The Querulous Effect Read Online Free Page A

greeny-blue like the kitchen wall and just merged into the background. He’s always doing it.”
    With that explanation, Jay remembered that he had read about chameleons in his ‘Treasury of Wildlife’ book at home. So not a mini-dinosaur after all. He felt a bit silly, even though no one else actually knew that was what he had been thinking. He also felt very relieved.
    â€œSorry, my fault,” broke in the professor. “I should have explained. Apart from Chip, the terrier, whom you met with earlier at the gate and is now sitting under the table waiting for some scone to fall, there is Charlie up there, the chickens and goats I mentioned earlier and two cats, Ming and Mong who live in the out-buildings looking for mice. Finally, there is Toby our retired Shire horse, who at present is out in the meadow. Ella can introduce him to you later. I think that’s just about all the members of our team. There should be no more surprises quite like Charlie.”
    â€œWhat about Mr. Stiggles?” said Tim, with a mischievous grin.
    â€œWell, yes, Tim,” said the Prof, “I suppose there’s Mr. Stiggles, if we are going to be complete. Mr. Stiggles is my house-keeper’s husband and he is also our gardener and handyman. In fact, he’s helpful in all sorts of ways.”
    â€œWhen you can find him,” Tim added.
    The professor looked rather sharply at Tim. “Yes, quite. Thank you, Tim. It’s a big garden and Mr. Stiggles has to cover a lot of ground – literally. Anyway we are not concerned with Mr. Stiggles right now. We are concerned to find out if Jay will join the team. So what do you think, Jay, will you join us?”
    â€œYes,” said Jay, whose heart had by now stopped racing, “I will.”

CHAPTER 6
    Looking back later over that eventful summer, Jay came to think, once the adventures were over and done, that those first few weeks at ‘The Cedars’ were possibly the most enjoyable of all.
    The work was quite hard but there was plenty of time also to explore the gardens and have free time in the company of Tim and Ella. After a few days, Jay had settled into a comfortable routine. Each morning the Prof would put outside the back door two large glass flagons, filled with a dark green liquid, which he had prepared overnight and which he called ‘luciferin.’ It was Jay’s job to mix a measure of this liquid with water in a number of watering-cans. The formula for doing this had been given to him the first morning by the Prof as “one part luciferin to nine parts water, that is ten percent green liquid to ninety percent water, if you see what I mean.” Jay did see what he meant and carefully mixed accordingly, helped by the fact that the watering-cans had measurements marked on the side in bold white paint.
    Having filled each can as instructed, Jay’s next job was to water the flower beds one by one in rotation, following the order in a schedule written up by the professor and pinned on the kitchen wall. The good thing was that the cans were not too large or too heavy and Jay could manage them quite easily. The less good thing was that this meant making lots and lots – and lots – of journeys to and fro across the gardens, filling and re-filling the cans through the morning. But the very good thing from Jay’s point of view was that he could work as quickly or slowly as he wished. He also found, much to his relief, that most of the garden was, in practice, looked after by Mr. Stiggles, the gardener and handyman.
    Sometimes, especially if it was a hot day, Jay would rest for a while and just enjoy the garden, watching the bees and other insects moving methodically from flower to flower. His favourite spot for taking a break and day-dreaming was a grass path which ran between two high hedges of clipped cypress. Here he would lie on his back out of the sun and watch the clouds as they emerged high above one hedge