mall table in
the dining-room, so that we could make all the things up into one bundle
and take it in turns to carry it.

Oswald had fastened his master mind entirely on grub. Nor had the others
neglected this.

All the stores for the expedition were put down on the tablecloth and
the corners tied up. Then it was more than even Oswald's muscley arms
could raise from the ground, so we decided not to take it, but only the
best-selected grub. The rest we hid in the straw loft, for there are
many ups and downs in life, and grub is grub at any time, and so are
stores of all kinds. The pickled onions we had to leave, but not for
ever.

Then Dora and Daisy came along with their arms round each other's necks
as usual, like a picture on a grocer's almanac, and said they weren't
coming.

It was, as I have said, a blazing hot day, and there were differences of
opinion among the explorers about what eatables we ought to have taken,
and H. O. had lost one of his garters and wouldn't let Alice tie it up
with her handkerchief, which the gentle sister was quite willing to do.
So it was a rather gloomy expedition that set off that bright sunny day
to seek the source of the river where Cleopatra sailed in Shakespeare
(or the frozen plains Mr Nansen wrote that big book about).

But the balmy calm of peaceful Nature soon made the others less
cross--Oswald had not been cross exactly but only disinclined to do
anything the others wanted--and by the time we had followed the stream
a little way, and had seen a water-rat and shied a stone or two at him,
harmony was restored. We did not hit the rat.

You will understand that we were not the sort of people to have lived so
long near a stream without plumbing its depths. Indeed it was the same
stream the sheep took its daring jump into the day we had the circus.
And of course we had often paddled in it--in the shallower parts. But
now our hearts were set on exploring. At least they ought to have
been, but when we got to the place where the stream goes under a wooden
sheep-bridge, Dicky cried, 'A camp! a camp!' and we were all glad to sit
down at once. Not at all like real explorers, who know no rest, day or
night, till they have got there (whether it's the North Pole, or the
central point of the part marked 'Desert of Sahara' on old-fashioned
maps).

The food supplies obtained by various members were good and plenty
of it. Cake, hard eggs, sausage-rolls, currants, lemon cheese-cakes,
rai