“What are they?” Dick asked.
“You say bilberries, or perhaps ‘whorts’—go on.”
“Hips and haws.”
“Very likely.”
“Rowanberries?” David asked.
“Yes, very likely: but think of something else—not berries at all.”
“Not crab apples?” said Joe, “they didn’t eat crabs surely?”
“I expect they did. Not that we need guess about it, for to a certain extent we know. A good many years ago, the remains of several villages of about the period of this story were found beside the shores of some of the lakes in Switzerland. There was hardly anything of the huts to be seen, because they had been burned down. But the fire which had destroyed the huts had preserved some of the things inside. For instance, jars were dug out of the silt containing what had once been food, all charred by the fire but whole and perfect in shape. There were nuts and acorns and corn of different kinds, but also crabs or wild apples that had evidently been split and dried. Some of these things are in the British Museum now; and if we could go and see them, I daresay you would think them very interesting.”
