They set out, Margery walking between her mother and father, Jeremy playing with an adult terrier who had accompanied her.
"I hope," said Mrs. Huxam, "that they've made no great meal on our account."
"They have then. We've got a sucking-pig!"
"A waste, and it ain't the weather for it anyway," declared Judith.
"It's always the weather for sucking-pig," said Mr. Huxam, "though seldom enough nowadays do any man let himself go in that direction. A dish for kings, and of such a tender substance that I've never known the day was too hot to enjoy it. But it asks for mastery in the kitchen. If I'd known, I'd have let Mrs. Bullstone have a recipe from my old mother's cookery book. Full of vanished wisdom that book."
"Fuller of vanished greediness," asserted his wife. "People thought more of their stomachs in them days; at least you Huxam people did. The Pulleyblanks——"
She stopped and called to Jeremy.
"Don't run no more—quiet down and walk along with me, boy."
Her eyes softened when they rested on her son.
A cool and refreshing shadow embraced them as they entered the pine wood; then their destination glinted red through the tree stems and Jacob Bullstone appeared to welcome them.