Page 52 of Danny the Champion of the World

'Dad,' I said.

'Yes, my love?'

'When we have our roasted pheasant supper with our new oven, do you think we could invite Doctor Spencer and Mrs Spencer to eat it with us?'

'Great heavens!' my father cried. 'What a wonderful thought! What a beautiful idea! We'll give a dinnerparty in their honour!'

'The only thing is,' I said, 'will there be enough room in the caravan for four people?'

'I think so,' he said. 'Just.'

'But we've only got two chairs.'

'That's no problem, Danny. You and I can sit on boxes.' There was a short silence, then he said, 'But I'll tell you what we must have and that's a tablecloth. We can't serve dinner to the doctor and his wife without a tablecloth.'

'But we don't have a tablecloth, Dad.'

'Don't you worry about it,' my father said. 'We can use a sheet from one of the bunks. That's all a tablecloth is, a sort of sheet.'

'What about knives and forks?' I asked.

'How many do we have?'

'Just two knives', I said, 'and two forks. And those are all a bit dented.'

'We shall buy two more of each,' my father said. 'We shall give our guests the new ones and use the old ones ourselves.'

'Good,' I said. 'Lovely.' I reached out and slid my hand into his. He folded his long fingers round my fist and held it tight, and we walked on towards the village where soon the two of us would be inspecting all the different ovens with great care and talking to Mr Wheeler personally about them.

And after that, we would walk home again and make up some sandwiches for our lunch.

And after that we would set off with the sandwiches in our pockets, striding up over Cobblers Hill and down the other side to the small wood of larch trees with the stream running through it.

And after that?

Perhaps a big rainbow trout.

And after that?

There would be something else after that.

And after that?

Ah yes, and something else again.

Because what I am trying to tell you...

What I have been trying so hard to tell you all along is simply that my father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvellous and exciting father any boy ever had.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com