What happened to Tad

by Mary E. Ropes

"Maybe the boys are hungry," suggested the other woman, "and we cannot get supper till we find a good place for camping out."

"Give them some bread to stay their hunger till then, Pelagie," answered Sophie.

And presently the lads were each munching away at a substantial hunch of bread sprinkled with salt.

On jolted the cart, followed by three others, but it was ten o'clock that night before the caravan came to a place suitable for an encampment. Tad and Phil, grateful for the kindness shown them, and delighted to make themselves useful, helped to unharness the horses, and tether them to stakes which they drove into the ground. They brought water from a little stream, and gathered together, from under the trees by the roadside, a quantity of dead wood for a fire.

The spot that had been chosen for camping out, was a tract of waste land between two hills of limestone rock. The place was strewn with stones, but was quite dry, and the fire blazed up merrily, shedding a welcome warmth, for the night was cold.

Over this fire, as soon as it burned clear and hot, the huge soup-pot was hung. Into it had been put a big lump of the prepared spiced and salted lard (a mixture of beef and hog's fat clarified and cured) of which the Norman peasantry make their usual soup.

Then as the grease melted in the pot, vegetables of several sorts were added, but chiefly potatoes, onions, and winter cabbage, with all the stale crusts and odds and ends of food remaining over from the day's rations. The pot was then filled up with water, a handful of salt mixed with peppercorns being thrown in. And soon this wonderful mixture was simmering musically over the fire, emitting a very savoury odour.

While waiting for supper to be ready, some of the grown-up people belonging to the caravan drew to the fire, and sat down on the short, dry stubble.

The children were already asleep in the waggons. A few of the women took out their knitting and worked their long needles rapidly, the bright steel gleaming in the fitful flare of the firelight. The men fed their horses, for there was not grass enough for their food, and went round looking for more wood to feed the fire, or sat in the circle, shaping garden sticks and broom-handles to sell at the fair.

As for Tad and Phil, when there seemed to be nothing further for them to do, they came and joined the cosy party round the fire, seating themselves between kind old Sophie and Pelagie.