They all went into the shack. It was not very large—more like a big bicycle shed, though the roof was higher. A wooden partition divided it into two.
"We'll take that down," said Andy. "It would be better to have one fairly big room than two tiny ones."
"Well, we'd better start work at once, hadn't we?" said Tom eagerly. "We shall have to bring all our things here—and make it a bit home-like. And all those weeds will have to be cleared,"
"Yes—and we'll spread the floor with clean sand," said Jill. "Listen—you boys clear up the weeds for us—and Mary and I will go to that old potato field and find the biggest potatoes we can, and cook them in their jackets for lunch!"
"Good idea," said Tom, feeling hungry at once. "Come on, Andy—let's start and clean up the place now—we can't do much till that's done."
The two boys set to work. They pulled up the creeping weed by handfuls and piled it outside. They got tofts of stiff heather and, using them as brushes, swept the cobwebs from the walls and rough ceiling. Tom broke the remaining glass of the window, gathered the broken bits carefully together and tucked them into the bottom of the old rubbish-heap so that no one could be cut by a splinter.
Andy made a rough fireplace just outside the shack, with stones from the hearth of the ruined farmhouse.
"We can't have the fire inside because this shack has no chimney," he said, "and we'd be choked with the smoke. Anyway, I've made be fireplace out of the wind and we ought to be able to cook all right on it. Mary, you can bake the potatoes there, once the stones get hot. Tom, get some sticks and start a fire."
Mary and Jill peeped inside the shack. It looked clean and tidy now, though very bare. The two girls had pulled plenty of good potatoes from the old, weedy field, and had washed them in the spring water. They would be fine, baked in their jackets—though it was a pity there was no batter left and so salt.
Tom fetched some clean sand from the shore. He had found a very old bucket, which had a hole in the bottom. He put a flat stone over the hole, and then the sand did not trickle out. He carried six pails full of sand to the shack and scattered it over the earth floor. It looked very neat and clean.