Hi there,

next installment of Izzy. (Let me know if you are enjoying it!)

Bright and early the next morning, the blue plastic bucket was lifted up and inspected. “Yup, they are both here!” It was Mick’s voice. “You can take them home with you if you like, Freddie,” Mick’s Dad said.

“Home?” thought Izzard, “I thought we were home!”

Again they were bumped around, in what they later found out, was a car (a ‘Kingswood’, they heard Mick’s father say.)

Finally, they came to a halt. They were lifted out and peered at by many pairs of eyes. “Gee, I wish we could have them!” and “Aren’t they beauties!” were some of the comments passed about them.

“Can I hold one?” and “No, let me!” they boys argued and for a moment Izzard thought they would be squashed to death! It was quite a relief when the lid was put on with some holes stabbed in it, with somebody’s penknife.

“ALL ABOARD!” yelled a loud voice and the boys along with the lizards, were lifted onto the train that was to take them ‘Home’.

“So, this is a train,” thought Izzard. “I have heard my grandfather talk about them. They make a lot of noise and blow out plenty of smoke.” When he was a young lizard, he used to think they were dragons, but he didn’t dare tell anyone, in case they laughed at him.

“FULL STEAM AHEAD!” yelled the loud voice again. Izzard turned to Gussie, “That man has a louder voice than Mick’s Dad!”

Gussie had never been more frightened in her life and was glad that Izzard was there to protect her! It seemed strange that he was the fastest lizard in the land and yet had still been caught! “Just a silly mistake,” she thought. “One false move, that is all it takes to be captured. Maybe Izzard is not so clever after all!”

Once again they snuggled down under their leaves and the boys gazed out of the train window, looking into the starry night. For many of them, it was their first weekend away from home. From their conversations, which ranged from rude jokes, to how much pocket money they had spent, the lizards found out that the boys were ‘Cubs’.

Lizards were not the only wild life that had been souvenired. In the next compartment were frogs and further down the corridor, in a shoe box, someone had a wild mouse. One boy had a collection of slaters and yet another had some earthworms. There were matchboxes of beetles and jars of spiders.

Someone named ‘Akela’ said, “There will be a lot of irate mothers at the station tonight!” The Cub Master replied, in a squeaky voice that sounded just like Mick’s Mum, “You are not bringing those nasty animals in here!”