The Talking Parcel

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Here is the book that I promised you, and I hope you will enjoy it.

It is no good your asking me the next time we meet whether it is all true, because I have been sworn to secrecy. But I can give you some hints.

For example, I can tell you that Parrot's cousin in India was a very real bird and not only traveled in Rolls Royces but had an International Passport as well. If at some time in the future you are in Greece, you will find Madame Hortense sitting on a siding exactly as I have described, and you will be able to take a diesel train up the valley to the very entrance of Mythologia. Finally, if you look in a book called The History of Four-footed Beasts by Edward Topsell, you will find that weasels were, in fact, the cure for Cockatrices.

As all these are true, how could you possibly disbelieve the rest?

Your loving Godfather,

Gerry

The Talking Parcel

When Simon and Peter landed at Athens to stay with their cousin Penelope, and the doors of the plane were opened, the heat hit them like a warm wave from an oven, and the brilliant sunshine made them screw up their eyes. After the generally soggy and gray weather they were used to in England, it was simply splendid, and the boys stretched and blinked with half-closed eyes, like cats in front of a fire, listening entranced to the crackle and pop of the Greek language being spoken all round them.

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