He Makes Peace and Declares War
For some moments after Nancy had rowed away Peggy and the Swallows stared after her in silence. No one knew exactly what she was going to do.
“Perhaps I ought not to have told her about it,” John said at last.
“Rubbish,” said Susan. “She’d have been bound to hear about it sooner or later. Let’s get the Amazons’ tent up before she comes back.”
“Let’s,” said Peggy. “We’ve got all the things here. Nancy brought the poles.”
“Oughtn’t we to take Swallow and go and help her?” said Titty.
“Better not,” said Peggy. “If she’d wanted help she wouldn’t have gone alone.”
She unrolled her big white bundle. It was a tent but not made like the tents of the Swallows.
“Where are those poles?” she said. “They’re all in two pieces. You fit them together and get four all the same length. Then you push them into the hems at the corners of the tent. They’re a horribly tight fit. The first two are easy enough, but after that it’s awful, because it’s so difficult to keep the hem straight for the pole to go in. I say, if your able-seaman and the boy will hang on to the other end and keep it stretched out, it’ll be easier.”
Everybody helped. The poles were put together, like fishing rods, and pushed into the hems. At the top of the hems there were little bags for