‘. . . and it completely changes the look of everything,’ Glenys finished for him.

Somehow the simple fact that they both knew the children’s classic made it easier to laugh with him when he said, longingly: ‘And after that they found Badger’s front door and sat down to an excellent supper in his kitchen, and next morning there was oatmeal porridge and buttered toast for breakfast. What a pity we aren’t Mole and Rat, for I fear we’ll have to do without any breakfast at all today.’

As they talked Glenys had been following his suggestion that they should dismantle the bed so that the cottage would look as it had done on the previous day, though judging from the look of the place no one had been here for many weeks. Now she dusted her hands and stood back. ‘My mouth waters even at the thought of a cold drink,’ she admitted. ‘Aren’t you thirsty, Sam? My mouth is so dry it’s like a desert. In fact as soon as I’ve got my boots back on I shall go outside and eat some snow.’

Sam, shrugging himself into his duffel coat, nodded agreement. ‘There’d have been a well within a few yards of the back door,’ he observed. He caught her arm and pulled her over to the window. ‘See that mound? That, I’m sure, will be all that’s left of the well, and the mound next to it will be the shed where the good man who once lived in this cottage kept his tools.’

‘I see,’ Glenys said. She looked shyly up at the man beside her. ‘Or perhaps it was the privy.’

Sam looked down at her, a grin hovering. ‘I doubt that there ever was one; such niceties do not always extend to a solitary cottage,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to do as the cottagers once did; see the other mound, the much shorter one? I reckon that’s the muck heap. If you go round the far side of it you’ll be out of sight – not that I’d dream of peeping, mind you.’

Glenys glared. ‘I should hope not,’ she said tartly. ‘And as soon as I’ve – I’ve taken advantage of the facilities I think I should come with you to the hill. Then, if there are still no landmarks, we can simply keep walking until we see something that we do recognise.’

Sam agreed with this infinitely sensible plan, and as soon as Glenys was ready they set off, closing the cottage door behind them. ‘Because if anyone else is benighted and lost in a blizzard I wouldn’t like to think we had ruined the only shelter for miles,’ he said. Turning to take one last look at the cottage, Glenys realised for the first time that others had come this way in the night, for she saw a great many slotted footprints where sheep had taken advantage of whatever shelter the broken-down walls of the cottage afforded, and some human footprints, too.