Hidden treasure

Millie and Billy had been having a lovely time staying with grandma and grandpa. But it was the last afternoon of their stay and they needed to pack to go home to mummy and daddy the next morning. They told grandpa what they were going to do.

“What?” grandpa said. “Don’t you want to find the hidden treasure?”
“Like pirate’s treasure?” asked Billy, a look of excitement on his face.
“That’s right,” grandpa said. “It’s hidden in a treasure chest somewhere in the house or the garden. Would you like to try and find it or would you prefer to pack?”
“We’d like to find the treasure!” cried Millie and Billy.
“Well, you’ll have to be quick,” grandpa said. “Its half past three now. You can only be allowed until four o’clock to find the treasure and then you’ll have to give up.” Grandpa added, “The treasure hunt starts now.”
Millie and Billy raced off to try and find the hidden treasure.
They started with the garden where they looked in the shed, under the apple tree and in and around the shrubs and flowerbeds. There was no sign of the treasure anywhere in the garden.
They came indoors and looked downstairs first, searching behind curtains and underneath tables and chairs. But there was no sign of the treasure. They did the same upstairs, also looking under all the beds. They still had no success.
“I know,” Millie said. “We’ll try the attic.” They got hold of a torch and climbed the ladder to the attic. Millie and Billy had a good look round in there but could find no sign of any treasure. They climbed down the ladder from the attic and made their way downstairs.
“We’ve tried everywhere,” Billy said in disappointment as they got to the foot of the stairs. “I don’t think we’re ever going to find the treasure.”
But just at that moment Millie’s sharp eyes caught sight of something metal gleaming inside the partly open cupboard that was under the stairs.
Millie and Billy scrambled into the cupboard and heaved out a chest. It was locked but when Billy went back into the cupboard he found a key. Billy tried it in the keyhole of the chest and it worked.
“We’ve found it! We’ve found it!” Millie and Billy cried out.

Grandpa appeared beside them. “You found the hidden treasure just in time,” he said, looking at his watch. “It’s almost four o’ clock.” Phew!
Millie and Billy rummaged through the contents of the chest where they found lots of old jewellery – necklaces, broaches and bracelets; and a couple of old watches – one for a lady and one for a man. They also found a little blue car and a little green one; and an old book about a rabbit, called “The Adventures of Nibbles.”
Millie and Billy had a lovely play with the things they had found in the treasure chest. Millie tried on some of the jewellery and the lady’s watch, which ticked when she wound it up. Billy put on the man’s watch but when he tried to wind it up it didn’t make a ticking sound. He played happily with the blue car and the green car. Then grandma sat down on the sofa with Millie and Billy and read them “The Adventures of Nibbles.”
After that it really was time for Millie and Billy to pack so that they would be ready to go home the next morning. Grandpa said that as a prize for finding the hidden treasure they could choose two things each from the treasure chest to take home to keep and to show mummy and daddy.
Billy couldn’t decide between the blue car and the green car and in the end chose both of them. Millie chose the lady’s watch and the story book, “The Adventures of Nibbles”, which grandma had read to them.
Snuggled up in bed that night, Millie and Billy agreed that the treasure hunt had been great fun and the prizes they had won at the end of it had come as a wonderful surprise. It had been the perfect way to end their fun-filled stay with grandma and grandpa. They soon drifted off to sleep and dreamed of pirates and rabbits and cars and ticking watches and, of course, hidden treasure.