this is about right," he said. "That trail there'll take you to
the lake. How long do you reckon it'll be before you'll need some fresh
eggs?"

"We are quite able to look after ourselves," said Tish with hauteur, and
got out of the wagon. She paid him off at once and sat down on her
suitcase until he had driven out of sight. He drove slowly, looking back
every now and then, and his last view of us must have been
impressive--three middle-aged and determined women ready to conquer the
wilderness, as Tish put it, and two suitcases.

It was as solitary a place as we could have wished. We had not seen a
house in ten miles, and when the last creak of the wagon had died away
there was a silence that made our city-broke ears fairly ache. Tish
waited until the wagon was out of sight; then she stood up and threw out
her arms.

"At last!" she said. "Free to have a lodge in some vast wilderness--to
think, to breathe, to expand! Lizzie, do you suppose if we go back we
can get that rabbit?"

I looked at my watch. It was one o'clock and there was not a berry-bush
in sight. The drive had made me hungry, and I'd have eaten a rabbit that
looked like Mr. Wiggins and called me by name if I'd had it. But there
was absolutely no use going back for the one we'd seen on our drive.

Aggie was opening her suitcase and getting out her costume, which was a
blue calico with short sleeves and a shoe-top skirt.

"Where'll I put it on?" she asked, looking about her.

"Right here!" Tish replied. "For goodness sake, Aggie, try to discard
false modesty and false shame. We're here to get close to the great
beating heart of Nature. Take off your switch before you do another
thing."

None of us looked particularly well, I admit; but it was wonderful how
much more comfortable we were. Aggie, who is very thin, discarded a part
of her figure, and each of us parted with some pet hypocrisy. But I
don't know that I have ever felt better. Only, of course we were hungry.

We packed our things in the suitcases and hid them in a hollow tree, and
Tish suggested looking for a spring. She said water was always the first
requisite and fire the second.

"Fire!" said Aggie. "What for? We've nothing to cook."

Well, that was true enough, so we sent Aggie to look for water and Tish
and I made a rabbit snare. We made a good many snares and got to be
rather quick at it. They were all made like this illustration.

[Illustration]

First Tish, with her book open