Chapter 6 A FUNNY LITTLE CREATURE
The boys were tired, but not too tired to examine the little hut thoroughly¹ - though it really was morelike a one-roomed house. It faced across the deep valley, and the sun shone straight into it.
Julian opened cupboard after cupboard, exclaiming in delight.
'Bedding! Towels! Crockery - and cutlery! And look at these tins of food - and bottles of orangeadeand the rest! My word, people who come to stay at Magga Glen in the summer must have a finetime!'
'We could light the stove to heat the room,' suggested Dick, pulling the oil-stove into the middle ofthe room.
'No. We don't need to,' said Julian. 'The sun is pouring in, and it really isn't cold in here. We couldwrap ourselves round in the rugs from that cupboard if we want to.'
'Do you think we'd be allowed to come up here, instead of living down at the farm?' said Dick,opening a tin of ham with a tin-opener that hung on a nail by the cupboard. 'It's so much nicer to bequite on our own and independent! George would simply love it!'
'Well, we can ask,' said Julian, taking the cap off a bottle of orangeade. 'Can we find some biscuits toeat with this ham? Oh yes - here are some cream-cracker biscuits. I say - I'm really ravenous²!'
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'So am I,' said Dick, his mouth full. 'Pity George was such an ass³ - she and Anne could have enjoyedthis too.'
'Well - perhaps on the whole it's as well they didn't come,' said Julian. 'I think Anne would have beentoo tired to come all this way on her first day - and George certainly had a worse cold and cough thananyone. A day at the farm will probably do her good. Gosh - she's absolutely fearless, isn't she? I'llnever forget her standing⁴ up to those three savage⁵ dogs! I was jolly scared myself.'
'I'm going to get a rug and wrap it round me and sit out on the doorstep in the sun,' said Dick.
'That view is too marvellous for words!'
He and Julian took a rug each, and then sat out on the wooden door-step, munching⁶ their ham andbiscuits. They stared across at the great hill opposite.
'Is that a house on the slope over there - near the top, look,' said Dick, suddenly.

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