Free They Found a Cave by Nan Chauncy Page A

went back to bed at once, except Cherry, who peeped first to make sure the goats were not disturbed in their cave beyond.

8
Raid on the Homestead
    Cherry rolled over sleepily and heard Nippy feeding his cat, and the other three boys talking at the mouth of the cave. Sunshine bathed the top of the valley, and some small clouds were still tinted by the dawn with the unreal pink of a birthday cake.
    â€˜Come and look,’ she heard Tas call, and instantly remembered the events of the night. Springing out of bed, she ran to join them.
    It was a huge gum-tree which had heeled over and crashed its length head-down towards the valley. It had fallen at such an angle that only its base, covered in clay in which stones were embedded, and the vast roots which clutched the air like the many arms of an octopus, could be seen from where they stood. A discussion began about how to dispose of it.
    â€˜Why not cut the branches and haul them into the cave for winter firewood?’ Brick suggested.
    â€˜Might, later on,’ Nigel yawned. ‘Lots to do first.’
    â€˜Crikey, no! It must be cut green or it’ll be like iron,’ Tas informed them, ‘only I think we’d best not touch it at all. If we make chips round, it’s like writing our name on a door-plate for Pa, if he should happen to come this way. Leave it be!’
    â€˜Quite the best idea of all,’ agreed Nigel heartily. ‘What sort of a gum is it, anyway?’
    â€˜Oh, just a gum, what they call white gum or manna gum.’
    â€˜Is that all? No other names?’
    â€˜Oh, yes,’ Tas grinned, ‘Mad Dad calls it “Viminalis” too. Leastways, he’d say this one wasn’t quite true. See the blue bloom on its leaves? They grow like this up here on the sandstone. Reckon if there are six hundred kinds of gums, like Mad Dad says, they mostly look alike.’
    So eager was each one to get on with his own affairs that no one bothered to go down by Giant Steps and have a close look at the fallen tree. Its roots soon became an accepted part of the landscape, and certainly no one noticed what an excellent grandstand they made for seeing into Capra Cave.
    Â 
    Cherry’s round began with an accepted routine. First a race to the tarn with a rather grey towel held round like a shawl. A place well below the drinking-water spring had been set aside for a wash-place. Here Nippy had arranged a neat soap-box of stones with a rush lining, and had spread rushes for a bath mat over the oozing mud. In fact, as Brick had pointed out to him at the time, he did everything except use the place to wash himself. Nippy had smiled sweetly as he ran a black hand through his curls and answered that he liked doing things for other people, especially Brick. Words had so nearly passed to blows that Cherry, much shocked herself, hastily referred the matter to the High Court, which was Nigel. Oddly enough he didn’t seem nearly as upset as he should have been, Cherry considered.
    â€˜Does he wash himself every day?’ asked the Court.
    â€˜Oh, no. He bathes in the lower end of the tarn if it’s a hot day and he happens to feel like it, that’s all.’
    â€˜Clean his teeth?’
    â€˜No, I don’t clean my teeth,’ shouted Nippy himself, rushing in. ‘Why should I? Fluffles doesn’t use a toothbrush. Whoever heard of a cave-man with a toothbrush?’
    The High Court, sitting trimming a stick with a knife, selected a long splinter from the heap and held it up. ‘Perhaps a cave-man shaved off this sort of thing with a stone axe and used it,’ he suggested. ‘All right, Nippy, if you can make your own teeth gleam as bright as your cat’s with one of these…’
    And then the High Court, with decision apparently reserved, had pointed out to Brick and Cherry that the goats were getting too near the drinking water, weren’t they? Dismissed, they had gone off grumbling that Old Nig