"And don't expect us to watch this food all afternoon," said Ned, as the two disappeared over a bank on the "still hunt" for water and perhaps watercress.
"Tavia knows everything that grows," remarked Dorothy to her cousin, "I think it is so interesting to have a practical knowledge of nature."
"And quite convenient when it comes to lemonade with water," answered the boy. "It's queer Nat is like that too. He always knows things about things when things are shy for a feed. Likely he'll bring back a small-sized patch of the vegetable kingdom."
Meanwhile the explorers were making discoveries at every glade.
"There," called Tavia, triumphantly, "that's a spring. But the announcement came a second too late to save Nat from a foot bath.
"So I have noticed," he declared, trying to shake some of the cold water out of his low cut shoes.
"Oh, that's too bad," Tavia managed to say, although her joy at finding the spring made any regret at the method of its discovery quite out of the question. Being careful of her own footing she made her way along, until the stone basin at the spring source came into view.
"Didn't I tell you?" she shouted. "And there is the watercress!"
She was on her knees now, leaning over like the goddess who saw her face reflected in the water. Tavia knew the peculiarities of a spring, and knew how to avoid the common penalty of wet feet when getting either cress or a drink "by hand."
"Let me," asked Nat, gallantly, as he saw her stooping over the brink.