Wyn decided that she would not awaken them. But she slipped inside,
selected her own clothing, and in ten minutes was dressed. Then she ran
down to the pool again, palmed the water all over her face, rubbing her
cheeks and forehead and ears till they tingled, and then wiped dry upon
the towel she had brought with her.
Another five minutes and her hair was braided Indian fashion, and tied
neatly. Then the sun popped up--broadly agrin and with the promise in
his red countenance of a very warm day.
"Good-morning, Mr. Sun!" quoth Wyn, dancing a little dance of her own
invention upon the summit of the green knoll that overhung the lake
before the tent. "I hope you give us a fine day, and that we all enjoy
it."
With a final pirouette she ran back to the tent. Still Mrs. Havel and
the others slept.
"What lazy folk!" she told them, in a whisper, and then caught up a
six-quart pail and ran back through the open place and found the wood
road that Polly had written her about.
She knew that to her left lay the way to the landing where Mr. Jarley
kept his boats, and where their stores were under cover in a shed. But
breakfast was the first consideration, and in the other direction lay
Windmill Farm, at which Polly told her she had arranged for the
Go-Aheads to get milk, fresh eggs, and garden vegetables.
So Wyn tripped along this right hand extension of the wood path and,
within half an hour, came out of the forest upon the edge of the cleared
farm. Before her lay sloping fields up, up, up to a high knoll, on the
top of which stood a windmill, painted red.
The long arms of the mill, canvas-covered, rose much higher in the air
than the gilt vane that glistened on the very peak of the roof. The
rising sun shone full upon the windmill and made it a brilliant spot of
color against the blue sky; but the wind was still and the sails did not
cause the arms to revolve.
Just below the mill, upon the leisurely slope of the knoll, was set the
white-painted farmhouse, with well-kept stables and out-buildings and
poultry yards and piggery at the rear.
"What a pretty spot!" cried Wyn, aloud. "And the woods are so thick
between it and the lake that one would never know it was here."
She hurried on, for she knew by the smoke rising from the house chimney
and the bustle of sound from the barnyard that the farmer and his family
were astir.
Before she reached the side porch a number of cows, one with a bell on
her neck leading the herd, filed out through the side yard and took a
lane for the distant pasture. Horses neighed for their breakfasts, the
pigs squealed in their sties and there was a pretty young woman singing
at the well curb as she drew a great, splashing bucket of water.
"Oh! you're one of the girls Polly Jarley told us were coming to the
lake to camp?" said the farmer's wife, graciously. "And did you get here
in the storm last night? How do you all like it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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