I look closer, through my magnifying glass, I can see that there are lots of empty spaces in it.
It looks a bit like a wasps’ nest, says Margot.
They would be very tiny wasps, I say.
I didn’t say it was a wasps’ nest, she says, just that it looks like one.
It does, I say.
It is a very good specimen, she says.
What do you think made it? I ask.
Well, says Margot, fastening up her white scientist coat. I would say that this specimen was made by very small wasps or another kind of very small insect.
I put the tiny nest together with the feather and the wing very gently into my pocket and keep my hand pressed over the opening so they don’t fall out. We will take these specimens to the girl-nest, I say, where they will be safe.
Claude must have already been down to the girl-nest because there is a new bottle of water and a red tin with pictures of biscuits on it. Pink ones and yellow ones and brown. It is hard to open. I have to put my fingers under the corners and try to pull the lid off. It is stiff and stuck and I am getting annoyed, and then all of a sudden the lid flies off and the biscuits tumble out of their places and some land on the green and red blanket and others in my lap.
The girl-nest is clean, says Margot.
I thought so, I say.
We eat some of the escaped biscuits and then put the lid back on, but less pressed-down. I start to empty my pocket. I get out the photo of Maman and the baby. Then I take the butterfly wing and the nest for very small insects and the feather. I hold them all together in my cupped hands. Four kinds of things that are treasure. I decide that I will bring things here to our nest and I will make a collection. Then when it is too hot to go to Windy Hill I can come here and like my collection, and it will make me feel better. I will keep everything in the biscuit tin, next to the pink and yellow and brown biscuits, and then when we have eaten all the biscuits it will just be for treasure, and no one will look in the tin because it has pictures of biscuits on, and not pictures of photos and feathers and wings.
We did good science this morning, says Margot. And I have decided that our challenge has to be sciency as well.
Making Maman happy? How is that sciency?
Science is about solving puzzles, of course. With our brains. We need to do more brain-thinking.
OK, I say. How?
Well, Maman is happy mostly when we don’t make a noise, says Margot, and when we do make her breakfast.
Yes but only if things don’t get broken.
Yes. And we know some things that make her sad.
Yes, I say, like dead flies, Papa’s tractor and everything being a mess.
Right then. We can’t stop flies dying, or move the tractor, but we can do cleaning up.
Margot, I say, you really are an excellent scientist.
I am full of excitement about this idea, so we quickly have one more biscuit each and climb down the ladder.
We bump into Claude and Merlin on the other side of the stream.
Hello, I say, but we are just going home to make Maman happy.
Hello, says Claude. That’s OK, we were just popping down to see if you had found your biscuits.
Yes thank you! And the tin is good too.
Claude smiles. I’m glad.
Merlin winds around me, wagging his tail and lifting his head to be stroked.
Merlin is really lovely, I say.
He really is, says Claude. I love him a lot. And he crouches down to give Merlin a big cuddle. When I see Claude’s arms all wrapped around Merlin, and Merlin happy at being loved, I feel a strange sort of sad.
We really do have to hurry now, says Margot. We have work to do.
Chapter 10
We are working especially hard this afternoon. We are cleaning and tidying. I have taken a cloth from the kitchen and a dustpan and brush. I have swept the doorstep and I have washed the windows in the back door with water from the courtyard tap. Now I am sweeping the courtyard while Margot hoovers the air. We are making it very clean and nice. Once we have finished this part we will do the peachy barn and the tractor, even though I am scared