Friends visited us throughout the: following summer. I had no idea we had so many. They liked to drop in on us after a tramp, and we gave them baths and supper and Put them up in the caravan. On a hot day at teatime the lawn was gay with chattering girls in bright scarves and breeches, and young nien in shorts who pranced about on our fine turf and made holes in i: their hobnailed boots We drying their clothes and making up beds for them in the caravan; and Jack got rather irritable and said that he was not a Communist, and resented lending his flannel trousers to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that came along.
We came up early and alone the next summer, so as to capture th delights of it before the crowds descended on us. We were able to go for walks at last, and we had ng, lazy days to do as we pleased with. The electric light was a great advantage, and late in the evenings we read aloud to each other. I painted the woodwork of the cottage apple green, and made curtains and cushion ' covers to match, and I had lamp shades made of orange sill to soften the light.
These were happy days, ard Took back on thea with pleasure, but scme how I don't want them ever again, Wo go. less ant less tothe cottage now, "ud for Anzost we Fave booked rooms at an hutd.
Iz may be that we really take no true joy in the country, and only imagined that we did. Our friends have not frightened us away for we still love them well enough, and what we have is theirs. And of course, we will never lose our love for climbing the fells and rowing on the lake But in some way the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.