The story following is the first chapter in a serial telling how the pebblies were found. Don't forget to come back to this page every month for the next installment.

When Jack and Sarah heard the news that their mum had to go in to hospital for a big operation, they were devastated. As long as they could remember, it had just been the three of them and they couldn't imagine how they would manage alone, but mum had some surprising news for them. " I've talked to your grandpa Jim and he says that you will be very welcome to stay with him until I am better", she explained. Now grandpa Jim was a bit of a legend to Jack and Sarah. In their whole lives, they had only met him three or four times at weddings and christenings and the story was that he was something of a recluse, preferring to spend his time in his own company. He always sent them lovely and imaginative gifts for Christmas and their birthdays, through, and so they had begun to get the idea that their grandfather was a mysterious and exciting person. Jack thought that he might be a secret agent like James Bond whilst Sarah was inclined to think that he was probably a magician who spent all his time weaving spells. Whichever was it was, it was not without a little feeling of slightly nervous excitement that they tearfully bid their mum goodbye at the station a few days later. "Don't forget", she shouted to them as the train began to pull away from the platform, "Wait at Clivelly station until Grandpa Jim collects you and don't forget I love you both". Sarah saw her wipe away an escaped tear but pretended not to notice as she called back, "Don't worry , mum. It will be an adventure", in her brightest voice. In a moment, mum was little more than a dot on the platform as the train gathered speed and headed off with the children into the unknown.

Settling back in their seats, Jack and Sarah began to discuss what they expected to find at the end of their journey. "I bet he lives in a really cool house" said Jack, his eyes alight with excitement. Sarah looked at her little brother and watched his tousled dark hair flop up and down as he jiggled in his seat. Sarah, at ten, was a year older than her brother and felt very responsible and motherly towards him in this time of disruption. "Well. I don't know what sort of a house he lives in" she replied "but I expect it's very nice and clean. Grandpa Jim always looks so smart and tidy."

This was rather an understatement as Grandpa Jim had a beard and moustache that looked as neat as a well trimmed lawn and a yachting cap with a gleaming white brim set at a jaunty angle. He could easily have passed for somebody like an admiral in the navy. The children hoped that they would not have to be too tidy while they were staying with him. They were not too dreadful, just ordinary children who work best with a bit of mess around them. Sarah peered at herself in the little mirror set into her vanity case and critically pushed stray wisps of half grown our fringe behind her ears. She felt slightly uncomfortable in the skirt that mum had put out for her to wear. She normally spent her life in jeans but today, she had to make a good impression.