The children were drinking tea with Mr. Perks in the porter's room at the station.
They had brought their own cups and some biscuits.
Perks made tea in a beer can as usual, and everyone was happy and talkative.
"When is your birthday, Mr. Perks?" Bobbie asked him.
"My birthday?" asked Perks.
"I gave up birthdays before you were born!"
"But you must have been born at some time," said Phyllis thoughtfully.
"Even if it was twenty years ago—or sixty or seventy!"
"Not that long ago, missy!" Perks grinned as he answered.
"Actually, I'll be 32 on the fifteenth of this month."
Later the children talked.
Perks was the best friend they had made.
So they decided to do something special for his birthday.
The next day at breakfast Mother smiled as she gave the children porridge and milk.
"I've sold another story," she said, "so there'll be buns for tea."
Phyllis, Bobbie, and Peter looked at each other.
They were thinking the same thing.
"Mother, can we have buns on the fifteenth instead?" Bobbie asked.
"It's Perks' birthday, and we thought we'd have a small party."
"Yes, you can," Mother replied.
"We'll put his name on the buns with icing!"
The children looked excited.
Later Bobbie said, "I think we need flowers as well."
"Yes, we need more ideas!
Let's all be quiet and think," said Phyllis.
"Hooray!" Peter cried suddenly.
"I've got it!" He jumped up.
"What?" said his sisters eagerly.
"Well, Perks is so nice to everybody.
There must be lots of people in the village who'd like to give presents to Perks.
Let's go round and ask everyone."
"Mother said we shouldn't ask people for things," said Bobbie doubtfully.
"For ourselves, silly, not for other people," said Peter.
So they went. The old lady at the post office didn't want to give Perks a present.
"It's my birthday tomorrow and nobody cares about it," she said.
"Why should I care about Perks' birthday?"
The children left and went elsewhere.
Some people were kind and some were not.
At the end of the day, Peter wrote a list of things they'd received.
He wrote it in the book where he kept the numbers of train engines.
Presents Given:
a pipe from the sweet shop
some tea from the village store
Presents Promised:
some meat from the butcher
six eggs from the farmer
a spade from the blacksmith
Early the next morning, Bobbie woke Phyllis.
They had a plan but had not told Peter.
He would think it was silly.
They cut a bunch of roses and wrote a card:
"For Mrs. Ransome, Happy Birthday."
Bobbie and Phyllis took the roses and card to the post office.
They put them on the counter before the old lady came in.
When they got home, Peter was telling Mother about their plan to give Perks gifts for his birthday.
"It depends on how you give him the presents," Mother said.
"I hope he won't be offended and think it's charity.
Poor people are very proud, you know."
"It isn't because he's poor," said Phyllis.
"It's because we like him very much."
The morning of the fifteenth, the children watched Mother decorate the buns with pink icing.
Then they went to the village to collect the spade and eggs and other things people had promised.
They passed the old lady at the post office.
"Thank you for the roses," she said.
"Here, take these for Perks' birthday present."
She brought out a basket full of red gooseberries.
"And wait one more moment.
I have something else for Perks!"
The children smiled.
Perks was going to have the best birthday ever!