Bunter the Caravanner - Friardale

'Ha, ha, ha!'
'Oh, really, Bull—'
'I fancy we can manage without a man-servant, if the trip goes
on,' said Harry Wharton, laughing. 'But does it go on to the end
of the hols? As it turns out, this van wasn't Bunter's at all.
Jervis must have paid the hire on it. His game must have been to
skulk about as a caravanner, and then, when he fell in with
Bunter and found what a nitwit he was, he thought up the idea of
having a party of schoolboys with him as a smoke-screen. But it
was his van, not Bunter's - and not ours.'
'True, O King,' assented Bob.
'That's all right,' said Bunter. 'Nothing to worry about in
that. We've got the van, and all we need do is to go on paying
the hire. I'll pay it.'
'Good!' grinned Bob. 'Leave that to Bunter.'
'You can leave it to me, of course, as I asked you fellows on
this trip,' said Bunter. 'Some of you would have to lend me the
money, that's all.'
'A mere trifling detail!' remarked Nugent.
'Ha, ha, ha!'
'Well, I don't see chucking the trip, because Bunter's lost his
man-servant,' said Bob. 'Let's keep it up for the hols. The old
folks at home will see us through with the van, if we put it to
them, and we can manage for the rest. That is, of course, if
Bunter could possibly manage to carry on without a man-servant,
after what he's been accustomed to at Bunter Court.'
'Ha, ha, ha!'
'Blessed if I see anything to cackle at,' grunted Billy Bunter.
'I shall miss Jervis a lot - I'm accustomed to being waited on
hand and foot, as you fellows know. Still, I can rough it. You
fellows will have to play up, of course. You can't slack about
now Jervis is gone. You can take it in turns looking after the
horse, and cooking, and peeling potatoes, and washing up, and
all that. There's not such a lot to do, if you get down to it.
Now what about dinner? I'm jolly hungry, I can tell you.'
'O.K.!' said Bob. 'Bunter's settled it all.'
'Ha, ha, ha!'
'Oh, do stop cackling,' hooted Bunter. 'I tell you I want my
dinner. Who's peeling those spuds?'
'You are!' said Johnny Bull.
'If you think I'm going to peel spuds, Bull—'
'I think I'm going to kick you if you don't.'
'Hear, hear!'
'Pile in, old fat man,' chuckled Bob. 'We're going to carry on
without a man-servant somehow - and that means every man doing
his whack. Your whack is peeling spuds and washing up.'
'Washing up!' gasped Bunter.
'Just that! Now get going with those spuds, while I set up the
stove.'
'Shan't!' roared Bunter.
Thud!