"It'll be an awfully long day," said Robin.
"Yes," said Peter and Jan.
"We'd better do something then," said Robin.
"Yes," said Peter and Jan again.
But it was difficult to know exactly what to do! For to-day was the day on which the Lennox cousins were to arrive—Dick and Donald, who had been invited to spend the last weeks of the holidays with the Vaughans. The Vaughans had been looking forward to this day immensely, but now it had come at last they felt that they could hardly get through the hours before their visitors would actually arrive. There would be "tons of things," as Peter said, "to do then," but there seemed nothing to do to-day.
"Let's go over to the Island," said Robin at last.
The island lay in the middle of the river that flowed at the bottom of the Vaughans' garden; it was only the work of a few minutes to pull across to the wooded little place where Brown the gardener had his cottage, but where, otherwise, the birds had it pretty much to themselves, as Jan said.
