"They are certainly the easiest to get drowned in," I replied.
She shrugged her shoulders. "One must take what one can get in this world. It's not my boat, you see. I only——"
She was interrupted by a violent hissing from the fire, which temporarily disappeared in a cloud of steam.
"Oh, dear!" she cried, in dismay. "There's the kettle boiled over. You'll excuse me a minute while I make tea, won't you?"
She dived into the hut, reappearing almost immediately with a brown earthenware teapot in her hand.
"You'll have a cup?" she asked, pausing for a moment on her way to the fire. "There ought to be enough for two, unless it's all boiled away."
"You're very forgiving," I said. "It's more than I deserve after making you break a plate."
"It's the least I can do," she retorted, "after jumping your hut like this."
She filled up the pot, and, coming back, placed it carefully on the stump of one of the trees which I had cut down when I built the place.
"This is the table," she said. "If you'll sit down on the grass and wait one minute, I'll bring the tea out."