Everybody got in everybody else's way. But
finally the unwieldy packing-case was in position, and a silence fell
upon the company.
'My gum, we've put it upside down,' said Daddy, red in the face with
his exertions. It was the merest chance that there was no wisp of
straw yet in his beard.
'Then the clothes will all be inside out,' cried Monkey, 'and we shall
have to stand on our heads.'
'You silly,' Jane Anne rebuked her, yet half believing it was true,
while Jimbo, holding hammer and chisel ready, looked unutterable
contempt. 'Can't you be serious for a moment?' said his staring blue
eyes.
The giant chest was laboriously turned over, the two men straining
every muscle in the attempt. Then, after a moment's close inspection
again to make quite sure, Daddy spoke gravely. Goodness, how calm he
was!
'Jimbo, boy, pass me the hammer and the chisel, will you?'
In breathless silence the lid was slowly forced open and the
splintered pieces gingerly removed. Sheets of dirty brown paper and
bundles of odorous sacking came into view.
'Perhaps that's all there is,' suggested Jinny.
'Ugh! What a whiff!' said Monkey.
'Fold them up carefully and put them in a corner,' ordered Mother.
Jane Anne religiously obeyed. Oh dear, how slow she was about it!
Then everybody came up very close, heads bent over, hands began to
stretch and poke.
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