This Bit Tells You About What Happened at the End of the Last Book, and What Aunt Effie Promised.
In the book before this one – Aunt Effie and the Island That Sank – we saved the Prime Minister from going to prison for gambling away all the country’s money at the Auckland Casino. In front of everyone in Queen Street, the Prime Minister renamed Rangitoto Island after Aunt Effie and said we were her very dearest friends.
“If ever you want anything, just ask.” She smiled with all her terrible teeth, waved her handbag at us, jumped into her Zeppelin, and flew back to Wellington to give her husband a hiding for letting her gamble.
We caught the Rotorua Express and went home to Aunt Effie’s farm near Hopuruahine. In ninety chests we had Wicked Nancy’s treasure that we brought up after Rangitoto Island sank under its enormous weight. In another nine chests we had the six billion gold dollars that Aunt Effie won off the Auckland Casino, playing double or quits with the manager. What’s more, we’d played the wag from school for over a year. We felt pretty pleased with ourselves.
“All we want now,” said Peter, whom we trusted, “is to get Aunt Effie to tell us the story of Mrs Grizzle.”
Marie nodded. “She’s been promising to tell it to us for ages.”
“I don’t like the sound of Mrs Grizzle,” Daisy said disapprovingly.
“Who’s Mrs Grizzle?” asked the little ones, Lizzie, Jessie, Casey, and Jared.
“You’ll be told when you’ve reached a suitable age,” said Daisy, our oldest cousin, who was very proper.
“It’s not fair!” the little ones wept together. “Nobody tells us anything. Just because we’re the youngest.”
“The rest of us don’t know anything about Mrs Grizzle either,” Peter said in his kind way, “but we’re going to make Aunt Effie tell us her story.” The Rotorua Express blew its whistle and slowed. “Look,” said Peter, “the Hopuruahine station. We’re almost home!”