Free The Head Girl at the Gables by Angela Brazil Page A

"Those ledges look literally made for smugglers. No doubt they kept kegs of brandy there, and chests of tea, and bales of silk and lace in the good old days."
    "Why shouldn't we keep a few things here?" suggested Claudia. "A kettle, and a tin of cocoa and milk, and some matches, and a box of biscuits. Then we could light a fire and have a little feast any time when we came."
    "A ripping notion. I'll make a sort of cupboard with some of that wood to keep the things in. We'll bring cups and saucers as well as a kettle."
    "And a frying pan in case we catch flukes down in the pools," put in Lorraine eagerly.
    "I'll tell you what I'll do," said Morland, quite roused to enthusiasm. "I'll come over on Monday and bring a saw with me, and a hammer and nails, and see what I can knock together in the shape of a cupboard and seats. Then next Saturday we'll tramp over and have our picnic."
    "Splendiferous!"
    "We'll have to come in the morning, because of the tide."
    "Right you are! I guess we'd better be getting back now. I haven't grown my merman's tail enough yet to swim with, and I've no wish to stop here all night."
    Morland kept his word, and went on Monday to the cave, armed with various useful tools. He could work well enough at anything that took his fancy, and, though he never knocked in a nail at home, he toiled here in a way that would have amazed his family if they could have seen him. Landry went also, and helped in a fashion. He could not do much, but he held pieces of wood steady while his brother hammered, and he collected whole pocketfuls of shells from the beach.
    Morland whistled cheerily as he worked. He wanted to give the girls a surprise, and, as they were busy at school all the week, he had the field to himself until Saturday. His artistic temperament found scope in the decoration of the cavern; fresh ideas kept occurring to him, and he enjoyed carrying them out. He felt like a kind of combination of Robinson Crusoe and the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with a spice of poetry running through it all.
    Next Saturday Lorraine, having obtained permission from her mother to go to a picnic with the Castletons, started off, basket in hand, resisting the agonized entreaties of Monica, who implored to be allowed to accompany her.
    "Sorry I can't take you to-day, Cuckoo! But you see they didn't ask you--only me. Beata and Romola aren't going either."
    "But why shouldn't we
all
go, and Madox too?" wailed Monica the spoilt.
    "It's too far. Look here, I'll ask Mother to let you have some of the Castleton children to tea one day. Would that content you?"
    "Ye--es!" conceded Monica doubtfully. "But it doesn't make up for this morning. I think you're
ever
so mean, Lorraine!"
    "Poor old Cuckoo! But you know you couldn't really have come in any case, for you're to be at the dentist's by eleven."
    "Strafe the old dentist! I wish he were at the bottom of the sea!" declared the youngest of the Forrester family, with temper.
    Lorraine ran away at last, and pelted up the hill to the Castletons' house, meeting Morland, Claudia, and Landry in the lane, whither they had fled to avoid a contingent of younger ones. They were laden with a cargo of miscellaneous articles--a kettle, a pan, some plates, and various tins.
    "It's like a young removal," said Claudia.
    "Or emigrating to the wilds of Canada," laughed Lorraine. "I've brought an enamelled mug, because it doesn't break like a teacup, and a little old Britannia metal teapot that I prigged from the attic. It was only going to be sent to a rummage sale, so we may just as well have it."
    "Do mermaids drink tea, please?"
    "No doubt they do when they can get it. Perhaps the smugglers taught them how."
    Morland had intended to give the girls a surprise, and when they entered the grotto their amazement quite came up to his expectations. The cave seemed truly transformed into a sea-nymphs' palace. Landry had worked untiringly all the week picking up shells, and these were arranged in patterns, with