Grimble at Christmas by Quentin Blake Read Free Book Online Page B

better pay for it. That is
the only way you can do things in a shop."
    Grimble was much too excited to explain, so he
paid the lady 6p which was the price of that loaf of
bread and went to school.
    He didn't learn much at school that day because
he was working out his toast business. The loaf of
bread was in his locker; it was a cut loaf called
thin sliced which seemed a silly name to give a
loaf and it contained eighteen pieces of bread
wrapped in greaseproof paper. (If the business
really succeeds he thought, I might go into the
greaseproof-paper business.)
    Every morning nearly everyone eats toast and,
as toast is quite boring to make, Grimble decided
that if he made toast at seven every morning and
brought it to people all hot and ready they would
definitely pay 21/2p for three slices, which meant
six times three slices in a loaf which is 15p back
for 6p.
    When he came home from school he sat down at
his desk and got a large piece of paper and cut it in
half and then cut each half into half again and then
halved the four pieces of paper so that he had eight
small pieces and on each one he wrote the message
the grimble home toast delivery service. proprietor
grimble founded 1974. On the other side
he wrote: Toast delivered, daily, tidily, un-burnedly,
punctually. 21/2p for three slices. Our representative
will call tomorrow morning with a free slice and
awaits the pleasure of your order.
    He took the eight pieces of paper and put four
of them through the letter boxes of the four houses
up the hill from his house and posted the other
four through the doors on the downhill side. As he
was going back home he decided that as he did not
know a great deal about toast he had better go and
see Madame Beryl, who was a fat kind friend of his
mother's who kept a bakery shop and knew a lot
about things like that.
    "Good afternoon," said Grimble, entering the
shop. "I would like to have a small discussion with
you about bread." "I prefer," said Madame Beryl,
"to talk about cake." "I meant to say toast," said
Grimble. "I still meant cake," said Madame Beryl.
She eased her right foot out of her shoe, which
came away with a small sigh of relief, and said, "I
would very much like to talk to you about bread and toast but unfortunately I have to go and see a
man about a wedding breakfast. Can it wait until
after Christmas?"
    "I am afraid," said Grimble, "that after
Christmas will be exactly too late." There was a
small silence. "I have done a very silly thing," said
Madame Beryl. "I baked a cake which had not
been ordered and now I don't know what to do
with it and the dustbin is full. Do you think you
would be very kind and take possession of it?" "Oh,
yes, thank you," said Grimble, "if it is really in your
way." And Madame Beryl put her foot back into
her protesting shoe, got a quite large cake, gave it
to Grimble, said, "Oh dear, I must fly," and started
moving into the street like a cabin trunk. "About
toast," said Grimble following her. "Not toast,"
puffed Madame Beryl. "Never toast cake. Ice it
with icing sugar and egg white," and she waddled
onto a bus.
    Grimble found himself alone with a cake and
then he thought, actually a cake with icing is a very
Christmassy thing to have and tomorrow I shall
start up my business and in nine days' time it will
be Christmas Eve and even if my parents have
forgotten, it's going to be an absolutely complete
proper well-organized Christmas.

2. Home Toast
Delivery
    The next morning Grimble woke early. He had
not slept very well owing to his business problems.
His assets, with Christmas Eve eight days
away, were one iced cake hidden in a cupboard, 13p
in a money box, the Irish 5p piece and a wrapped
loaf of which he had reckoned to give away eight
slices in the cause of advertising.
    The old Grimbles had a toaster with two slots in
it and the idea was that you put in two slices of
bread . . . and after a minute and a bit they would
pop up, done to a turn.
    What really happened was that after the