Help us to fill the kettle again as soon as you can, and fetch some more sticks and gorse, you black-eyed Susan!" "Where's the milk-can ?" asked Gertrude uneasily.
"I put it in the stream as you told me," replied the orphan rather sulkily, indicating with a nod the location.
Decidedly anxious as to its safety, the girls ran to the water-side.
They always put the can in a particular little sheltered corner fenced in by a few stones.

Susannah had helped them to place it there many times, and had even named the spot "the dairy".

They looked in vain.

The milk was certainly not there now.
"What in the name of thunder have you done with the can, you wretched imp ?" shouted Addie, thoroughly angry.
"You said it ought to keep very cool, so I threw it into the deep pool.
'Tain't my fault," retorted Susannah, who had a temper as well as her benefactresses.
"I've half a mind to throw you after it!" raged Gertie, her fingers twitching to shake the luckless orphan.
Perhaps Susannah's experienced eye gauged the extent of her wrath, and decided that for once she had gone too far.

She did not wait to proffer any more explanations, but turned and fled back towards the house, resuming her neglected pan-scouring in the scullery with a zeal that astonished the cook.
Addie and Gertie replenished the camp-fire and refilled the kettle; but the cakes were hopeless, and the milk was beyond recall.