The Holiday Round | Page 4

and a compass and a keg of gunpowder, somebody might
easily row in and post the letters. Personally, as captain, I must stick to
my ship."
"There's another way I've just thought of," I said. "Let's sail in."
I pointed out to sea, and there, unmistakably, was the least little breeze
coming over the waters. A minute later and our pennant napped once
Simpson moistened a finger and held it up.
The sprint for home had begun.

III.--A DAY ASHORE

"Well, which is it to be?" asked Archie.
"Just whichever you like," said Dahlia, "only make up your minds."
"Well, I can do you a very good line in either. I've got a lot of sea in the
front of the house, and there's the Armadillo straining at the leash; and
I've had some land put down at the back of the house, and there's the
Silent-Knight eating her carburettor off in the kennels."
"Oh, what can ail thee, Silent-Knight, alone and palely loitering?"
asked Simpson. "Keats," he added kindly.
"Ass (Shakespeare)," I said.
"Of course, if we sailed," Simpson went on eagerly, "and we got
becalmed again, I could teach you chaps signalling."
Archie looked from one to the other of us.
"I think that settles it," he said, and went off to see about the motor.
"Little Chagford," said Archie, as he slowed down. "Where are we
going to, by the way?"
"I thought we'd just go on until we found a nice place for lunch."
"And then on again till we found a nice place for tea," added Myra.
"And so home to dinner," I concluded.
"Speaking for myself--" began Simpson.
"Oh, why not?"
"I should like to see a church where Katharine of Aragon or somebody
was buried."

"Samuel's morbid craving for sensation--"
"Wait till we get back to London, and I'll take you to Madame
Tussaud's, Mr Simpson."
"Well, I think he's quite right," said Dahlia. "There is an old Norman
church, I believe, and we ought to go and see it. The Philistines needn't
come in if they don't want to."
"Philistines!" I said indignantly. "Well, I'm--"
"Agagged," suggested Archie. "Oh no, he was an Amalekite."
"You've lived in the same country as this famous old Norman church
for years and years and years, and you care so little about it that you've
never been to see it and aren't sure whether it was Katharine of Aragon
or Alice-for-short who was buried here, and now that you HAVE come
across it by accident you want to drive up to it in a brand-new 1910
motor-car, with Simpson in his 1910 gent.'s fancy vest knocking out the
ashes of his pipe against the lych-gate as he goes in. ... And that's what
it is to be one of the elect!"
"Little Chagford's noted back-chat comedians," commented Archie.
"Your turn, Dahlia."
"There was once a prince who was walking in a forest near his castle
one day--that's how all the nice stories begin--and he suddenly came
across a beautiful maiden, and he said to himself, 'I've lived here for
years and years and years, and I've never seen her before, and I'm not
sure whether her name is Katharine or Alice, or where her uncle was
buried, and I've got a new surcoat on which doesn't match her wimple
at all, so let's leave her and go home to lunch....' And THAT'S what it is
to be one of the elect!"
"Don't go on too long," said Archie. "There are the performing seals to
come after you."
I jumped out of the car and joined her in the road.

"Dahlia, I apologize," I said. "You are quite right. We will visit this
little church together, and see who was buried there."
Myra looked up from the book she had been studying, Jovial Jaunts
Round Jibmouth.
"There isn't a church at Little Chagford," she said. "At least there
wasn't two years ago, when this book was published. So that looks as
though it can't be VERY early Norman."
"Then let's go on," said Archie, after a deep silence.
We found a most delightful little spot (which wasn't famous for
anything) for lunch, and had the baskets out of the car in no time.
"Now, are you going to help get things ready," asked Myra, "or are you
going to take advantage of your sex and watch Dahlia and me do all the
work?"
"I thought women always liked to keep the food jobs for themselves," I
said. "I know I'm never allowed in the kitchen at home. Besides, I've
got more important work to do--I'm going to make the fire."
"What fire?"
"You can't really lead the simple life and feel at home with Nature until
you have laid a fire of twigs and branches, rubbed two sticks together