“The lady’s trying to open one of the boxes, and she can’t,” he said.
Clif slipped along the ground to the front; the door was shut, but one of the windows was open, so very very softly he climbed through, set the jug and loaf on the floor, and retreated with heart beating rapidly.
The spice of excitement and daring was making the blood dance in his veins. He pictured them going into that room with pleasure and surprise: it would seem to them as if fairies had been there. He crept round the house, looking for fresh worlds to conquer for them.
“How are they getting on?” he whispered to Teddie, who was still peeping through the creeper round the window with absorbed eyes.
“She’s found the kettle,” reported Teddie, “it was in the little box, but she can’t get the big one open; she’s trying to light a fire now in the fire-place with the bits of wood the woman left and a newspaper; she says the kitchen’s too dirty to go into.”
Clif peeped in, and a few moments’ watching sufficed to show him that the fire would never burn—he was an authority on fire-making. The lady was on her knees by the open fire-place; in the middle of it she had put two or three small blocks of wood, and on the top of this a newspaper crumpled up. Again and [152] ]again she put a match to it, again and again the paper caught, flared up, died down. Then she and two of the little girls puffed at it with their lips till the tears ran down their cheeks with the smoke and heat; the wood would crackle a moment, show red for a minute or two, then die out to sulky blackness.
“And even if it does burn,” said Phyl, “what is the use of it without water?”
The lady rose from her knees at last.
“I must go and ask help from some one,” she said; “there are two or three cottages not very far down the road, perhaps there may be some one there who would help a little.” She added a little bitterly: “In England a new-comer would not have to go out in search for help, some neighbour would have been to offer it. You may come with me, Phyl, we may have to carry the water back.”
On their way up the hall they saw the bread and milk, and their exceeding surprise and pleasure satisfied even Clif.