CHAPTER XVII HOW WE SET OUT FOR TONBRIDGE "Oho--hey--hallo!" Starting up, I opened sleepy eyes to be dazzled by a glory of early sunshine, and creeping from the hay wherein I lay half-buried, I came blinking to the open trapdoor and beheld Diana standing below, flourishing a long-handled fork at me. "Kooshti divvus," said she. "Good morning!" said I. "It is!" she nodded. "That's what I said! And the less reason to sleep--here's me been up an hour an' more." "You should have waked me, Diana." "I was too busy. But if you are awake, come down and wash." "Wash what?" "Yourself--Lord, you needs it bad enough by your looks! And 'cleanliness is next to godliness'--they says. So go an' wash!" "Certainly!" said I, a little haughtily. "Though permit me to assure you that I am not in the habit of neglecting so healthful and necessary--" "Soap an' towel--in th' basket--corner yonder!" said she, kneeling to puff the fire to a blaze as I descended the ladder. "Thank you, and where shall I find the necessary water?" "Outside--in the brook--enough to drownd you! And take your time, make a good job of it--a clean body makes a clean mind--sometimes. So scrub hard!" At this I came where she must meet my look. "And pray, madam," I demanded, head aloft and arms folded, "do you thus suggest that my mind is so very unclean?" "O la!" cried she, waving the fork at me with a pettish gesture. "Don't try to come your fine airs over me in such breeches and your eyes black and face all smutty--go an' get washed first!" At this I turned and marched out of the barn, quite forgetting soap and towel until she came running to thrust them upon me, willy-nilly. "There's ham an' eggs for breakfast!" she volunteered. "Then I trust you will enjoy them," said I stiffly, "but as regards myself I most certainly shall not--" "Don't frown," she admonished, "for with your face so bruised and swollen it do make you look that comical!" And laughing, she sped away, leaving me to scowl upon the empty air. But the morning was glorious; I stood in a dew-spangled world radiant with sunshine while all about me the feathered host, that choir invisible, poured forth a song of universal praise to greet this new-born day. With this joyful clamour in my ears, this fresh, green world before my eyes, I grew joyful too, and hasted towards the brook, my foolish petulance quite forgotten.