Page 4 of The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

In the blink of an eye

Out it pops! And they cry,

"It's the Pelican's Patented Beak!" '

'Stop showing off down there!' shouted the Monkey from the upstairs window. 'Hurry up and bring that small person up to us! The Giraffe is waiting!'

I climbed into the big orange beak, and with a swoosh of wings the Pelican carried me back to his perch on the window-sill.

The Giraffe looked out of her window at me and said, 'How do you do? What is your name?'

'Billy,' I told her.

'Well, Billy,' she said, 'we need your help and we need it fast. We must have some windows to clean. We've spent every penny we had on buying this house and we've got to earn some more money quickly. The Pelly is starving, the Monkey is famished and I am perishing with hunger. The Pelly needs fish. The Monkey needs nuts and I am even more difficult to feed. I am a Geraneous Giraffe and a Geraneous Giraffe cannot eat anything except the pink and purple flowers of the tinkle-tinkle tree. But those, as I am sure you know, are hard to find and expensive to buy.'

The Pelican cried out, 'Right now I am so hungry I could eat a stale sardine!

'Has anyone seen a stale sardine

Or a bucket of rotten cod?

I'd eat the lot upon the spot,

I'm such a hungry bod!'

Every time the Pelican spoke, the beak I was standing in jiggled madly up and down, and the more excited he got, the more it jiggled.

The Monkey said, 'What Pelly's really crazy about is salmon!'

'Yes, yes!' cried the Pelican. 'Salmon! Oh, glorious salmon! I dream about it all day long but I never get any!'

'And I dream about walnuts!' shouted the Monkey. 'A walnut fresh from the tree is scrumptious-galumptious, so flavory-savory, so sweet to eat that it makes me all wobbly just thinking about it!'

At exactly that moment, a huge white Rolls-Royce pulled up right below us, and a chauffeur in a blue and gold uniform got out. He was carrying an envelope in one gloved hand.

'Good heavens!' I whispered. 'That's the Duke of Hampshire's car!'

'Who's he?' asked the Giraffe.

'He's the richest man in England!' I said.

The chauffeur knocked on the door of The Grubber.

He looked up and saw us. He saw the Giraffe, the Pelly, the Monkey and me all staring down at him from above, but not a muscle moved in his face, not an eyebrow was raised. The chauffeurs of very rich men are never surprised by anything they see. The chauffeur said, 'His Grace the Duke of Hampshire has instructed me to deliver this envelope to The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company.'

'That's us!' cried the Monkey.

The Giraffe said, 'Be so good as to open the envelope and read us the letter.'

The chauffeur unfolded the letter and began to read, ' "Dear Sirs, I saw your notice as I drove by this morning. I have been looking for a decent window-cleaner for the last fifty years but I have not found one yet. My house has six hundred and seventy-seven windows in it (not counting the greenhouse) and all of them are filthy. Kindly come and see me as soon as possible. Yours truly, Hampshire." That,' added the chauffeur in a voice filled with awe and respect, 'was written by His Grace the Duke of Hampshire in his own hand.'

The Giraffe said to the chauffeur, 'Please tell His Grace the Duke that we will be with him as soon as possible.'

The chauffeur touched his cap and got back into the Rolls-Royce.

'Whoopee!' shouted the Monkey.

'Fantastic!' cried the Pelican. 'That must be the best window-cleaning job in the world!'

Source: www.allfreenovel.com