As it
was handed round (to everyone on the same knife), hunger, open-air, and
the exercise of the ant-hills caused it to be appreciated more than
usual, even beyond its deserts, if possible.
As the party were thus collected (mostly with their legs tucked away to
prevent the climbing operations of the black ants with which the ground
was swarming), The Instigator took this opportunity to try to rid
himself of some of the responsibility of the trip by calling a meeting
(the whole nine were already there), and putting it to the vote as to
whether The Kid, now that she had lost her companions the sheep, should
be turned adrift to find her way back again as best she could, drowned
in the lake, or allowed to accompany the party for the rest of the
journey. A wild gleam of joy lit the eyes of everyone who knew anything
of her at this prospect of getting rid of the trial. Both the ladies,
and everyone who had known her for longer than the week, voted, hands
and feet, for her extinction, but four of the men were foolishly too
polite to express their real wishes. So she herself was left with the
casting vote, and chose to go on! Thus The Instigator's well-thought
plan to remove an incubus was frustrated. He was so disgusted with his
failure in a laudable object that, directly after "lunch" (which meant
each one cutting off from the half-sheep, that was handed round, the
piece he or she preferred), he went off with his microscope trying to
find other interests, and in a few minutes was growing unduly excited
over a shrub on which he discovered some most unusual excrescences.
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