But Aunt Alice shook her head.
"How do you think we could afford to buy one? It's just as much as we can do to feed and clothe you all."
"It's a pity we aren't birds," said Faith; "then we could fly about and feed ourselves. Don't you think we might live on wild things? Strawberries and nuts and mushrooms—they don't cost money, do they?"
"We won't talk of money now," said Aunt Alice cheerfully, "let us all pick as hard as we can. If we get a great many baskets full, I may be able to make some jam."
So they set to work. The strawberries were very small, and it took a long time to fill a basket, but the little girls were perfectly happy. The novelty of it delighted them.
And then when dinner time came, Aunt Alice said they would all have an hour's rest. She sat down with a newspaper at the foot of a tree, but the children could not keep still. They dashed into the wood and brought out armfuls of sticks, and Aunt Alice gave them a match. It was some time before the fire would burn. They had not much experience in fire building out of doors, but at last they were successful, and then the little tin kettle, which Aunt Alice had brought in her basket, was taken down to the stream and filled with water, and placed on the fire.
Aunt Alice put down her newspaper, and unpacked her basket. The kettle soon boiled, and cups of tea, with bread and cheese sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs and plain slices of cake seemed a very nice and unusual dinner to the children.
"Oh," said Hope, "if only we could always have meals out of doors."
"Then one day," said Aunt Alice, "you would all come to me and say:
"'Please, for a very great treat may we have dinner indoors to-day? It would be so lovely to sit up on proper chairs and a real table, and have no buzzing flies or nasty caterpillars crawling over our food.'"