The water of Goose Lake was choppy and the steamer was late, but Samantha and Nellie finally arrived at the dock at Piney Point and made their way up to the cabins.
“Shall we set up housekeeping in one of the small cabins?”
asked Nellie.
“I’d rather not,” answered Samantha, “The beds are lumpy and the roofs sometimes leak.”
They were agreed to move into the Lodge, so they could each have a room to themselves and be close to the kitchen.
They quickly settled into a casual routine. They hiked the forest trails.
They made the traditional annual visit to the site of Fort Augusta Sophia to lay flowers on little Charlotte Fitzwarren’s grave.
Then they had a nice picnic nearby.
They carried out a new tradition and left out a bowl of bread and milk on Midsummer’s Eve so that the fairies would leave them alone for another year.
They were not surprised the next morning to find the bowl empty.
One particularly lazy afternoon, Samantha found Nellie sitting outside the Lodge with a very frivolous book.
“It is highly unusual,” she said, “for so little to happen while we are here. No one has gotten lost, we weren’t attacked by angry fairies, and we haven’t discovered any long-lost graves.”
“I’m perfectly content,” replied Nellie, “to just relax in the woods by the water, and not read anything challenging or improving.”
So that is what she did.
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