The Happy Adventurers

akers or The

ould have been true. And yet, never before had she dreamt anything so clearly, so "going-on" as she expressed it to herself. She longed to tell Aunt Mary all about it, but the memory of her vow restrained her. If nothing further happened, in course of time she would feel fr

ar to Grannie's housekeeping-without enjoying the scrunch, scrunch between her teeth s

eared for a short time and returned with her hands behind her back. She

neevie n

and wil

ght or tak

uile ye

dinary self again. She looked critically at Aunt Mary's arms, shoulders

wrong, please, I'l

er right hand round as she spoke, and in it was a charming box, large, varnished, and clamped at the corners with brass. She laid

I adore jig-saw puzzles. You are a lovely, lovely au

jig-saws, so yesterday, as soon as you had fallen asleep, I wired to Hamley's. I was not sure if it would arrive

table to the sofa and seated herself beside it. "Dull!" she said reprovingly, "I hope

ed section upon the table and studying it with interest. "W

izing it through her spectacles. "I'll need my reading-glass, Ma

considered her section again: "The Yarra," she read out,

Where's that? Goomooroo, Wanrearah, Koolywurtie. What names! I am

annie exclaimed triumphantly, "for I can tell you where the Yarra is-it is the river upon which Me

urse, she might ask as many questions as she pleased and no one would wonder at her sudden interest in our distant colonies. In the meantime Grannie and Aunt Mary were both too much engrossed

ning, the first thing she saw on it was a let

AR

list of Probable Players in next term's 1st XV, and we both said 'Jenkyns will have left', at the same time, so we hooked little fingers and said Kipling, and were wishing a wish when all of a sudden, without the slightest warning there appeared, sitting on our desk, the most absolutely top-hole parrot I ever saw in my life. We sat staring, because, you see, we never saw the beast fly in, and if it flew through the window we must have seen it, because of my arm being on the window-sill. While we were still staring I distinctly heard your voice say, 'Do come here, Dick.' Just those words and then no more. Then the parrot vanished absolutely, tail and everything, though it was the finest parrot's

rs a

IC

s were certainly queerish. Either her vivid dream had penetrated to Dick's brain-and such experiences were not altogether unknown between the twins-or else-or else P

ld allow her to take him into her confidence. But would he believe such an unlikely story-and what about Young Outram? They had not bargained for two boys. She decided to wait and see if Pruden

Not, of course, that she was totally ignorant on the subject of our Australian colonies, but her knowledge was vague, and her interest before this time had been so faint that it was hardly worth mentioning. Grannie, on the other hand, had had a brother and many friends in Au

lbum again. "Bairns have queer fancies," she thought to herself, as she laid it on Mollie's lap. "Don't look too long, my lamb," she said alou

lbum, lay back on her cushions, and stared

dream, or will she come ag

lemnly and stolidly back, looking almost

that parrot of Dick's meant something, and I do so want to see those children again and know what ha

that none was so attractive as Prudence, till she came to a group of three girls and a boy. She looked closer, then stretched out her hand fo

drop the album this time but held tightly on to it, closed her eyes, and counted

ut her hands. "I thought it was all a dream, and that you were not com

n her own. "We need not waste time talkin

nt Mary, who just then began to sing-Mo

the stil

's chain ha

ry brings

days ar

narrow valley, through which ran a shallow creek with green banks on either side. Straight before her, half-way up the opposite hill, she saw a white cottage covered with a scarlet flowering creeper. It had casement wi

t between vines and overhanging trees till it lost itself in a flower-garden, which made such a sp

little body. She was moulding a lump of wet clay, shaping it into a bowl, pinching here, smoothing there, patting and pressing with both little gru

covered presently that she herself was also rolling a lump of sticky stiff mud into some sort

ch glittered curiously. This apparently was where the golden balls came from, for Grizzel stooped down, and lifting a handful of shining sand let it filter evenly through her fingers over her bowl. She then set the bo

make them hold water, Prue, it would do

the way was their summer cottage, and those blue-green trees were gum trees. She remembered the long roa

led it in the golden sand, rubbing it and sprinkling it as she h

d it like an orange. I wonder if I could make a bunch of cherries-I thin

shaped like an orange-beside Grizzel's on the sunny patc

sked, "and Baby, and y

looking across the valley at the garden. "What is he doing, I wonder-he seems to have lost something! Baby is with Br

wouldn't have nearly such a nice time as we do. You have only to say s

ie, feeling rather relieved to hear th

akes about, and she i

ce exp

"Then how do you know you are frightened of them?" Grizzel asked. "You only have to be a little firm with them

when I am alone," Mollie sai

rent from the mossy trunks at home in English woods. Here and there one had fallen, and lay like a giant skeleton on the ground. On all sides were hills, not very high, but rolling one behind the other like waves, some wooded and some bare of trees and covered only with short grass and rough boulders. Over everything was the

a cry came acr

e! Cooo

quick; I'm as hungry as a hunter, and Biddy said she woul

as she followed the other two

ke the Children of Israel ate. Sometimes we find manna too, lying underneath the trees, but I don't l

much," Mollie confessed; "I suppos

. If I had made the commandments I should have said 'Thou oughtest not to commit murder

like things to be short and plain like Thou s

u should not talk like that, Grizzel; it is flipp

ripening grapes on the one side, and on the other great cherry trees, laden with the largest and reddest cherries that Mollie had ever seen in her life. They hung down temptingly among the green leaves, dangling their

ones on the ground and carefully pushing them into the soil with the he

nes away in the careless fashion of people who

going to put in twelve tins of my very own jam, and Grandmamma will sell it and put the money in the bank for m

ked incredulously-Grizzel looked so small and

You wait till you taste her herring-shape, and her parsnip sauce. Mamma say

s for children to experiment with except under supervision-there could be no playing about with fruit and sugar for instance. She began to think that if there were some things she could teach these

out of the garden as they drew nea

ZZEL THREW IN A SM

ugh was the flower-garden, full of roses-thousands and thousands of roses, mostly pale pink. They were loose-petalled and exquisitel

make bottles full. I've been examining the rose-bushes-they are simply packed full of buds behind the flowers. I have been reading abo

ight into the sitting-room, where a table was spread with tea, and Miss Hilton, a

mooth your hair. I am surprised at you coming into the room like this. I don't know wha

lton and was therefore not within that lady's line of vision. She winked

ming about nothing in particular, as she was too fond of doing; Grizzel's mind was wandering away to golden bowls, golden cherries, and other possible and some quite impossible golden achievements; while Mollie listened to Baby, who carried on a long

en went into the garden again, and, onc

d we can begin to-morrow. You girls will have to help me, for I must watch the di

ie to help me to gather cherries. I've got one or two new ideas"-Mollie thought the famil

said Prue, "we'll ha

et breakfast?"

Then we'll get up and pull the cherries and cut them open, an

get the things ready

his distillery, the three girls set out to inspect the cherry trees, and engaged in the pl

opping," said Mollie. "I don't kno

you use," said G

ripping, or great, or fi

n hear you," said Prue, "or she will tell Mamma, and the

long by the rose-bed, which was banked up for two feet or so to keep the soil from washing down in the rainy season. Prudence

fire here and boil tea and have a secret breakfast, because proper breakfast isn't till

id Grizzel, in a voice so exactly like Miss Hilton's that

ustralia, and the children decided to go to bed in good time, so that they should waken fresh in the morning. Mollie thought that their bedroom was a delightful place, quite different from a London

d bushranger gets in through the night and s

. "What is the use of frightening Mollie like

lly ignorant on the subject in spite of Grannie's tales; so she went to bed quite peacefully in the little camp-bed, and lay for a time watching the brilliant stars shine through the wide-o

uch of English Mollie, but it was freshening, and they emerged from their splashes with pink cheeks and ravenous appetites. The "in

smoke into the morning air. On the bricks sat a billy-can full of water just on the boil, and, as it bubbled up, Grizzel threw in a small handful of tea, giving it a stir round with a cherry twig. She let it bubble again while she counted ten, then lifted the ca

n had risen and was sending his beautiful rays along the valley; they fell upon the roses and heliotrope in the garden and on the misty blue-green of the gum trees on the hill opposite. As the children munched in silent enjoyment, their eyes wandering here and the

e here, Molli

h a sigh. "Why can't all the world be as nice a

d four baskets and had stoned more than half, and laid them in a shallow pan with sugar over them "to draw", as Grizzel expla

aid, "it will help the

n some red c

ringly. "I never in all my life sa

e immense quantities of jam to send home. Grandmamma says our jam is the nicest she has tasted, especially our peach

when jam was very scarce and precious in London. She smiled to herself as she wondered if they had been

e of yourself and a cherry tree on the tin. It

lie called "pleased with life". The lazy inventor made his appearance halfway through the meal, looking sti

th Baby, who was subject to croup-on the fire-place, and h

nd drops into this cold tin and condenses. Then, when we have enough, we boil that up and condense a

mple," said M

asked Hugh,

y. "I don't know a thing about distilling; how many

at many drops, and each drop is worth a guinea, so that a laven

a! And how much pleasanter a way than Father's way, which meant living in

n the meantime, lit the fire and fetched water from the rain-water tank. "It says water from a s

hard, Mollie and Prudence bringing in fresh supplies of roses, rain-water, and logs of wood, for the fire had to be kept well stocked. The room got very hot, for Hugh would not allow any windows to be opened, and a good part of the steam ma

some bread and skimm

this makes y

ees, a little tired after her early rising. She could see Bridget and Baby at the bottom of the garden gathering gooseberries for a pudding. Baby's pink sun-bo

ove," she thought; "that pot is

ing and smoking of the boiled-over jam. Mollie ran to the stove-a funny flat arrangement, different from the stoves of her acquaintance. The jam had evidently been boiling over for some time, for not only the

ttered to herself. "If I made many there wouldn't be much

vine leaves and green grapes in her golden bowl

ing, Grizzel-I am afraid

dness me! I forgot all about the jam." She hastily dumped her bowl

. "Oh, my jam! my jam! Oh, why am I both a cook and an artist? One half of me is a

ted. But one sip was enough. "Ab-so-lute wash-out!" was her ver

g to do?" asked Mo

ng a spade. She rapidly dug a shallow hole, poured the

e wailed. "Why on earth did I go and spoil th

as soon be burnt as eaten myself-only perhaps one might be cooked first and eaten af

d logs had to be piled on and blown up with the bellows before the pot could be set on again. Grizzel looked round for a towel to

e it up," suggested Mollie;

ildren were surrounded by a litter of crumpled, wet, black newspapers,

nts!" sai

el did at that moment. They stood up in the midst of the ruins, and M

an' yir jam! Be off wid ye!" flapping the chil

, catching up a tin basin fro

ee how the scent-makers were faring. They found Hugh and Prudence as red

lained to Mollie and Grizzel. "There's no use doing all the roses till

out. "There is a little. We'll just try for oil," he said, lifting the jug off and

drop." He sniffed anxiously as he spoke. "

nd it might have only smelt of wet tin," Hugh said. "Look here, Prue, don't empty that litt

ou know as well as I do that there is nothing but tinny water left in that kettle. If you think anyone is going to p

n. There's plenty more roses. Next time we are by the sea I shall look for ambergris. It is found fl

new barrel of sugar came yesterday. After all, everybody has ups and downs w

the tiny milk-jug in his hand; "only rich people could afford to buy it. If you want to make

said

ight to make fortunes at

d the other thr

dren's hospital every week, and sometimes she takes me. You can't think what some of the poor babies are like-and then you go outside and see rich,

ldren were silent

sil Hill sends us a packing-case of exquisite oranges every summer, and when she comes to see Mamma she almost always brings us a surpris

wouldn't have to give you things," sa

"and that would be horribly dull. Don't you think

feeling that she had not presented her case attracti

tunes waiting to be made. I heard Papa say so. And the early bird gets th

e worm," s

ish I had a brother in

ng the contents of th

once been clean. "A bro

asked Mollie. "Did

er, which impressed the Australians

repeated, looking round at the other thre

with a funny little smile, "you'll

sounded from

*

preserving-pan," Aunt Mary was saying. "Tha