“Haven’t we made a blazey fire, Aunt Emma?” said Olly, out of breath with dragging up sticks, and standing still to look.

“Splendid,” said Mr. Norton, who had just come out of the wood with his bundle.  “Now, Olly, let me just put you on the top of it to finish it off.  How you would fizz!”

Off ran Olly, with his father after him, and they had a romp among the heather till Mr. Norton caught him, and carried him kicking and laughing under his arm to Aunt Emma.

“Now, Aunt Emma, shall I put him on?”

“Oh dear, no!” said Aunt Emma, “my kettle wouldn’t sit straight on him, and it’s just boiling beautifully.  We’ll put him on presently when the fire gets low.”

“Olly, do come and help mother and me with the tea-things,” cried Milly, who was laying the cloth as busily and gravely as a little housemaid.

“Run along, shrimp,” said his father, setting him down.

And off ran Olly, while Mr. Norton and Aunt Emma heaped the wood on the fire, and kept the kettle straight, so that it shouldn’t tip over and spill.

Laying the cloth was delightful, Milly thought.  First of all, they put a heavy stone on each corner of the cloth to keep it down, and prevent the wind from blowing it up, and then they put the little plates all round, and in the middle two piles of bread and butter and cake.

“But we haven’t got any flowers,” said Milly, looking at it presently, with a dissatisfied face, “you always have flowers on the table at home, mother.”

“Why, Milly, have you forgotten your water-lilies; where did you leave them?”

“Down by the water,” said Milly.  “Father told me just to put their stalks in the water, and he put a stone to keep them safe.  Oh! that’ll be splendid, mother.  Do give me a cup, and we’ll get some water for them.”

Mother found a cup, and the children scrambled down to the edge of the lake.  There lay the lilies with their stalks in the water, close to the boat.

“They look rather sad, mother, don’t they?” said Milly, gathering them up.  “Perhaps they don’t like being taken away from their home.”

“They never look so beautiful out of the water,” said mother; “but when we get home we’ll put them into a soup-plate, and let them swim about in it.  They’ll look very nice then.  Now, Olly, fill the cup with water, and we’ll put five or six of the biggest in, and gather some leaves.”

“There, look! look!  Aunt Emma,” shouted Milly, when they had put the lilies and some fern leaves in the middle of the table.  “Haven’t we made it beautiful?”

“That you have,” said Aunt Emma, coming up with the kettle which had just boiled.  “Now for the tea, and then we’re ready.”

“We never had such a nice tea as this before,” said Olly, presently looking up from a piece of bread and butter which had kept him quiet for some time.  “It’s nicer than having dinner at the railway station even.”