3 Part 03

'Here we go!' the Pelican whispered to me, and with a swish and a swoop he carried me up to the very top of the cherry tree and there he perched. 'Pick them, Billy!' he whispered. 'Pick them quickly and put them in my beak!' The gardener got such a shock he fell off the ladder. Down below us, the Duke was shouting, 'My gun! Get me my gun! Some damnable monster of a bird is stealing my best cherries! Be

off with you, sir! Go away! Those are my cherries, not yours! I'll have you shot for this, sir! Where is my gun?' 'Hurry, Billy!' whispered the Pelican. 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!' 'My gun!' the Duke was shouting to the gardener. 'Get me my gun, you idiot! I'll have that thieving bird for breakfast, you see if I don't.' 'I've picked them all,' I whispered to the Pelican. At once the Pelly flew down and landed right

beside the furious figure of the Duke of Hampshire, who was prancing about and waving his stick in the air! 'Your cherries, Your Grace!' I said as I leaned over the edge of the Pelican's beak and offered a handful to the Duke. The Duke was staggered. He reeled back and his eyes popped nearly out of their sockets. 'Great

Scott!' he gasped. 'Good Lord! What's this? Who are you?' And now the Giraffe, with the Monkey dancing about on her back, emerged suddenly from the bushes. The Duke stared at them. He looked as though he was about to have a fit. 'Who are these creatures?' he bellowed. 'Has the whole world gone completely dotty?' 'We are the window-cleaners!' sang out the Monkey. 'We will polish your glass Till it's shining like brass And it sparkles like sun on the sea! We will work for Your Grace Till we're blue in the face, The Giraffe and the Pelly and me!' 'You asked us to come and see you,' the Giraffe said.

The truth was at last beginning to dawn on the Duke. He put a cherry into his mouth and chewed it slowly. Then he spat out the stone. 'I like the way you picked these cherries for me,' he said. 'Could you also pick my apples in the autumn?'

'We could! We could! Of course we could!' we all shouted. 'And who are you?' the Duke said, pointing his stick at me. 'He is our Business Manager,' the Giraffe said. 'His name is Billy. We go nowhere without him.' 'Very well, very well,' the Duke muttered. 'Come along with me and let's see if you're any good at cleaning windows.' I climbed out of the Pelican's beak and the kindly old Duke took me by the hand as we all walked towards the house. When we got there, the Duke said, 'What happens next?' 'It is all very simple, Your Grace,' the Giraffe replied. 'I am the ladder, the Pelly is the bucket and the Monkey is the cleaner. Watch us go!'