“Now I call that downright good news and most kind of Mrs. Cortlandt! She must be as good as she is beautiful, as the story-books say, and that is a strong statement in her case, for she is wonderfully handsome. I, for one, am a bit keen set; how about you, Dirk?” cried the prince, slapping his riding boot boyishly. “I’m always hungry, pretty much. It’s this way: When you’re riding you could eat a bite every time the horse puts a hoof down, but you can just as well let it go till you’re back, because nothing fills you up, anyway,” said Dirk, so seriously that they all laughed. It was a pretty little glade to which the children conducted their older comrade. Here they tethered the horses and found for themselves two or three logs of various lengths upon which it seemed prudent to sit; they were sun-dried and time-cured and much of their bark had peeled away. “Now, Tim, my man, where’s that hamper we’ve heard about?” asked the prince. “Here it is, sir,” said Tim, bringing it forward. It was a small hamper, necessarily, to be carried on a horse, but it was carefully packed, with great judgment, and its contents were exactly right and exactly enough to take the edge comfortably off a riding appetite and yet not spoil the meal that would be served on the riders’ return. Beth’s fudge was the dessert. “How delicious!” cried “Cousin Hal”--he seemed like Cousin Hal now!--taking a big bite out of the middle of a sandwich of thin roast beef and crisp lettuce. “Isn’t it fine to get off like this and be allowed to eat without plates or forks, just as they ate in Eden?” “Do you feel that way, too?” cried Beth, delighted to share an experience. “I think if they would put people out in the woods and let them eat pieces of pie and things in their fingers, they’d never have to get tonics in bottles, nor doctors.” “Beth, there spake wisdom!” “Cousin Hal” accepted a large triangle of fudge as he spoke and rolled up his eyes at the first bite in a way that sent Dirk heels over head in a somersault. “Though truth compels me to state that meals under almost any circumstances do not come amiss with me.” He arose, brushing crumbs out of the folds of his trousers where they were tucked into his boots. “I’m going to put that scamp of a Trump through a trick or so and teach him a new one. I’ve sugar in my pocket to reward him, if he gets the idea. My word, but that fine fudge makes one thirsty!” “Oh, there’s a fine spring here. To think we forgot it!” cried Beth. “Dirk and Tim will fetch water.” “Not they, not without me!” cried “Cousin Hal.” “Isn’t this a free day in which I’m not to be shown deference? Take me with you, Dirk, Tim. I shall drink from the spring with this cup!” He held up his palms together, made hollow.