“Peggy had better do the odd jobs,” said Jack. “She can look after the fire, think of meals and tidy up. I’ll see to my fishing-lines. And every now and again one or other of us had better go to the top of the hill to see if any more trippers are coming. Our plans worked quite well last time - but we were lucky enough to spot the boat coming. If we hadn’t seen it when we did, we would have been properly caught!”
“I’d better go and get the boat out from where I hid it under the overhanging bushes, hadn’t I?” said Mike, finishing his cocoa.
“No,” said Jack. “It would be a good thing to keep it always hidden there except when we need it. Now I’m off to milk Daisy!”
He went off, and the children heard the welcome sound of the creamy milk splashing into a saucepan, for they still had no milking-pail. Mike and Jack were determined to get one that night! It was so awkward to keep milking a cow into saucepans and kettles!
Peggy began to clear away and wash up the dishes. Nora wanted to help her, but Peggy said she had better go and feed the hens. So off she went, making the little clucking noise that the hens knew. They came rushing to her as she climbed over the fence of their little yard.
Nora scattered the seed for them, and they gobbled it up, scratching hard with their strong clawed feet to find any they had missed. Nora gave them some water, too. Then she took a look round the fence to see that it was all right.
It seemed all right. The little girl didn’t bother to look very hard, because she wanted to go off to the raspberry patch up on the hillside and see if there were any more wild raspberries ripe. If she had looked carefully, as she should have done, she would have noticed quite a big hole in the fence, where one of the hens had been pecking out the bracken and heather. But she didn’t notice. She picked up a basket Peggy had made of thin twigs, and set off.
“Are you going to find raspberries, Nora?” called Peggy.
“Yes!” shouted Nora.
“Well, bring back as many as you can, and we’ll have them for pudding at dinner-time with cream!” shouted Peggy. “Don’t eat them all yourself!”