"If they decide to come at all, they would be all right with me out on
the veldt," put in Mr. Pym. "If they are prepared to eat 'bully beef'
and probably do their own washing-up."

"How horrible!..." from the arm-chair. "It sounds worse than chewing
mule harness."

"What do you mean, Diana?" her aunt asked, nervously.

"Oh, didn't you know there was nourishment in mule harness?... It's
simply splendid stuff when you've had nothing else for days."

The poor lady shuddered, and her brother chuckled, but Meryl
interposed with, "Don't listen to her, Aunt Emily. It isn't likely we
shall ever have had nothing for days."

"I once heard of a man ..." began the spinster, putting down her work,
and raising her head with the air they all knew so well, denoting a
long rigmarole about some exceedingly uninteresting person, and Diana
immediately chimed in with, "Shall you wear a knickerbocker suit,
aunty, or just a commonplace divided skirt?"

"Neither will be in the least necessary," was the decided answer. "I
have met people from Rhodesia, and they dress quite ordinarily."

"Oh, that's when they're in another country," insisted the
incorrigible. "Up there you simply must wear knickers, or a divided
skirt; it's ... it's ... such a high altitude ... and so ...
windy!..."

"Diana, be quiet," interrupted Meryl, now sitting on the arm of her
father's chair. "If you don't mind we shall leave you behind."

"Well, I don't know that I particularly want to go. It doesn't sound
very inviting except about the washing."

"I think you had all better take a week to decide in," said Henry Pym,
finally. "I won't say anything about the yacht at present, and you can
change your minds and have it if you like. And if your aunt chooses to
stay quietly in England, I'll take a house for her anywhere she likes,
and I'll look after you both myself. You can take care of each other
when I have to be absent for a day."

"Would you like us to go?" asked Diana, screwing her head round
impishly. "Or are we going to be a ... a ... frightful nuisance?"

"I'd like you to come, if you can make up your minds thoroughly to
take the rough and the smooth together, and make the best of it. I
think it will be an experience for you, and a wholesome change from
too much luxury. But mind"--and his strong, dark face looked very
determined--"I want no grumbling and no fretfulness. If you think
you've any real, genuine pioneer spirit in you, _come_. If you're in