"The garden will be sheltered," Elfrida suggested.
"Supposing we have a go at the lily pool," said Ronnie. "You want it cleared out, don't you?"
Patrick had been looking rather dejected, but he perked up at the idea of cleaning out the lily pool. They went back and changed into their oldest cothes and spent the rest of the morning raking out the weeds. It was an arduous job, and Elfrida felt bad about using her guests like this, but they assured her that there was nothing they enjoyed more than grubbing about and getting dirty. By lunchtime the job was finished. They stood and surveyed their handiwork.
"Do you think frogs would be happy here?" asked Patrick.
"Frogs would be fun! Why shouldn't they be happy here? Now, where could we get frogs?..."
As they walked back to the house, Elfrida talked about Mr. Jeremy Fisher and his relations, and was pleased to discover that Ronnie's education had not been neglected. However, little Patrick's had been; he had never heard of Mr. Fisher.
"This must be remedied at once," said Ronnie gravely. "We'll go over to town this afternoon after lunch and see if we can get some of those little books for you."
...His car was a battered little two-seater which Ronnie had bought secondhand, but Patrick was tucked in between his two companions and all three were very comfortable. They bought as many of the little books as they could find in the bookshops, and then had tea together in a small teashop.
-- adapted from D.E. Stevenson, The House on the Cliff (London: William Collins, 1966)