"Very useful, Olly, though our table-cloth won't look over tidy at tea if you crumple it up like that. Now, Milly, bring me that tray of bread and the little bundle of salt; and, Olly, bring me that bit of b.u.t.ter over there, done up in the green leaves, but mind you carry it carefully. Now for some knives too; and there are the cups and saucers, Milly, look, in that corner; and there is the cake all ready cut up, and there is the bread and b.u.t.ter. Now have we got everything? Everything, I think, but the kettle, and some wood and some matches, and these must go in another basket."

"Aunt Emma," said Milly, creeping up close to her, "were you ever a fairy G.o.dmother?"

"Not that I know of, Milly. Would you like me better if I had a wand and a pair of pet dragons, like old Fairy Blackstick?"

"No," said Milly, stroking her aunt's hand, "but you do such nice things, just like fairy G.o.dmothers do."

"Do I, little woman? Aunt Emma likes doing nice things for good children. But now come along, it's quite time we were off. Let us go and fetch father and mother. Gardener will bring the baskets."

Such a merry party they were, trooping down to the boathouse. There lay the boat; a pretty new boat, painted dark blue, with a little red flag floating at her bows, and her name, "Ariel," written in large white letters on the stern. And all around the boathouse stretched the beautiful blue water, so clear and sunny and sparkling that it dazzled Milly's eyes to look at it. She and Olly were lifted into the boat beside Aunt Emma and mother, father sat in the middle and took the oars, while gardener put the baskets into the stern, and then, untying the rope which kept the boat tied into the boathouse, he gave it a good push with one hand and off she went out into the blue lake, rising up and down on the water like a swan.

"Oh! mother, mother, look up there," shouted Olly, "there's the mountain. Isn't that where we climbed up this morning?"

Yes, there it was, the beautiful green rocky mountain, rising up above Aunt Emma's house. They could see it all so clearly as they got farther out into the lake; first the blue sky, then the mountain with the little white dots on it, which Milly knew were sheep; then some trees, and in front, Aunt Emma's house with the lawn and the boathouse. And as they looked all round them they could see far bigger and grander mountains than Brownholme, some near and green like Brownholme, and some far away and blue like the sky, while down by the edge of the lake were hayfields full of flowers, or bits of rock with trees growing on the top of them.

The children hardly knew what it was made them so quiet; but I think it was because everything was so beautiful. They were really in the hill-fairies' palace now.

"Aren't there any water-fairies in this lake, mother?" whispered Milly, presently, looking down into the clear blue water, and trying to see the bottom.

"I can't tell, Milly, I never saw any. But there used to be water-fairies in old days. After tea suppose we ask Aunt Emma to tell us a story about a king in olden times whom the water-fairies loved; she used to tell it to me when I was small, and I liked it best of all stories. But, Olly, you must sit still, or the boat will go tipping over to one side, and father won't be able to row."

"Do let me row, father," begged Olly.

"Not yet, old man--I must get used to the boat first, and find out how to manage her, but presently you shall come and try, and so shall Milly if she likes."

On they rowed, farther and farther from the sh.o.r.e, till Aunt Emma's house began to look quite small, and they could hardly see the gardener working on the lawn.

"Father, what a long way we've come," cried Milly, looking all round.

"Where are we going to?"

"Well, presently, Milly, I am going to turn the boat a little bit, so as to make her go over to that side of the lake over there. Do you see a big rock with some trees on it, far away, sticking out into the lake?"

"Yes," said the children, looking very hard.

"Well, that's where we're going to have tea. It's called Birdsnest Point, because the rocks come out in a point into the lake. But first I thought I would bring you right out into the middle of the lake, that you might see how big it is, and look at the mountains all round."

"Father," said Olly, "if a big stone fell down out of the sky and made ever such a big hole in the boat, and the water came into the hole, should we all be dead?"

"I daresay we should, Olly, for I don't think I could carry mother, and Aunt Emma, and Milly, and you on my back, safe home again, and you see none of you can swim but me."

"Then I hope a big stone won't come," said Milly, feeling just a little bit frightened at Olly's suggestion.

"Well, big stones don't grow in the sky generally, Milly, if that's any comfort to you. But do you know, one day long ago, when I was out rowing on this lake, I thought all of a sudden I heard some one shouting and screaming, and for a long time I looked and waited, but could see nothing; till at last I fancied I could see, a long distance off, what looked like a pole, with something white tied to it. And I rowed, and rowed, and rowed, as fast as I could, and all the time the shouting and screaming went on, and at last what do you think I saw? I saw a boat, which looked as if something was dragging it down into the water. Part of it had already sunk down into the lake, and in the part which was still above the water there were three people sitting, a gentleman, and two little girls who looked about ten years old. And they were shouting 'Help! help!' at the top of their voices, and waving an oar with a handkerchief tied to it. And the boat in which they sat was sinking farther and farther into the water, and if I had'n't come up just when I did, the gentleman and the two little girls would have been drowned."

"Oh, father!" cried Milly, "what made their boat do like that? And did they get into yours?"

"There was a great hole in the bottom of their boat, Milly, and the water was coming through it, and making the boat so heavy that it was sinking down and down into the lake, just as a stone would sink if you threw it in. How the hole came there we never quite knew: I thought they must have knocked their boat against a sharp rock--in some parts of the lake there are rocks under the water which you can't see--and the rock had made the hole; but other people thought it had happened in some other way. However, there they were, and when I took them all into my boat you never saw such miserable little creatures as the two little girls were. They were wet through, they were as white as little ghosts, and when they were safe in my boat they began to cry and shake so, poor little souls, though their father and I wrapped them up in our coats, that I did want their mother to come and comfort them."

"Oh, but, father, you took them safe home to their mother, didn't you?

And do tell me what she said."

"They had no mother, Milly, they had only their father, who was with them. But he was very good to them, and I think on the whole they were happy little girls. The Christmas after that I got a little parcel one morning, and what do you think was in it? Why, two photographs of the same little girls, looking so neat and tidy and happy, I could hardly believe they were really the same as the little drowned rats I had pulled out of the water. Ask mother to show you the pictures when we get home; she has them somewhere. Now, Olly, would you like to row?"

"Oh, father, don't b.u.mp against any rocks," said Milly, whose thoughts were very full of the little girls.

"Don't you trouble your head about rocks, old woman. I know a good deal more about this lake than those little girls' father did, and I won't take you into any harm. Come along, Olly."

Olly was helped along the boat by mother and Aunt Emma till his father caught hold of him and pulled him on to his seat, where he let him put his two small paws on one of the oars, and try what he could do with it.

Mr. Norton pulled too; but Olly thought it was all his doing, and that it was really he who was making the boat go.

"Don't we go fast, father?" he cried out presently, his little face flushed with pleasure and excitement. "You couldn't row so fast without me, could you, father?"

"You little fly-on-the-wheel," said his father, smiling at him.

"What does that mean, father?"

"Never mind, you'll know when you're bigger. But now look, children, how close we are coming to the sh.o.r.e. And quick, Milly, quick! What do you see over there?"

Mr. Norton pointed over the water to a place where some green rushes were standing up out of the water, not very far from the edge. What were those great white and gold things shining among the rushes; and what were those large round green leaves lying on the water all about them?

"Water-lilies! water-lilies!" cried Milly, stamping her little feet with delight. "Oh, mother, look! it was on one of those leaves that the old toad put little Tiny in my fairy-book, don't you remember? Only the little fishes came and bit off the stalk and set her free. Oh, I wish we could see little Tiny sitting on one of those leaves!"

"Well," said Aunt Emma, "there's no saying what you may find in these parts if you look long enough. This is a very strange country. But now, Milly, look out for the lilies. Father's going to take us in among them, and I'll hold you, while you gather them."

And presently, swish went the boat up against the rushes, and there were the lovely white lilies lying spread out on the water all round them, some quite open and showing their golden middles, and some still buds, with their wet green cases just falling off, and their white petals beginning to unclose. But what slippery stalks they had. Aunt Emma held Milly, and father held Olly, while they dived their hands under the water and pulled hard. And some of the lilies came out with such short bits of stalk you could scarcely hold them, and sometimes, flop! out came a long green stalk, like a long green snake curling and twisting about in the boat. The children dabbled, and splashed, and pulled, to their hearts' content, till at last Mr. Norton told them they had got enough and now they must sit quite still while he rowed them in to the land.

"Oh, father, just those two over there!" pleaded Milly, who could not bear leaving so many beauties behind.

"No, Milly, no more. Look where the sun is now. If we don't make haste and have our tea, we shall never get back to Ravensnest to-night."

Milly's face looked as if it would like to cry, as the boat began to move away from the rushes, and the beautiful lilies were left behind. I told you, to begin with, that Milly was ready to cry oftener than a sensible little girl should. But Aunt Emma was not going to have any crying at her picnic.

"Who's going to gather me sticks to make my fire?" she said suddenly, in a solemn voice.

"I am! I am!" shouted both the children at once, and out came Milly's smiles again, like the sun from behind a cloud.

"And who's going to lay the table-cloth?"

"We are! we are!"

"And who's going to hand the bread and b.u.t.ter?"

"I am!" exclaimed Milly, "and Olly shall hand the cake."

"And who's going to _eat_ the bread and b.u.t.ter?"

"All of us!" shouted the children, and Milly added, "Father will want a _big_ plate of bread and b.u.t.ter, I daresay."

"I should think he would, after all this rowing," said Mr. Norton. "Now then, look out for a b.u.mp!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang."]