"unless 'twas from the woods,"--giving us to picture these ardent
holiday-makers roosting all night in the trees while we slumbered.
But the odd thing was that the labourers manned the fields that day, the
fishermen the beach that evening, in un-diminished numbers. We landed,
and could detect no depletion in the village. We landed on subsequent
days, and discovered no increase. And the inference, though easy, was
startling.

I suppose that 'in the great style' could hardly be predicated of our
housekeeping on these excursions; and yet it achieves, in our enthusiastic
opinion, a primitive elegance not often recaptured by mortals since the
passing of the Golden Age. We cook for ourselves, but bring a fine spirit
of emulation both to _cuisine_ and service. We dine frugally, but the
claret is sound. From the moment when Euergetes awakes us by washing down
the deck, and the sound of water rushing through the scuppers calls me
forth to discuss the weather with him, method rules the early hours, that
we may be free to use the later as we list. First the cockpit beneath the
awning must be prepared as a dressing-room for Cynthia; next Euergetes
summoned on deck to valet me with the simple bucket. And when I am
dressed and tingling from the _douche_, and sit me down on the cabin top,
barefooted and whistling, to clean the boots, and Euergetes has been sent
ashore for milk and eggs, bread and clotted cream, there follows a
peaceful half-hour until Cynthia flings back a corner of the awning and,
emerging, confirms the dawn. Then begins the business, orderly and
thorough, of redding up the cabin, stowing the beds, washing out the lower
deck, folding away the awning, and transforming the cockpit into a
breakfast-room, with table neatly set forth. Meanwhile Euergetes has
returned, and from the forecastle comes the sputter of red mullet cooking.
Cynthia clatters the cups and saucers, while in the well by the cabin door
I perform some acquired tricks with the new-laid eggs. There is plenty to
be done on board a small boat, but it is all simple enough. Only, you
must not let it overtake you. Woe to you if it fall into arrears!

By ten o'clock or thereabouts we have breakfasted, my pipe is lit, and a
free day lies before us--

"All the wood to ransack,
All the wave explore."

We take the dinghy and quest after adventures. The nearest railway lies
six miles off, and is likely to deposit no one in whom we have