Joy in the Morning by P. G. Wodehouse Read Free Book Online Page B

will plead with Uncle Percy?’
    ‘Like billy-o.’
    You won’t weaken?’
    ‘Not a chance.’
    ‘Of course, it’s just possible that you may not have to. You see, I thought that if Boko and Uncle Percy could really get together, Uncle Percy might learn to love him. So, though it wasn’t easy, I arranged that Boko should give him lunch to-day. I do hope everything has gone all right. A lot depends on how Boko behaved. I mean, up till now, whenever they have met, he has always been so stiffin his manner. I begged him with tears in my eyes to let himself go and be bright and genial, and he promised he would try. So I’m hoping for the best.’
    ‘Me, too,’ I said, and – if I remember correctly – patted her little hand. I then drove to the Hall and decanted her at its gates, assuring her that, even if Boko had failed to fascinate at the midday meal, I would see to it that everything came out all right. With a final cheery wave of the hand, I backed the car and headed for the lane of which she had spoken.
    All this talking had, of course, left me with a well defined thirst, and it seemed to me, despite a householder’s natural desire to take possession as soon as possible, that my first move had better be to stop off at Boko’s and touch him for the needful. I assumed that the whitewashed cottage standing on the river bank must be the Bokeries, for Nobby had indicated that I had to pass it on my way to Wee Nooke.
    I hove to alongside, accordingly, and noting that one of the windows at the side was open I approached it and whistled.
    A hoarse shout from within and a small china ornament whizzing past my head informed me that my old friend was at home.

CHAPTER 7
    T he passing of the china ornament, which had come within an ace of copping me on the napper, drew from my lips a sharp ‘Oi!’ and as if in answer to the cry Boko now appeared at the window. His hair was disordered and his face flushed, presumably with literary composition. In appearance, as I have indicated, this man of letters is a cross between a comedy juggler and a parrot that has been dragged through a hedge backwards, and you never catch him at his nattiest in the workshop. I took it that I had interrupted him at a difficult point in a chapter.
    He had been glaring at me through horn-rimmed spectacles, but now, as he perceived who it was that stood without, the flame faded behind the lenses, to be replaced by a look of astonishment.
    ‘Good Lord, Bertie! Is that you?’
    I assured him that such was the case, and he apologized for having bunged china ornaments at me.
    ‘Why did you imitate the note of the lesser screech owl?’ he said, rebukingly. ‘I thought you were young Edwin. He comes sneaking round here, trying to do me acts of kindness, and that is always how he announces his presence. I am never without a certain amount of ammunition handy on the desk. Where on earth did you spring from?’
    ‘The metropolis. I’ve just arrived.’
    ‘Well, you might have had the sense to send a wire. I’d have killed the fatted calf.’
    I saw that he was under a misapprehension.
    ‘I haven’t come to stay with you. I’m hanging out at a cottage which they tell me is a little farther down the road.’
    ‘Wee Nooke?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Have you taken Wee Nooke?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘What made you suddenly decide to do that?’
    I had foreseen that some explanation of my presence might be required, and was ready with my story. My lips being sealed, of course, on the real reason which had brought me to Steeple Bumpleigh, it was necessary to dissemble.
    ‘Jeeves thought he would like to do a bit of fishing. And,’ I added, making the thing more plausible, ‘they tell me a fancy dress dance is breaking out in these parts to-morrow night. Well, you know me when I hear rumours of these entertainments. The war horse and the bugle. And now,’ I said, licking the lips, ‘how about a cooling drink? The journey has left me a little