CHAPTER VI
The hut was not finished for a week, and for seven whole days and nights there was not a drop of rain. Then, when at last the pioneer hut stood complete, taut and steady, thickly thatched and masterly in workmanship from framework to roof, the rain began.
Just a drop at first, but the Scouts had been expecting it; the wind had shifted, and there was likelihood of a steady downpour for some time, as their weather-eyes told them. "It's really rather a chouse, though, just when the hut's ready, isn't it?" grumbled Peter, who hated to tear himself away from his newly completed handiwork.
"The weather'll test it, anyway," remarked Robin, gazing at the little erection with critical eyes. "Now we shall know if the trench is really deep enough to carry away the water without soaking the place through, and whether that way of thatching really answers well, starting to thatch from the bottom and working up, so that the rain may drain off the side of the hut instead of drenching through."
"Well, that's one way of looking at it, I suppose," said Peter more resignedly.
"And I'll tell you what I think," said Jan, "I think it's a very good thing that the rain's begun early, if it had got to come. Brownie's got that lumber-room crammed with stuff, and a lot of hard work's got to be done by somebody or other before you boys can sleep there. And you'll have to, to-night, just look at the sky. Suppose we heap up the dixies and everything into the new hut, and go straight to the Cottage and turn to."
In a very few minutes they had started acting on her suggestions. The rain was coming down now in large steady drops, and there was certainly every likelihood of a drenching night. The boys were not afraid of rain; they would have preferred to test the new hut's weather-proof properties by sleeping there through any weather, but they had given their word, and that was the end of the matter. The dixies were put away safely into the little hut, and the three set off in fairly good spirits for Island Cottage. After all, they had had a week's camping out already, and probably there were many more days and nights of it ahead for them; they would take one night's rest under a roof with as good a grace as they knew how.
But an afternoon's good hard work lay between them and any possibility of a good night. The upstairs attic was a perfect chaos of muddled lumber; "and has been, my dears, since we came here," said Brownie, "fifteen years ago, as I remember well."
"Who lived here before you, Brownie?" asked Robin. "It was a year before I was born, you see, so I don't remember."