The Morton twins looked up at the sound of her voice, smiled politely and simultaneously, and then continued in earnest conversation. The black Scottie dog sitting below them wagged his tail as Peter called him a second time, and then sat down with his ears well forward and his head on one side. He looked as if he would have liked to welcome Peter in person, but a word from Mary seated above him kept him still.

Peter rode up to them and David said, "Get down and open the gate for Peter! Buck up!"

"Look who's here, Dickie!" Mary said with an innocent smile.

"It must be Peter," her twin replied. "How did she get here, I wonder?... We were just talking about her, weren't we, twin? Oh, look, Mary... David's been to meet her. He'd better open the gate, hadn't you, David?"

"We wondered why you had your breakfast early and hurried off," Mary broke in. "Acksherly we didn't mind because we had two extra sausages, but we do think you should tell us where you are going when you run off like that..." But as David strode towards them they jumped down and fled from his wrath with Macbeth at their heels.

Peter slipped from the saddle as David opened the gate for her, looped Sally's reins over the hook in the gate-post and walked over to greet Mr and Mrs Morton, who were sitting in the porch.

Mrs Morton smiled at them both. "What are you going to do to-day? You're staying to lunch, anyway, aren't you, Peter?"

"We thought of going down to Ingles and seeing if Tom could get the day off," David said. "It seems too good a day to stay at home, doesn't it? We're rather hoping something will turn up, Father."

Mr Morton nodded towards the gate.

"Here comes your adventure," he smiled, "for here's the postman. Every unopened letter is a mystery and may be an adventure, too... Let's see what he's got for us this morning...' Morning, George - how are you?"

"Nicely, thank you," the old man replied as he leaned his bicycle against the open gate and walked across to him. "Not many for you this morning, though there's one from London... and there's one for old Agnes, too... Good morning, all," and he ambled back to his cycle and pedalled away without knowing that he had brought two letters which were to change the Christmas holidays for all the members of the Lone Pine Club.

"Agnes, here's a letter for you," Mrs Morton called, as their beloved housekeeper came to the door.

"For me?" She took the letter gingerly. "But it can't be for me! There'll be someone having a joke with me and sending me a letter. Maybe it's those two young limbs? They did it once before on Valentine's Day, I remember!"