“Then Skarloey began to laugh. ‘I’m the stick-in-the-mud after all,’ he gurgled helplessly, ‘not you!’ I laughed too, I couldn’t help it, he looked so funny. We were laughing when the cleaners came; we were still laughing when they left. ‘Poor engines!’ they said, tapping their foreheads; but we weren’t mad. We’d learned sense, and we’ve been firm friends ever since.’ ”

















