They drove through a soft track covered with brown pine needles and cones, and at last came to a small clearing, where they stopped. Mr. O'Flagherty unharnessed the mare, produced a feed for her, then promptly put up his easel and set to work.
"I shall have one clear hour before dinner," he said; "and don't you dare to disturb me. Make your fire, boil the kettle and cook the 'taties, and get some water from the river without tumbling in."
All this Dawn and Christina did. Their tongues never stopped, though they kept a considerable distance from the artist, so that they should not disturb him.
"It is so nice," said Christina, as she and Dawn having made a fire and put the kettle on began to unpack the basket and arrange the luncheon, "not to have grown-up people telling us how to do things."
"They never tell me!" said Dawn, tossing back his curls. "Dad says every young thing ought to be as free as air. He won't have our puppy chained up; he says a bottled-up boy or dog explodes and does more harm when they're big than if they'd been allowed to do mischief when they're small. Dad is first-rate to live with, I can tell you!"
Christina assented heartily.
When Dawn deluged her with water as he was filling the kettle from the river, she was thankful that no grown-up person was there to see it. Later on she knelt on a burning stick that flew out from the fire, and burnt a hole in the front of her woollen frock. It seemed delightful to her to have no one to scold her for having done it. The potatoes were burnt, the eggs smashed in their shells, and the tea that was brewed tasted smoky; but never had Christina enjoyed such a meal. Mr. O'Flagherty laughed at her shining eyes.
"Ah!" he said. "Your stepmother is a wise woman; she has altered your nursery regime to success, but you want more of this sort of thing to keep you in health! If I was to shut up my bit of quicksilver in the way that good nurse of yours did you, he'd be as flabby and useless as a limpet at the end of a week!"
They all made a hearty meal; then Mr. O'Flagherty hurried back to work, and Dawn and Christina carried down the plates and cups to the river to wash them.
"I don't like water," said Christina reflectively, as she stood on the edge of a strip of gravel and took the wet plates from Dawn and dried them with her cloth. "I think it's because I'm frightened of it. Do you remember in the Pilgrim's Progress, Dawn, where Christian has to go through the river? It makes me shiver to think of it! I should die of fright if I had to go through this river!"