You may think it but the work of a moment to fit out an expedition, but this is not so, especially when you know not whether your exploring party is speeding to Central Africa or merely to the world of icebergs and the Polar bear.
Dicky wished to take the wood-axe, the coal hammer, a blanket, and a mackintosh.
H.O.brought a large faggot in case we had to light fires, and a pair of old skates he had happened to notice in the box-room, in case the expedition turned out icy.
Noel had nicked a dozen boxes of matches, a spade, and a trowel, and had also obtained--I know not by what means--a jar of pickled onions.
Denny had a walking-stick--we can't break him of walking with it--a book to read in case he got tired of being a discoverer, a butterfly net and a box with a cork in it, a tennis ball, if we happened to want to play rounders in the pauses of exploring, two towels and an umbrella in the event of camping or if the river got big enough to bathe in or to be fallen into.
Alice had a comforter for Noel in case we got late, a pair of scissors and needle and cotton, two whole candles in case of caves.
And she had thoughtfully brought the tablecloth off the small table in the dining-room, so that we could make all the things up into one bundle and take it in turns to carry it.
Oswald had fastened his master mind entirely on grub.

Nor had the others neglected this.
All the stores for the expedition were put down on the tablecloth and the corners tied up.

Then it was more than even Oswald's muscley arms could raise from the ground, so we decided not to take it, but only the best-selected grub.

The rest we hid in the straw loft, for there are many ups and downs in life, and grub is grub at any time, and so are stores of all kinds.

The pickled onions we had to leave, but not for ever.
Then Dora and Daisy came along with their arms round each other's necks as usual, like a picture on a grocer's almanac, and said they weren't coming.
It was, as I have said, a blazing hot day, and there were differences of opinion among the explorers about what eatables we ought to have taken, and H.O.had lost one of his garters and wouldn't let Alice tie it up with her handkerchief, which the gentle sister was quite willing to do.
So it was a rather gloomy expedition that set off that bright sunny day to seek the source of the river where Cleopatra sailed in Shakespeare (or the frozen plains Mr Nansen wrote that big book about).
But the balmy calm of peaceful Nature soon made the others less cross--Oswald had not been cross exactly but only disinclined to do anything the others wanted--and by the time we had followed the stream a little way, and had seen a water-rat and shied a stone or two at him, harmony was restored.