Tell her she has been most bounteous and our gratitude is extreme.
And then forgetting his grandeur he fell to and stuffed himself with
buns and drank milk out of the pail in copious draughts in the manner
of any hungry little boy who had been taking unusual exercise and
breathing in moorland air and whose breakfast was more than two hours
behind him.
This was the beginning of many agreeable incidents of the same kind.
They actually awoke to the fact that as Mrs. Sowerby had fourteen
people to provide food for she might not have enough to satisfy two
extra appetites every day. So they asked her to let them send some of
their shillings to buy things.
Dickon made the stimulating discovery that in the wood in the park
outside the garden where Mary had first found him piping to the wild
creatures there was a deep little hollow where you could build a sort
of tiny oven with stones and roast potatoes and eggs in it. Roasted
eggs were a previously unknown luxury and very hot potatoes with salt
and fresh butter in them were fit for a woodland king besides being
deliciously satisfying. You could buy both potatoes and eggs and eat as
many as you liked without feeling as if you were taking food out of the
mouths of fourteen people.
Every beautiful morning the Magic was worked by the mystic circle under
the plum-tree which provided a canopy of thickening green leaves after
its brief blossom-time was ended. After the ceremony Colin always took
his walking exercise and throughout the day he exercised his newly
found power at intervals. Each day he grew stronger and could walk more
steadily and cover more ground. And each day his belief in the Magic
grew stronger as well it might. He tried one experiment after another
as he felt himself gaining strength and it was Dickon who showed him
the best things of all.
Yesterday, he said one morning after an absence, I went to Thwaite
for mother an near th Blue Cow Inn I seed Bob Haworth. He s the
strongest chap on th moor. He s the champion wrestler an he can jump
higher than any other chap an throw th hammer farther. He s gone all
th way to Scotland for th sports some years. He s knowed me ever
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