Jack needed no farther invitation, and upon descending the sides of the stone river, there was the natural bath ready to send a thrill of strength through them, for the rivulet came down in a series of little falls each having its well-filled basin.
There was the drawback that there were no towels to use, and Jack said so.
“What, sir?” cried his man. “You don’t mean to say that you would have used a towel if you had had one!”
“Why, of course. Why not?”
“Been waste of so much water. Let it soak in gradual, sir. You’ll want every drop by and by. You wait till we get out in the sun. Just think of how we were yesterday.”
Ten minutes after they were seated beneath a tree, discussing their potatoes, eating away with a glorious appetite till about half of one sleeve-full had been demolished, when Jack cried, “Hold!”
“Why, you ain’t had enough yet, sir?”
“No, but we will keep these till by and by when we are hungry again.”
“But I’m hungry now, sir,” cried Ned; “and they’ll be so much easier to carry after we’ve eat ’em—we shall have got rid of the skins.”
“Never mind, don’t let’s be improvident.”