Posted by Jon on April 14, 2004 at 17:59:19 from 151.121.50.1 user Jon.
One of the curiousites that has been noted from time to time is that Missee Lee only has the Swallows and the Amazons, even though the Ds had become a part of the group in Winter Holiday. I suggest that, although ML was written between SW and PM, it actually occurred in the wherry cabin (or the igloo - Captain Flint needn't have been present) before the events of WH, or evenings around the campfire on Wildcat Island after SD. In addition to clearing up the question of where the Ds were, it also fits in with the general absence of either Gibber or Polly (or mention of them) in any of the post-WH books. In WH, we learn that they're in the zoo, as they couldn't be taken to school. From then on, in the "real" books, the pets are conspicuously missing. It could be argued that even Polly would be a less-than-welcome guest in a Beckfoot under renovation, or in Alma Cottage. but surely Captain Flint left Polly with his sister when he traveled so she wouldn't have been that unwelcome, or unfamiliar, a visitor.