“I say, Harry,” observed his sister, raising herself up from off her couch of warm skins, “I should uncommonly like a plunge. I caught sight of a beautiful stream in the forest yesterday which I think I could find again. I daresay Aunt Ruby and Mary will be glad to be shown it, so I’ll just stir them up and ask them.”
“Right you are, old girl!” ejaculated Harry, yawning, “and I will pilot Uncle Francis, Freddy, and Willie. I know the stream you mean. It is not ten minutes’ stroll from here. Yes, a plunge will be uncommonly refreshing. I wonder how all the Warriors are, and Queen Aniwee! Does it not seem like a dream to you, to be back amongst these wild scenes again?”
“Well, you see, Harry,” remarked Topsie gravely, “these are not exactly old scenes, because you know although we saw something of the Araucanians when they joined the Tehuelches in the Patagonian pampas, we never entered their country. What a lovely one it is, to be sure!”
“Yes, indeed; and you were a brick to get uncle and aunt to come, Topsie. I am looking forward to a real good time of it after all the hardships I have gone through on the Pacific station,” continued Harry, with a sly twinkle in his eye.
“Oh, Harry, you conceited monkey!” laughed Topsie. “To hear you talk one would think you were martyred day and night, instead of living in clover, as you have been doing on father’s ship.”
“I say, what are you two jabbering about?” queried a sleepy voice from under a heap of skins, and Freddy’s head at length appeared in view. His hair was very much ruffled, and he looked extremely comical.
At the sight of him both his cousins burst into fits of laughter.
“Oh, Freddy, what a guy you look!” exclaimed Topsie.
Now Freddy in reality was a broad-shouldered, fine, handsome youth, with yellow hair and beautiful blue eyes. I think he just knew that he was not altogether plain, and therefore resented the description of his personal appearance given by his good-looking cousin.
“Guy, am I?” he pretended to remark indignantly. “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Look at yourself, Topsie. I never saw such a scarecrow in my life.”