Title: Tea and Thunder
Fandom: Swallows and Amazons
Rating: G
Length: 615 words
Content notes: set after "Pigeon Post". Follows on from Rain, but stands alone.
Summary: "As Susan lifted the boiling kettle off the campfire, Peggy ran down to the landing place to fetch the milk, which had been put in the water to keep cool." The Swallows, Amazons and Ds' first afternoon camping on Wild Cat again.

As Susan lifted the boiling kettle off the campfire, Peggy ran down to the landing place to fetch the milk, which had been put in the water to keep cool. Susan carefully poured out the tea into mugs, then hunted in her pockets for her whistle. A shrill blast brought everyone back to the camp from all corners of Wild Cat - Peggy was first with the milk; Titty and Dorothea, who had been gathering sticks for the woodpile on the pebbly beach, were right behind her; Roger and Dick raced down from the look-out point; and last, Nancy and John came hurrying back from the harbour, where they had taken Swallow and Amazon around after the camp had been set up.

They snatched up their mugs eagerly. Everyone had worked hard all day, ferrying all their tents, sleeping bags, and the thousand and one things that made up the camp from High Topps to Beckfoot to the island, and they were looking forward to a drink. The sugar was passed around, but when Peggy opened the milk bottle to add some to her tea she frowned.

“I say, Susan, do you think this milk smells all right?” she asked, holding out the bottle.

Susan sniffed it and looked dubious. “I’m not sure… I’d better have a taste before we all go splashing it into our tea.”

She looked around for a spoon, but Peggy forestalled her. Taking up her teaspoon, she poured a little milk into it and sipped, then grimaced violently.

“It’s turned sour! We can’t possibly drink it.”

Everyone looked glum at the news.

“We could go over to the farm and see if they can spare us some,” John said doubtfully.

“Fine galoots they’d think us, letting our milk go sour,” Nancy replied. “Shiver my timbers! We can go without for once. Just shove some cold water in if it’s too hot to drink.”

Since no-one wanted milk quite so badly as to leave their tea and rush off to the mainland, the idea was dropped, and the explorers drank.

“It’s not bad without milk, really,” Roger said, adding another lump of sugar to his mug, “so long as you get it sweet.”

“I don’t understand why the milk turned,” Peggy said. “It was in the water, and in the shade, you’d think it would have been fine.”

“It’s been jolly hot today,” John replied, but - as Titty pointed out - there had been plenty of days just as hot where the milk hadn’t turned sour.

“Don’t storms turn milk?” Dorothea asked. “Maybe we’re going to have one.”

“I think that’s when there’s already thunder,” Dick began to answer.

Roger cut across him with an excited, “Sammy the policeman told me there was going to be a storm when I met him in Rio today! Do you think our tents will hold up this time?”

The Ds hadn’t heard the story of the wild storm that had ravaged the camp in the Swallows’ first year on the Lake; now, several people hurried to tell it in full. Peggy, however, walked away from the group to look at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight; and, somewhat comforted by that, she returned to the rest. She had to admit it did sound exciting as Nancy was telling it, and rain was needed, but she hoped there wouldn’t be a thunderstorm. Her sister looked at her as if she could guess her thoughts, and flashed her a half-exasperated, half-reassuring look. Peggy grinned back. After all, it wasn’t thundering yet; and if it did, Nancy would stand by her, and she would do her best to behave as an Amazon pirate should.