"Take! You mean do as I bid you."
"Then, if that's the case, you shall be caterer."
"No, no, that I protest against. Under no circumstances can I undertake dinner, though I fancy one has no great variety here. I'll look after your pet boys, and see that neither of them drown themselves fishing, and I'll take charge of the guns, powder, and shot, and any little odd things requiring to be done I am ready to be called on to help."
"Very good. And you, Madame?" I gave her a warning glance not to say anything about lessons, so, after a pause, she said, "I will undertake to prepare the table for meals, and collect fruit and flowers, with the help of my three little ones."
"Thank you very much, that will be very kind, and now you elder girls!"
"Oh! we'll do as we are bid, except lessons," said Gatty.
"Then, Gatty and Serena, you must always bring the water from the brook morning and evening, and you, Sybil, must see that the children are tidy and that the things all put away in the tent, and you must, all three, help Jenny to wash up the things, and put them in their places tidy. And now then we will all disperse, until eleven o'clock, when Jenny must give us dinner as usual, and then we will all take siesta, and in the evening we shall be ready for no end of fun and mischief. Our dinner may seem somewhat early, but then we were obliged to be up very early to enjoy the cool part of the day." But I will begin my next chapter with a description of our doings.