The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Provence chapter sampler

and started pointing. ‘The bathroom is through that door and this is the busy room — for laundry and shopping baskets, bins and tools, boxes and firewood, bicycles and donkeys.’ ‘Donkeys?’ Freja frowned at him. ‘Really?!’ ‘No,’ confessed Pippin. ‘But it would be good, don’t you think, to have a donkey living downstairs?’ Freja nibbled her lip while she thought about it. ‘Yes,’ she decided. ‘You could run downstairs, jump on the donkey’s back and trot straight out the door.’ Finnegan disappeared through a door at the back of the room and, soon, they could hear him slurping water. ‘He likes to drink from the toilet,’ said Freja. ‘He could drink from the bidet, if he likes!’ suggested Pippin. ‘What’s a bidet?’ asked Freja. ‘It’s French,’ said Pippin proudly. ‘It looks like a toilet, but it’s for washing your derrière … or your squirrel.’ ‘Squirrel?’ Freja wrinkled her nose. Tobias chuckled. ‘Boxes … firewood … a donkey … a squirrel …’ ‘And a duck!’ squealed Pippin, jumping up and down. ‘We could have a pretty white duck living here with the donkey and his name could be Zacharie and he could lay us some apples!’ Suddenly, he froze. His eyes grew wide. ‘ Apples! I almost forgot! Grand-Mère has left you a surprise in the kitchen. Come! Come!

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