AN AUTUMN HOLIDAY 45 



The Doctor would not let the children hurry their 

 breakfast, and i\Ir. Blake said, " ]<]at all you can now, 

 for you may not like my cooking." 



" Are you not going to take some cake or bread, or 

 at least cold chicken ? " asked Mrs. Blake. 



" No, dear ; not even bread. Ginger cookies are the 

 only cooked food allowed. I want to give the children 

 a nibble at the way people live who explore, or hunt, 

 or for any other reason take to a wild life. Don't 

 worry ; we shall neither starve nor be out quite all 

 night, though it may be late before we return." 



Tom and Jerry were harnessed to the farm wagon, 

 so Comet was left home by himself. " You see this 

 wagon is only suitable for stout horses," said Tom, with 

 a wink to his mate, as they drove round to the house. 



"Are you sure you have everything ? " asked Mrs. 

 Blake, anxiously. 



" I will give you a list of our belongings : a tea- 

 kettle, a coffee-pot, a frying-pan, and a small tin kettle, 

 six tin plates, cups, knives and forks, salt, pepper, 

 sugar, coffee, flour, part of a ham, a dozen eggs, a small 

 bag of potatoes, a quart of beans, a ball of stout cord, 

 my shot-gun, a small axe, a shovel, and plenty of 

 matches." 



" 'Pears like you uns was calkerlatin' to plant a gar- 

 din, wif beans and p'taters and a shovel," chuckled 

 Mammy Bun, who was never far away when a picnic 

 was about to start. " For de law's sakes, Massa Doctor, 

 do fetch along a jar o' sas, — all dem vittles am chokiu' 

 dry ! " 



" Mr. Blake is the cook, and you know, mammy, cooks 

 don't like to be interfered with." 



