They Found a Cave by Nan Chauncy Page B

bedding, and introduce them to their own cave. This was to be the big one where lay the secret entrance into Capra Cave.
    Nippy stared after her, wonderingly. This was a Cherry quite new to his experience. There and then he put Fluffles down and went to fetch sticks to pile beside the fireplace, feeling all the time more surprised at himself than he knew she would be to find him hard at work. He had been so tired by excitement and the hot climb that he had intended to resist firmly any efforts to make him work, but somehow it took all the kick out of things when she left him sitting there in useless triumph. He worked hard, and was rewarded later by her obvious astonishment when she came in. They grinned at one another and she handed him a mug of new milk without a word, and a billy lid as a saucer for Fluffles’ share.
    â€˜The goats are so curious about everything,’ she told him, ‘they even tried to poke their heads in here. I’m sure they approve and will settle down happily, though I have tied the two leaders, Lily and Angela, by long chains to a sapling, so they can’t lead the rest off grazing too early in the morning. You should see them all sitting contentedly chewing—all except the kids. Rufty and Tufty are chasing each other up the most frightful crags, but their parents don’t bat an eyelid. Pity some human parents aren’t like that, isn’t it? Now I must get tea ready. Whatever shall I do for a table?’
    â€˜A table? What for? People who live in caves don’t use tables ,’ he scoffed.
    â€˜Then Fluffles will drink the milk and eat up everything. People who live in caves shouldn’t keep cats.’
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    The mountain tops were drenched with colour from the setting sun, and the light inside the cave was growing dim when the three staggered in with the last load of the day. They were too tired to talk, only stating briefly that Pa Pinner had seen them and given chase to Brick, who had escaped by dodging round a tree.
    They scarcely noticed Cherry’s efforts to set out a meal on a table constructed of flat sandstones, but the chops, which Tas had ‘pinched’ together with the Pinners’ Sunday joint and the meat safe in which they had all hung; the chops, grilled to a nicety on the red embers of the fire; oh, those chops , giving out the most enticing smell for the noses of the hungry ones who gnawed them to the last suck of marrow; those chops gnawed from black fingers; ah!—it was the chops which remained as a memory always of that first night in Capra Cave!
    Later, when Nippy fed twists of bark to the fire to make it give more light, Cherry moved everything away carefully to shelves beyond the reach of Fluffles. Then she went out to see that all was well in the goat cave. It was not quite dark outside and the tarn hugged a few last gleams to itself from the sky. Except for the noise of the frogs all was still and utterly peaceful.
    The goats looked up from their contented chewing and watched her with their long amber eyes. She whispered ‘Sleep well!’ as she paused a moment breathing in the cool air, and drawing deep the peace of the bush. They continued to chew and stare indifferently at her, while the kids copied their elders and bulged comic cheeks with cud, like children with too-large bull’s-eyes in their mouths. As she lingered, thinking of the day’s events and the great unknown tomorrow, the mother goats began to droop their heads sleepily towards the ground.
    Nippy was already curled in the blankets, with Fluffles on top, when she returned. At the fire Tas was cooking himself a last supper chop, and explaining carefully to Brick how it should be done. ‘Must be red and juicy inside, see? Hold it right in the flame a minute on each side to seal the juice in, like. Let the fat catch fire if it wants—tastes better so. Cripes! It’s done!’
    A spurt of light showed the two crouched by the fire,