CHAPTER V

 Both boys seemed to waken at the same instant next morning. The birds were singing all round them; the light was dancing on the river; the Chase stood out before them framed in a cloudless blue sky, and the camp-fire was practically out!

 

But a little energy soon put that right. A few red-hot cinders¹ still remained, and last night's heap of dead wood served as morning fuel. Very soon the fire was crackling away merrily enough. "Isn't this A1 and O.K.?" shouted Peter, splashing in the river. "Hurray and Hurroosh! Oh, isn't a night-camp grand? I could eat my breakfast, though, at any minute you like to name."

 

"We'll have to catch and cook it first," said his brother. But when, after a ten minutes' swim, the boys returned to the camp-fire it was to find Jan, the good fairy, in charge. "Breakfast at the Cottage for me!" she repeated indignantly; "what an idea! I'm camping out as much as you are! I'm cook, too, aren't I? No,—if you'll only just go off for five minutes and fetch fuel or something, I'll have hot tea ready by then."

 

In five minutes she was as good as her word; a dixie full of hot tea for each awaited them, and the remains² of the loaf and the butter. "There's not very much," Jan announced to the approaching pair, "but I thought we wanted to be self-supporting now we've begun, so I just brought a few tea-leaves along, and——"

 

"Right you are. So we will be"—the boys produced a pretty good cupful of wild raspberries. "If we can't make a good breakfast on these——!" they said. And the meal in the open air, of bread and butter and wild fruit, was not to be despised. Hardly was it over when the horn sounded on the other side of the water. "There's Mother. We'll tidy up the camp and make up to-day's arrangements when we've heard what she has to say," said Robin³ as they raced off.

 

The morning bulletin was good. Dick's attack was evidently slight—he had had a good night; and it seemed a very mild sort of scarlet⁴ fever, so the children's mother informed them. "He doesn't seem to have caught cold on the journey, for which I am thankful; but the queer thing is that Donald hasn't got it, evidently, after all. His headache was a bilious⁵ attack. Your aunt writes that he will travel to-morrow. I shall have to wire to put him off, of course, but it's just possible that he may escape altogether."

 

"I say, if he does, what a time he'll have! No Dick; no us; no holiday; no nothing!" said Peter commiseratingly. "Poor chap, he's worse off than us."

 

"Yes, indeed," Mrs. Vaughan smiled. "In fact you three look as though you were enjoying yourselves. How is the camp prospering⁶, Robin, and how did you all sleep?"

 

"Jolly well." They were unanimous. "I saw your light, Mother," added Jan, "in the window."

 

"My light, dear!" Mrs. Vaughan looked surprised; "my room looks out on the other side. I put out no lamp," she added when Jan had told her story; "you must have been mistaken."

 

"Quite mysterious," said Peter teasingly.

 

"Something else happened that seemed a bit mysterious at the time, didn't it, old chap?" said Robin, paying off Jan's score. "What about the noise at midnight?"

 

"Why, I'd forgotten all about it. So there was!" Peter broke into his story, and the experience lost nothing in the telling: "Bang, bang! Thump⁷, thump! Ting, ting! it went," quoth he, "right through my head."

 

His mother laughed. "The effect of the late supper, my dear; probably both mysteries come from the same cause. Well, I must go. Robin, remember you're in charge."

 

"All right, Mother, but everything's going spiffingly, really," her eldest⁸ son assured her.

 

The day was a busy one. First of all, the camp had to be cleared as the Captain commanded. Then came the making of the day's arrangements, and the procuring⁹ of supplies. Potatoes could be bought from a neighbouring farm; eggs also; butter and bread and tea from the village shop over the river. Jan was anxious to try her hand at a stew¹⁰, and the meat for this had to be procured¹¹. Mrs. Brown's chores had to be put in hand too; old Brown was away early and the boys were anxious, as Scouts¹², to do as many good turns as they could for the kind old dame¹³ in return for her good services to them. Her wood was collected, and her kindling¹⁴ was chopped; her stores were brought in from the neighbouring shop; half-an-hour's work was put in on mending up the fence of her little garden. "And we'll have a go at earthing up your potatoes, Brownie, while we're on the Island," said Robin.

 

After dinner and a rest the making of the "regular" hut began; the bivouac was only to be used until better accommodation was ready. A solid piece of work the making of the "Pioneer Hut"—as the boys called it—promised to be. First of all, a framework of tough ash branches, each one carefully chosen, would be needed; the ends of each must be pointed¹⁵ and fixed¹⁶ into holes in the ground, dug opposite to each other in two parallel lines, so that the whole framework, when completed, would look like a line of steady deeply-driven half-hoops of ash. A very strong branch had to be lashed¹⁷ to the top of the half-hoops to hold the whole together, and this must all be tested and tried before the thatching was even begun.

 

"The whole thing will take some days at least," Robin remarked to his fellow-campers as they sat round their fire.

 

"And when that's done, what'll we do next, I wonder?" remarked Peter.

 

But a great many things were going to be done that no one among the campers had any expectation of whatever!

 

1 cinders   

n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道

参考例句：

• This material is variously termed ash, clinker, cinders or slag. 这种材料有不同的名称，如灰、炉渣、煤渣或矿渣。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rake out the cinders before you start a new fire. 在重新点火前先把煤渣耙出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

4 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

5 bilious   

adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的

参考例句：

• The quality or condition of being bilious.多脂肪食物使有些人患胆汁病。
• He was a bilious old gentleman.他是一位脾气乖戾的老先生。

6 prospering   

成功，兴旺( prosper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Our country is thriving and prospering day by day. 祖国日益繁荣昌盛。
• His business is prospering. 他生意兴隆。

7 thump   

v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声

参考例句：

• The thief hit him a thump on the head.贼在他的头上重击一下。
• The excitement made her heart thump.她兴奋得心怦怦地跳。

8 eldest   

adj.最年长的，最年老的

参考例句：

• The King's eldest son is the heir to the throne.国王的长子是王位的继承人。
• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承。

9 procuring   

v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的现在分词 )；拉皮条

参考例句：

• He was accused of procuring women for his business associates. 他被指控为其生意合伙人招妓。 来自辞典例句
• She had particular pleasure, in procuring him the proper invitation. 她特别高兴为他争得这份体面的邀请。 来自辞典例句

10 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

11 procured   

v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条

参考例句：

• These cars are to be procured through open tender. 这些汽车要用公开招标的办法购买。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A friend procured a position in the bank for my big brother. 一位朋友为我哥哥谋得了一个银行的职位。 来自《用法词典》

12 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

13 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

14 kindling   

n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• There were neat piles of kindling wood against the wall. 墙边整齐地放着几堆引火柴。
• "Coal and kindling all in the shed in the backyard." “煤，劈柴，都在后院小屋里。” 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

15 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

16 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

17 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》