‘Oh, Gussy – it doesn’t mean we don’t like people when we tease them!’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Do you really mean that your uncle wants us to stay? All of us? I don’t want to stay without Bill and Aunt Allie.’
‘All of you,’ said Gussy, beaming again. ‘Kiki and Snoozy too. But not Pedro and the others because they must go with the circus, they say. Then you will stay with me till we go back to school togezzer?’
‘We’d love to,’ said Jack. ‘I could do with a couple of weeks in a Palace. I’ll take some pictures back to show the boys. They’ll think I’m telling them fairy-tales if I don’t!’
Pedro, Ma, Toni and Bingo said goodbye to the five children that evening. They were still wearing their splendid clothes. ‘We’ve been told we can keep them,’ said Pedro, grinning. ‘I shall fancy myself when I go into the ring to help Toni and Bingo set up their wires now – the Great and Only Pedro the Magnificent.’
He bowed himself almost to the ground. Ma gave him a resounding slap. ‘Ha! You will peel potatoes for your old ma tonight!’ she said, and laughed loudly. Kiki imitated her and made her laugh all the more.
The children were sorry when the circus folk had gone. They had been such good friends. ‘I hope we’ll see them sometime again,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I liked them all.’
‘You will now come to my uncle and tell him you will stay, plizz?’ begged Gussy, who seemed to think they might change their minds. ‘And I have to ask him something. You must help me with it.’
He dragged them off to his uncle’s room. They all bowed politely. ‘Well, Aloysius,’ said the King, looking amused. ‘Have you persuaded your friends to put up with you and stay for the rest of the holidays?’
‘They will stay,’ said Gussy. ‘And, sir, I have something else to beg of you – BEG of you, sir. These boys, they will tell you it is very, very important. You will grant it to me, sir?’
‘I might, as I feel quite pleased with you at the moment,’ said his uncle, smiling. ‘But tell me what it is first.’
‘It is my hair,’ said Gussy. ‘I want it short – snip snip – like Philip’s and Jack’s. I will not look like a girl, I WILL NOT.’
‘You’re not supposed to wear it short, Aloysius,’ said his uncle, ‘but I know how you feel. I felt the same when I was a Prince and went to school in England. Very well – you shall have it cut short!’
Gussy’s face was a study. Nothing in the world could have pleased him more. ‘I go tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I go tomorrow at seven o’clock in the morning. Ha – it will be so short that never will a ribbon sit on it again!’
‘Thank you for asking us to stay, Your Majesty,’ said Jack, speaking for all the others. ‘We shall love it, and it’s nice of Gussy to want us.’
‘Fussy-Gussy!’ cried Kiki, saying quite the wrong thing.
‘Fussy-Gussy! Your Majesty! Majesty, Majesty! Send for the doctor. Blow your nose.’
‘Kiki!’ said Jack, shocked.
Kiki looked at the King. She raised her crest to its fullest height, and gave a little bow. ‘Your Majesty!’ she said. ‘God save the King!’
Enid Blyton, The Circus of Adventure
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