' said Darbishire.
Venables turned to the rules. 'Take your poems or twenty lines of your best handwriting to the tuck-box room, and do not forget to write 'Competition' in the top left-hand corner.'
'I can't reach the top left-hand corner of the tuck-box room if I don't stand on the table,' said Atkinson.
'It doesn't mean that! You don't want to understand,' said Darbishire and left the common room.
When Jennings woke up next morning the first think he thought about was food. Jennings liked to eat and he often thought about food when he woke up. But this time he didn't think about the food that he wanted to eat. He thought about the two big cakes and the parcel of fish.
He knew that Darbishire could help him to get the parcel back. But how could he get two big cakes? His Aunt Angela was a very kind woman, but she very often forgot things. He decided to write to her at once.
He began the letter during the first break and finished it during Mr Hind's history lesson.
