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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Merryweathers
+
+Author: Laura E. Richards
+
+Illustrator: Julia Ward Richards
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2008 [EBook #25505]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRYWEATHERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+[Illustration: "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL."]
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+BY
+
+LAURA E. RICHARDS
+
+        AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN
+        HILDEGARDE," "GEOFFREY STRONG," ETC.
+
+  =Illustrated by=
+  JULIA WARD RICHARDS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+        BOSTON
+        DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+        PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+        _Copyright, 1904_
+        BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+
+        =Colonial Press=
+        Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
+        Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                TO
+
+           H. H. F., Jr.
+
+     WITH AFFECTIONATE GREETING.
+
+
+
+
+FOR REMEMBRANCE
+
+
+          The sunlight falls in gold upon the golden fields,
+        The ruffling wave gives back the sky in blue;
+          The asters fringe the meadow's skirts in purple pride,
+        And proud the goldenrod is standing, too.
+
+          Oh! clear and far across the lonely water,
+        The wild bird calls his mate at close of day;
+          My heart cries out, my heart cries out in answer,
+        And oh, I fondly think of them that's far away.
+
+          Oh, fair the fields where now their feet are treading!
+        Oh, green the trees that blossom o'er their head!
+          Oh, deep and sweet the skies above them spreading,
+        And on their hearth the fire-glow warm and red!
+
+          Still may they hear, across the lonely water,
+        The wild bird call his mate at close of day;
+          Still may their hearts, still may their hearts make answer;
+        Still may they kindly think of them that's far away!
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+     I. THE ARRIVAL                                   11
+
+    II. THE CAMP                                      26
+
+   III. AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN                      39
+
+    IV. AFTER THE PICNIC                              55
+
+     V. KITTY AND WILLY                               75
+
+    VI. A DISCUSSION                                  90
+
+   VII. WATER PLAY                                   106
+
+  VIII. THE MAIL                                     119
+
+    IX. MR. BELLEVILLE                               138
+
+     X. PUPPY PLAY                                   155
+
+    XI. MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL                    171
+
+   XII. "SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT"         186
+
+  XIII. ABOUT VISITING                               204
+
+   XIV. MOONLIGHT AGAIN                              220
+
+    XV. CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS                    239
+
+   XVI. ON THE DOWN                                  259
+
+  XVII. THE SNOWY OWL                                273
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                           PAGE
+
+  "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL" (_See page 281_)  _Frontispiece_
+
+  "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS'"              28
+
+  "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"                                81
+
+  "'COME ON! COME IN!'"                                    107
+
+  "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH"          138
+
+  MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL                                175
+
+  "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I"                217
+
+  "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE
+      MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE"                               233
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE ARRIVAL
+
+
+"OH, Peggy, I am afraid!"
+
+"Why, Margaret!"
+
+"Yes, I am. I feel very shy and queer, going among strangers. You see, I
+have never really been away in my life; never in this way, I mean. I was
+always with father; and then--afterward--I went to Fernley; and though
+so many people have come into my life, dear, delightful people, I have
+never somehow gone into theirs. And now, to go into a whole great big
+family, only two of whom--I mean which--oh, dear me! I don't know what I
+mean, but I have only seen two of them, you know, and it is formidable,
+you will admit, Peggy."
+
+"Well, I feel just a scrap queer myself," said Peggy; "but I never
+thought you would. And anyhow, we needn't; we both know the boys so
+well, and though you have not actually seen the Snowy, you really know
+her very well. Darling thing! Oh, I cannot wait till we get there! Do
+you think we ever _shall_ get there, Margaret? This is the longest
+journey I ever made in my life."
+
+"How about the journey from Ohio?"
+
+"Oh, that is different. I know all the places along the road, and they
+slip by before one can think. Besides, a long journey always seems
+shorter, because you know it is long. Well, you needn't laugh, you know
+perfectly well what I mean. Oh, Margaret, I saw a glimpse of blue behind
+the trees. Do you suppose that is the lake? do you think we are nearly
+there? Oh! I am so excited! Is my hat on straight?"
+
+Margaret Montfort, by way of reply, straightened her cousin's hat, and
+then proceeded to administer sundry coaxing pats to her hair and her
+ribbons.
+
+"You are a trifle flyaway, dear!" she said. "There! now, when you have
+taken the black smut off your nose, you will be as trim as possible. Am
+I all right?"
+
+"You!" said Peggy, with a despairing look, as she rubbed away at her
+nose; "as if you ever had a pin or an eyelash out of place! Margaret,
+how _do_ you do it? Why does dust avoid you, and cling to me as if I
+were its last refuge? How do you make your collar stay like that? I
+don't see why I was born a Misfit Puzzle. Oh--ee! there _is_ the lake!
+just look, how blue it is! Oh! Margaret, I _must_ scream!"
+
+"You must _not_ scream!" said Margaret with quiet decision, pulling
+Peggy down into the seat beside her. "You must be good, and sit still.
+See! that old gentleman is watching us, Peggy. He will be scandalized
+if you carry on so."
+
+"He doesn't look a bit scandalized; he looks awfully jolly."
+
+"Peggy!"
+
+"Well, he does, Margaret. Do you suppose Mr. Merryweather is anything
+like that? _Margaret!_"
+
+"What is it, Peggy? _please_ don't speak so loud!"
+
+"Perhaps it _is_ Mr. Merryweather. I think--I am almost perfectly sure
+it must be. Why, he is positively staring at us. It _must_ be Mr.
+Merryweather!"
+
+"Is Mr. Merryweather specially addicted to staring? I should not suppose
+so. This gentleman is not in the least my idea of Mr. Merryweather; and
+if he does stare,--there! he is looking away now,--it is because he sees
+a great big girl dancing and jumping in her seat as if she were Polly
+Peppercorn."
+
+"Next station Merryweather!" chanted the brakeman.
+
+"There! Margaret, he is getting his things together. It is! it _is_, I
+tell you. Oh! I _shall_ scream!"
+
+Peggy's threat was uttered in so loud a stage whisper, that Margaret
+looked up in alarm, fearing that the gentleman must have heard. She met
+a glance so kind, so twinkling with sympathetic merriment, that she
+smiled in spite of herself.
+
+The gentleman lifted his hat, instantly, and stepped forward. He was not
+tall, but broad and muscular, with keen, dark eyes that sparkled under
+shaggy white eyebrows; a most vigorous, positive-looking old gentleman.
+
+"A thousand pardons!" he said, in a deep, gruff voice which was the very
+essence of heartiness. "You also are getting off at Merryweather, young
+ladies? I beg the privilege of assisting you with your parcels; I
+insist upon it! Permit me, madam!" and he took possession of Margaret's
+travelling-bag, Margaret blushing and protesting, while Peggy's blue
+eyes grew to absolute circles, and her little mouth opened to another.
+
+"You are very kind!" said Margaret. "Indeed, I can carry it
+perfectly--thank you so very much! Yes, we are going to Mr.
+Merryweather's camp. Do you know--"
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "Astonishing! Going there
+myself. Permit me to introduce myself--Colonel Ferrers, at your
+service."
+
+He lifted his hat again, and bowed low.
+
+"Our name is Montfort," said Margaret timidly, attracted and yet alarmed
+by his explosive utterance, so different from the quiet speech of the
+Montfort men.
+
+"Not John's daughters!" cried the Colonel. "I'll be shot if you are
+John's daughters!"
+
+"Oh! no," cried Margaret, her eyes lightening. "Not his daughters, but
+his nieces. Do you know Uncle John, Colonel Ferrers?"
+
+"Know John Montfort? know the nose on my face? not that there is any
+resemblance; fine-looking man. I have known John Montfort, my dear young
+ladies, ever since he was in petticoats. John, Dick, Jim, Roger--fine
+lads! used to stay at Roseholme--my place in Dutchess County--forty
+years ago. School-boys when I was in college. All over the place,
+climbing, hunting, fishing, falling off the roofs--great boys! haven't
+heard of them for twenty years. Where are they now? all living, I--eh,
+what?"
+
+"My father, Roger Montfort, is dead," said Margaret, softly; "so is
+Uncle Richard. Uncle John and Uncle James are living, Colonel Ferrers;
+this is Uncle James's daughter. Peggy dear, Colonel Ferrers! and I live
+with Uncle John at Fernley House. Oh! how delightful to meet some one
+who knows Uncle John!"
+
+"Pleasure is mine, I assure you!" said the Colonel, gallantly. "Harry
+Monmouth! takes me back forty years. Knew Roger, your father, well, Miss
+Montfort. Great scholar; fine fellow! nose in his books all day long,
+just like my brother Raymond; great chums, Roger and Raymond. I remember
+once--ha! here we are!"
+
+"Merryweather!" shouted the brakeman. The train drew up beside a little
+wayside station. On one side of the track, a platform and a shed, with a
+few barrels and boxes lying about; on the other, a long stretch of dark
+blue water, ruffling into brown where the wind swept it.
+
+The three travellers, emerging, found three persons awaiting them on the
+platform. Gerald Merryweather was first, his hand on the rail, his face
+alight with joy and eagerness; close beside him was another person, a
+tall girl in gray, at sight of whom Peggy, who had been apparently
+stricken dumb by the aspect of Colonel Ferrers, shouted aloud and
+tumbled off the car-step, to the imminent peril of life and limb.
+
+"Snowy! Snowy! is it really you?"
+
+"You dear Peggy!" cried Gertrude Merryweather, taking her in her arms,
+and giving her a hearty kiss. "I am _so_ glad! and this is Margaret--oh!
+welcome, most welcome, to Merryweather! Dear Colonel Ferrers, how do you
+do? it was so good of you to come! But where is Hugh? haven't you
+brought him?"
+
+Colonel Ferrers drew her a step aside.
+
+"My dear Gertrude," he said, in a confidential tone, "there is no need
+of my telling _you_ that Hugh is one of the most astonishing--I will say
+_the_ most astonishing boy I ever saw in my life. Expected to come;
+looking forward to it for weeks, greatest pleasure of the summer.
+Yesterday morning, Elizabeth Beadle had an attack of lumbago; painful
+thing; confined to her bed; excellent woman, none better in the world.
+Never could understand why good people should have lumbago; excellent
+complaint for scoundrels; excellent! well, the boy--his great-aunt, you
+understand!--refuses to leave her. Says she likes to have him read to
+her! Preposterous! I insisted, Elizabeth Beadle insisted, with tears in
+her eyes; tears, sir! I mean my dear! Boy immovable; Gibraltar
+vacillating beside him; tottering, sir, on its foundations. I had to
+come away and leave him, perfectly happy, reading Tennyson to Elizabeth
+Beadle. Ask somebody else to coerce a boy like that; Thomas Ferrers is
+not the man for it. Where's my Cochin China Chittagong?"
+
+"Jack?" said Gertrude, laughing. "He is behind the shed, with the
+horses. The old horse doesn't like the train, and will not stand tying.
+As soon as Jerry gets the trunks--"
+
+"Checks?" cried the Colonel, in answer to Gerald's request. "Two of
+them, sir. Sole-leather trunk, green carpet-bag. Anything for me by
+express? box, hamper, basket, that sort of thing, eh, what?"
+
+"I should think there was, sir!" said Gerald. "A basket of peaches as
+big as the camp, or very near it; and a hamper that says 'salmon!' as
+plainly as if it could speak. You're awfully good, sir!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort!" retorted the Colonel. "Pity if I can't have a
+little gratification once in a way. Ah! there is my Cochin China--how
+are you, sir, how are you? prancing, as usual, like an Egyptian
+war-horse. Come here, and be introduced to the Miss Montforts! We are in
+luck, sir! Miss Montfort, Miss--eh? thank you! Miss Peggy Montfort, my
+nephew, John Ferrers. Here sir! take the bags, will you? Which way,
+Gerald? eh? what?"
+
+While the colonel was explaining (and exploding) to Gerald and Gertrude,
+and Margaret looking and listening in quiet amusement, Peggy had been
+hanging back, overcome in her turn by the shyness which her companion
+had conquered. But now Gertrude took her by the hand, and while the
+trunks were being hoisted on the wagon by Gerald and Jack, aided by a
+tall and powerful lad in blue overalls, the two walked up and down the
+little platform in earnest talk. Fragments of it reached Margaret where
+she stood, as they passed and repassed.
+
+"Yes, last week. She is very well, she says, and fluffier than ever, on
+account of the heat. She has enjoyed her school very much. She wanted
+Grace to join her, and I think she might have, if all this had not come
+about. Oh, Peggy, I was so glad!"
+
+"Blissful, my dear, is no word for it! they have no eyes for any one
+else. He can't remember that there is any one else, and she--"
+
+"Well, I always said that if Grace did care for any one--"
+
+"Yes, in October. The wedding is to be at Fernley, and--"
+
+"Anybody coming with me?" inquired Gerald, wistfully. "Margaret, will
+you risk life and limb with me and the old horse?"
+
+"With pleasure!" said Margaret. "Is he very wild? He doesn't look so."
+
+"Only by comparison with the young horse!" said Gerald. "Jacob, don't
+strain your back lifting that carpet-bag!"
+
+Jacob, the youth in blue overalls, smiled calmly, and swung a large
+trunk over his shoulder as if it were a hand-satchel.
+
+"It's you I'm scared about, Gerald," he said slowly; "fear you'll do
+yourself a hurt pulling on the reins. Frank hasn't been out since
+yesterday."
+
+"I'll risk him!" said Gerald. "Now, Margaret." He held out his hand, and
+Margaret stepped lightly up to the seat of the Concord wagon.
+
+"Now," said Gerald, "Jack, if you'll drive the beach-wagon--is that all
+right, Toots?"
+
+"Certainly!" said Gertrude. "Peggy, you and I will sit together behind;
+that is, if you do not mind the front seat, Colonel Ferrers? So! all
+right now, Jack! we'd better let the old horse go first, for he doesn't
+like to stay behind the new one. Oh! Jacob! how are you going home? we
+must make room for you somewhere."
+
+"I'll go across lots," said the blue youth, "and be there to take the
+horses when you get there. You better hurry them up the least mite, so's
+I sha'n't have to wait too long!"
+
+With a benign smile he vaulted over a five-barred gate, and went with a
+long, leisurely stride across the fields.
+
+"He'll run when he gets round the corner!" said Gerald. "I know that's
+the way he does it. Get up, Frank! do _play_ you are alive, just for
+once. Oh, Margaret, I am so glad to see you. I thought September would
+never come. It has been the longest summer I ever knew. Haven't you
+found it so?"
+
+"Why, no!" said truthful Margaret. "It has seemed very short to me."
+
+"Oh, well, of course it has been short too, summers always are; like the
+dachshund!"
+
+"The dachshund!" repeated Margaret. "What can a dachshund have to do
+with summer, Gerald?"
+
+"A description I once heard," said Gerald. "I was walking with Beppo, my
+dachs, and a little boy stopped to look at him. 'Ain't he long?' he
+said. 'My! ain't he short?' Even so summer. Oh, I _am_ glad to see you.
+Get up, Frank!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CAMP
+
+
+[Illustration: "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS.'"]
+
+A LONG, low, irregular building, with a wide verandah in front, the lake
+rippling and ruffling almost up to the piers; beyond, great hills
+rolling up and away. To right and left, boat-houses and tents; hammocks
+swung between the trees, fishing-rods ranged along the sides of the
+building. This was the Camp. As the wagons drove up, Mrs. Merryweather
+hurried from the house, and Mr. Merryweather and Phil came up with long
+strides from the wharf. Amid a chorus of eager welcome, a babel of
+questions and answers, the travellers were helped out and escorted to
+the verandah.
+
+"Most welcome, all!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "Are you very tired? No?
+that is good! Well, but you must be hungry, I am sure. There are
+doughnuts and milk on the table; or if you would rather have tea--"
+
+"They are not hungry, Miranda!" said Mr. Merryweather. "They cannot be
+hungry at three o'clock. Dined at Wayport, Ferrers? Of course! Jack,
+show your uncle his tent! Miss Montfort--"
+
+"I'll show them the way, Papa!" said Gertrude. "Where is Bell, Mammy?
+Oh, there she is! Bell, here are Margaret and Peggy; girls, this is
+Bell!"
+
+Bell Merryweather, a sturdy, blue-eyed girl with the general aspect of a
+snow apple, greeted the guests with a hearty shake of a powerful hand,
+and a cordial smile.
+
+"We have been looking forward so to your coming!" she said. "Don't you
+want to come out to your tent? Here, I'll take your bag, Margaret; shall
+I say 'Margaret' at once? it will be so much nicer. This way!"
+
+She led the way, Margaret following, Gertrude and Peggy after them,
+still talking eagerly. A row of flagstones led past the boat-house, and
+on under solemn pines and feathery birches to where a line of tents
+stood facing the water.
+
+"Here is yours," said Bell; "next to ours, this big one; we are three,
+you see. Yours is small, but I hope you can be comfortable."
+
+"Comfortable!" echoed Peggy; "I should think so! Oh, Margaret, do look!
+how perfect everything is! Oh, what ducky beds! the red blankets are
+just like home; our boys have red blankets. Oh, I shall be perfectly
+happy here!"
+
+Margaret, accustomed to the wide spaces and ample closets of Fernley
+House, was a little bewildered at the first glance around her. The tent
+was hardly bigger than the stateroom of a moderate-sized steamer. Could
+two persons live here in anything approaching comfort? A second glance
+showed her how compactly and conveniently everything was arranged. The
+narrow cots, with their scarlet blankets and blue check pillows,
+stood on either side; between them was a table, with blotter of birch
+bark, and an inkstand made by hollowing out a quaintly shaped piece of
+wood and sinking in the hollow a small glass tumbler. Above the head of
+each bed hung a long shoe-bag with many pockets, while opposite the foot
+were rows of hooks for dresses, a shelf on which stood pitcher, basin,
+etc., and a chest of drawers. All was fresh, neat, and tidy.
+
+"Yes, I am sure we shall be happy!" said Margaret, repeating Peggy's
+words.
+
+"Here is the hook for your lantern," said Bell. "Here is a little jar
+for crackers, but be sure to keep it covered, or the squirrels will
+carry them off. I hope you will not mind a squirrel coming in now and
+then? they are so tame, they come hopping in to see if we have anything
+for them; I often leave a bit of something."
+
+"Oh! what fun!" said Peggy. "I love to tame squirrels. Ours at home will
+come and eat from our hands. Will yours do that?"
+
+"Not often; at least, not for me. The boys can bring them sometimes. I
+think they like boys best. But I have a dear little field-mouse who
+brings me her babies to look at now and then, just to show me how they
+are growing. There, now, we go on chattering, when I know you ought to
+rest awhile, and unpack and stow away. It takes quite a bit of planning
+for two persons to fit into a tent. By and by, when you are all settled,
+would you like to go out on the water? Hurrah! we'll come for you. Come
+on, Toots!"
+
+The two sisters walked slowly down the long slip that led to the
+floating wharf, and sat down with their feet hanging over the edge.
+
+"Well, Bell!" said Gertrude, eagerly.
+
+"Well!" said Bell, slowly.
+
+"What do you think of them? Isn't she lovely? and isn't Peggy a dear?"
+
+"Yes," said Bell. "I think you have just hit it, Toots. Peggy is a dear;
+just a hearty, jolly dear; but Margaret is lovely. Do you see a little
+hint of Hilda? I can't tell where it is; not in the features, certainly,
+nor in the coloring. I think it is in the brow and eyes; a kind of noble
+look; I don't know how else to put it. You wouldn't say anything false
+or base to this girl, any more than you would to Hilda; you wouldn't
+dare. My lamb! I speak as if falseness and baseness were the usual note
+of your conversation."
+
+"I thought you were a trifle severe," said Gertrude, smiling. "Well,
+anyhow, it is a joy to have them here, and dear Colonel Ferrers, too.
+What shall we do this evening? Here come the boys for a council."
+
+The twins, Gerald and Phil, came running down the wharf, followed by
+Jack Ferrers. The latter, whom some of my readers may have known as an
+awkward, "leggy" boy, was now a man. Very tall, towering three or four
+inches above the six-foot Merryweathers, he still kept his boyish
+slenderness and spring, though the awkward angles were somehow softened
+away. He no longer stooped and shambled, but held his head up and his
+shoulders back; and if he did still prance, as his uncle declared, like
+the Mighty Ones of Scripture, it was not an ungraceful prancing.
+Briefly, Jack Ferrers was a fine-looking fellow.
+
+"Council of War?" asked Gerald; "or do we intrude?"
+
+"Sit down!" said Bell. "We were just beginning to plan the evening. What
+are your ideas, if any?"
+
+The boys--for they were still the boys, even if they had passed one and
+twenty--stretched themselves along the wharf in picturesque attitudes.
+
+"I would sing!" announced Gerald. "Prose will not express my feelings at
+this juncture.
+
+        "My fertile brain is simmering,
+         My fancy's fire is glimmering;
+            I'd fain betake
+            Me to the lake,
+         When bright the moonlight's shimmering.
+
+"Your turn, Ferguson. Go on; the song upraise!"
+
+"Let me see!" said Phil. "Well--on the whole--
+
+        "I can't agree with himmering;
+         _My_ fancy's fire is dimmering;
+            If you would know
+            The thing I'd doe,
+         Methinks I'll go a swimmering."
+
+"Oh! no, Phil," said Gertrude. "Not the very first night the girls are
+here; it will take them a day or two to get used to camp ways, Margaret
+at least; and we want to do something all together, something that
+Colonel Ferrers will like, too. I think--"
+
+"Sing it! sing it!" cried Gerald. "The song upraise, Tintinnabula! no
+escape! 'Trimmering' is still left you."
+
+"Is there only one vowel?" demanded Bell, laughing. "I refuse to be
+fettered. Wait a second!--now I have it.
+
+        "Forbear, forbear your clamoring,
+         And cease this hasty hammering;
+             I think, with Jerry,
+             'Twere wise and merry
+         To row by moonlight glamouring.
+
+Your turn, Toots!"
+
+"I cannot!" said Gertrude. "You know I cannot, Bell. Besides, there
+aren't any more rhymes."
+
+"Oh!" cried Gerald, "you know what you are telling, and you know what
+happens to people who tell them. Perpend, Tootsina!
+
+        "You yodel, yodel yammering,
+         You stutter, stutter stammering;
+             And when you cry,
+             'I will not try!'
+         We know you're only shammering."
+
+"Gracious!" said Gertrude. "Don't you suppose I would make rhymes if I
+could? It's really a dreadful thing to be the only prose member of a
+large family. But Jack comforts me; you can't make them either, can you,
+Jack?"
+
+"Not to save my life!" said Jack. "Never could see how they do it."
+
+"But you can set them to music!" said Gertrude. "That is the delightful
+thing about you."
+
+"And you can illustrate them! That is one of the many delightful things
+about you!" said Jack, with a low bow.
+
+        "'They built it up for forty miles,
+         With mutual bows and pleasing smiles!'"
+
+quoted Gerald. "A truce to this badinage! Compliment, unless paid to
+myself, wearies me. We go, then, in canoes?"
+
+"In canoes!" replied the others in chorus.
+
+"'Tis well! Any special stunts in the way of arrangement?"
+
+"Oh!" said Jack, "in plain prose--Bell, will you come with me? It's our
+turn to get supper, isn't it? and I have an idea--just a little
+one--which we can talk over while we are getting it."
+
+        "Oh, guard it, guard it tenderly,
+            Thy one idea--thy first!"
+
+sang Gerald.
+
+        "And we, the while, console ourselves;
+           'Twill be the last, at worst!
+
+Nay! nay!" he went on, as Jack seized him by the shoulders, and made a
+motion toward the water.
+
+        "Duck not the bard, the tuneful bard,
+            Who all thy soul reveals;
+         To hear the truth, I own, is hard,
+            Yet dry thy tearful squeals!"
+
+"False construction!" said Bell. "You cannot dry squeals."
+
+"They were tearful ones!" Gerald protested. "It was the tears I would
+have dried. Tears, idle tears, I know not whence they come; tears from
+the depth of some despairing fiddler."
+
+"Suppose you dry _up_!" said Jack, dipping Gerald's head lightly in the
+water.
+
+"No ducking between swims!" proclaimed Phil. "Law of the Medes and
+Persians!"
+
+"Besides, it is time to be making the fire!" said Bell, rising. "Leave
+him to his conscience, Jack, and come along!"
+
+"Yes, leave me to me conscience!" said Gerald.
+
+        "'Twill cradle me with songs of Araby;
+         Arrah be aisy! hear it sing to me!"
+
+"Jerry, what _has_ got into you?" asked Gertrude, a few minutes later,
+when Phil had followed the others to the house, leaving the two Reds, as
+their mother called them, together. "Has the rhyming spider bitten you?
+you are really wild!"
+
+"Nice little sister!" said Gerald, rolling over, and resting his head
+on Gertrude's knee. "Nice little red-haired, cream-colored, comfortable
+sister! If I were as good-looking as you, Toots, who knows? As it
+is--but still I am happy, my child, happy! I say! Toots!"
+
+"Yes, Jerry!"
+
+"What do you think of her?"
+
+"Oh, Jerry, she is a darling!"
+
+"_Dixisti!_" cried Gerald. "Thou hast spoken."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN
+
+
+"HARRY MONMOUTH!" said Colonel Ferrers. "This is pleasant. Merryweather,
+you are a lucky dog!" As he spoke, he looked around him, and repeated,
+"A lucky dog, sir!"
+
+The horn had just blown for supper, three long blasts, and already the
+campers were in their places at the long table, with its shining white
+cover. Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather, their six children, Bell, Gertrude,
+and Kitty, Gerald, Philip, and Willy, the two Montforts, with the
+Colonel and his nephew, made a party of twelve, and filled the table
+comfortably, though there was still room for more. The room was a long
+one, with a vast open fireplace stretching half across one side. At one
+end were rows of book-shelves, filled to overflowing; at the other, the
+walls were adorned with models for boats, sketches in water-color and
+pen and ink, birds' nests, curious fungi, and all manner of odds and
+ends. It was certainly a cheerful room, and so Miles Merryweather
+thought, as his eyes followed the Colonel's.
+
+"We like it!" he said, simply. "It suits us, the place and the life.
+It's good for young and old both, to get away from hurry and bustle, and
+live for a time the natural life."
+
+"Nature, sir!" said the Colonel. "Nature! that's it; nothing like it!
+When I was a lad, young men were sent abroad, after their school or
+college course; the grand tour, Paris, Vienna, that sort of thing: very
+good thing in its way, too, monstrous good thing. But before he sees the
+world, sir, a lad should know how to live, as you say, the natural life.
+Ought to know what a tree is when he sees it; upon my soul, he ought.
+Now my milksop--best fellow in the world, I give you my word, except
+that little fellow at home there--well, sir! when he came to me, he
+didn't know the difference between an oak and an elm, give you my word
+he didn't. Remember one day--he heard me giving directions to Giuseppe
+about cutting some ashes--clump of them in the field below the house,
+needed thinning out--and he wanted to know how ashes could be cut;
+thought I meant those in the fireplace, sir. Monstrous! Well, I taught
+him a little, and you and your young folks have taught him a great deal.
+H'm! I don't know that he is now more disgracefully ignorant than
+nine-tenths of the young men of his age. Set of noodles! I'll tell you
+what, Merryweather! You ought to have a kind of summer school here: get
+other boys, a dozen, two dozen; teach 'em to see with their eyes, and
+all the rest of it. I knew a boy once who thought a bat was a bird, give
+you my word I did. And another who thought oysters grew on bushes. Get
+up a school, sir, and I'll come myself, and be a boy again."
+
+"That is a great inducement," said Mr. Merryweather, laughing: "but,
+Colonel, I hope you have brought a boy's appetite with you, at least.
+Who are the cooks to-night, Miranda? Oh, I see; Bell and Jack. Well,
+that is all right, Colonel; they make one of our best combinations. What
+have you there, Jack?"
+
+Jack, in a white cap, and an apron reaching not quite half-way to his
+knees, advanced bearing a mighty dish, from which rose fragrant steam.
+
+"H'm! ha!" said the Colonel, sniffing. "Smells good! you had no hand in
+this, I'll be bound, sir!"
+
+"Indeed, Colonel Ferrers," said Bell, who followed with the teapot and a
+plate piled high with feathery rolls, "it is all Jack's doing, every
+bit. It is his famous pilaff, that the old Greek professor taught him
+to make in Germany; and it is almost the best thing you ever tasted in
+your life."
+
+"H'm!" said the Colonel, frowning heavily, and looking immensely
+pleased. "So this is what he was doing while he was supposed to be
+studying. I always knew the rascal was deceiving me. Ha! it _is_ good;
+it's uncommon good! So you did learn something besides fiddling, eh,
+Jack?"
+
+"Cooking is a part of chemistry, Uncle," said Jack, soberly; "a very
+important part. This dish is chemically prepared, sir; please regard it
+as a demonstration!"
+
+"And please try my fried potatoes as a further demonstration!" said
+Bell. "Margaret, you are not eating anything."
+
+"She never does!" said Peggy.
+
+"Oh!" cried Margaret, "but I never ate so much before. Oh, please not!"
+as Phil tried to heap her plate with potatoes. "They are delicious, but
+I really cannot!"
+
+"I can!" said Gertrude, holding out her plate.
+
+"I'll warrant you!" said Phil. "No one doubted that, sweet Chuck!"
+
+"We do not look for the Camp Appetite till after twenty-four hours,"
+said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give Margaret time! in two days she will eat
+twice as much as she does now."
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the Colonel. "At that rate, it is fortunate
+for you all that I do not outstay my two days. Twice as much as I am
+eating now would clear your larder, dear madam. Yes, thanks,
+Merryweather, a little more!"
+
+"Oh, Colonel Ferrers!"
+
+"Oh, Uncle Tom! you are not going away in two days? We counted on a week
+at least!" cried all in chorus.
+
+"Impossible, dear people, impossible! Like nothing better; enchanted to
+stay all summer; delightful place. But--Elizabeth Beadle's condition,
+you understand; and the boy--I must get back. He is too young to have
+the responsibility. Most amazing boy in the world; I haven't the
+slightest doubt that he is doing her more good than all the doctors in
+the world--parcel of fools, mostly--but still he is too young; I must
+get back."
+
+"Let me go, Uncle!" said Jack.
+
+"Or me, Colonel Ferrers!" cried Gertrude. "Any one of us would love to
+go!"
+
+The Colonel beamed on them with his kindliest smile, but shook his head
+resolutely. "Thanks! thanks!" he said, heartily. "Good children! kind
+and thoughtful children! but I must go. Couldn't be easy, you
+understand."
+
+"The fact is," said Jack, "Uncle Tom cannot be comfortable for more than
+twenty-four hours away from Hugh. After that length of time he becomes
+restive, and symptoms develop which--"
+
+"Hold your tongue, sir!" cried the Colonel. "Nothing of the sort, sir!
+Mrs. Merryweather, I hoped you were teaching this fellow better
+manners. Symptoms, indeed! You have seen no symptoms in me, of anything
+except pure pleasure--pleasure in everything except the gabbling of a
+goose!"
+
+"Surely not, dear friend!" said Mrs. Merryweather, laughing. "But all
+the same, I think I should not try to detain you when once you had made
+up your mind that Hugh needed you."
+
+"All against me!" cried the Colonel. "'The little dogs and all'--I beg
+ten thousand pardons, my dear madam; you know the quotation! Well," he
+added, his face changing suddenly as he turned to Mrs. Merryweather and
+spoke in a lower tone, "fortunate old fellow, eh? to have one young
+face--two, perhaps, for my Giraffe loves me too--brighten when one
+comes. Ah! you, with all your wealth--richest woman of my acquaintance,
+give you my honor!--cannot tell what these boys mean to me. Hilda, too:
+most astonishing how I miss that child! but all your young people are so
+good to me--"
+
+"Colonel!" cried Gertrude from the other end of the table. "Will you
+come with me in my canoe after tea?"
+
+"Will I?" cried the Colonel. "Won't I? Lead the way, my dear!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young moon shone bright; the lake lay a broad sheet of luminous
+black, with a silver path stretching across it. Four canoes lay beside
+the wharf, and the campers were taking their places. In the birch canoe,
+the original _Cheemaun_, Mrs. Merryweather was going as passenger, with
+her husband and Phil at bow and stern; in the _Nahma_ was Colonel
+Ferrers, with Gertrude and Peggy; Kitty and Willy in the _Rob Roy_,
+Gerald and Margaret in the _Wenonah_.
+
+"All ready?" asked the chief. "Where shall we go? Where are Jack and
+Bell?"
+
+"Oh, they started ahead," said Phil. "They had some stunt on hand, and
+we are to meet them over by the Black Shore."
+
+"Ready--give way all!"
+
+The paddles dipped, the canoes shot out along the silver path, gliding
+swift and silent as spirits. For a time no one spoke. The _Cheemaun_,
+with the powerful arms at either end, took the lead and kept it easily:
+next came the _Nahma_ and the _Rob_, nearly abreast, and vying with each
+other; but the _Wenonah_ lagged behind, and seemed in no special hurry.
+
+"Like it?" asked Gerald, presently.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+Gerald gave a little grunt of content, and was silent again. The paddle
+dipped noiseless in the liquid silver, the dark prow crept noiseless
+along the shining way.
+
+"It is another world!" said Margaret presently, still speaking under her
+breath. "I never dreamed of anything like it. A silver world! Oh!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Nothing--I was only thinking--one ought to be very good, to live in a
+world so beautiful as this, Gerald!"
+
+"Some of us are, Margaret!"
+
+Silence again.
+
+"I'm awfully glad you like it!" said Gerald. "I hoped you would.
+I've--I've been looking forward all summer to your coming."
+
+"I was very glad to come," said Margaret, simply. "I was afraid, but I
+was glad, too."
+
+"Afraid? I should like to know what you were afraid of!"
+
+"Oh--I don't know! I have never been with many people, you know. I have
+never seen a large family together before. How happy you all are!"
+
+"That's what we are!" said Gerald. "Especially now! I say, Margaret! the
+child Toots has fallen a victim."
+
+"Fallen a--what do you mean, Gerald? not into the water?"
+
+"Charms!" said Gerald. "Yours. Bowled her over completely. Nice child,
+the child Toots. Think so?"
+
+"I think she looks as good as she is beautiful," said Margaret. "Does
+she really like me? I am very glad, for I know I shall love her."
+
+"Don't you think she is the image of me?" asked Gerald, plaintively.
+
+"No, I never thought of it!" said downright Margaret. "Oh! hark, Gerald;
+what is that? I hear music."
+
+They listened. Directly in front of them lay a deep black shadow, and
+forth from this shadow stole notes of music, low, sweet, almost
+unearthly in their purity and clearness.
+
+"Evidently the stunt of Tintinnabula and the Camelopard!" said Gerald.
+"That is the Black Shore yonder, and the noise is that of the
+Tree-browser's fiddle, in sooth a goodly noise. Approach we along the
+moonglade! that is what we call the wake here. Pretty?"
+
+"Lovely!" murmured Margaret. "Oh! but hush, and listen!"
+
+The other canoes had slackened their speed, and now all four crept on
+abreast over the luminous water. From the black shadow ahead forms began
+to detach themselves, black rocks, dark trees stooping to the water's
+edge, fir and pine, with here and there a white birch glimmering
+ghostlike; and still the music rose, ever clearer and sweeter, thrilling
+on the silent air. It seemed no voice of anything made by man; it was as
+if the trees spoke, the rocks, the water, the very silence itself. But
+now--now another tone was heard; a human voice this time, a full, rich
+contralto, blending with the aerial notes of the violin.
+
+        "Over all the mountains is peace;
+         Among the tree-tops
+         Hardly a breath is stirring;
+         The birds are silent,
+         Silent in the woodland;
+         Only wait! only wait!
+         Soon thou too shalt rest."
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" murmured the Colonel under his breath. "Am I alive, or
+is this the gate of Heaven?"
+
+"Oh! who is it?" whispered Margaret.
+
+"Tintinnabula! rather a neat thing in voices, the Tintinnabula's. Nor
+does the song altogether excite to strenutation. Ah! but that is the
+best yet!"
+
+The notes changed. It was Schubert's Serenade now that rose from voice
+and violin together. No one stirred. The canoes were now close inshore,
+and the long, soft fingers of fir and cedar brushed Margaret's cheek as
+she sat motionless, spellbound. It was a world of soft darkness, black
+upon black: the silver world they had just left seemed almost garish as
+she looked back on it. Here in the cool shadow, the voices of the night
+pouring forth their wonderful melody--"Oh!" she thought; "if this might
+last forever!"
+
+But it was over. Floating round a great rock that stretched far out from
+the shore, they came upon the musicians, their canoe drawn up close to
+the rock.
+
+"Here they are!" cried Willy. "It's Bell and Jack, Kitty; I knew it was.
+You are such a silly!"
+
+"I don't care!" pouted Kitty. "It did sound like nymphs; I am sure that
+is just the way they sound."
+
+"You are quite right, Kitty," said her mother. "Children, you have given
+us a great treat. May we not have some more?"
+
+"Oh, we were only waiting for you," said Bell; "now we must have
+choruses, many of them!"
+
+And lying close together, the paddles stretched across from one canoe to
+another, the Merryweathers sang, to Jack's accompaniment, song after
+song in chorus: German student songs, with merry refrain of "_vivallera
+la_" and "_juch heira sa sa!_" Scottish ballads and quaint old Highland
+boat-songs; till Mr. Merryweather declared that it was time to go home.
+
+So home they went, down the moonglade once more, across the glimmering
+floor of the lake, singing as they went; till, twinkling through the
+fringe of trees, they saw the lights of the Camp, and the long outline
+of the float, and the boats swinging at their moorings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AFTER THE PICNIC
+
+
+"AND what comes next on the programme?" asked the Chief.
+
+"Coma, I should say," replied Colonel Ferrers. "After that watermelon, I
+see nothing else for it. It's my avowed belief that my nephew there
+could not stir if his life depended on it; it stands to reason. The boy
+has eaten more than his own weight. Monstrous!"
+
+"What a frightful calumny!" cried Jack, laughing. "Really, Uncle Tom,
+you cannot expect me to sit still under that."
+
+He rose lightly to his feet, and grasping a branch of the tree above his
+head, drew himself up, and after kicking his long legs several times in
+the air, finally twisted them round the branch, and in another moment
+had disappeared in the shadowy depths of the great hemlock.
+
+"Oh! I say!" his voice floated down. "This is a great tree to climb.
+You'd better come up, Uncle Tom, if you feel the slightest symptoms of
+coma."
+
+The other lads did not wait to be invited, but flung themselves at the
+tree, and were soon lost to sight, though not to sound. Colonel Ferrers
+turned to his hostess with a frown which tried hard not to turn into a
+smile.
+
+"Now, did you ever hear of such impudence as that?" he asked. "These
+young fellows of to-day are the most impudent scoundrels I ever came
+across. Time was, though, when we could have climbed a tree with the
+best of them; eh, Merryweather?"
+
+"I have no doubt you could now, Colonel," said his host, "if you were
+put to it; but I confess it is more comfortable under a tree than in
+it, nowadays, especially after a Gargantuan feast like this."
+
+It had indeed been a great picnic. The boys, while on a tramp, had
+discovered a grove of pines and hemlocks, huge old trees, which had
+unaccountably escaped the woodman's axe. The pines shot up straight and
+tall for a hundred feet and more, their trunks seamed and scarred, their
+clouds of dusky green plumes tossing far overhead; the hemlocks were no
+less massive in girth, but they were twisted into all manner of
+grotesque shapes, and their feathery branches hung low, making a dense
+canopy over the heads of the picnickers. Here, under one of these
+hemlocks, the cloth had been laid, and decorated with ferns and hemlock
+tassels. Then the baskets were unpacked, and the campers feasted as only
+dwellers in the open air can feast. Ham and pasty, sandwiches and rolls,
+jam and doughnuts--nothing seemed to come amiss; and they finished off
+with a watermelon of such mighty proportions that it took all the
+united energies of the boys to dispose of it.
+
+But it was finally disposed of, and now came the hour that is apt to be
+a little difficult at picnics; the hour between the feast and the going
+home.
+
+"I have a new game," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Perhaps you would like to
+try it presently; but first, Colonel Ferrers, while the boys are
+skylarking, or rather tree-larking, up there, I want to hear the story
+you were telling Miles on the drive over. I could not hear very well on
+the back seat, and besides, I was making up my game. It was some
+adventure of yours when you were a boy."
+
+"Capital story!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Do tell it, Colonel; I want to
+hear it again."
+
+The Colonel smiled, and puffed meditatively at his cigar.
+
+"Story of the barrel, eh?" he said. "Upon my word, now, I think it is
+pretty hard to make me tell that story before all these young people.
+What do you say, Gertrude? you don't want to hear about your old
+friend's being a young fool, do you?"
+
+"Oh! Colonel Ferrers," said Gertrude; "a story that makes your eyes
+twinkle so must be one that we all want to hear. Do begin, please!"
+
+And all the girls, who had been putting away the table-cloth and
+"tidying-up" generally, gathered about the Colonel in an eager group.
+
+"Well! well!" he said, glancing from one bright face to another. "After
+all, what are we old fogies for, but to point a moral and adorn a tale?
+Listen, then. This happened when I was a young jackanapes of about my
+nephew's age; I knew everything in the world then, you understand, and
+nobody else knew much of anything. That was my belief, as it is the
+belief of most young men."
+
+"Uncle," said a voice from above, "there are three young men up here who
+are prepared to drop things on your head if you slander their
+generation."
+
+"Slander your generation, sir?" cried the Colonel, "by likening it to my
+own? Of all the monstrous insolence I ever heard--you may be thankful,
+sir, that I name yours in the same breath with it. Be good enough to
+hold your tongue, sir, and attend to your business, which is that of
+listening to me. Well, my dear madam, at the period of which I speak, I
+was in the office of my uncle, Marmaduke Ferrers, India merchant,
+importer of tea, silks, that sort of thing. Learning the trade, you
+understand; though, as I say, I was not aware that there was anything in
+particular to learn. This is one of the lessons I did learn. One day I
+was sent to the warehouse to count some barrels, and see them stowed
+away in the vault where they belonged. They were a special thing,
+barrels of minerals for some collection museum, I forget what. Out of
+our own line, but we had undertaken to store and keep them for a time.
+The vault was directly under the warehouse, which was some way from the
+office. So! I went down and found no one there; The men were at their
+dinner, you understand. They may have been a little in a hurry, may have
+started a few minutes before the bell rang; I don't know how it was. At
+any rate, I was in a towering passion; thought the whole business was
+going to the dogs for want of discipline, wanted to dismiss every man in
+the warehouse. Men who had been there before I was born, and knew more
+about tea than I was likely to know in my lifetime. Well, sir, it came
+into my ass's head that I would give these men a lesson, show them that
+there was some one in the place that meant to have things done when he
+wanted them done. I would stow those barrels myself. I was strong as a
+bull, you remember--I beg ten thousand pardons! you and your husband
+were infants when this happened; not out of long clothes, I am positive.
+But I was uncommonly strong, and thought Milo and Hercules would have
+found me a tough subject to tackle. Well--speaking of tackle--there was
+the rope and pulley, all ready for lowering; block up at the ceiling,
+rope dangling,--just over the trap that led into the vault. There were
+the barrels; nothing was easier, I thought. Child's play; I would have
+every one of the barrels lowered and stowed before those scoundrels came
+back from their dinner. I pushed the first barrel to the edge of the
+trap (lifted the trap-door first, you understand), hooked on the 'fall,'
+pleased as Punch with myself--the only man in the world, I give you my
+word; then I got a good hold on the rope, and--kicked the barrel over
+the edge."
+
+"Oh! Colonel Ferrers!" cried the girls.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" roared the boys in the tree.
+
+"Loaded with minerals, you understand! stone, metal, I don't know what.
+The barrel went down, and I went up."
+
+"_Oh!_ Colonel Ferrers!"
+
+"Up to the ceiling, I give you my word. High room, too, great warehouse,
+twenty feet if it was one. There I hung, and there I swung, a spectacle
+for gods and men."
+
+"What _did_ you do?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, as soon as she could
+control her laughter. "Dear friend, it is most heartless to laugh, but
+how can we help it? How did you ever get down? did you have to wait till
+the men came back?"
+
+"No, madam. My pride would not allow that. I learned my lesson, or a
+part of it, while I hung there like Mahomet's coffin; I learned that
+Gravitation did not trouble itself about superior young men; but I did
+not learn all that there was to learn; that took the sequel. Well, I
+hung there, as I say, revolving slowly; centrifugal force, you
+understand; I was really exemplifying the workings of natural forces;
+interesting demonstration, if there had been any one there to see. My
+crumb of comfort was that there was no one. I must get down before those
+men came back from dinner; that was the one thing necessary in the world
+at that moment. I measured the space of the trap as I swung; I prided
+myself on my correct eye; you see I was a most complete ass: I have seen
+only a few completer. I thought I could jump down astride of the trap,
+so to speak, and get no harm. I came down the rope, hand over fist, till
+I got to the end of it; only about six feet between me and safety: then
+I jumped."
+
+"And did you--"
+
+"No, my dear madam, I did not. I went down into the cellar, on top of
+the barrel, and I carry the mark of the edge of that barrel on my
+shoulders to this day, and shall to my latest day. And the moral of this
+story," the Colonel concluded, glancing up into the depths of the great
+hemlock, "the moral, my young friends, is: wait till you know something
+before you decide that you know everything."
+
+When the laughter had subsided, Mr. Merryweather said: "Your story,
+Colonel, reminds me of a scrape that Roger and I once got into, years
+ago. No, it wasn't Roger, it was my brother Will. My children all know
+it, but it may be new to you and our other guests. It happened when we
+were out sailing one day, on this very pond. The water was pretty low
+that year, and we got over into a cove on the north side, where we
+seldom went, and didn't know the ground thoroughly. Indeed, in very low
+water, one is apt to find that one doesn't know any ground thoroughly.
+New ledges and rocks are constantly cropping out--as you shall hear.
+Well, we were sailing along in fine style, before a fair wind, when
+suddenly--we ran aground."
+
+"On the shore?" asked the Colonel.
+
+"No; on a rock. It was getting dark, and we could not see very well, but
+I could see a nose of rock, and it looked like the end of a ledge. 'I'll
+get out and shove her off!' said I. I sounded with an oar, and found the
+water barely ankle-deep on the ledge. So I took off my shoes and
+stockings, rolled up my trousers a little, and stepped in--up to my
+neck!"
+
+"Ha! ha!" roared the Colonel. "Ho! ho! that was sport. I wish I had seen
+you."
+
+"Wait a moment!" said the Chief. "The picture is not ready for
+exhibition yet. When Will had got through laughing at me, he went to
+work--I found I could not stir the boat alone--he went to work and got
+ready. Stripped to the skin--he had on a new suit, and was something of
+a dandy in those days--stepped carefully overboard--and landed in water
+three inches deep."
+
+"Merryweather, you are making this up!"
+
+"Indeed I am not, my dear sir. There we stood, I up to my chin, he with
+his toes under water, and laughed till we were so weak that we had to go
+ashore and sit down before we had strength to push that boat off. There
+is my Roland for your Oliver, Colonel. And now, Miranda, I think we are
+ready for your game. Come down, boys!"
+
+The boys came scrambling down, still laughing over the stories, and soon
+all were seated on the carpet of dry, fragrant pine-needles. The girls
+had found some oak-leaves ("It is my belief," said Mr. Merryweather,
+"that if Bell went to a picnic in a coal-mine or on a sand-bank, she
+would still manage to find oak-leaves somewhere!"), and were busily
+twining garlands for the heads of the company.
+
+"Are we all ready?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "Well! my game--a very
+simple one--is called _Vocabulary_. It came from my reading the other
+day an admirable little book written by a wise professor, in which he
+deplores the poverty of our vocabularies, and makes a suggestion for our
+enlarging them. He advises us to add two or three words to our list
+every week. The first time we use a new word, he says, it will be
+embarrassing to us and, it may be, amusing to our hearers; but if we
+have courage and patience, we shall be doing a good work not only for
+ourselves, but for all our generation and the generations that are to
+come. Well, this naturally appealed to me, and I was thinking of
+proposing it to you all this evening; and then, as we were driving over,
+it occurred to me that it might be made into a rather amusing game."
+
+"Miranda," said her husband, "is there anything in life that you do
+_not_ think can be made into a rather amusing game? But go on!"
+
+"Dear Mammy!" said Phil. "Do you remember when you and I both had the
+toothache, and you thought it might be amusing to count the jumps and
+see how many there were in a minute?"
+
+"Well, so it would have been," said his mother, "if we had only had a
+little more fortitude. Now if you are all going to laugh at me, you
+shall not learn the game."
+
+"Oh, we will be good!" exclaimed the Merryweathers. "We truly will."
+
+"The game of _Vocabulary_," said Mrs. Merryweather, "is played thus.
+One--I, for example--begins to tell a story. I say, 'I went out to walk
+this morning, and I met--' there I stop short, and you, in turn, give a
+verb synonymous, more or less, with 'met.' This goes around the circle
+till some one cannot find a verb, and that some one must continue the
+story, stopping at any word he likes. I fear this is not very clear;
+perhaps we can illustrate it best playing it. I will begin as I
+suggested. I went out to walk this morning, and on my way I met--" she
+stopped.
+
+"Encountered!" said Mr. Merryweather.
+
+"Approached!" said the Colonel.
+
+"Ran up against!" said Gerald.
+
+"Fell afoul of!" said Phil.
+
+"Fell in with!" said Bell.
+
+"Peggy, you come next."
+
+"Oh! I can't!" cried poor Peggy. "They have said everything; Mrs.
+Merryweather, I can't _ever_ play anything of this kind, you know. I am
+too stupid."
+
+"Nonsense, my child; you are not in the least stupid. If you cannot
+think of a word, go on with the story."
+
+"But I don't know how!" cried Peggy, her eyes growing large and round,
+with a look that Gertrude and Margaret knew only too well. The tears
+were not far behind those round blue eyes; and Margaret hastened to the
+rescue. "You met a man, dear!" she whispered. "That is all you need
+say."
+
+"Well--I met a man!" said Peggy, with a gasp.
+
+"Person!"
+
+"Individual!"
+
+"Anthropoid ape!"
+
+"Masculine mortal!"
+
+"Chump!"
+
+"I object to the definition!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "In case of a
+false definition, the falsifier takes up the thread. Go on, Jerry."
+
+"This man (he _was_ a chump, you'll see!) was so ugly that not a crow
+dared to stay in the same county with him, and so disagreeable that it
+gave one spasms to look at him; also, he had not the manners to take off
+his hat--" he stopped short.
+
+"Cap!"
+
+"Hood!"
+
+"Helmet!"
+
+"Bonnet!"
+
+"Head-dress!"
+
+"Tam-o'-shanter!"
+
+"Mitre!"
+
+"Tiara!"
+
+"Fez!"
+
+"Turban!"
+
+"Beretta!"
+
+"I give in!" cried the Colonel. "I cannot think of another thing, so I
+continue the tale.
+
+"This odious person, after passing me in the unmannerly fashion
+described, was about to proceed further; but I, seizing him by the coat
+collar, lifted my stout stick, and gave him a good sound--"
+
+"Thrashing!"
+
+"Licking!"
+
+"Beating!"
+
+"Chastisement!"
+
+"Hiding!"
+
+"Walloping!"
+
+"Whipping!"
+
+"Scourging!"
+
+"Drubbing!"
+
+"Trouncing!"
+
+"Thwacking!"
+
+"Lashing!"
+
+"Flogging!"
+
+"Caning!"
+
+"Larruping!"
+
+"Fustigating!"
+
+"Basting!"
+
+"Leathering!"
+
+"Thumping!"
+
+"Whopping!"
+
+"Rib-roasting!"
+
+"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "This is rather terrible, I think.
+There seem to be more terms to express personal violence than anything
+else."
+
+"We haven't begun to give them all, either!" said Phil. "If we are
+allowed to use modern slang--I know you prefer ancient, Mammy--"
+
+"I know you are a saucy boy!" said his mother.
+
+"My dear friends," said the Chief, rising. "This is all very fine: but
+the simple fact is, it is beginning to rain, and I think it advisable
+for us to beat, fustigate, (where _did_ you get that, Miranda?) or
+wallop, a retreat!"
+
+Then there was scrambling up, and running to and fro, and gathering up
+of baskets and shawls. The good old horse, which had been grazing
+peacefully in a clearing hard by, was harnessed, and Mr. and Mrs.
+Merryweather, Colonel Ferrers, and the _impedimenta_ bundled in and off
+as hastily as might be. Finally, as the rain began to pour down in good
+earnest, the younger campers gathered into a solid phalanx and walked
+home across the fields, singing in chorus, and informing all whom it
+might concern that they were
+
+        "Marching along,
+         Fifty score strong,
+         Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+KITTY AND WILLY
+
+
+"MA!" said Willy Merryweather.
+
+"Baa!" replied his mother, without looking up from her writing.
+
+Willy fidgeted, and looked over his shoulder. "Mammy, I wish you would
+speak to Kitty."
+
+"Speak to Kitty? certainly. How do you do, Kitty?"
+
+Willy looked uncomfortable, but went on.
+
+"I spoke for the Rangeley boat, and now she wants it. She always wants
+it, and it isn't fair."
+
+"I don't always want it, Willy! I haven't been in it for two days. I
+think you are very unkind."
+
+By this time Mrs. Merryweather had finished her sentence; she looked
+up, and surveyed the two children with a half-abstracted gaze.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked, abruptly. "I thought Kitty and Willy were
+here."
+
+Kitty took hold of the hem of her apron, and Willy felt of the knife in
+his pocket.
+
+"Who are you?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather in a tone of wonder. "You
+should always answer a question, you know."
+
+"We are Kitty and Willy ourselves!" murmured the children, the red
+beginning to creep around their ears.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Merryweather, reprovingly. "Don't say such things as
+that, my dears. I know Kitty and Willy perfectly well; they are brother
+and sister, two cheerful, affectionate children, who love each other. I
+don't know anything about you two; run away, please, for I am busy."
+
+As the children moved slowly away, she called after them: "If you should
+see Kitty and Willy, you might send them to me, if you please!"
+
+Round on the other side of the big oak-tree, sheltered from the eyes
+that looked so abstractedly over their glasses, Willy rubbed his
+shoulders uncomfortably against the bark, while Kitty kicked a bit of
+stick to and fro.
+
+"There isn't any use in talking to Mammy when she does that way!" said
+Willy, half to himself, but with a side glance at Kitty. "If she would
+have only listened to me--"
+
+"She never will!" said Kitty, responding to the half glance. "She always
+says there is no need of quarrelling, and she doesn't see why she should
+have to hear disagreeable remarks."
+
+"Other children scrap," said Willy. "I don't see why we can't now and
+then."
+
+"Well, she just won't have it, Will, so where's the use? Never mind
+about the Rangeley; you may have it, and I'll take the _Wobbler_."
+
+"I don't care!" said Willy. "You may have her."
+
+"So may you!"
+
+Silence. Willy rubbing his shoulders, Kitty kicking her bit of stick.
+
+Presently Kitty looked up brightly, and shook her curls back. "I've got
+over mine, Willy!" she announced. "Are you getting over yours?"
+
+"Ye-es!" said Willy, slowly. "I--s'pose I am."
+
+"Why don't we go together?" asked Kitty. "Then we can both have the
+Rangeley."
+
+"All right!" said Willy, brightening at once. "Where shall we go? We
+might play Pirate a bit--"
+
+"And then go for the milk! That would be great!"
+
+"All right, come on, Kit."
+
+"Oh! but, Willy--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"We must go and tell Mammy first."
+
+Once more the two children presented themselves before their mother, who
+was still writing busily. At the first "Mammy!" she looked up quickly.
+
+"Well, dears!" she said, "I was wondering where you were. What are you
+going to play this afternoon?"
+
+"We thought perhaps we might have the Rangeley together, and play
+Pirate!" said Willy.
+
+"And then go for the milk!" said Kitty.
+
+"To be sure!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Yes, Papa said you might have the
+boat if you wanted it. That will be very nice, only be careful, dears.
+Give Mammy a kiss, and have a great good time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Run her up!" said the Pirate Captain.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" replied the mate.
+
+The Jolly Roger fluttered up to the mast-head: skull and crossbones
+black as ink could make them, ground very nearly white; it was a
+splendid flag. The Captain was a terrible figure, clad in yellow
+oilskins many sizes too big for him, with ferocious mustaches curling up
+to his eyes. His belt contained a perfect armory of weapons; item, a
+pistol that had lost its barrel; item, three wooden daggers, assorted
+sizes; item, one tomahawk, home-made. The mate was scarcely less
+terrifying, for though a blue petticoat showed beneath his oilskin
+jacket, and curls flowed from under his sou'wester, he made up for it by
+a mass of oakum beard and whisker that was truly awe-inspiring. Also, he
+had the truncheon which used to be a curling stick, and a deadly weapon
+of singular appearance which was understood to be a boomerang.
+
+"Look out, Bill! avast there! dost see any foes about?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir! I see a craft on the jib boom--"
+
+"_Lee bow_, Kitty!--I mean Bill; not jib boom! You are always saying
+that."
+
+[Illustration: "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"]
+
+"I meant lee bow!" said Bill, anxious to please. "Anyhow, I see a craft,
+your Honor. I think she is a plate ship from the Spanish Main. Shall we
+run her down?"
+
+"Give me the glass!" exclaimed the Pirate Captain: and through that
+instrument, which the ignorant might have mistaken for a battered tin
+horn, he scrutinized the "craft," which lay on the water at some
+distance.
+
+"'Tis not a plate ship!" he announced at length. "I think we have had
+enough plate ships lately. This is a Dutch lugger from Samarcand, laden
+with raisins and fig-paste and lichi nuts and cream dates. I shouldn't
+wonder if she had narghiles too, and scimitars,--I need a new
+scimitar,--and all sorts of things. Up helm, and crowd on all sail in
+pursuit!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir! stunsels?"
+
+"Stunsels, balloon-jibs, topgallant spinnakers, royal skyscrapers,
+everything you can think of. Ha! we are off! Row hard now, Bill! The
+lubbers are asleep, and we shall run them down easily. Are the cutlasses
+ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+"Ho! we are gaining on them. Ho, ho! bend to your oars, my hearties!
+grappling-chains ready there! ho! on to the chase!"
+
+Now Phil was very busy making a fly for lake trout, and explaining the
+manufacture of it to Peggy; and Peggy was absorbed in watching him, and
+in counting the number of separate aches she felt after her first lesson
+in rowing. Moreover, the bloody pirates had conducted their conversation
+in a half-whisper, and the wind was the other way. But suddenly, Peggy
+looked up and saw them, now at only a few yards distance.
+
+"Good gracious!" she cried. "What is it? Do look, Phil!"
+
+Phil looked hastily around; chuckled, and fell into an attitude of
+abject terror. "Mercy! mercy!" he cried; cowering down in his seat.
+("It's the kids; please be frightened!) Oh! what will become of us? We
+are lost!"
+
+"Oh! save me, spare me!" cried Peggy, following suit, and clasping her
+hands in supplication.
+
+The pirate bark ran alongside, and grappling-irons were tossed aboard
+the ill-fated merchantman. The Pirate Captain, standing in the stern of
+his vessel, surveyed them with baleful looks.
+
+"What ship is this?"
+
+"The _Weeping Woodchuck_, Captain Zebedee Moses of Squedunk, please your
+Honor's Worship!"
+
+"Well I am Captain England, and this is the _Gory Griffin_. If you have
+a cargo of raisins and fig-paste and cream dates, hand them over;
+otherwise, prepare to walk the plank this instant!"
+
+"Oh, spare us! spare this tender maiden!" cried Phil. "I have no
+fig-paste, but wouldn't fresh doughnuts do as well, O man of blood?
+Life is sweet--and fish is needed for supper!"
+
+At these remarks the pirate's ferocious scowl relaxed somewhat. "Hand
+over your doughnuts!" he said, briefly. "This once I spare ye, but cross
+not my path again! I jolly well forgot about tea," he added, as Phil
+tossed him some doughnuts; "I suppose it must be about time to go for
+the milk, perhaps, is it?"
+
+Phil looked at his watch. "Well, I should say it jolly well was!" he
+replied. "You'd better be off, young ones--I mean Scourges of the Deep!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was quite a pull over to the point where the milk-cans were waiting,
+but Kitty and Willy were both good oars, and the doughnuts were crisp
+and fortifying.
+
+"Let's take the point by storm!" suggested the gallant England, who had
+not had his fill of glory. "The cans might be treasure, you know, and
+we can creep up silently."
+
+"But there's no one to hear us be silent!" said Kitty.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing! We can hear ourselves, and, anyhow, it is good
+practice. Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!" Leaving the boat on the
+shore, they crept up the beach, pounced on the milk-can,--a tall
+"separator" which held the whole provision for the family supper and
+breakfast,--and bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas! for the
+gallant pirates! In getting aboard, one of them slipped; the other
+stumbled; between the two, neither could tell just how, the tall can
+toppled, and fell into the boat; the stopper flew out--"Then all the
+mighty floods were out!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But where _can_ the children be?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, for the
+tenth time.
+
+The horn had blown for supper, the fish were fried, the campers were
+hungry and thirsty; and the milk had not come.
+
+"Where _can_ they be?" said every one.
+
+Mr. Merryweather put down the glass with which he had been sweeping the
+lake. "They are out there!" he said. "I see them, but they don't seem to
+be rowing. Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry? Thanks!"
+
+A calm roar went out across the lake. "Come--in--to--tea!"
+
+A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don't--want--any--tea!"
+
+The second roar was still calm, but peremptory. "_Come--in!_"
+
+Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell, and the boat crept over the
+water. What could be the matter with the children?
+
+"Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant England!" said Phil. "When it
+comes to Willy's not wanting his tea!"
+
+"They have had some accident!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Broken an oar,
+probably, or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing. Well, here they
+come."
+
+The whole family started for the wharf, but a piteous wail arose from
+the now approaching boat.
+
+"Please don't everybody come down! we want just Papa and Mamma."
+
+"Stay here, dear people, please!" said Mrs. Merryweather; and both
+parents hurried down to the wharf, toward which two dejected little
+figures were now tugging a very heavy boat.
+
+"What's the matter, Will?" said Mr. Merryweather. "Speak up, son."
+
+"We--spilt the milk!" said Willy, in a carefully measured tone.
+
+"Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their mother.
+
+"Every drop!" said Willy, grimly.
+
+"Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried Kitty. "The old can--just--upset!
+and we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over my legs!"
+
+"There! there! come ashore; never mind about the milk!" said Mr.
+Merryweather.
+
+"Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "My poor chicks, where
+have you been all this time? Why didn't you come straight home?"
+
+"We were--afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We have been rowing around for ever
+and ever so long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and--wet--"
+
+But by this time Kitty was near enough for her father to bend down and
+lift her bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping milk as she
+was, into her mother's arms. On her mother's shoulder she sobbed out the
+rest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was twelve, and not specially
+small of her age; but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather sat down
+on the wharf and rocked to and fro, hushing her.
+
+"There! there!" she said, soothingly. "My lamb! as if all the milk in
+the world were worth your crying about! and crying into the spilt milk,
+too, and making the boat all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along, Papa and
+Willy--dear little boy, it really is only funny, so don't fret, not one
+little scrap. Kitty and I will come in about two minutes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A DISCUSSION
+
+
+THE morning reading was over, but the girls lingered in the pine parlor,
+where the whole family had been gathered to hear some thrilling chapters
+of Parkman. Margaret and Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her
+drawing-board; Peggy was carving the handle of a walking-stick, while
+Kitty struggled with some refractory knitting-needles.
+
+It was a pleasant place in which they were sitting: a little clear space
+of pine-needles, embroidered here and there with tiny ferns, and shut in
+by walls of dusky pine, soft and fragrant. The tree-trunks made
+excellent (though sometimes rather sticky) chair-backs; the sunshine
+filtered in through the branches overhead, making a golden half-light
+which was the very essence of restfulness.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret, breaking the silence that had
+followed the departure of the rest of the family. "How strange it seems,
+sitting here in this green peace and quiet, to read of all those
+terrible happenings. How can it be the same world?"
+
+"He was a man, that La Salle!" exclaimed Peggy. "I never heard of such a
+man. Think of that winter voyage! Think of that man, brought up in
+luxury, with every kind of accomplishment, and that kind of thing,
+wading in snow-water up to his knees, and sleeping on the frozen ground,
+rolled in his blanket, while his clothes dried and froze stiff on the
+trees! think of him standing alone against courts and savages, and
+winning every time--till he was killed by those wretches. It is the
+greatest story I ever read. Now, if all history were like this,
+Margaret, I never should complain."
+
+"Don't you like history, Peggy?" asked Bell, looking up in wonder.
+
+"I used to detest it," said Peggy, laughing. "Julius Cæsar, and William
+the Conqueror, and all those people used to bore me dreadfully, though
+Margaret did her very best to make them interesting; didn't you, you
+dear?"
+
+"I tried, Peggy," said Margaret, with a smile; "but you never would
+admit that they were real people, just as real as if they were alive
+to-day."
+
+"Oh, well, of course I know they were alive once, but so were mummies,
+and you can't expect me to be interested in _them_. However, I think I
+really am improving. 'Hereward' brought William alive for me, it truly
+did; and this Parkman book delights me. Oh! I should like to have made
+that voyage down the Mississippi, girls! I think, on the whole, I would
+rather be Cavalier de La Salle than any one I ever heard of."
+
+"In spite of all the suffering and tragedy?" said Gertrude. "I could not
+say that, much as I admire him."
+
+"Who would you be, if you could choose? Let us all say!" cried Bell. "A
+new game! two minutes for reflection!" and she took out her watch with a
+business-like air.
+
+"Oh!" cried Gertrude. "But there are so many!"
+
+"Silence!" said Bell; and there was an instant of absolute stillness.
+Taking advantage of it, a chipmunk ran across the brown carpet, and
+pausing midway, sat up on his haunches and surveyed the new and singular
+mountain ranges that had risen on his horizon. One of the mountains
+stirred--whisk! he was gone.
+
+"Time's up!" said Bell. "Margaret, I will begin with you. With all
+history to choose from, who will you be?"
+
+"Oh! must I be first?" cried Margaret. "As Gertrude says, there are so
+many; and yet when you come to think them over, there is something
+against every one; I mean something one would not like to do or to
+suffer. But,--on the whole,--I _think_ I would be Elizabeth of Hungary."
+
+"Our Lady of the Roses? Well, she was lovely, though I should be sorry
+to marry her husband. The story would have been somewhat different if I
+had; but I am not a saint. Peggy, your turn!"
+
+"This man we are reading about!" said Peggy, decidedly. "La Salle!"
+
+"Toots!"
+
+"Bell, you know I never _can_ decide between Shakespeare and Raphael. I
+have to be both; they lived quite far enough apart for separate
+incarnations."
+
+"Greedy, grasping girl!" said Bell. "Kitty, who are you?"
+
+"Jim Hawkins!" said Kitty, promptly.
+
+"No fiction allowed this time, Missy, only history!"
+
+"Oh, dear! well, then--Francis Drake!"
+
+"Bound to have a pirate, aren't you, Kitty?" said Gertrude,
+mischievously.
+
+"He wasn't a pirate!" cried Kitty, indignantly. "He was a great hero."
+
+"_L'un n'empêchait pas l'autre_, in those days!" said Bell.
+
+"Well, now for yourself, Bell!" said Margaret. "It is your turn."
+
+"Oh, I didn't need any two minutes," said Bell. "I am always William the
+Silent. I should be Beethoven if it were not for the deafness, but that
+I could not have borne."
+
+"You all want to be men, don't you?" observed Margaret, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why--yes, so we do! you are the only one who chose a woman."
+
+"Everybody would be a man if they could!" cried Peggy, throwing grammar
+to the winds, as she was apt to do when excited.
+
+"No, indeed, everybody would not!" cried Margaret, her soft eyes
+lighting up. "Nothing would induce me to be a man."
+
+"I don't think you would make a very good one, to be sure!" said Peggy,
+looking affectionately at her cousin. "But I bet--I mean wager--you told
+me I might say 'wager,' Margaret!--that none of the other girls would
+hesitate a minute if they had the chance. I wouldn't! Think of it! No
+petticoats, no fuss, no having to remember to do this, and not to do
+that; and no hairpins, or gloves, or best hats--"
+
+"Ah!" said Bell; "that is only the smallest part, Peggy. I don't mind
+the hairpin part--though of course it is a joy to get out here and
+dispense with them--but still, that is only a trifle. The thing I think
+about is the freedom, the strength, the power to go right ahead and _do_
+things!" and, as she spoke, Bell threw her head back and stretched her
+arms abroad with a vigorous gesture. "Of course we girls are all well
+and strong, but it isn't the same strength as a man's. We are
+constantly running up against things we cannot, ought not to do. I _do_
+envy the boys, I cannot help it."
+
+"Yes!" cried Margaret, leaning forward, a soft flush rising to her
+cheeks. "I know--it is glorious to see them; but, Bell, isn't the very
+weakness part of our strength? Isn't it just because women _know_
+the--the things they cannot do, that they are able to understand and
+sympathize, and--and help, in ways that men cannot, because they do not
+know?"
+
+"I think Margaret is right!" said Gertrude, slowly. "And besides, there
+is strength and strength, Bell. For long endurance of pain or hardship,
+the woman will outlast the man nine times out of ten, I believe; and I
+heard Doctor Strong say once that women would often bear pain quietly
+that would set a man raving. Yes, I come over to your side, May
+Margaret. I would take Joan of Arc, if it were not for the stake. Let
+me see--oh, I know! I will be Grace Darling."
+
+"Who was she?" asked Kitty.
+
+"The lighthouse-keeper's daughter, at Longstone, off the Yorkshire
+coast. A ship, the _Forfarshire_, was wrecked on the rocks near by, and
+there seemed no chance of saving any of the crew; but Grace persuaded
+her father to try, and just those two rowed out, in a most terrible
+storm, to the reef on which the vessel had been wrecked, and saved the
+nine men, all that were left out of sixty-three, who were clinging to
+the rocks, waiting for death. Why wasn't that just as fine as commanding
+an army, or even leading a forlorn hope in battle? Then there was dear
+Margaret Roper--I think she is the one for you, May Margaret!--and
+Cochrane's Bonny Grizzy, and--oh, ever and ever so many of them. Yes, I
+take up my stand once and for all on my own side."
+
+"Well!" said Bell, shaking her head. "I hear what you say, Betsy, but
+it makes no difference,--does it, Peggy?--though I admit the force of
+your remarks."
+
+"Not a bit!" said Peggy. "I wouldn't have been Mrs. La Salle for a
+farm."
+
+"There wasn't any!" said Margaret.
+
+"The principle remains the same," said Peggy, "as Miss Russell used to
+say."
+
+"There is another thing!" said Margaret. "Your life out here, Bell,
+shows me how much girls _can_ do; I mean in the active, outdoor,
+athletic way. More than I ever dreamed they could do. It really seems to
+me that, except just for the petticoats, you have very few drawbacks. I
+suppose it is having all the brothers. Why, you know as much as they do
+about the woods and all."
+
+"Yes, it's partly the boys," said Bell; "but it is much more Papa. You
+see, from the time we could walk, he has always taken us out into the
+woods and fields, and made us use our eyes and ears, and talked to us
+about things. We should not know anything, if it were not for Papa."
+
+"He does seem to know almost everything!" said Margaret. "I never saw
+any one like him."
+
+"There _isn't_ any one like him," said Gertrude, decidedly. "What have
+you got there, Margaret?"
+
+Margaret had drawn a letter from her pocket, and was looking it over.
+
+"An argument on my side," she said, smiling. "May I read it aloud?"
+
+"Do! do!" cried all the girls.
+
+Margaret smoothed out the crumpled pages affectionately. "He carried it
+in his pocket two days before he remembered to post it!" she said. "I
+judge from the date, and the appearance of the envelope. There was candy
+in his pocket, and"--she sniffed at the letter--"yes! tar, without
+doubt. Now listen!
+
+        "'DEAR COUSIN MARGARET:--We miss you awfully,
+        and Uncle John says it is no kind of a house
+        without you, and it isn't. We went a walk
+        yesterday, Susan D. and me and the dogs,
+        because you know it was Sunday; Uncle John was
+        coming too, but he had roomatizm and coud not.
+        Well Cousin Margaret, we walked over the big
+        hill and just then the dogs began howling and
+        yelling in the most awful manner, and running
+        round and round like they were crazy; and we
+        ran to see what was up, and we found out, I
+        tell you! It was white hornets, about ten
+        thousand of them, and the dogs had rolled in a
+        nest of them, and they were stinging their
+        noses, and they flew at us with perfeck fewry,
+        I mean the hornets did. I hollered and ran, but
+        Susan D. said wait she knew what to do, so she
+        said "Come on," and we ran down to the brook
+        and she took mud and put it on my stings before
+        she touched her own, and it took a good deal of
+        the pane out though not all. And then she put
+        it on the dogs' noses, and they understood like
+        persons, and poked them into the mud themselves
+        and soon forgot their pane. But I thought I
+        would tell you this Cousin Margaret, because
+        Susan D. did really behave like a perfeck
+        brick, and you always said girls were as brave
+        as boys but I never thought so before but now I
+        do; because I hollered right out when they
+        stung me which I am ashamed of. You said
+        confession was good for the sole, and so I
+        think: so now I will say good-by from
+
+                                         "'BASIL.'"
+
+"What a dear boy!" cried Gertrude.
+
+"Oh, he is!" said Margaret, the happy tears springing to her eyes. "He
+is one of the very dearest boys that ever lived, Gertrude; so manly and
+honest, and so funny, too. Gerald knows him!" she added, shyly. "I wish
+he had been at home when you were there, Peggy."
+
+"Yes; he must be a brick!" said Peggy. "Now, Margaret, you know he is,
+and you know that nothing but 'brick' expresses what I mean. Girls, I
+appeal to you. Margaret wants me to talk like a professor all the time,
+and I am not a professor, and am never likely to be one. Bell, isn't
+'brick' all right?"
+
+Bell looked conscious. "I confess I say it, Peggy; I confess it seems
+much heartier than the same thing in what my mother calls good English.
+Still--I believe it would sound very queer to me if she used it; the
+mother, I mean."
+
+"Grace used to say 'a quadrangular piece of baked clay!'" said Gertrude.
+"Don't you remember, Peggy?"
+
+"So she did--dear thing! Well, but, Bell, would you have girls talk just
+the way grown-up people do? It would sound awfully stiff and poky. I
+don't mean that it sounds so when your mother talks!" she cried; "of
+course you know I don't mean that. But girls _aren't_ grown-up, you
+know."
+
+"But they are going to be!" said Margaret. "If they don't learn good
+English now, how are they going to do it later? It does seem to me a
+terrible pity, with all our great, glorious language, to use so little
+of it, and to use it so often wrong. You may think me priggish and
+professorial, and anything else you like, Peggy dear, but that is what I
+think."
+
+"I love you to distraction," said Peggy; "you are an angel, but I think
+you carry it too far. What would you say instead of 'brick?' how would
+you describe this boy--who simply _is_ a brick?"
+
+Margaret reflected. "I should say he was a nice, manly boy!" she said,
+presently.
+
+"Nice! now, Margaret! 'nice' is niminy, you know it is, and piminy too."
+
+"The great advantage of 'brick,'" said Bell, "is that it is one word,
+and 'nice manly boy' is three, and doesn't mean the same thing then."
+
+"There!" cried Peggy, in triumph. "What do you say to that, Margaret?
+Find one word in your old 'good English' that does express 'brick?'"
+
+"Well--it isn't easy!" Margaret admitted. "'Trump' is the only one I can
+think of, and I suppose that was slang fifty years ago."
+
+"The mother says that when a word has held its own for twenty years, it
+isn't slang any more," said Gertrude. "The question is--"
+
+At this moment the sound of a horn was heard; a long, ringing blast,
+followed by a second and a third.
+
+The girls sprang to their feet. "Hurrah for a swim!" cried Bell. "Come,
+bricks and trumps--I'll race you all to the tents!" And off they went
+with a flash of petticoats, leaving the chipmunk to speculate on the
+sudden upheavals of nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WATER PLAY
+
+
+THE floating wharf, as has been said, lay at the end of a long, narrow
+slip that ran out on piers over the water. Down the slip, one by one,
+now came the Merryweathers and their guests, in bathing array, the boys
+shouting and skylarking,--the girls singing and tossing their long hair
+about. Jack and Phil brought out a long spring-board, and set it up at
+the end of the wharf; and then the fun began. Mr. Merryweather was the
+first to run along the board, and take a sober and dignified dive. He
+was followed by Gerald, turning handsprings, and carolling to the effect
+that he was a pirate king, he was; hurrah for the pirate king! Next
+came Jack, who turned a back somersault, ending with a noble splash;
+and so, one by one, like so many ducks, they dove and leaped and tumbled
+in, and splashed and swam about in the clear water. Peggy was with the
+rest, splashing as merrily as any of them; but Margaret sat on the
+wharf, in her pretty blue bathing-dress, her feet tucked under her,
+looking on.
+
+[Illustration: "'COME ON! COME IN!'"]
+
+"Come on, Margaret!" cried Peggy. "Come on! come in! It's perfectly
+great!"
+
+"In a minute," said Margaret. "I like to watch you a bit first; it takes
+me a little while to get my courage up."
+
+"Come, oh, come with me!" sang Gerald, emerging from the water, at her
+feet, and clinging to the wharf, while he shook the drops from his hair
+and eyes. "Come swim with me and be my swan! Come where the duckweed
+twineth! Come!"
+
+"Oh, Gerald, yes; in just a minute. Is it very cold?"
+
+"Cold? No; just right. Liquid crystal, sparkling sapphire, perfection!
+Come, you must have your swimming lesson. Forget the cheerful
+swain,--behold the stern instructor!"
+
+He held out his hand with an imperative gesture. Margaret laid hers in
+it timidly.
+
+"Let me get near the rope!" she said, rather nervously.
+
+"Here is the rope, close by your hand. Now, then, hold fast! There we
+go!"
+
+With one hand on the rope, and the other in Gerald's, Margaret slid into
+the water, giving a little cry as it bubbled up about her. "Gerald!"
+
+"Right here, my lady. There; both hands on the rope now. Take it easy!
+Now you are all right."
+
+"Ye'--yes, Gerald. Oh, isn't it glorious?"
+
+"Rather! It's really the element to live in, you see. A mistake was
+made somewhere. If I had but gills, I should ask no more of fate. As it
+is--"
+
+He dove, and came up on the other side of the rope. "Don't you think I
+would be charming with gills,--pretty little quivering, rosy
+gills,--instead of side whiskers?"
+
+"I never saw you in side whiskers," said Margaret, demurely, "so I
+cannot tell. You certainly don't seem to need the gills, though. How
+_do_ you manage to keep under so long? Yesterday, when you stayed down
+picking up these pebbles, I was sure something had happened. Really,
+Gerald, I was very much frightened."
+
+"I ought to have been switched," said Gerald. "I never thought of your
+noticing. I say, come down with me, and I'll show you the trick of it.
+It's just as easy!"
+
+"Not for worlds!" cried Margaret, clutching the rope, as if she expected
+to be dragged from it by force. "I never should come up alive. Oh,
+look, Gerald! what are they going to do now?"
+
+"Going to dive over the elephants. Do you mind--oh, here is the child,
+Toots. Toots, will you stay here by Margaret, while I take my place in
+the ring? You are sure you are all right, Margaret?"
+
+"Oh, yes; do go. I want to see it. Gertrude, what _are_ they doing?"
+
+"Look and see," said Gertrude. "Put your arms on the rope, and lift
+yourself higher. That's right."
+
+Phil and Jack and Willy had placed themselves side by side, on their
+hands and knees, at the edge of the wharf, and were calling loudly for
+Gerald. He stepped back to the farther end of the float, then, running
+forward, soared into the air, over the backs of the "elephants," and
+came down straight as an arrow into the water; then, scrambling out,
+took his place in the row, while Phil performed the same manoeuvre.
+Over and over and over they went, running, rising, plunging, rising
+again. Margaret grew dizzy watching them. Now Mr. Merryweather advanced,
+holding a rubber hoop, which was neither more nor less than the
+discarded tire of a bicycle. This he and Gerald held out at arm's
+length, and the other boys dove through it, amid the applause of the
+girls.
+
+"Oh, pretty!" cried Peggy. "Do you do that, girls?"
+
+"Gertrude does; I haven't tried it yet," said Bell, who was floating
+placidly, her arms under her head, her face turned to the sky.
+
+"I am going to try," said Peggy. "May I, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"By all means!" said the Chief, heartily. "Take a good run--steady,
+Jerry. Hold it out well--there! hurrah!"
+
+For Peggy had gone through the hoop like a bird, and after a clean dive,
+was coming up again, radiant and panting.
+
+"Oh, Peggy, how splendid!" cried Margaret, her eyes shining with
+pleasure and pride in her Peggy's prowess. "Gertrude, didn't she do it
+well? Such a pretty, graceful thing to do."
+
+"_C'était une corquerre!_" said Gerald, heartily. "_Elle est aussi une
+corquerre, la Peggy._ You will be doing it soon yourself."
+
+"Oh, never, never! You cannot seem to understand, Gerald, that I am not
+_made_ for these things. I love to see them; I admire them intensely,
+but I cannot so much as think of trying."
+
+"_Point de stonte pour Marguerite?_" said Gerald. "Alas the day! Because
+you really would do them so corkingly, you know, if only you should do
+them. Well, see here, I am going to give you a troll. You will like
+that, I am sure."
+
+"A troll? I thought they were mountain goblins. I don't want one, thank
+you, sir! water nixies and pixies are as much as I can bear in the
+goblin line."
+
+"Verb, not substantive!" replied Gerald.
+
+"I troll, thou lettest thyself be trolled, he, she, or it sees you being
+trolled and wishes that he, she, or it had such luck. Observe!"
+
+He climbed into one of the Rangeley boats that lay near the float,
+loosed her moorings, and, taking up the oars, brought her close to the
+rope. "Now, Margaret, catch hold; here, at the stern!"
+
+"What are you going to do with me, Gerald? I fear thee, ancient mariner,
+I fear thy skinny hand!"
+
+"I hold you with my glittering eye, you cannot choose but come. I am
+going to take you off a-trolling. Hold on tight with your hands, and let
+all the rest of you go, as if you had nothing to do with it."
+
+He took a few strokes, slowly and easily. Margaret, clinging to the
+stern, was drawn along without effort or motion of her own. Her long
+hair floated behind her; her white arms gleamed like ivory through the
+clear water; her face was alight with pleasure.
+
+"'Not wholly bad, Lysander Pratt?'" quoted Gerald, interrogatively.
+
+"Oh, Gerald! it is almost too perfect! no, you needn't stop, I only said
+_almost_. The water feels like silk flowing by me: no, silk is rough
+beside it; it feels like--like--"
+
+"Like water, possibly?" said Gerald; "stranger things have been."
+
+"Well, there isn't anything else like it, is there? Oh! are you sure you
+will not take cold or anything, Gerald? I could go on forever, floating
+here--trolling, I mean."
+
+"Nothing easier," said Gerald, pulling on with long, steady strokes. "We
+will just keep on; I ask nothing better. Years passed. A form was seen,
+gray and bent with age, feebly tugging at a pair of oars. Trailing
+behind the crazy boat, another figure might be distinguished--I forbear
+further description, Margaret: I may grow old, but not you; please stay
+as you are always. Anyhow, the people will flock to the shore. Ha! the
+Muse! the afflatus descends.
+
+        "The people thronged the rocky shore,
+         And viewed that graybeard old and hoar;
+         'Oh! why thus dodderest at the oar,
+           Unhappy soul?'
+         The answer came: 'Forever more
+           She wished to troll!'"
+
+"Gerald, I think we'd better go back now."
+
+"Wait! she hasn't finished. Never interrupt a Muse! it isn't the thing
+to do.
+
+        "And still along that rocky coast,
+         A gibbering yet a gallant ghost,
+         He dodders, dodders at his post,
+             Nor nears the goal;
+         For she, the spook he cares for most,
+             Still loves to troll."
+
+"Gerald, take me back, please! see, we are ever so far from shore, and
+it is time for me to go in, I am sure."
+
+"Just look down, Margaret! see the bottom, all white sand; isn't that
+pleasant? Hi! there's a bream watching his nest. See him fanning about
+over it, never leaving the place. He'll keep that up for hours at a
+time. Domestic party, the bream! this is an excellent opportunity to
+study the habits of--"
+
+"Gerald, I am cold!"
+
+"We'll be there in two minutes!" said Gerald, settling to his oars.
+"Hold tight, now, Margaret! troll as the wolves of Apennine were all
+upon your track!" and with long, powerful strokes he sent the boat
+flying through the water, while Margaret fairly shrieked with delight
+and excitement.
+
+Her face had been turned away from the float; but now she was speeding
+toward it, and looked eagerly to see what the others of the party were
+doing. To her great amazement, no one was in sight. The wharf lay wet
+and glistening in the sunshine, but no blue-clad figures leaped and
+pranced across it, no merry faces emerged from the blue, sparkling
+water. All was silent and solitary.
+
+"Why, Gerald," cried Margaret, "where are they all? have they gone in?
+Surely I heard their voices just a moment ago, and a great splash: where
+can they be?"
+
+"A stunt!" replied Gerald. "For our benefit, I presume, but I scorn
+their levity. I advise you to take no notice of their childish pranks. I
+myself was young, once upon a time, but what then?"
+
+They were now at the float, and Margaret looked about her, in utter
+amazement. All was silent; not a voice, not a whisper; no soul was in
+sight. It was as if she and Gerald were alone in the world. She stepped
+out on the float: at the instant, up from under her feet rose a sound as
+if the biggest giant that ever swung a club were sneezing. "A--_tchoo_!"
+
+Margaret screamed outright. "Gerald! what is it?"
+
+"Come out from there!" cried Gerald. "They are under the float,
+imbeciles that they are. The Pater has gone ashore, and the others
+manifest their nature, that is all. Come out, Apes of the Apennines! or
+I'll--"
+
+The threat remained unfinished, for the Merryweathers came out. Swarming
+up from under the float, where they had been treading water at their
+ease, with plenty of breathing-space, they flung themselves with one
+accord upon Gerald's boat, capsized it, and dragged him into the water.
+A great splashing contest ensued, with much shouting and merriment, and
+they were still hard at it when "All in!" sounded from the boat-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MAIL
+
+
+"STILL raining, Phil?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, looking up from her
+writing.
+
+"Still, honored parent! or rather, to be exact, anything but still. Up
+on the hill, the wind is fierce. I had to ride round the blast once or
+twice, instead of going through it. Solid old wind, that!"
+
+He threw off his dripping oilskin jacket, and came in, unslinging the
+letter-bag from his shoulder as he came.
+
+"Letters! letters!" he cried. "Who wants letters?"
+
+Every one gathered around him, holding out eager hands.
+
+"One for me, Phil!"
+
+"For me, Protector of the Poor!"
+
+"Oh! please, Phil! I want three at least."
+
+"If there is none for me, Fergy my boy, I shudder at the consequences
+for you!"
+
+Phil distributed letters and papers; the family subsided on chairs and
+benches with their treasures, and for some minutes nothing was heard but
+the rustle of paper and the steady downpour of the rain.
+
+"Oh!" cried Peggy, presently. "Oh--eee! splendid!"
+
+"Sapolio!" exclaimed Gerald; and "Well! well!" said Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+The three exclamations were simultaneous, and Bell, who had no letters,
+raised her hand with an imperative gesture. "Exclamation must be
+followed by explanation!" she said. "Law of the Medes and Persians. We
+shall be glad to hear from the exclaimers."
+
+"Who? me? did I?" asked Peggy, looking up with sparkling eyes.
+"Semiramis has eight puppies. Think of it! eight whole puppies!"
+
+"I never buy more than half a puppy at a time," said Gerald, "unless it
+is for a veal and ham pie."
+
+"Gerald!"
+
+"Well, it's a fact, Mater; I never do. What kind of puppies, thou of
+Limavaddy?"
+
+"Gordon setters, black and tan: oh, she says they are perfect beauties.
+She says--this is Jean, you know, my sister--'they are all like Semmy
+except one, and he is _blue_.' Who ever heard of a blue puppy? You shall
+have one, Snowy: I promised you one, don't you remember? oh--eee! and
+the new colt is a perfect beauty too, and they have named her Peggy.
+Oh!"
+
+Peggy looked down at her letter, then looked up again shyly. "I--don't
+suppose you would care to hear any of it?" she said, interrogatively.
+
+"Indeed we should!" said Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "We should like it
+extremely, Peggy. A letter from the Far West; why, it will be a journey
+for all of us."
+
+"Great!" said Phil.
+
+"Corking!" said Gerald. And one and all, in their several ways,
+expressed their desire to hear the letter.
+
+Dimpling with pleasure, her rosy face beaming, Peggy began to read.
+
+"'Dear old'--oh, well, I won't read just the beginning, because it is
+just the way we talk to each other, you know. I wish you knew Jean,
+Snowy. Let me see! oh, yes, here it is.
+
+"'This is eight birthdays all at once, for what do you think, Peggy?
+this morning we missed Semmy at breakfast, and could not find her
+anywhere. There were kidneys, and you know she always finishes the dish
+off, because she is so fond of them. Well, and so I went to look for
+her, and she wasn't in her box, or in the shed, or behind the kitchen
+stove, or anywhere where she usually is. So I went out to the stable,
+and there I heard little squeaks and squeals, the funniest you ever
+heard, and then a growl in Semmy's voice as I opened the door. Then the
+dear thing heard my step, and was ashamed of growling, and began
+thumping her tail on the floor till I should have thought she would
+break it. And there she was, all cuddled down in a pile of hay, and the
+dear little darling things all cuddled round her. I never saw anything
+so perfectly dear! they were all blind, and bald all over, and pink, and
+squealing like anything; you never _did_ see anything so lovely in all
+your life, at least I never did. Well, she let me take them up, one by
+one, old darling, though I could see that it made her nervous. Most of
+them are like her, beautifully marked, with pink noses, and black ears,
+and just the right blackness and tanness on them; but one is very queer,
+great splotches of black on his nose and his hind quarters, and all the
+rest of him white. So they named him "Magpie," right off; but I haven't
+come to the names yet. He is not very pretty, but he looks _very_
+bright, and I shouldn't wonder if he was terribly clever, to make up for
+not being so handsome as the others. And the other different one is a
+perfect beauty, though you may not think so when I tell you that he is
+_blue_. Yes, truly blue; of course I don't mean sky blue, nor navy, but
+the black is all mixed in through the white,--I can't explain to you
+just how it is--but anyhow, at a little distance, he does truly and
+honestly look blue. Well, so--I was the first to find them, so Father
+said I might name them, but of course I wanted us all to do it together;
+so we all thought, and each made a list. Oh, Peggy, we did want you; and
+I wanted to wait till you could send your list too, but the others
+thought you would not mind, and it is nicer to have them named quickly,
+because then their names seem to belong to them more, and they look
+like them. Perhaps, I mean, if you had been called something else till
+you were two or three years old, you might not have been so just exactly
+Peggy as you are, you dear old thing.'
+
+"Perhaps I ought not to have read that," said Peggy, looking up with a
+blush; "but it is as like Jean as I am like Peggy, if I am like it,
+whatever it is."
+
+"You certainly are like 'it,'" said Gertrude, laughing, "and 'it'
+certainly is a dear old thing. Go on, please. We are all longing to hear
+the list."
+
+Peggy threw her a kiss, and went on.
+
+"'I will not give you all the lists, for that would take up all the rest
+of my letter; but here is the one we finally made out. There are three
+females, and five males, you know: _Cleopatra_, _Meg_ (Merrilies; that
+was Flora's, because she is just reading "Guy Mannering"), _Diana_,
+_Guy_ (for the same reason), _Shot_, _Hector_, _Ajax_, and _Magpie_.'
+
+"Well, I do think that is a queer list," Peggy concluded, folding up the
+letter. "I wish they had called one 'Gray Brother,' or 'Bagheera.'"
+
+"But they are not wolves or panthers," objected Mr. Merryweather. "I
+should say that was a very fair list of names, Peggy, as names go. It is
+always hard to find a good name for a dog. 'Shot' is an excellent name.
+We had a good old dog named Shot, and I have always liked the name."
+
+"Mammy," said Bell, "are we not to hear something from you?"
+
+"From me, my dear?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather. "What would you like to
+hear?"
+
+"I should think you were an amiable gramophone," replied her daughter,
+with affectionate disrespect. "And I _think_ you really know what I
+mean, madam, in spite of that innocent look. On reading your letters,
+you and Jerry exclaimed: 'Well, well!' and 'Sapolio!' at the same
+instant, and your letters are on the same kind of paper, I cannot help
+seeing that. Have you something to break to us? 'Sapolio' is a baleful
+utterance, delivered as Jerry delivered it just now."
+
+"Gee! I should think it was!" muttered Gerald, gloomily. He had
+brightened up while Peggy was reading her letter, but now his usually
+bright face was clouded with unmistakable vexation.
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Merryweather, with what seemed a rather elaborately
+cheerful expression. "My letter? It is from Cousin Anna Belleville. She
+tells me that Claud has been with her at Bar Harbor for some time, and
+that he is coming to visit us on his way back. He will be here some day
+next week, she thinks."
+
+A certain pensiveness stole over the aspect of the Merryweathers. Bell
+and Gertrude exchanged a swift glance, but said nothing. Gerald
+whistled, "Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket!"
+
+After a brief silence, Mr. Merryweather said, thoughtfully, "I was
+thinking of taking the boys off on a camping trip next week."
+
+"You cannot, Miles," said his wife, quickly. "It is out of the
+question."
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Merryweather. "I only--a--quite so!"
+
+He relapsed into inarticulate murmurs over his pipe. Mrs. Merryweather,
+after a reproachful glance at him, turned to Gerald, as she folded her
+letter. "You have a letter from Claud, Gerald?" she asked, cheerfully.
+
+"I have, madam," said Gerald, with a brow of thunder. "He informs me
+that he is looking forward with the greatest pleasure to roughing it a
+bit with us, and says that we must make no preparations, but let him
+take things just as they are. He's a Christian soul, that's what he is."
+
+"What is to be the order of the evening?" asked Mrs. Merryweather,
+addressing Bell with a shade of warning in her voice. "Are we to have
+games, or boat-building?"
+
+"Oh! boat-building! the regatta is to-morrow, and we are not half
+ready."
+
+There was a general rush toward cupboards and lockers, and in an
+incredibly short space of time the whole room was a pleasant litter of
+chips, shingles, and brown paper. The rules for the regattas at
+Merryweather were few and simple. All boats must be built by their
+owners, unaided; no boat must be over a foot long from stem to stern;
+all sails must be of paper. Aside from these limitations, the fancies of
+the campers might roam at will; accordingly, the boats were of every
+shape and description, from Kitty's shingle, ballasted with pebbles, to
+Phil's elaborate catamaran. Peggy was struggling with a stout and
+somewhat "nubbly" piece of wood, which was slowly shaping itself under
+the vigorous strokes of her jack-knife.
+
+"She's coming on!" Peggy declared, cheerfully. "She really begins to
+look quite like a boat now, doesn't she, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"Certainly!" the Chief assented. "I don't see why she should not make a
+very good boat, Peggy. I would round off her stern a bit, if I were you.
+So! that's better."
+
+"What is her name, Peggy?" inquired Mrs. Merryweather. "I must be
+entering the names in the Log."
+
+"The _Lovely Peggy_, of course!" said Phil. "What else should it be?"
+
+"It might be the _Limavaddy_!" said Gerald.
+
+"Gerald, I _wish_ you would tell me what you mean by 'Limavaddy,'" said
+Peggy. "It sounds like--I don't know what; tea-caddy, or something like
+that. Mrs. Merryweather, won't you tell me what it means?"
+
+"It is a compliment he is paying you, Peggy," said her hostess, smiling.
+"Peg of Limavaddy is the charming heroine of a charming ballad of
+Thackeray's.
+
+        "'This I do declare,
+           Happy is the laddy
+           Who the heart can share
+            Of Peg of Limavaddy.
+          Married if she were,
+            Blest would be the daddy
+          Of the children fair
+            Of Peg of Limavaddy.
+          Beauty is not rare
+            In the land of Paddy,
+          Fair beyond compare
+            Is Peg of Limavaddy.'
+
+That is not one of the prettiest stanzas, but it shows you why Gerald
+has nicknamed you."
+
+"I say with Captain Corcoran," Gerald observed, pausing in the critical
+adjustment of a sail:
+
+        "'Though I'm anything but clever,
+          I could talk like that forever.'
+
+As thus!
+
+        "When she makes the tea,
+           Brews it from a caddy,
+         Who so blithe as she,
+           Peg of Limavaddy?
+
+        "See her o'er the stove,
+           Broiling of a haddie;
+         Thus she won my love,
+           Peg of Limavaddy.
+
+        "But building of a boat,
+           Her success is shady;
+         Bet you she won't float,
+           Peg of Limavaddy!"
+
+"Wait till to-morrow," cried Peggy, laughing, "and you'll see whether
+she floats or not. And anyhow, she is my first boat. Isn't there a
+special class for beginners, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"No, no! no fear or favor shown; the rigor of the game, little Peggy.
+Margaret, have you given up?"
+
+"Oh, yes, please, Mr. Merryweather!" said Margaret, looking up from her
+knitting with a smile. "I could not; it simply was not possible. Gerald
+was positive at first that he could teach me, but after one lesson he
+was equally positive that he could not. I needed no conviction, because
+I knew I could not."
+
+"Nobody can do absolutely everything," said Gerald, "except the
+Codger,--I allude to my revered uncle, Margaret,--and I have at times
+desired to drown him for that qualification. You shall be the starter,
+Margaret; you'll do that to perfection."
+
+"What are the duties of a starter?" asked Margaret; "I shall be very
+glad to do anything I really can."
+
+"To sit still and look pretty!" said Gerald, demurely. "I _think_ you
+can manage it."
+
+"Have I the full list?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "I'll read it aloud.
+
+"The _Principal Whale_,--Papa."
+
+"I wish you would not call my father names!" murmured Gerald.
+
+"Jerry, do be still!
+
+"The _Tintinnabula_, Bell.
+
+"The _Jollycumpop_, Gertrude.
+
+"The _Come-at-a-Body_, Gerald.
+
+"The _Molasses Cooky_, Phil.
+
+"The _Polly Cologne_, Kitty.
+
+"The _Whopper_, Willy."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"All but Peggy's," said Gertrude. "Peggy, you must decide on the name of
+your boat."
+
+"Oh! Gertrude, that is the hardest part of all. Margaret, you must name
+her for me."
+
+"Why not _Semiramis_, after the happy mother of the puppies?" suggested
+Margaret.
+
+"The whole puppies!" echoed Gerald. "Don't half name them, Margaret!"
+
+"Why isn't that the name for the boat?" cried Phil.
+
+"It is! it is!" cried all the rest. "The _Whole Puppy_, it is!" And
+Peggy laughing, submitted.
+
+"I never _was_ so teased in all my life!" she said; "but I feel it doing
+me good."
+
+"That is our one object, my charming child!" said Gerald, gravely. "We
+invited you here in the hope that our united efforts might counteract
+the pernicious influences of Fernley House."
+
+"Nobody will ever explain to me what a Come-at-a-Body is!" said
+Margaret. "Whenever I ask, you all say, 'Oh, hush! it might come!' Mrs.
+Merryweather, won't you tell me?"
+
+"I will read you the description of it in the Log," said Mrs.
+Merryweather, smiling; "that is the best I can do for you."
+
+She turned over the pages of the book that lay open in her lap. "Here it
+is!" she said. "Now mark and learn, Margaret.
+
+"'The Come-at-a-Body is found only in its native habitat, where it may
+be observed at the proper season, indulging in the peculiar actions that
+characterize it. It has more arms than legs, and more hair than either.
+It moves with great rapidity, its gait being something between a wallop
+and a waddle; and as it comes (one of its peculiarities is that it
+always comes, and never goes), it utters loud screams, and gnashes its
+teeth in time with its movements.'
+
+"Now, my dear, you know all that I do!" Mrs. Merryweather concluded with
+a candid smile.
+
+"Thank you so much!" said Margaret, laughing. "I am certainly
+enlightened."
+
+At this moment Phil, who was sitting near the door, laid down his work,
+and held up a warning hand. "Hark!" he said. "What is that?"
+
+"Only the wind!" said some one.
+
+"Or the car rattling o'er the stony street!" said another.
+
+"No!" said Phil. "I heard a voice, I am sure. Listen!"
+
+All were silent. Outside the rain was pouring, the wind wailing in long
+sighing gusts; but--yes! mingling with the wind, a voice was certainly
+calling:
+
+"Hallo! hallo, there! Merryweather!"
+
+Gerald sprang to his feet, and struck his twin brother on the shoulder.
+"The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" he cried. "I should know that
+voice in the shock of spears: it is Claud Belleville!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MR. BELLEVILLE
+
+
+[Illustration: "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH."]
+
+THE Montforts and Jack Ferrers looked up with much curiosity and some
+apprehension as the twins returned ushering in the unexpected visitor.
+Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather and the girls welcomed him cordially, but
+Margaret could not help contrasting their somewhat subdued cheerfulness
+with the joyous outburst that had welcomed herself and Peggy on their
+arrival.
+
+Mr. Claud Belleville was a tall, pallid youth, with blond hair carefully
+arranged, pale blue eyes, in one of which an eyeglass was neatly fitted,
+and a languid air. He spoke with a pronounced English accent, and, on
+being presented to the other guests, said "Oh! very, very, very!" in
+a most affable tone.
+
+The Merryweathers bestirred themselves, some bringing dry garments, some
+preparing a hasty meal; the guest meanwhile stood in the centre of the
+hearthstone, and adjured them not to put themselves to inconvenience.
+
+"Now, my dear people, I beg of you!" he said. "Nothing, positively
+nothing, but a biscuit and a cup of tea! Really, now, I cannot allow it.
+Thanks, Jerry! awfully good of you, don't you know! oh! very, very,
+very! now, my dear fellow, _not_ your best coat! It is too absurd."
+
+"It isn't my best, it's my worst!" said Gerald, bluntly.
+
+"Oh! very good! very diverting! thanks awfully! don't mention it. Well,
+Cousin Miranda, this is charming; this is positively charming. So
+delightfully primitive, don't you know! oh, very, very, very! I told my
+people that before I went back to Paris I must positively look you up.
+It is such an age since I have seen any of you. My little cousins are
+all grown up into young ladies, and such charming young ladies: I
+congratulate you, Cousin, _de tout mon coeur_!"
+
+"Thank you, Claud!" said Mrs. Merryweather, quietly. "I trust your
+mother is quite well? I only received her note, and Gerald yours,
+to-day. She spoke of your coming next week; if we had known that you
+were coming to-night, we would have sent to the station for you."
+
+"Ah, yes; I knew that!" said Mr. Belleville. "I know your hospitality
+never fails, Cousin Miranda. But you know me, too--a butterfly--here
+to-day, gone to-morrow! A summons from the Dunderblincks--races going on
+at their place, don't you know; midsummer _fêtes_, that sort of
+thing--changed my plans. Mamma said, 'You will have to give up the Camp,
+_Chéri_!' 'No!' I said. 'They expect me; I have passed my word, it is
+all I have. I go to the Camp to-day.' I came--I saw--I dare not say I
+conquered!" Here he bowed, and threw a killing glance at Gertrude, who
+was passing at the moment, carrying the teapot.
+
+"_Can_ this be the little Gertrude?" he added, addressing her, and
+lowering his voice to a sentimental half-tone. "She has not forgotten
+Cousin Claud?"
+
+"Certainly not, Claud!" replied Gertrude, smiling. "It is only three
+years since you were with us at home for two or three weeks. I remember
+you perfectly."
+
+"Only three years!" murmured Mr. Belleville. "Is it possible? but what
+momentous years! The change from the _petite fille_, the charming child,
+to the woman, the--but I must not say too much!"
+
+"You'll burn your bloom--your boots, if you stand so near the fire!"
+said Gerald, in a growl so threatening that Margaret looked up
+startled.
+
+"_Your_ boots, dear fellow!" Mr. Belleville corrected him. "Right! I am
+a little near the cheerful blaze. I am a fire-worshipper, you know; oh,
+very, very, very!"
+
+"Boys, you'd better see to the boats before you go to bed!" said Mr.
+Merryweather, speaking for the first time since his greeting of the
+newcomer.
+
+"All right, sir!" said the twins, rising with alacrity. "Jack, will you
+come along?"
+
+"Always thoughtful, Cousin Miles!" said Mr. Belleville. "Always the prop
+of the family! so unchanged!"
+
+Mr. Merryweather's reply was inarticulate, and its tone caused his wife
+to begin hastily a series of inquiries for the visitor's family.
+
+The twins and Jack Ferrers walked slowly down the slip in the rain. No
+one spoke till they reached the float; then Gerald said slowly:
+"Sapolio--Saccarappa--Sarcophagus--_Squedunk_!"
+
+"Feel better?" asked his brother, sympathetically.
+
+"There is one thing," said Gerald, still speaking slowly and
+emphatically, "that I wish, in this connection, distinctly understood.
+Indoors he is safe: hospitality--salt--Arabs--that kind of thing. But if
+in the immediate proximity of the cleansing flood"--he waved his hand
+toward the lake--"he continues to patronize the parents, in he goes! I
+have spoken!"
+
+"I should not presume to restrain my half-hour elder!" said Phil. "Jack,
+I'm afraid we shall have to put this curled darling in your tent. It's
+only for the night, fortunately."
+
+"Oh! of course! delighted!" said Jack, somewhat embarrassed.
+
+"Very, very, very, eh?" said Phil. "Oh! what's the use of making
+believe, with any one we know so well as you? It's a nuisance, and we
+don't pretend it isn't."
+
+"Mark my words, John Ferrers!" broke in Gerald. "We mean to be civil to
+this youth. He is our second cousin, and we know it. He is also a
+blooming, blossoming, burgeoning Ass, and he doesn't know it. They
+seldom do. We mean, I say, to be civil to him, barring patronage of the
+parents. He has been our thorn, and we have borne him--at intervals,
+mercifully not too short--all our lives. But we aren't going to pretend
+that we love him, because we don't. No more doesn't he love us.
+
+          "The love that's lost between us
+           Is not the love for me;
+        But there's a flood both fair and broad,
+        In which I'd duck my charming Claud
+           As gladly as could be!"
+
+. . . . . . .
+
+"Are you ready?" asked the Chief.
+
+"Oh! no, Pater! not just yet. My rudder has got fouled with the cargo."
+
+"Somebody lend me a safety-pin, please! my mainsail is coming loose."
+
+"Has anybody got any ballast to spare? just one pebble!"
+
+These cries and many others resounded from the float, where the campers
+were gathered, and were putting the last touches to their toy boats.
+Finally Mr. Merryweather declared that there should be no more delay.
+The boats were carefully placed in the Ark, a great white rowboat manned
+by the Chief and Phil, who proceeded to row out leisurely to a
+white-flagged buoy at some distance from the shore. Gerald and Jack in
+one canoe, Gertrude and Peggy in another, were stationed at either side
+of the course; while Margaret and Claud Belleville, in a Rangeley boat,
+were so placed as to take the time of the various boats as they came in.
+This arrangement was not satisfactory to all the campers, but when
+protests were made in the family council the night before, Mr.
+Merryweather had calmly remarked that it was impossible to please
+everybody, and that the visitors should be given the post of honor.
+Gerald muttered that he did not see why Margaret should be butchered to
+make a Claudian holiday; to which his father replied that the matter was
+settled, and perhaps he, Gerald, would better be seeing to the lanterns.
+
+"Aren't you a little hard on the boy?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, when she
+and her husband were left alone together.
+
+"He needs something to bite on!" was the reply. "He is going through a
+kind of moral teething."
+
+This regatta was the first that Margaret had ever seen, and she was
+greatly excited.
+
+"Tell us when we are just right!" she cried to the Chief as she passed
+the Ark. "Oh! anchor by the red flag? yes, I remember, you told me
+before. Now, Mr. Belleville, will you throw out the anchor, please?"
+
+"Must I?" rejoined Mr. Belleville. "It seems a pity! So charming to row
+about a bit, don't you think? oh! well, if you insist!"--as he met
+Margaret's horrified gaze. "Here goes!"
+
+The anchor splashed overboard, and the young man laid down his oars.
+
+"You take this _au grand sérieux_, I see, Miss Montfort, like my good
+cousins themselves. I confess I never can attain their perennial
+youthfulness, try how I will. I feel a Methuselah, I give you my word I
+do. Oh! very, very, very!"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Margaret, simply. "We are here to take
+the time, as the boats pass the line. There is no other object in our
+being here."
+
+"No other? Alas! poor Claud!" sighed Mr. Belleville. "Now, to me, Miss
+Montfort, the sailing of toy boats is the smallest possible factor in
+this afternoon's pleasure. It is not, believe me, the childish sport
+that I shall remember when I am far away."
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, vaguely, her eyes on the white boat.
+
+"You do not ask what it is that I shall carry with me across the ocean?"
+Claud's voice dropped to its favorite smooth half-tone, what he was fond
+of describing to his friends as "_ma mi-voix caressante_."
+
+"There is a glamour, Miss Montfort, a magic, that does not always put
+itself into words. The perfect day, the perfect vision, will dwell with
+me--"
+
+"Oh, look!" cried Margaret, starting forward, eagerly, "they are giving
+the signal. Gerald repeats it. Oh, they are off! Look, look, Mr.
+Belleville! What a pretty sight."
+
+It was, indeed, a pretty sight. The fairy fleet started in line, their
+white and brown sails taking the breeze gallantly, their prows (where
+they had prows) dancing over the dancing ripples. One or two proved
+unruly, turning round and round, and in one case finally turning bottom
+side up, with hardly a struggle. But most of the little vessels kept
+fairly well within the course, heading, more or less, for the shore.
+
+Margaret was enchanted.
+
+"How wonderfully they keep together!" she said. "Oh! but now they begin
+to separate. Look, there is a poor little one wobbling off all by
+itself. I wonder--I am afraid it is Peggy's. Yes, I am sure it is. Poor
+Peggy! Oh! the first three are going much faster than the rest. I wonder
+whose they are. How prettily they sail! Did you ever see anything
+prettier?"
+
+"I see something infinitely prettier," said Mr. Belleville, fixing his
+eyes on his companion. But Margaret, wholly unconscious of his
+languishing gaze, was watching the race with an intensity of eagerness
+that left no room for any other impressions.
+
+The three forward boats came on swiftly, their prows dipping lightly,
+their paper sails spread full to the breeze. Shouts came ringing over
+the water, from the other boats, and from the shore, where the rest of
+the campers were gathered in an excited knot.
+
+"_Jollycumpop!_"
+
+"_Come-at-a-Body!_"
+
+"Good work, _Jolly_! Keep it up!"
+
+"The _Whale_ is gaining. Hit her up, Spermaceti!"
+
+"_Jollycumpop_ has it! _Jollycumpop!_"
+
+"The _Jolly is_ first," cried Margaret; "but the _Come-at-a-Body_ is
+very, very close. Which do you think will win, Mr. Belleville?"
+
+"Which do you wish to win?" asked Mr. Belleville.
+
+"Oh, how can I tell? One is Gertrude's, the other Gerald's."
+
+"There can be little doubt in that case, I imagine," said Claud
+Belleville, with a peculiar smile. "As a matter of simple
+gallantry--dear me, how unfortunate!"
+
+As he spoke, his oar slipped from his hand, and fell with a splash into
+the water. The _Come-at-a-Body_ was nearest to the Rangeley boat. The
+oar did not absolutely touch the tiny vessel, but the shock of the
+disturbed water was enough to check her gallant progress. She
+paused,--wavered,--finally recovered herself, and went bravely on. But
+in that pause the _Jollycumpop_ crossed the line triumphantly, amid loud
+acclamations.
+
+"The little Gertrude wins!" exclaimed Mr. Belleville, recovering his oar
+with graceful composure. "We can hardly regret an accident which
+contributes even slightly to give the victory where it so manifestly
+belongs, can we, Miss Montfort?"
+
+But Margaret Montfort turned upon him, her fair face flushed with anger,
+her gentle eyes full of fire.
+
+"Mr. Belleville, you dropped that oar on purpose!" she said, quietly.
+
+"How can you suspect me of such a thing?" replied Mr. Belleville,
+laughing. "But, _quand même_! would it have been wholly unjustifiable if
+I had done so?"
+
+"Wholly, to my mind!" said Margaret. "In fact, I cannot imagine such a
+thing being done by any one who--" she checked herself.
+
+"By any one who is related to these dear people?" said Mr. Belleville,
+lightly. "Ah! Miss Montfort, a bond of blood does not always mean a bond
+of sympathy. These dear people bore me, and I bore them. Believe me, it
+is reciprocal. But do you yourself never tire of this everlasting
+childishness, these _jeux d'enfance_, on the part of persons who, after
+all, are mostly beyond the nursery?"
+
+"I do not!" said Margaret, concisely. "If you will take in the anchor,
+Mr. Belleville, I think I should like to go ashore, if you please."
+
+"I have offended you!" cried Claud Belleville. "You, to whom from the
+first instant I have felt so irresistibly drawn. I am unfortunate,
+indeed. But you cannot be seriously angry. Give me a chance to redeem
+myself, I implore you, Miss Montfort. See what a charming little cove
+opens yonder, just opposite. Delightful to drift and dream for an hour,
+in the company of one who understands--oh, very, very, very."
+
+"I do not understand," said Margaret, "and I have no desire to do so,
+Mr. Belleville. I beg you to take me ashore at once,--this moment."
+
+"And if I were bold enough to delay obedience for a few moments? If I
+felt confident that I could overcome this stern--"
+
+"Gertrude," called Margaret, as the owner of the victorious
+_Jollycumpop_ passed them with a triumphant greeting, "can you give us a
+tow?"
+
+"Certainly," said Gertrude. "Anything wrong?"
+
+"On the contrary, dear cousin," said Claud, "I challenge you to a race."
+
+And with a glance at Margaret, half reproachful, half mocking, he bent
+to his oars, with the first sign of energy he had shown since his
+arrival.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PUPPY PLAY
+
+
+"BELL, may I speak to you a moment?" said Margaret.
+
+Bell looked up from a critical inspection of the _Tintinnabula_, which
+had been somewhat injured in the race. "Certainly, May Margaret!" she
+said. "Do you want to know why my poor boatie did not win? I have just
+found out." Then, looking up, and seeing Margaret's disturbed face, she
+rose instantly.
+
+"Something is wrong?" she said, quickly. "Come this way, under the
+trees, where it is quiet. You have had no bad news, dear?"
+
+"Oh, no!" said Margaret. "But--Bell, I have something very disagreeable
+to tell you. It seems terrible to say anything that may make trouble,
+but nothing makes so much trouble as untruth, and I do think you ought
+to know this. I don't think the _Jollycumpop_ really won the race!"
+
+"My dear Margaret! she came in well ahead; didn't you see--"
+
+"Listen, Bell!" and Margaret told in a few words the story of the
+dropped oar.
+
+Bell listened with keen attention, and when Margaret had finished,
+whistled two bars of the Siegfried _motif_ very correctly before she
+spoke.
+
+"The little animal!" she said at last. "Well, Margaret, do you know, the
+best thing to do, in my opinion, is--to say nothing about it, at
+present."
+
+"But--Bell! Gerald really won!"
+
+"I know! but, even as it is, Jerry can hardly keep his hands off Claud.
+My one prayer is that we may be able to get the boy off to-morrow
+without an open quarrel breaking out. You see, Margaret, when they were
+little, it was all right for Jerry to thrash him. He did it punctually
+and thoroughly, every time they met, and it was very good for the boy;
+but now of course it is out of the question."
+
+"Why did he come here?" inquired Margaret. "Did ever any one manage to
+make so much trouble in so short a time? the very air seems changed."
+
+Bell shrugged her shoulders. "His mother made him come, probably," she
+said. "He is really devoted to his mother; when you see him with her,
+you forgive a great deal. She is very fond of my father, and is always
+hoping that he may be able to influence Claud, and to appreciate him.
+After all, the boy has no father, and he has been systematically spoiled
+ever since he was born. I wish to-morrow were over."
+
+"Then," said Margaret, slowly, "I am to say nothing about this matter."
+
+"Please not!" said her friend. "My dear, I see you are troubled, because
+you saw the horrid thing done; and you don't think it right to conceal
+the truth, even for a time. I am just as angry as you, but remember,
+there is 'a time to speak and a time to be silent.' This is a time to be
+silent, I am very sure; if we were to tell the boys now, it would be a
+match thrown into a powder-magazine. To-morrow, when Claud is safely off
+to his Dunderblincks, we will tell them; there will be an explosion
+then, but it will do no harm; and in a day or two the two boats can have
+a race by themselves, and that will decide the case. Are you convinced,
+Justitia?"
+
+"Entirely!" said Margaret. "You are very wise, Bell; I suppose I was too
+angry to see clearly; I have never been so angry in my life. As you say,
+I suppose it is because I saw it; and it _was_ a horrid thing to see. I
+too wish to-morrow were over."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morrow came, and the morning passed peacefully enough. The wagon was
+ordered which was to carry the visitor to the evening train. The elders
+began to breathe freely, and it was with a mind comparatively at rest
+that Mr. Merryweather strolled down to the float after dinner, to
+inspect a boat which had been hauled up for repairs. The other
+"menfolks" of the family followed him, and all stood round after the
+fashion of their kind, saying little, but enjoying themselves in their
+own way.
+
+"I'd caulk her a bit, Jerry," said the Chief; "and then give her a
+couple of coats of shellac. She'll do then for the rest of the season."
+
+"All right, Pater!" said Jerry.
+
+"And if it be possible," his father went on, "so far as in you lies, do
+not spill the shellac about. Shellac is an excellent thing in its place,
+but I don't like it on the seat of my chair, where I found it this
+morning, nor sprinkled over the new 'Century,' as it was last night. And
+it isn't as if there were any to spare; the can is very low."
+
+"I know!" said Gerald, penitently. "I am awfully sorry, Pater. I threw a
+cushion at Fergs, and it upset the can. I scraped up as much as I could;
+I think there is enough left for this job. If not, would that varnish
+do?"
+
+"Varnish--" said Mr. Merryweather; and he plunged into a dissertation
+upon the abominations of most varnishes and the iniquities of their
+makers. Gerald replied, defending certain kinds for certain purposes;
+the others chimed in, and a heated discussion was going on, when Claud
+Belleville joined the party. In spotless gray tweeds, with a white
+Manila hat and a lavender necktie, he made a singular contrast to the
+campers in their flannel shirts and dingy corduroys.
+
+At his appearance, Gerald rose from his squatting posture at the stern
+of the boat, while Phil and Jack amiably made way for the newcomer at
+the edge of the wharf, where, for some unexplained reason, men always
+like to stand. Claud, finding himself between Gerald and his father,
+turned toward the latter with an air of cheerful benevolence.
+
+"Cousin Miles," he said, "you must promise me, you really must, to come
+to us at Bar Harbor before the end of the summer. I gave my word to
+Mamma that I would induce you to come. She longs to see you."
+
+"I should like very much to see her," said Mr. Merryweather. "We were
+always very good friends, your mother and I. Give her my love, and tell
+her that some time when she is in New York I shall run on to see her;
+possibly this autumn, before you sail. It would not be possible for me
+to leave here now."
+
+"Oh, but yes!" cried Mr. Belleville, airily. "It could be possible,
+Cousin Miles. Here are the boys, absolutely _au fait_ in bog-trotting of
+every description; in fact, suited to the life--in all its aspects." He
+swept Gerald with a comprehensive glance, from his mop of red hair,
+tanned into rust-color, to his feet, clad in superannuated "sneakers."
+
+"They can do all the honors of the place as they should be done," he
+added. "But you, Cousin Miles, you must positively come to Bar Harbor.
+You live too much the life of the fields. Mamma is constantly deploring
+it. We will show you a little life, Mamma and I. I will put you up at my
+Club, and take you out in my new auto; in a week, you will not know
+yourself, I give you my word. Oh, very, very, very!"
+
+As the speaker stood beaming benevolence at Mr. Merryweather, and
+diffusing contempt among the rest of the party, two hands were laid on
+his shoulders; hands which gripped like steel, and propelled him forward
+with irresistible force. He staggered, struggled to save himself--and
+the next instant disappeared with a loud splash beneath the water.
+
+Gerald confronted his father with a face of white fire.
+
+"I told him, sir, plainly and distinctly, that if he patronized you I
+should duck him!" he said. "He has had fair warning: this has gone on
+long enough."
+
+"Gerald," said Mr. Merryweather, gravely, "you are behaving like a
+foolish and ill-tempered child. I am fully able to take care of myself.
+We will talk of this later. Meantime you will apologize to your cousin."
+
+"Oh, certainly, sir! I intended to, of course."
+
+While this brief colloquy had been going on, Phil and Jack, with
+sparkling eyes, waited at the edge of the wharf for the reappearance of
+Mr. Belleville. Up he came presently, splashing and sputtering, his eyes
+flashing angry sparks. Phil held out a hand; a vigorous pull, a
+scramble, and he stood once more on the wharf. Gerald walked up to him
+at once. "I beg your pardon, Claud!" he said. "I had no business to do
+it, and I apologize."
+
+Claud gave a spiteful laugh, and shook himself in his cousin's
+direction, spattering him with drops. "Don't mention it, dear fellow!"
+he said, through his chattering teeth. "It serves me right for expecting
+civilized manners in the backwoods. This no doubt appears to you an
+exquisite pleasantry, and its delicacy will be appreciated, no doubt, by
+others of your circle. _Enfin_, in the presence of your father, whom I
+respect, I can but accept your apology. Since you are sorry--"
+
+"I did not say I was sorry!" Gerald broke in. "I said I begged your
+pardon."
+
+"My son, will you go at once and attend to the fire?" said Mr.
+Merryweather.
+
+"Father--"
+
+"_At once!_" repeated Mr. Merryweather.
+
+Gerald went.
+
+"Phil, take your cousin in, and get him some dry clothes. His own will
+be dry before the wagon comes, if you hang them by the kitchen stove.
+Hurry now!"
+
+Phil and Claud went off in surly silence, and Mr. Merryweather turned to
+Jack Ferrers, who had remained an amused but somewhat embarrassed
+spectator of the scene.
+
+"Puppy play, Jack!" he said, quietly. "You have seen plenty of it in
+Germany. One puppy _is_ a puppy, more's the pity, and the other has red
+hair. Well! well! I did hope this could have been avoided; but we must
+not let it go any further. I wish Roger were here. I wonder if you can
+help me out, Jack."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir!" said Jack, heartily.
+
+"You see, I must go off; I ought to be at the village landing this
+moment, to see about that freight that is coming. Do you think you can
+keep the peace till I come back?"
+
+"I think I can," said Jack. "I'll make a good try for it, anyhow, Mr.
+Merryweather."
+
+"That's a good lad!" said the Chief. "You could knock both their heads
+together, if you put your mind--and your biceps--to it; but I hope that
+will not be necessary. In any case, don't let them fight! I promised his
+mother."
+
+He nodded, and, settling himself in a boat, departed with long, powerful
+strokes.
+
+Jack, left alone, shook his curly head, and felt of his arms.
+
+"Ah'm fit!" he said, quoting another and a bigger Jock than himself.
+"But it's a pity. That fellow is not only a puppy, he is a cur. I never
+saw anybody who needed a thrashing more." And he went and coiled himself
+in a hammock, and prepared to keep watch.
+
+An hour later Mr. Claud Belleville, once more dry, if somewhat shorn of
+his glory, reappeared upon the scene. As he came out of his tent, Gerald
+strolled carelessly out of the boat-house, his hands in his pockets.
+
+"Cousin Rowdy, a word with you, if you please!" said Claud.
+
+"Cousin Cad, two, if you like!" said Gerald.
+
+"In France, where I live," Mr. Belleville resumed, "when we are
+insulted, we fight."
+
+"No! do you really?" cried Gerald, his eyes sparkling as he began
+eagerly to turn back his cuffs. "Hooray! I say, shake hands, Claud. I
+didn't think you had it in you. There's a bully place up behind the
+woodshed. Come on!"
+
+Claud Belleville, who really was no coward, started forward readily: but
+at this moment Destiny intervened, in the shape of six foot four of John
+Ferrers. Uncoiling his length from the hammock, he took two strides
+forward, and lifting Gerald in his arms as if he were an infant, carried
+him off bodily. Gerald, who was strong and agile as a young panther,
+fought and struggled, pouring out a torrent of angry protest; but in
+vain. When Jack put forth his full strength, there was no possibility of
+resistance. He bore the furious lad to his tent, and throwing him on
+the cot, deliberately sat down on his feet, in calm and cheerful
+silence. Gerald twisted and writhed, exhausted himself in struggles,
+threats, prayers; all in vain! Jack sat like a statue. Finally the boy
+relapsed into sullen silence, and lay panting, his hand clenched, his
+blue eyes dark with anger and chagrin.
+
+By and by came the sound of wheels; a wagon stopped in front of the
+camp. There were sounds of leave-taking; "Good-by, Claud!" "Our love to
+your mother!" in various tones and modulations; then the sound of wheels
+once more, rattling up the hill and away in the distance. Then Jack
+Ferrers rose, and smiled down on his prostrate friend.
+
+"Awfully sorry, old man!" he said.
+
+Gerald was silent.
+
+"Jerry! you're not going to cut up rough?"
+
+"I have nothing to say," said Gerald, coldly.
+
+"You are my guest, and manners forbid. We will change the subject, if
+you please."
+
+"Manners didn't forbid your chucking the Charmer into the drink!" said
+Jack. "Ho! did you see him blink when he came up? It was worth while,
+Jerry, even if I have to fight you, but I don't believe I shall. You
+see, your father had to go off, and he asked me to keep the peace, and I
+said I would; and I didn't see any other way, wildcat that you are. A
+sweet condition the Charmer would have been in to go back to his Mamma,
+if I had not done as I did!"
+
+"I might have known the Pater was at the bottom of it!" said Gerald, his
+face lightening, and his voice taking on its own kindly ring. "Fine man;
+but the extent to which he won't let me thrash Claud is simply
+disgusting. When it comes to setting a Megatherium on a man--"
+
+"And to the Megatherium sitting on the man--" said Jack, laughing.
+
+"No more o' that, Jack, if thou love me! There's the horn! Come on, and
+let that flint-hearted parent see that we are all right."
+
+The pair strolled in to supper, arm in arm, singing, to the tune of
+"Home, Sweet Home!"
+
+        "Claud, Claud, sweet, sweet Claud!
+         There's no ass like Claud,
+         There is no ass like Claud!"
+
+and were promptly silenced by Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL
+
+
+MRS. MERRYWEATHER had had a busy day. There had been a picnic at Oak
+Island, which had taken all the morning and a good part of the
+afternoon; then there had been a dozen letters to write for the late
+mail; and finally she had taken Kitty's turn with Willy at getting
+supper, as Kitty had a headache. The sisters protested, each one
+claiming her right to take the extra duty; but Mrs. Merryweather had her
+own reasons for being glad of the hour of play-work with her little boy.
+Willy had been rather out of spirits, which meant that he, as well as
+his sister, had eaten too many huckleberries; this afternoon he had
+been decidedly cross, and required treatment.
+
+Coming into the kitchen at five o'clock, she found the fire lighted, and
+the kettle on, for Willy was a faithful soul; but he was frowning
+heavily over his chopping-tray.
+
+"I wish mince-meat had never been invented!" he said, gloomily.
+
+"Do you?" said his mother. "I don't! I am glad it was, even if I did not
+have three helps last night."
+
+"I was so hungry, I had to eat something," said Willy, in an injured
+tone. "When I grow up, I mean to have beefsteak every day, and never
+have anything made over at all."
+
+"I'll remember that, the next time we have brown-bread brewis!" said his
+mother smiling.
+
+"Oh! that's different!" said Willy.
+
+"Most things are different," said Mrs. Merryweather, "if you look at
+them in a different way. Is that ready, son?"
+
+"As ready as it is ever going to be. I've chopped till my arm is almost
+broken."
+
+"So I see! It looks as if you had cracked it. Well, now, it isn't time
+yet to make the rolls, so we can take breath a bit. Come out on the
+porch, and let us play something till the kettle boils."
+
+"I don't feel like playing!" said Willy, dolefully; "I don't feel like
+doing anything, Mammy."
+
+Mrs. Merryweather looked at him a moment; then taking his hands in hers,
+she said suddenly, "'For heaven's sake let us sit upon the ground, and
+tell sad stories of the death of kings!' That is a passage from Richard
+II., and it seems to fit the occasion. Sit down, Willy; right here on
+the floor by me; I'll begin. Two minutes for composition!"
+
+She was silent, looking out over the water, while Willy glanced sidewise
+at her, half-interested in spite of himself.
+
+"I have it!" she said, presently.
+
+        "King John put on such frightful airs,
+         He met his death by eating pears.
+
+"Your turn, Willy! two minutes!"
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I can't play!"
+
+"But you _are_ playing. Only one minute more."
+
+"Well, then--does it have to be the real way they died? because I don't
+know."
+
+"No! facts not required in this game."
+
+"Well, then--
+
+        "King Og
+         Was lost in a bog."
+
+"Your metre is faulty," said his mother, thoughtfully, "but the
+statement is interesting. My turn; you shall hold the watch for me."
+
+"Time's up!" cried Willy, beginning to kindle.
+
+"Oh! is it? What short minutes! Let me see!
+
+        "King Xerxes
+         Was killed by Turkses."
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL.]
+
+"Oh! I wanted Xerxes. Wait, Mammy. I have one!
+
+        "King David
+         Could not be savèd!"
+
+"Good!" cried his mother. "That is the best yet. But we might branch out
+a little, I think, Willy. This condensed couplet is forcible, but not
+very graceful. How do you like this?
+
+        "Tiglath-pileser, Tiglath-pileser,
+         He tried to buy a lemon-squeezer;
+         But no such thing had e'er been seen,
+         So in a melancholy green,
+         Oh, very green, and very yellow,
+         He pined away and died, poor fellow!"
+
+"That is splendid," said Willy, "but you took a little more than two
+minutes. My turn now!
+
+        "The great and mighty Alexander
+         Was bit to death by a salamander."
+
+"_Done_ to death is more poetic!" said his mother.
+
+"Yes, but 'bit' is more savage. I like 'bit.' Your time's up, Mammy!"
+
+"Oh! Willy, I am going to give you a subtle one this time; one in which
+something is left to the imagination.
+
+        "The Emperor Domitian
+         Consulted a physician!"
+
+"But you didn't kill him."
+
+"No, but the physician did."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"No, not really. What do you think of this game?"
+
+"I think it's bully. Did you really just make it up, Mammy?"
+
+"Just! Now the kettle is boiling, and we must come in; but as we go, let
+me inform you that--
+
+        "The Emperor Tiberius
+         He died of something serious;
+         But now we'll stop,
+         And make the pop-
+         Ov_ers_ before we weary us!"
+
+Willy's gloom was effectually banished, and he continued to slaughter
+kings till the supper-horn blew.
+
+The effect of this and other mental exercises, added to a cup of tea,
+was such that when bed-time came, Mrs. Merryweather found herself
+singularly wide awake. In vain she counted hundreds; in vain she
+ransacked her memory for saints, kings, and cities alphabetically
+arranged; in vain she made a list of Johns, beginning with the Baptist
+and ending with John O'Groats; the second hundred found her wider awake
+than ever, as she tossed on her narrow cot. Mr. Merryweather, in the
+opposite cot, was breathing deep and regularly; he was sound asleep, at
+least, and that was a good thing. Other than this, no sound broke the
+perfect stillness of the night. The full moon rode high, and lake and
+woodland were flooded with silver light. A glorious night! Mrs.
+Merryweather sighed; what was the use of staying in bed on such a night
+as this, when one could not sleep? If only there were some excuse for
+getting up!
+
+Suddenly she remembered that, the night being very warm, and the two
+children apparently entirely recovered from their slight indisposition,
+they had been allowed to sleep out on the Point, in accordance with a
+promise made some days ago by their father. She had not been quite
+willing, but had yielded to pressure, and they had gone out, very happy,
+with their blankets and the india-rubber floor-cloth.
+
+Mrs. Merryweather sat up in bed. "I ought to go and see if those chicks
+are all right!" she said. "After all, they certainly were not quite well
+this afternoon, whatever Miles may say." She glanced half-defiantly at
+the other cot, but Miles said nothing. She rose quietly, put on wrapper
+and slippers, and opening noiselessly the screen-door of the tent,
+slipped out into the open, and stood for a moment looking about her. How
+beautiful it was! what a wonderful silver world! Sleep was good, but
+surely, to be awake, on such a night as this, was better.
+
+She stole past the other tents, pausing an instant at the door of each
+to listen for the regular breathing which is the sweetest music a mother
+can hear; then she made her way out to the Point, through the sweet
+tangle of fern and berry-bushes, under the bending trees that dropped
+dew on her head as she passed.
+
+The Point lay like the prow of some great vessel in a silver sea. One
+tall pine stood for the mast; under this pine, rolled in scarlet
+blankets, their rosy faces turned toward the moon, lay the children,
+sound asleep. Willy had curled one arm under his head, and his other
+hand was locked in his sister's.
+
+"Dear little things!" murmured their mother. "That means that
+Kitty-my-pretty was a little bit frightened before she went to sleep.
+Dear little things!"
+
+She stood there for some time looking down at them.
+
+"The moon is full on their faces!" she said. "My old nurse would tell me
+that they would be moonstruck 'for sartain sure!' How terrified I used
+to be, lest a ray of moonlight should shine on my bed, and I should wake
+a lunatic!"
+
+She glanced up at the moon; looked again, and yet again. "That is very
+singular!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Something seems to be happening to
+the moon."
+
+Something _was_ happening to the moon. It was as if a piece had been
+bitten out of the shining round. Was it a little cloud? no! no cloud
+could possibly look like that, so black, so thick, so--"Good gracious!"
+said Mrs. Merryweather; "it is an eclipse!"
+
+An eclipse it certainly was. Slowly, surely, the black shadow crept,
+crept, over the silver disk; now a quarter of its surface was hidden;
+now it went creeping, creeping on toward the half.
+
+"It is going to be a total eclipse!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "I suppose
+I ought to wake some of them."
+
+She stood a moment more, looking irresolutely at the sleeping children.
+"I cannot possibly wake them!" she said at last. "Little lambs! they are
+sleeping so beautifully, and they certainly were _not_ quite themselves
+this afternoon. Besides, there will be plenty more eclipses; I'll go and
+wake some of the others."
+
+The black shadow crept on. Hardly less silent, Mrs. Merryweather paused
+before the tent where her daughters slept. Bell and Gertrude scorned
+cots, and their mattresses were spread on the floor at night, and rolled
+up in the daytime. There the two girls lay, still and placid,
+statue-like, save for the gentle heaving of their quiet breasts. A fair
+picture for a mother to look on. Miranda Merryweather looked, and drew a
+happy breath; looked again, and shook her head. "I cannot wake them!"
+she murmured to herself. "They are both tired after that expedition;
+Bell paddled very hard on the way back; she was much more flushed than I
+like to see her, when she came in. And Gertrude sleeps so lightly, I
+fear she might not get to sleep again if I were to wake her now."
+
+The black shadow crept on; the mother crept into the boys' tent, and
+stood beside Gerald's cot. The lad lay with his arms flung wide apart;
+his curly hair was tossed over his broad open forehead; his clear-cut
+features were set as if in marble.
+
+"He has such a beautiful forehead!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He sleeps
+so very sound, that if I were to wake him he might not be able to sleep
+again. Dear Jerry!"
+
+She moved over to Phil's cot: Phil was uneasy, and as she stopped to
+straighten the bedclothes, he turned on his side, muttering something
+that sounded like "Bother breakfast!"
+
+"Poor laddie!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He looks as if he might have a
+headache. I wish I had made him take a nice little cup of hot malted
+milk before he went to bed. It is out of the question to wake him, when
+he is sleeping so uneasily."
+
+She left the tent, with hardly a glance toward Jack Ferrers, who lay in
+the farthest cot. The idea of waking him, and having him disturb her own
+boys, was too preposterous to be entertained for an instant.
+
+The black shadow had crept entirely over the moon; no silver disk now,
+only a shield of dull bronze; "like some of the Pompeiian bronzes!" Mrs.
+Merryweather thought. "It is very extraordinary. I suppose I really
+_ought_ to wake Miles."
+
+She entered her own tent, and stood by her husband's cot. Miles
+Merryweather was sleeping quite as soundly as any of his children; in
+fact, he was a very statue of sleep; but his wife laid her hand gently
+on his shoulder. "Miles!" she said; it must be confessed that she did
+not speak very loud. "Miles, there is an eclipse!"
+
+Mr. Merryweather did not stir.
+
+"Miles! do you want to wake up?"
+
+No reply; no motion of the long, still form. Mrs. Merryweather breathed
+more freely. "Miles was more tired to-night than I have seen him all
+summer!" she said. "He cannot remember that we are not twenty-five any
+more. It is very bad for a man to get overtired when he is no longer
+young. Well, I certainly did try to wake him; but such a _very_ sound
+sleep as this shows how much he needed it. I am sure it is much more
+important for him to sleep than to see the eclipse; it isn't as if he
+had not seen plenty of eclipses in his life. Of course, if it had been
+the sun, it would have been different."
+
+She stood at the door of the tent, watching. Slowly, slowly, the black
+shadow passed; slowly, slowly, the silver crescent widened to a broad
+arc, and finally to the perfect argent round; once more the whole world
+lay bathed in silver light. Mrs. Merryweather gazed on peacefully, and
+murmured under her breath certain words that she loved:
+
+        "'Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
+         Now the sun is gone to sleep,
+         Seated in thy silver chair,
+         State in wonted measure keep.
+         Hesperus entreats thy light,
+         Goddess excellently bright!'
+
+"But if Roger had been here," said Miranda Merryweather, "I should
+certainly have waked him, because he is a scientific man, and it would
+have been only right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT--"
+
+        "A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
+         A wind that follows fast--"
+
+
+PHIL MERRYWEATHER was singing as he brought his boat about. "Slacken
+your sheet, Peggy! easy--that's right! a half-hitch--look here, young
+lady! I believe you have been humbugging us all; don't tell me you never
+sailed a boat before!"
+
+"Never in all my life!" said Peggy, looking up joyously. "I have only
+dreamed of it and thought about it, ever since I can remember. And I
+have read the 'Seaman's Friend,' and 'Two Years Before the Mast,' so I
+do know a little bit about how things ought to go. I think every girl
+ought to learn how to sail a boat, if she possibly can; but out on the
+ranch, you see, there really wasn't any chance. We could only make
+believe, but we used to have great fun doing that."
+
+"How did you make your believe? I should like to hear about it. Ease her
+off a bit--so--as you are!"
+
+"Why, we made a boat out of the great swing in the barn. It is a huge
+barn, and the swing is big enough for three elephants to swing on at
+once; and Hugh fastened hammocks along it lengthwise, and then rigged
+ropes and pulleys for us, and an old canvas hammock with the ends cut
+off for a sail; so we swung, and called it sailing, and had storms and
+shipwrecks, and all kinds of adventures. It was great fun. Oh, I do wish
+some of you could come out to the ranch some day. If there was only
+water, it would be the best place in the world--except this and
+Fernley."
+
+"I'm coming some day!" said Phil. "See if I don't. It must be corking
+sport, riding about over those great plains."
+
+"Oh! it is!" cried Peggy. "When you come, Phil, you shall ride Monte. He
+is the most beautiful creature, a Spanish jennet. Jack Del Monte sent
+him to brother Jim, but he isn't up to Jim's weight, so he lets me ride
+him. He is like the horses in poetry, that is the only way I can
+describe him; white as milk, with great dark eyes, and graceful--oh, I
+_do_ want you to see him. No horse in poetry was ever half so beautiful;
+in fact, I think I take back what I said; I don't really think poets
+know much about horses; do you?"
+
+"'Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed,'" quoted Phil, laughing.
+
+"I know!" said Peggy, indignantly. "Now, the idea, Phil! one thinks of a
+poor dear horse all over ostrich feathers behind, which is dreadful. But
+then, I don't understand poetry, except about battles, Macaulay and
+Scott. Don't you love 'Marmion'?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" said Phil, heartily. "Hi!"
+
+This last brief exclamation was made in a tone of some concern.
+
+"What is it?" asked Peggy. "Am I trimming wrong?"
+
+"Right as a trivet! but--have you ever heard of a williwaw, Peggy?"
+
+"It's a squall, isn't it? Captain Slocum tells about them in 'Sailing
+Alone Round the World.'"
+
+"That's it! Well, I think we are going to get one. If you will take the
+helm again for a moment, I'll take in a reef."
+
+Peggy took the tiller in her strong little brown hand, and looked on
+admiringly while Phil reefed the sail with creditable swiftness. Soon
+all was tight, and the two young people watched with cheerful interest
+the coming on of the squall.
+
+On it came, a line of white on the water, a gray curtain of driving
+rain above it. The wind began to sing in the rigging of the sailboat;
+next moment she heeled heavily over, and sped along with her lee rail
+under water.
+
+"I'd sit pretty well up to windward if I were you," shouted Phil.
+"You'll be dryest on the gunwale, if you don't mind!"
+
+As Peggy seated herself with alacrity on the gunwale, Phil looked at her
+with approval. Her eyes were shining, her whole rosy face alight with
+happy excitement.
+
+"Now, that's the kind of girl I like to see!" said this young gentleman,
+forgetting that he had been seeing three of the same kind ever since he
+could remember; but sisters are different!
+
+"Not so bad, eh?" he said, as he took another turn on the sheet.
+
+"Oh, Phil, it is perfectly splendid! why, we are simply flying! Oh, I
+wish it was like this all the time."
+
+"Hi!" said Phil again. "Everybody doesn't seem to be of your opinion,
+Peggy. That boat over there will be in trouble if she doesn't look out.
+Sapolio! there is something wrong. We'd better run over and see."
+
+At a little distance a small boat was tossing violently on the water;
+her sail was lowered, and a white handkerchief was fluttering from the
+stern like a signal of distress.
+
+"Ready about!" said Phil. Peggy crouched down on the seat, the boom
+swung over, and the gallant little _Petrel_ flew swiftly as her namesake
+to the rescue.
+
+"Anything wrong?" asked Phil, as he ran alongside the crippled boat.
+
+"Broke our rudder!" was the reply, from a pleasant-looking lad; "must
+have been cracked before we started. If you could lend us a pair of
+oars--I was very stupid to come out without a pair--"
+
+At this moment a clear, shrill voice was heard above the noise of wind
+and water, crying aloud, "My Veezy Vee! my Veezy Vee! It _is_ my Veezy
+Vee! Don't tell me it isn't, for it simply _is_!"
+
+"_Viola!_" cried Peggy. "Vanity! can it be you?"
+
+"Oh, my dear! I was once, perhaps, but with all my crimps out, how can
+you have the heart? If ever I get ashore alive,--"
+
+"Don't be ridiculous, Viola!" said the lad, in a tone of brotherly
+tolerance. "You are in no more danger--now--then if you were in bed.
+Though I admit it might have been rather fussy if we hadn't met you!" he
+added, with a meaning look at Phil.
+
+"How far have you to go?" asked Phil. "Buffum's Point? Well, now, look
+here! that will be a long, hard pull against this wind. You'd much
+better let us tow you down to our camp, and then you can ship a new
+rudder, and go home any old time when the wind sets right."
+
+The young man hesitated. "Why--you're awfully good," he said, "but I
+think we'd better get home--"
+
+"Oh, do, _do_ let us go, Tom!" cried the pretty girl who had waved the
+handkerchief, and who seemed still, somehow, to be waving everything
+about her. "No, I won't be quiet! It's my Veezy Vee, I tell you; it's
+Peggy Montfort, and I am simply expiring to talk to her. Besides, if I
+am going to be drowned, I want to be drowned with another girl. Oh,
+Peggy, isn't it dreadful? Do you think we shall ever get home alive?"
+
+Here the wind caught her hat, and in a frantic effort to retain it, she
+very nearly fell overboard. "There!" she cried. "I told you so, Tommy; I
+knew I should be drowned."
+
+"I never said you wouldn't," replied her brother, with some heat, "if
+you play such pranks as that. You simply _must_ sit still, Vi!"
+
+"Oh, it's all very well to say I must sit still, Tommy Vincent. If _you_
+had a hat that was the pride of your life, instead of a felt saucepan,
+perhaps you wouldn't want to have it carried off and drowned before your
+eyes. My precious hatty!"
+
+"Why, we are all right, Viola," said Peggy. "It is perfectly splendid, I
+think. Besides, the worst of it is past. Look! the sky is lightening
+already; the whole thing will be over soon."
+
+"But I am drenched to the skin!" cried poor Viola. "The rain has gone
+through and wet my poor bones, I know it has; I shall _never_ be dry
+again, I am convinced, never: there isn't a school-book in the world dry
+enough to dry me, Peggy, not even Hallam's 'Middle Ages.'"
+
+"Pooh! who cares for a wetting?" said Peggy, shaking herself like a
+Newfoundland dog. "It only adds to the fun."
+
+"Oh! that's all very well for you, Veezy Vee!" cried poor Viola. "But if
+_you_ had on a silk waist, you would feel differently, I know you
+would. And my hat simply _was_ the sweetest thing you ever saw; wasn't
+it, Tom? Sugar was salt beside it; wasn't it, Tom?"
+
+Tom, who had been holding a consultation with Phil over the broken
+rudder, answered by a brief, though not unfriendly growl, and paid no
+further attention to her. The painter of his boat was made fast to the
+_Petrel's_ stern, and the latter was soon winging her way toward the
+Camp, towing the disabled boat behind her.
+
+"Aren't you Vincent of 1903?" asked Phil, leaning over the stern, his
+hand on the tiller and one eye on the clouds. "Thought so! Used to see
+you about the yard. My name is Merryweather; 1902."
+
+"Glad to know you!" said Tom Vincent. "I thought it must be you; I used
+to see you rowing, of course. Your brother--"
+
+He was interrupted by excited squeaks from his sister, who was gazing at
+Phil with sparkling eyes.
+
+"No!" she cried. "It _can't_ be! It would be _too_ delicious! _not_
+Merryweather! Don't ask me to believe it, Peggy, for it simply is beyond
+my powers. _Not_ the Snowy's brother!"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said Peggy, laughing as she, too, leaned back over the
+stern. "Let me introduce you; Mr. Philip Merryweather, Miss Viola
+Vincent."
+
+"Awfully glad!" said Phil, making a motion toward where his hat should
+have been. "I've often heard my sister speak of you, Miss Vincent."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, I _adore_ the Snowy!" cried Viola. "She is simply
+the dearest creature on the face of the earth. I would give the wide
+world--I would give my very best frill to see her. Don't tell me she is
+near here, for I should expire with joy; simply expire!"
+
+"I certainly will not," said Phil, smiling, "if the consequences would
+really be so terrible, Miss Vincent. Otherwise, I might venture to
+predict that you would see her in about ten minutes. If you feel any
+untoward symptoms developing, please consider it unsaid!"
+
+"Oh! Tom, isn't it _too_ thrilling?" cried Viola. "Oh! Tom, aren't you
+perfectly _rigid_ with excitement? It makes Tom rigid, Mr. Merryweather,
+and it makes me flutter; we are so different. _Aren't_ you rigid,
+Tommy?"
+
+"Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother, good-naturedly. "I am not
+in the least rigid, though I shall be delighted to see Miss
+Merryweather, of course."
+
+"You can see the camp now, through the trees," said Phil. "There is the
+flag, just over that tall pine. Flag by day; lantern by night. That is
+'Merryweather.' Ready about, Peggy, for the last tack!"
+
+The squall had passed, and though the water was still rough, the waves
+were tossing merrily in blue and white under a brilliant sun. The
+_Petrel_ sped along, the silver foam bubbling up before her prow, and
+the _Seamew_, as the other boat was named, followed as swiftly.
+
+Peggy leaned back over the stern once more, and holding out her hand to
+her old schoolmate, gave her slender fingers a squeeze that made her cry
+out.
+
+"Dear old Vanity," said Peggy; "I forgot how soft your hands always
+were. But I am so glad to see you, even if I am not going to expire
+about it. Do tell me how you came here, and where you are staying, and
+all about it, now that we can hear ourselves speak."
+
+"How did I come here, my dear?" repeated Viola Vincent. "Witchcraft!"
+
+"What do you mean, you foolish thing?"
+
+"My dear, what I say; simply that and nothing more, just like the Raven.
+Witchcraft! The very minute I get home, I am going to get a pointed
+black hat and a red cloak, and a crutch-stick. I think they will be
+quite sweet, don't you? Don't you think pointed hats are quite sweet,
+Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"Pointed hats," replied Phil, gravely, "have always seemed to me the
+acme of sweetness; that is why they call them sugar-loaf hats, I
+suppose."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, you _are_ funny! Oh, I _hoped_ you were going to
+be funny," cried Viola; "you _look_ funny, and--"
+
+"Thank you!" said Phil; and "Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother
+again.
+
+"I mean it as a compliment!" cried Viola. "Mr. Merryweather, I mean it
+as the very highest compliment I can pay, I truly do. With such a simply
+entrancing name as Merryweather, it would be such a dreadful pity to be
+sober as a judge, you know; though the only judge I know is too frisky
+for anything. Kittens, my dear, I--I mean, Mr. Merryweather--I _beg_
+your pardon! are actually _grim_ beside Judge Gay; aren't they, Tommy?
+Did you ever see a grim kitten, Mr. Merryweather? Wouldn't it be too
+horrid for anything? Well, but what I meant to say is, the only weeniest
+speck of a fault I ever had to find with the Snowy--darling thing!--was
+that she was a little bit--just the tiniest winiest scrap--too serious.
+If your name were Tombs, you know, or Graves, or Scull,--I knew a girl
+named Scull,--of course you would have to _be_ serious to live up to it;
+but when your name is Merryweather, you ought to live up to _that_, and
+so I always told the Snowy."
+
+"I am sure the Snowy was always jolly enough," said Peggy, bluntly,
+"except when you wanted to get into mischief, Vanity!"
+
+"Yes, but I _always_ wanted to get into mischief," replied Viola; "so
+that made it a little hard for me, Peggy, you must admit it did,
+especially when I adored the Snowy, and couldn't bear to have her look
+grave at me. Mr. Merryweather, when the Snowy looked _really_ grave at
+me, it froze my young blood, just like Hamlet's; didn't it, Peggy? I
+used to go and sit on the radiator to get thawed out, didn't I, Peggy?"
+
+"Oh, of course," said Peggy, laughing. "But all this time, Vanity, we
+have not heard about the witchcraft that brought you to this part of the
+world."
+
+"Oh! so you haven't. Well, now you shall. You see I am eighteen this
+summer, so Puppa said I should choose where we should go, whether to the
+mountains, or to Newport, or to this lake, where he knew of a camp he
+could have. So I thought I would say Newport, on account of my new
+frills; I had some perfectly heavenly new frills, and of course Newport
+is the best place to show them. But just as I was going to _say_
+'Newport,' _something_ made me turn right round and say to come here. I
+supposed it was partly because of course I knew Puppa hated Newport, and
+he is such a perfect duck about going there; but now I know that it was
+witchcraft, and something inside me, black cats or something, made me
+know, without knowing anything about it, that you and the Snowy were
+going to be here, Peggy. So now I am perfectly happy! Oh! Oh! Why, there
+_is_ the Snowy! Oh, Snowy, you darling! It's me! It's Vanity! How _do_
+you do? Isn't this _too_ perfectly entrancing for anything!"
+
+With a graceful turn, Phil brought his boat alongside the wharf, where a
+group of campers, Gertrude among them, were gathered to receive them.
+Gertrude had Viola in her arms in a moment, and was welcoming her with a
+warmth that made the emotional little creature sob with real pleasure
+and affection.
+
+"Oh, Snowy!" she cried, "I always liked you better than any one else,
+Snowy. I never thought I was going to see you again."
+
+"My dear, dear little Viola!" cried Gertrude. "Have you dropped from the
+clouds? Why, this is too good to be true. But you are wet through! Come
+in this moment with me, and get on dry things!"
+
+She hurried Viola away to the tents, and Mr. Merryweather took
+possession of her brother with the same hospitable intent, though Tom
+Vincent protested that he was "no wetter than was entirely comfortable."
+
+Phil, taking in his sail, turned an expressive eye on his twin, who had
+come aboard to help him.
+
+"Gee!" he said, thoughtfully. "A new variety, Obadiah! Pollybirdia
+singularis, as Edward Lear hath it."
+
+"She's mighty pretty!" said Gerald.
+
+"She is that!" said Phil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ABOUT VISITING
+
+
+"GOOD-BY, Tommy, dear. Be sure to tell Mamma that I thought she would
+not mind my staying, when Mrs. Merryweather was so perfectly heavenly as
+to ask me. Be sure to tell her that my skirt is _all_ cockled up, so
+that you could put it in your waistcoat pocket, Tom; and that the _only_
+way to save it is to press it _damp_, and let it _dry_ before I put it
+on. Tell her that I have got on a dress of the Snowy's that is simply
+_divine_,--more becoming than anything I ever had on; and that my silk
+waist has run--oh, tell her it has run _miles_, Tom, so that I can
+never--"
+
+"There, there, Vi!" cried Tom Vincent, pushing his boat off. "_I_ must
+run, before you swamp me entirely with messages. I'll come back for you
+to-morrow, and bring your toggery. Ever so many thanks, everybody.
+You've been awfully good. I've had a corking time. Good-by!"
+
+The sail filled, the boat swung round, and was soon speeding along the
+lake, while her owner still waved his cap and looked back to the wharf,
+where the campers stood, giving back his greeting with hearty good will.
+
+"Nice chap!" said Gerald to Phil.
+
+"Corker!" said Phil to Gerald.
+
+"Nor," added Gerald, turning to look after the girls as they walked back
+along the slip, "nor is the sororial adjunct totally devoid of
+attraction. What thinkest, Fergy?"
+
+He shot a quick glance at his brother, and seemed to await his reply
+with some eagerness.
+
+"I think she's as pretty as a picture," said Phil, soberly.
+
+"You have a nose on your face, if it comes to that," said Gerald. "At
+least it passes for one. _Weiter!_"
+
+"I think she's awfully jolly, and all that," said Phil. "Nice, jolly,
+good-natured girl."
+
+"Granted; she's great fun."
+
+"But," Phil went on, slowly,--"oh, well! you know what I mean. If our
+girls went on like that, we should be under the painful necessity of
+ducking them. Now, Peggy--"
+
+He paused and examined the mooring of the boat, critically.
+
+"Now, Peggy," Gerald repeated, jogging him with his elbow. "Always
+finish a sentence when you can, son. It argues poverty of invention to
+have to stop in the middle. You can always fall back on 'tooral looral
+lido,' if you can't think of anything else. What about Peggy?"
+
+"Oh, nothing. Only she is just like the rest of us, and that seems more
+natural; that's all."
+
+"And 'beyond a doubt we are the people; and wisdom will perish with
+us,'" quoted Gerald, his face brightening as he spoke. "'Tis well. Come
+on, thou antiquated ape, and let us pump out the float."
+
+Meantime the girls had sought their favorite pine parlor, and were deep
+in talk. _High_ would be a more descriptive adjective; for Viola Vincent
+was the principal talker, and her shrill, clear treble quivered up to
+the very tree-tops, startling the birds in their nests, and sending the
+squirrels scampering to and fro with excitement.
+
+"My dear, this is too delicious, simply _too_! I should expire, if I
+lived here, of pure joy. Oh, Snowy, what a darling you are! Your nose is
+just as straight as ever, isn't it? Rulers, my dear, are crooked beside
+it, aren't they? If I had a straight nose, I should pass away from sheer
+bliss. My nose turns up more every year; it's the only aspiring thing
+about me. Pothooks are straight by comparison. Isn't it a calamity?"
+
+"Tiptilted like the petal of a flower," said Gertrude, laughing. "I
+always thought your nose one of your prettinesses, Vanity, and I believe
+you think so, too."
+
+"Oh! my _dear_, how _can_ you?" cried Viola, caressing her little nose,
+which was certainly piquant and pretty enough to please any one. "You
+don't really mean it, do you? You just say it to comfort me, don't you?
+You _are_ such a comforting darling! Where did you get that heavenly
+shade of green, Snowy? I never saw anything so lovely in my life. It is
+just the color of jade. My dear, I saw some jade bracelets the other day
+that were simply _made_ for you. I wanted to tear them from the girl's
+arms, and say, 'What are you doing with the Snowy's bracelets?' She was
+a dump, with a complexion like Doctor Somebody or other's liniment. A
+person who can wear jade is simply the--"
+
+"Oh, come, Vanity!" said Peggy, good-naturedly. "Come out of the
+millinery business, and tell us about yourself, and about the other
+girls. What has become of Vex--of Vivia Varnham?"
+
+"My dear! haven't you heard?"
+
+"Not a word! You have never written, you know, since we left school, and
+she would not be likely to."
+
+"You didn't love each other quite to distraction, did you?" said Viola.
+"Poor V. V.! she really was the limit sometimes, wasn't she? I never
+minded her, of course, because I never listened to what she said.
+Besides, she was like pickles, you know; you just took her with the rest
+of your dinner, and she didn't make much difference. I used to tell her
+so. Well, poor V. V.! You never could guess: married, my dear!"
+
+"Married!" echoed Peggy and Gertrude.
+
+"Married! to a missionary; widower, with four children. Gone to China!
+You need not believe it unless you like; I don't believe it myself,
+though I saw them married."
+
+"It is hard to believe, Vi!" said Gertrude. "How did it happen?"
+
+"My dear, _the_ limit! positively, the boundary line, arctic circle, and
+that sort of thing. Love at first sight, on both sides. Spectacles,
+bald,--not the spectacles, but he,--snuffy to a degree! You really never
+_did_! I was the first person she told. I simply screamed. 'My dear!' I
+said, 'you _cannot_ mean it. You could _not_ live with that waistcoat!'
+
+"She told me I was frivolous--which I never attempted to deny--and said
+I did not understand, which was the truth. She looked really quite sweet
+in her wedding-dress, and when she went away she was quite softened, she
+truly was, and wept a little weep, and so did I. You see, Snowy, the
+very first thing I can remember in my life is V. V.'s breaking my doll
+over my head. I miss her dreadfully, I do indeed; nobody has been--well,
+acidulated, to me since she went, and I need the tonic. And speaking of
+tonics, where is Beef? where is the Fluffy? You know"--turning to
+Margaret--"I used to call the Snowy and the Fluffy and the Horny my
+triple tonic, Beef, Wine, and Iron; and the Fluffy was Beef. Steady and
+square, you know, and red and brown; exactly like beef; simply _no_
+difference except the clothes. How is she, Snowy?"
+
+"The Fluffy--Bertha Haughton, you know, Margaret--is teaching in
+Blankton High School; very busy, very happy, indeed, perfectly absorbed
+in her work. I have a letter from her in my pocket this minute, that
+came last night. Would you like to hear it?"
+
+And amid a clamor of eager assent, she drew out the letter and read as
+follows.
+
+"'Dear Snowy: It is good to hear about all the jolly times at Camp. I
+wish I could come, but see no way to it just now. Yes, I know school is
+over, but there are the rank lists to make out, and all kinds of odd
+end-of-the-year chores to be done; besides, two of my boys have
+conditions to work out,--going to college in the fall,--and I am
+tutoring them. They are two of the dearest boys that ever were, only not
+very bright, and I have promised to stand by them.' This is the way she
+behaves, after teaching all the year; she is incorrigible! 'All the
+others passed without conditions, and three of them got honors, so I am
+very proud and happy. This has been the best year of all; but then, I
+say that every year, don't I? I do feel more and more that I am doing
+the thing in the whole world that I like best to do.'
+
+"The rest is just messages, and so on; but you see how happy she is, and
+how utterly absorbed."
+
+"My dear, it is _too_ amazing!" cried Viola Vincent. "The very thought
+of teaching makes me simply dissolve with terror; little drops of water,
+my dear, would be all that would be left of poor Vanity; not a grain of
+sand to hold her together. Hush! let me tell you something! Last year I
+tried to teach a class in Sunday school,--great, terrible boys, taller
+than I was,--and I _almost_ expired, I assure you I did. They never knew
+their lessons, and two of them made eyes at me, and the rest made faces
+at each other; it was simply excruciating. Then the rector asked me if I
+didn't think I could dress more simply; said I set an example, and so
+on. I told him I was dressed like a broomstick then, as far as
+simplicity was concerned, and so I was, simply and positively like a
+broomstick; only my dress--it was a rose-colored foulard, _the_ most
+angelic shade you ever saw, girls; just like a sunset cloud, somebody
+said--happened to have ruffles to the waist, and ribbons fluttering
+about more or less. He _said_ I fluttered, and I told him I certainly
+did. 'I always flutter, Mr. Monk,' I said. 'When I don't flutter, I
+shall be dead.' Which was true. He was quite peevish, but I was firm;
+you know you _have_ to be firm about such things. Only, the next Sunday
+he happened to come by when one of those great dreadful boys asked me if
+Solomon's seal was tame, and I said I didn't think it was. Well, I
+_didn't_! But he wrote me a note next day, saying he thought teaching
+was not my _forte_, and perhaps I would like visiting better. I fully
+agreed with him, so now I visit, and it is simply dandy. I just love
+it!"
+
+"Tell us about your visiting, Vi!" said Gertrude. "I am going to take it
+up next winter, and I should like to know how you do it."
+
+"My dear! Such sport! There are some dear old ladies I go to see,
+perfect old ducks; in a Home, you know. I go once a week, and I put on
+_all_ my frills, and never wear the same dress twice if I can help it,
+and I tell them all about the parties I go to, and what I wear, and what
+my partners are like, and about the suppers, and take them my German
+favors, and they simply _love_ it! Mr. Monk thinks it's terrible that I
+don't read them tracts; my dear, they abominate tracts, and so do I; we
+found that out at once. So I read them the gayest, frilliest little
+stories I can find, that are really _nice_, and they _adore_ it. One
+day--my _dears_! will you promise never to breathe it if I tell you
+something? never even to _sneeze_ it?"
+
+"We promise! We promise!" cried all the girls.
+
+"Well--hush! It was simply fierce; and _the_ greatest sport I ever had
+in my life. There is one old lady in the Home who is too perfectly sweet
+for anything. Miss Bathsheba Barry; did you ever hear such a delicious
+name? She is just my height, and as pretty as a picture in her cap and
+kerchief. They all wear caps and kerchiefs, and little gray gowns, the
+most becoming costume you ever saw; I am going into the Home the very
+minute my looks begin to go, because I _do_ look quite--but wait! Hush!
+not a word! Well! I had been teasing Miss Barry for ever and ever so
+long to let me dress up in her things, because I knew they would suit
+me, and at last, one day, the dear old thing consented. It was the time
+for the matron's afternoon visit, and she is very jolly, and I wanted to
+surprise her. So I put on the little gray gown, and the delicious cap,
+just like Rembrandt's mother, and the white net kerchief--don't you
+adore white net, Snowy? it softens the face so!--and the apron; and then
+I went and sat down in Miss Barry's chair by the window, with her
+knitting, and put on her spectacles--oh! how she did laugh. Then we
+heard steps, and Miss Barry went into the closet and shut the door all
+but a crack to peep through, and I turned my head away from the door,
+and knitted away for dear life. Oh, girls! The door opened, and I heard
+Mrs. Poddle say, 'This way, gentlemen! This is Miss Barry's room.'
+_Gentlemen!_ My dears, I thought I should pass away! Then there came
+great, loud men's steps, and I heard Mr. Monk's voice--'This is one of
+our most interesting inmates, Bishop! Eighty-seven years old, and as
+sprightly as a girl. A most pious and exemplary person. Good morning,
+Miss Barry! How is your rheumatism to-day?'
+
+[Illustration: "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I."]
+
+"'Simply fierce, your reverence!' said I, in a little squeaky voice, as
+like Miss Barry's as I could make it. I kept my face turned away, and
+pretended to be counting stitches very hard.
+
+"'Ahem!' said Mr. Monk. I could hear that he was surprised, for, of
+course, Miss Barry wouldn't say 'simply fierce,' but it slipped out
+before I knew it.
+
+"'Miss Barry,' he said, 'I have brought Bishop Ballantyne to see you. I
+am sure you will be glad to receive him.'
+
+"'Oh, I should perfectly _love_ to see the Bishop!' I said; because
+Bishop Ballantyne is simply a duck, an adorable duck; but still I did
+not turn round; and I could hear Miss Barry squeaking with laughter in
+the closet, and it was really getting quite awful. But now Mr. Monk
+began to suspect something. I believe he thought I had been drinking, or
+rather that Miss Barry had, poor old dear. He said, in a pretty awful
+voice: 'What does this mean? Miss Barry, I desire that, if you are
+unable to rise, you will at least turn round, and receive Bishop
+Ballantyne in a fitting manner. I cannot conceive--I must beg you to
+believe, Bishop, that this has never happened before. I am beyond
+measure distressed. Miss Barry,--'
+
+"And then he stopped, for I turned round. I had to, of course; there was
+nothing else to do.
+
+"'How do you do, Bishop Ballantyne?' I said. 'Can you tell me whether
+Solomon's seal was tame or not?'
+
+"For a minute they both stared as if they had seen a ghost; but then the
+Bishop went off into a great roar of laughter, and I thought he would
+laugh himself into fits, and me, too; and the more solemn Mr. Monk
+looked, the more we laughed; and Miss Barry was cackling like a hen in
+the closet--oh, it was great, girls, it truly was! At last Mr. Monk had
+to laugh too, he couldn't help it; it was simply too utter, you know. He
+said I was enough to break up an entire parish; and the Bishop said he
+would take me into his, cap and all. And then the matron came back, and
+Miss Barry came out, and we all stayed to tea, the Bishop and Mr. Monk
+and I, and had the time of our lives; at least, I did.
+
+"So you see, girls, visiting _can_ be the greatest sport in the world,
+if you only know how to do it. But we all had to promise Mr. Monk and
+Mrs. Poddle not to tell, because they said it was enough to break up the
+discipline of the Home, and I suppose it was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MOONLIGHT AGAIN
+
+
+THE evening was showery, and indoor games were the order of it. The
+first half-hour after the dishes were washed (a task performed to music,
+all hands joining in the choruses of "John Peel," "Blow, ye winds of
+morning," etc.) was spent quietly enough, four of the party at
+parcheesi, the others busy over crokinole and jackstraws; but by and by
+there was a cry of "Boston!" and instantly boards and counters were put
+away on their shelf, and the decks cleared for action. The whole party
+drew their chairs into a circle, and the fun began. A pleasant sight it
+was to see Mr. Merryweather blindfold in the middle of the circle,
+calling out the numbers two by two, and trying to catch the flitting
+figures as they changed places. A pleasant sight it was to see the
+young people leaping, crouching, and gliding across the circle, avoiding
+his outstretched arms with surprising agility.
+
+"Two and Fourteen!" he would cry; and Gerald and Bell would slip from
+their places, like shadows. Gerald was across in two long, noiseless
+lopes, while Bell whisked under her father's very hand, which almost
+closed on her flying skirt; and a shout of "All over!" greeted the
+accomplishment of the exchange.
+
+"This will never do!" said Mr. Merryweather. "You all have quicksilver
+in your heels, I believe. Seven and Twelve! Come Seven, come Twelve!"
+
+Seven and Twelve were Jack Ferrers and Peggy, and they came. Jack,
+gathering his long legs under him, crept on all fours half-way round the
+circle, and then made a plunge for the chair which Peggy had just
+vacated. He landed on the edge, and over went chair and Jack into the
+fireplace with a resounding crash. This startled Peggy so that she ran
+directly into Mr. Merryweather's arms, and was caught and firmly held.
+
+"Let me see!" said Mr. Merryweather. "One pigtail! But I believe all you
+wretched girls dress your hair precisely alike for 'Boston.' Ha!
+peculiar sleeve-buttons! Now who has buttons like these? Peggy!"
+
+Then it was Peggy's turn to be blindfolded, and a vigorous "_Colin
+Maillard_" she made, flying hither and thither, and coming within an ace
+of catching Gerald himself, who was rarely caught. Finally she seized a
+flying pigtail belonging to Kitty; and so the merry game went on till
+all were out of breath with running and laughing.
+
+Phil went to the door to breathe the cool air, and came back with the
+announcement, "All clear overhead, perfectly corking moonlight. Why do
+we stay indoors?"
+
+"Canoes!" cried the younger Merryweathers; and there was a rush for the
+door; but the Chief stopped them with a gesture. "Too late!" he said.
+"It is nine o'clock now; time you were in bed, Kitty."
+
+"We might sit on the float and sing a little," suggested Mrs.
+Merryweather.
+
+"The float! The float!" shouted the boys and girls. There was a
+snatching up of pillows and wraps, and the whole family trooped down to
+the float, where they established themselves in a variety of picturesque
+attitudes. Again it was a wonderful night; the late moon was just rising
+above the dark trees, no longer the full round, but still brilliant
+enough to fill the world with light.
+
+"This has been a wonderful moon!" said some one.
+
+"Yes," said Gerald; "it is quite the last thing in moons, not the
+ordinary article at all. We don't have ordinary moons on this pond. Who
+made that highly intellectual remark?"
+
+"It was I," said Bell, laughing; "and I maintain, Jerry, that this moon
+_has_ been a very long, and a very--well, a very splendid one. Just
+think! not a single cloudy evening till this one; and now it clears off
+in time to give us our moonlight hour before bed-time."
+
+"The harvest moon is always long," said Mr. Merryweather. "Bell is
+perfectly right, Jerry."
+
+"Strike home!" said Gerald, baring his breast with a dramatic gesture.
+"Strike home!
+
+        "'There's no more moonlight for poor Uncle J.,
+          For he's gone whar de snubbed niggers go.'"
+
+"I was just going to propose singing," said his mother; "but before we
+begin, suppose we do honor to this good moon, that has treated us so
+well. Let every one give a quotation in her honor. I will begin:
+
+        "'That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,
+            Whom mortals call the moon,
+          Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
+            By the midnight breezes strewn.'
+
+Shelley. I am a cloud, be it understood!"
+
+"I should hardly have guessed it," said Mr. Merryweather. "My turn? I'll
+go back to Milton:
+
+            "'Now glowed the firmament
+        With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led
+        The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
+        Rising in clouded majesty, at length
+        Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
+        And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.'"
+
+"Oh, I say!" murmured Gerald; "that is a peach!"
+
+"Jerry," said his mother, plaintively, "have you _no_ adjectives, my
+poor destitute child? I can imagine few things less peach-like than that
+glorious passage. But never mind! Jack, it is your turn."
+
+        "'The gray sea and the long black land,
+         And the yellow half-moon large and low--'"
+
+said Jack, half under his breath.
+
+"It isn't yellow, and it isn't half," said Gerald. "But never mind, as
+the Mater says. Margaret, you come next."
+
+Margaret looked up, her face full of tranquil happiness.
+
+"I was thinking," she said, "of some lines from 'Evangeline,' that I
+have always loved. I say them over to myself every night in this
+wonderful moon-time:
+
+  "'Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of the forest,
+    Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On the river
+    Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous gleam of
+        the moonlight,
+    Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and devious spirit.'"
+
+"Peggy, what have you for us?" asked Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+"Oh!" cried poor Peggy, "you know I never can remember poetry, Mrs.
+Merryweather. I shall have to take to 'Mother Goose.' I know I am
+terribly prosy--well, prosaic, then, Margaret; what's the difference?
+But I can't think of anything except:
+
+        "'The Man in the Moon
+          Came down too soon,'--
+
+and that doesn't go with all these lovely things you have all been
+saying."
+
+"It gives me mine, though!" said Phil. And he sang, merrily:
+
+        "'The Man in the Moon was looking down,
+          With winking and with blinking frown,
+          And stars beamed out bright
+          To look on the night;
+          The Man in the Moon was looking!'"
+
+"Phil!" cried Gertrude. "How can you? Comic opera is an insult to a moon
+like this."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said her brother. "Sorry I spoke. Next time I'll sing it
+to some other moon,--one of Jupiter's; or the brick one in Doctor Hale's
+story. Go on, Toots, since you are so superior. It's your turn."
+
+        "'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
+          That tips with silver all the fruit-tree tops,'"
+
+said Gertrude. "I can't remember the next line."
+
+"What I miss in this game," said Gerald, in a critical tone, "is
+accuracy. There isn't a fruit-tree on the Point."
+
+"And the moon, of course, limits herself strictly to the point!" said
+Gertrude, laughing.
+
+"It's more than you do!" retorted her brother. "But a truce to badinage!
+I go back to prose and 'Happy Thoughts.' 'I say "O moon!" rapturously,
+but nothing comes of it.'"
+
+"But something shall come of it this time, Jerry," said his mother.
+"Perhaps we have had enough quotations now. Give us the 'Gipsy Song.'"
+
+Nothing loth, Gerald sang the wild, beautiful song, his sisters humming
+the accompaniment. Then one song and another was called for, and the
+night rang with ballad and barcarole, glee and round. There never
+seemed to be any limit to the Merryweather repertoire.
+
+Presently Bell whispered to Gertrude; the latter passed the whisper on
+to Margaret and Peggy. Silently all four girls rose and slipped away,
+with a word breathed into Mrs. Merryweather's ear, begging her to keep
+up the singing.
+
+"Where are the girls going?" asked their father.
+
+"They will be back in a moment," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give us 'Prinz
+Eugen,' boys; all of you together!"
+
+And out rolled, in booming bass and silvery tenor, the glorious old camp
+song of the German wars:
+
+        "Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter,
+          Woll't dem Kaiser wied'rum kriegen
+          Stadt und Festung Belgerad."
+
+This was a favorite song of the Merryweather boys, and they never knew
+which verse to leave out, so they generally sang all nine of them. They
+did so this time, and finally ended with a prolonged roar of:
+
+        "Liess ihm bringen recht zu Peterwardein."
+
+A moment of silence followed. Indeed, none of the singers had any breath
+left.
+
+        "'And silence like a poultice falls,
+          To heal the blows of sound!'"
+
+quoted Mr. Merryweather. "Hark! what is that?"
+
+Again the sound of singing was heard. This time it came from the
+direction of the tents. Girl's voices, thrilling clear and sweet on the
+stillness. The air was even more familiar than that of "Prinz Eugen,"
+one of the sweetest airs that ever echoed to moonlight and the night:
+
+        "Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten,
+           Dass ich so traurig bin;"--
+
+The girls came singing out into the moonlight, hand in hand. They were
+in bathing-dress; their long hair floated over their shoulders; their
+white arms shone in the white light. Instead of coming back to the
+float, they plunged into the water, and swam, still singing, to a rock
+that reared a great rounded back from the water. Up on this rock they
+climbed, and sat them down, shaking off the water in diamond spray; and
+still their voices rang out, clear and thrilling on the quiet air:
+
+        "Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet
+           Dort oben wunderbar;
+         Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet,
+           Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar."
+
+"Gee!" muttered Gerald to himself.
+
+"Pretty!" said Mr. Merryweather, taking his pipe from between his teeth.
+"Miranda, I don't know that I ever saw anything much prettier than
+that."
+
+His wife made no reply, but her eyes spoke for her. None of the lads
+could look more eagerly or more joyfully at that lovely picture. Were
+not two of the maidens her very own?
+
+Gertrude was facing them as she sang. Her red-gold hair fell like a
+mantle of glory about her, far below her waist; her arms, clasped behind
+her head, were like carved ivory; her face was lifted, and the moon
+shone full on its pure outlines and candid brow. Bell's rosy face was
+partly in shadow, but her noble voice floated out rich and strong,
+filling the air with melody. There was no possibility of doubt, to Mrs.
+Merryweather's mind, which two of the quartette were most attractive.
+Yet when she said softly to the son who happened to be next her: "Aren't
+they lovely, Jerry?" he answered, abstractedly, "Isn't she!" and his
+eyes were fixed, not on stately Gertrude, or stalwart Bell, but on a
+slender figure between them, that clung timidly to the rock, one hand
+clasped in Peggy's. Also, it is to be noted that, when the song was
+over, and Peggy made an exceptionally clean and graceful dive off the
+rock, Phil exclaimed, "Jove! that was a corker!" to which John Ferrers
+replied, "Yes; the sweetest contralto I ever heard."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I never heard you sing better than you did last night," said Jack to
+Bell. It was next morning, and he was stirring the porridge
+industriously, while she mixed the johnny-cake.
+
+[Illustration: "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE
+MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE."]
+
+"So glad!" said Bell, simply. "I aim to please. I'd put in a little more
+water, Jack, if I were you; it's getting too stiff."
+
+Jack poured in the water, and stirred for some minutes in silence.
+Presently he said: "I heard from those people last night."
+
+"From the Conservatory? Oh, Jack! do tell me! I have been thinking so
+much about it. Is it all right?"
+
+"I think so," said Jack, slowly. "They offer me two thousand, and there
+is an excellent chance for private pupils besides; I have decided to
+accept it."
+
+"Oh, Jack, how splendid! Oh, I am so glad! I knew it would come--the
+chance--if you only had patience, and you surely have had it. How happy
+Hilda will be!"
+
+"Yes," said Jack, soberly. "I owe it to Hilda, every bit of it, as I owe
+several other things. This, for example."
+
+"This?" repeated Bell. "Meaning the porridge?"
+
+She spoke lightly, yet there was an undertone of feeling in her voice.
+
+"The porridge, and all the rest of it," said Jack. "The place, the life,
+the friends, the happiness, and--you--all!"
+
+It might have been noted that the "all" was added after a moment's
+pause, as if it were an afterthought.
+
+"Dear Hilda!" said Bell, softly. "We all owe her a very great deal."
+
+"If it had not been for Hildegarde Grahame," said Jack, "I should have
+grown up a savage."
+
+"Oh! no, you would not, Jack."
+
+"Yes, I should, Bell. When I first came to Roseholme, I was just at the
+critical time. I adored my father, who was an angel,--too much of one to
+understand a mere human boy. I came to please him, and at first I didn't
+get hold of Uncle Tom at all, nor he of me. He thought me an ass,--well,
+he was right enough there,--and I thought him a bear and a brute. I was
+on the point of running away and starting out on my own account, my
+fiddle and I against the world, when I met Hilda, and she changed life
+from an enemy into a friend."
+
+Bell was silent for a moment; then, "I have often wondered--" she said,
+and broke off short.
+
+"So have I!" said Jack. "I don't know now why I didn't. Yes, I do, too."
+
+"Why?" asked Bell, her eyes on her mixing-bowl.
+
+"It's hard to put it into words," said Jack, with a queer little laugh.
+"I suppose I felt that I never should have had a chance; but--but yet, I
+am not sure that I should not have tried my luck, even then, if--if
+something else had not happened to me."
+
+Bell asked no more questions: the johnny-cake seemed to be at a critical
+point; she stirred assiduously, and Jack, turning to look at her, could
+see only the tip of a very rosy little ear under the brown, clustering
+hair.
+
+There was another silence, broken only by the singing of the teakettle
+and the soft, thick "hub-bubble" of the boiling porridge.
+
+"Bell!" said Jack, presently.
+
+"Yes, Jack."
+
+"I had another letter last night, that I haven't told you about yet."
+
+"From Hilda?"
+
+"No. From the manager of the Arion Quartette. They want me to go on a
+tour with them in the autumn, before the Conservatory opens. It's a
+great chance, and they offer me twice what I am worth."
+
+"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, turning her face, shining with pleasure, full on
+him. "How glorious! how perfectly glorious! Oh! this is great news
+indeed."
+
+"There is only one difficulty," said Jack. "I have to provide my own
+accompanist."
+
+"But you can easily do that!" said Bell.
+
+"Can I?" cried Jack Ferrers, dropping the porridge spoon and coming
+forward, his two hands held out, his brown face in a glow. "Can I, Bell?
+There is only one accompanist in the world for me, and I want her for
+life. Can I have her, my dear?"
+
+"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, and another spoon was dropped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Children, you are letting that porridge burn!" cried Mrs. Merryweather,
+as she hurried into the kitchen a few minutes later.
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I am so sorry!" said Bell, looking up,
+
+        "All kind o' smily round the lips,
+         And teary round the lashes."
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I am so glad!" cried Jack Ferrers; and without more ado he
+kissed Mrs. Merryweather. "I like burnt porridge!" said this young
+gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS
+
+
+"WHERE are you going, Margaret?" asked Willy.
+
+"Up to the farm. Bell lost one of her knitting-needles, and thought she
+might have dropped it there; she is up there now, hunting for it, and
+here it was in my tent all the time. Would you like to come with me,
+Willy?"
+
+Willy twinkled with pleasure, and fell into step beside her, and the two
+walked along the pleasant grassy road through the fields, talking
+busily. They had become great friends, and Willy was never tired of
+hearing about Basil, who, he declared, "must certainly be a corker."
+
+"I suppose he is, Willy," said Margaret, with resignation. "There seems
+nothing else for any nice person to be. Did I tell you how brave he was
+when a great savage dog attacked our poor puppies? Oh, you must hear
+that."
+
+The recital of Basil's heroism lasted till they reached the farmhouse,
+both in a state of high enthusiasm, and Willy filled with ardent
+longings for attacks by savage dogs, that he might show qualities equal
+to those of the youthful hero. (N. B. Basil, honest, freckled, and
+practical, would have been much surprised to hear himself held up as a
+youthful embodiment of Bayard and the Cid in one.)
+
+"I'll wait for you out here, Margaret," he said, when they came to the
+door. "No, I don't want to come in; they will tell me how I've grown,
+and I do get so tired of it. I'll sit on the fence and think; I like to
+think."
+
+Margaret nodded sympathetically and went in. The door opened directly
+into a wide, sunny kitchen, as bright as sunshine and cleanliness could
+make it. An elderly woman was standing before a great wheel, spinning
+wool; beside her, Bell, Gertrude, and Peggy stood watching with absorbed
+attention. All looked up at Margaret's entrance, and the woman, who had
+a kind, strong face and sweet brown eyes, laid down her shuttle with a
+smile of welcome.
+
+"I want to know if this is you," she said. "You're quite a stranger,
+ain't you? I kind o' looked for you when the gals come in."
+
+"I meant to come, Mrs. Meadows, I truly did; but I was tidying up the
+tent, and I am so slow about it."
+
+"Mrs. Meadows," said Peggy, laughing, "she wipes every nail-head three
+times a day, and goes over the whole with a microscope when she has
+finished, to see if she can find a speck of dust."
+
+"Doos she so?" inquired Mrs. Meadows. "I don't hardly dare to ask her to
+set down in this room, then. What with the wool flyin' and all, it's a
+sight, most times."
+
+"Now, Mrs. Meadows!" exclaimed Gertrude. "When you know you are almost
+as particular as she is! But, Margaret, do you see what we are doing? We
+are having a spinning lesson. It is _so_ exciting! Come and watch."
+
+"I came to bring your knitting-needle," said Margaret. "Look! it was in
+my tent, just the end of it sticking out of a crack in the floor. If I
+had not tidied up, in the way you reprobate, Bell, you might never have
+got it again."
+
+"Oh! yes, somebody would have stepped on it," laughed Bell. "But I
+confess I am very grateful for this special attack of tidying. Now, Mrs.
+Meadows, I shall be all ready for that new yarn as soon as you have it
+spun."
+
+"My land! don't you want I should color it? I was callatin' to color all
+this lot."
+
+"No, I like this gray mixture so much; it is just the color for the
+boys' stockings. By the way, have you seen the boys, Mrs. Meadows? I was
+looking for them everywhere before I came up."
+
+"Let me see, where did I see them boys?" Mrs. Meadows pondered, drawing
+the yarn slowly through her fingers. "Gerild and Phillup, you mean? They
+passed through the yard right after dinner, I should say it was, on
+their velocipedies; going at a great rate, they was. Here's Jacob, mebbe
+he'll know."
+
+Jacob, massive and comely, in his customary blue overalls, entered,
+beaming shyly. "Good mornin', ladies!" he said. "Mother treatin' you
+well?"
+
+"Very well, Jacob!" said Bell. "We are having a spinning lesson, and
+find it very interesting."
+
+"I want to know. Well, I allers got on without that branch of edication
+myself," said Jacob. He was standing near the door, and the girls
+noticed that he kept his hands behind him.
+
+"Mother, ain't you give the girls no apples?" he said.
+
+"There!" cried Mrs. Meadows, apologetically. "I never thought on't."
+
+"Now, ain't that a sight!" said Jacob, reprovingly. "I thought I could
+trust you not to let 'em starve, mother, but yet someways I felt I ought
+to bring the apples myself. I dono's they're fit to eat, though."
+
+Still beaming shy benevolence, he brought from behind him a basket of
+beautiful rosy apples, every one of which had evidently been polished
+with care--and the sleeve of his coat.
+
+"Oh, what perfect beauties!" cried the girls. "Oh, thank you, Jacob!"
+
+"What kind are they?" asked Peggy. "They _are_ good!" Peggy never lost a
+moment in sampling an apple, and her teeth now met in the firm, crisp
+flesh with every sign of approval.
+
+"Benoni! about the best fall apple there is, round these parts; that is,
+for any one as likes 'em crips. Some prefer a sweet apple, but I like a
+fruit that's got some sperit in it, same as I do folks. Well, I wish you
+all good appetite; I must be goin' back to my hoein' lesson, I guess."
+
+"Oh! Jacob, have you seen Jerry and Phil, lately?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"No, I ain't. Yes I hev, too. They went rocketin' past me this noon, and
+give me some sarse as they went, and I give it 'em back. I ain't seen
+'em sence. They're up to mischief, wherever they be, you can count on
+that."
+
+Jacob diffused his smile again, and withdrew. The girls, still eating
+their apples, turned eagerly to Mrs. Meadows. "Now, Mrs. Meadows," they
+said, "we must go on with our lesson. Margaret, sit down and learn with
+us; you know you want to learn."
+
+"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret. "But I don't think I'd better now, girls.
+Willy came up with me, and he is waiting for me outside; I promised to
+look at a nest he has found, and I don't like to disappoint him. May I
+come some other day, please, Mrs. Meadows?"
+
+"Well, I guess you may!" said Mrs. Meadows. "Sorry to have ye go now,
+but glad to see ye next time, and so you'll find it nine days in the
+week, Miss Montfort. Good day to ye, if ye must go."
+
+Margaret shook the good woman's hand, nodded gaily to the girls, and
+went out, to find Willy sitting patiently on the fence.
+
+"Was I a very long time, Willy?" she asked. "I thought you might have
+got out of patience and gone home."
+
+"No!" said Willy, soberly. "You were a good while, but then, girls
+always are. When a fellow has sisters, you know, he gets used to
+waiting."
+
+"Oh! indeed!" said Margaret, much amused.
+
+"Yes," said Willy. "I don't think girls have much idea of time, do you?"
+
+"Why, Willy, I don't know that I have ever considered the question. You
+see, I have always been a girl myself, so perhaps I am not qualified to
+judge. But--do you think boys have so very much more idea? It seems to
+me I know some one who has been late for tea several times this week."
+
+Willy looked conscious. "Well," he said, "I know; but that is different.
+When you are late for tea,--I mean when a boy is,--he is generally doing
+something that he wants very much indeed to get through with, fishing,
+or splicing a bat, or something that really has to be done. Besides, he
+knows they won't wait tea for him, so it doesn't make any difference."
+
+"I see!" said Margaret. "And girls are never doing anything important.
+Aren't you rather severe on us, Willy?"
+
+Willy was about to reassure her kindly, for he was extremely fond of
+her; but at this moment a cheery "Hallo!" was heard, and the twins rode
+up on their bicycles, bright-eyed and flushed after a fine spurt.
+
+"Neck and neck!" said Gerald. "Margaret, I hope you don't object to
+being a winning-post. That was a great run."
+
+"Where have you been?" asked Margaret, as the two dismounted and walked
+along on either side of her.
+
+"Over to the Corners, to send a telegram for the Pater. And thereby
+hangs a tale."
+
+"May we hear it? We love a tale, don't we, Willy?"
+
+Willy did not look particularly enthusiastic, but he murmured something,
+which Gerald did not wait to hear.
+
+"Well, the Pater desired to send a telegram, even winged words, to that
+man who has been trying to send us shellac for the last three weeks, and
+who has, we fear, broken down from the strain. A neat despatch it was:
+'Send to-morrow, or not at all.--M. Merryweather.' Well, we had just
+sent it, when we heard some one behind us say, '_Oh_, gosh!' in a tone
+of such despair that we turned round to see if it was the shellac man in
+person. It was little Bean, the pitcher of the Corners team, all dressed
+up in his baseball togs, scarlet breeches and blue shirt, quite the bird
+of paradise, and reading a yellow telegram, and his face black as
+thunder. He was an impressionist study, wasn't he, Fergy? We asked what
+was up, or rather down, for elevation had no part in him. It appeared
+that a match was on for this afternoon, between the Baked Beans and the
+Sweet Peas, the Corners and the Spruce Point team. The Beans were all
+here except the pitcher and first-baseman, brothers, who were to come
+over by themselves, as they lived at some distance from the rest of the
+team; and this telegram conveyed the cheering information, that, instead
+of coming over, they had come down with mumps, and were, in point of
+fact, in their little beds."
+
+"Oh, what a shame!" said Margaret. "Poor lads! and mumps are such a
+distressing thing."
+
+"I rejoice to see that you also get your singular and plural mixed in
+regard to mumps," said Gerald. "You are human, after all. But to tell
+the truth, I don't know that sympathy with the mumpers was the
+prevailing sentiment at the Corners."
+
+"Gee! I should think not," said Phil. "This was the match of the season,
+you see, Margaret. The farmers had come from far and near, and brought
+their wives and babies; and the Corner fellows had got this gorgeous
+uniform made, and bought out all the red flannel in the county; and here
+were these two wretched chumps down with mumps."
+
+"Oh! but Phil," cried Margaret, "they didn't do it on purpose, poor
+things; and think how they were suffering! You are heartless, I think."
+
+"They would have suffered more if the Baked Beans had got hold of them,"
+said Phil, with a grin; "or the other fellows either, for that matter.
+But as it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened for
+the Beans. He wasn't much of a pitcher."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Willy, beginning to be interested. "Did they
+get another pitcher?"
+
+"Did they? Well, I should remark! I let on in a casual way that the
+former pitcher of a certain college team was not more than a hundred
+miles from the spot at that moment. You should have seen that fellow's
+face, Margaret. It really was a study. Perfect bewilderment for a
+minute, and then--well, I believe he would have gone down on all fours
+and carried Jerry to the field if he would not have gone in any other
+way."
+
+"Oh! please, Phil. I am bewildered, too. Is Gerald a--a pitcher?"
+
+"Is he? My child, he is the great original North American jug."
+
+"Oh, pooh!" said Gerald. "Don't be an ass, Ferguson! You are as good a
+first-baseman as I am pitcher, any day. Of course we were glad to help
+them out, though I drew the line at scarlet breeches. My mother's angry
+shade hovered above me and forbade.
+
+        "'Go fight in fortune's deepest ditches,
+          But oh, avoid the scarlet breeches!'
+
+I could hear her say it. So I told him that my hair and my temper were
+the only red I ever wore, and he submitted, though sadly. So we played;
+and it was a great game. And we smote them hip and thigh, even to the
+going down of the sun; or would have, if the day had been shorter. Phil
+made three runs, Will."
+
+"Jerry made three more Will," said Phil; "and pitched like one o'clock,
+I tell you. I never saw you play better, Obadiah. Those last balls were
+perfect peaches. I wish you had seen the game, Margaret."
+
+"So do I," said Margaret. "I have never seen a game of baseball."
+
+"Oh! I say!" cried Phil and Willy. "What a shame!"
+
+"Where do you live?" asked Willy, in such open wonder and commiseration
+that the others all laughed.
+
+"She lives in an enchanted castle, Willy," said Gerald; "with a magician
+who keeps her in chains--of roses and pearls. He has two attendant
+spirits who help to keep her in durance that is not precisely vile. How
+is Mrs. Cook, Margaret? Do you know, you have hardly told me anything
+about Fernley all this time? I want to know ever so many things. What
+became of the pretty lady whose house was burned? Do you remember that?
+I never shall forget it as long as I live."
+
+"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret, blushing. "She is still abroad, Gerald. I
+doubt if she ever returns, or at least not for a long time. She is well,
+and really happy, I think. Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+"You didn't see Miss Wolfe come down the ladder!" said Gerald. "That was
+the most wonderful thing I ever saw. Just as she stepped out on the
+window-sill, the fire caught the hem of her skirt. I thought she was
+gone that time. I was just going to drop you and run, when she stooped
+and squeezed the skirts together--woollen skirts, fortunately--and put
+it out; and then came swinging down that rope to the ladder, and down
+the ladder to the ground, as if she had been born in a circus. I tell
+you, that was something to see. Pity you missed it."
+
+"Why did she miss it?" asked Willy. "And what do you mean by dropping
+her, Jerry?"
+
+Gerald, whose eyes were shining with the excitement of recollection,
+turned and looked down at his small brother as if suddenly recalling his
+existence.
+
+"Margaret was--busy!" he said, briefly. "And, I say, Father William,
+don't you want to take my biky down and give him a feed of oats? he is
+hungry. See him paw the ground!" and he gave the bicycle a twirl.
+
+"I must go," said Phil, remounting his own. "Come along, Willy, and I'll
+race you to Camp."
+
+But for once Willy held back. "I was going to take Margaret to see a
+redwing's nest," he said. "I promised her I would."
+
+"Oh! Margaret will excuse you," said Phil. "Won't you, Margaret?
+Redwings' nests always look better in the morning, besides. Come on,
+boy, and I'll tell you all about the game."
+
+Willy still hesitated, looking at Margaret; and she in her turn
+hesitated, blushing rosy red. "Don't let me keep you, Willy dear," she
+said. "If you would like to hear about the game--"
+
+"_Go on_, young un!" said Gerald, in a tone of decision so unlike his
+usual bantering way, that Willy stared, then yielded; and slowly
+mounting the bicycle, started off with Phil along the road.
+
+They rode for some time in silence, Phil being apparently lost in
+thought.
+
+"Well!" said Willy at last, in an injured tone.
+
+"Well, what is it, Belted Will?"
+
+"I thought you were going to tell me about the game," said Willy,
+moodily. "I say, Phil! I think it was awfully rude of you and Jerry to
+yank me off that way, when I had promised Margaret to take her
+somewhere, and we were going straight there when you came along and
+broke in. I don't think that's any kind of way to do, and I am sure Ma
+would say so, too. What do you suppose Margaret thinks of me now?"
+
+"Ri tum ti tum ti tido!" carolled Phil. "What do I suppose she thinks of
+you, Belted One? Why, she thinks you are one of the nicest boys she ever
+saw; and so you are, when not in doleful dumps. See here, old chap!
+you'll be older before you are younger, and some day you will know a
+hawk from a handsaw, _or_ hernshaw, according to which reading of
+'Hamlet' you prefer. And now as to this game!"
+
+He plunged into a detailed account of the great match, and soon Willy's
+eyes were sparkling, and his cheeks glowing, and he had forgotten all
+about Margaret and the redwing's nest.
+
+But as they crested the hill, which on the other side dipped down to the
+camp, Phil glanced back along the road. Margaret and Gerald were
+walking slowly, deep in talk, and did not see the wave of his hand.
+"Heigh, ho!" said Phil; but he smiled even while he sighed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ON THE DOWN
+
+
+ONE afternoon, when most of the campers were off fishing, Margaret
+wandered alone up to the top of the great down behind the camp.
+Thoroughly in love with the camp life as she was, in most of its
+aspects, she could not learn to care for fishing. To sit three, four,
+five hours in a boat, on the chance of killing a harmless and beautiful
+creature, did not, she protested, appeal to her; and many a lively
+argument had she had on the subject with Bell and Gertrude, who were
+ardent fisher-maidens.
+
+"But, Margaret, it is the sport!" Bell would cry. "It isn't just
+killing, it is sport!"
+
+"But, Bell, if the sport does not amuse me!" Margaret would answer. "If
+I want to kill something, I would rather kill spiders, though I am
+trying not to be so afraid of them--or mosquitoes."
+
+Then the girls would cry out that she was hopeless, and would gather up
+their reels and rods and leave her to her own peaceful devices, having
+even the generosity not to twit her with inconsistency when she enjoyed
+her delicately-fried perch at supper.
+
+These solitary afternoons were sure to be pleasant ones for Margaret.
+She loved the merry companionship of the campers, but she loved, too, to
+wander through the woods, among the great straight-stemmed pines and
+dark feathery hemlocks, or to track the little clear brook through its
+windings, from the great bog to its outlet into the lake; or, as now, to
+stroll about over the great down, looking down on the blue water below.
+
+It was a perfect afternoon. Little white clouds drifted here and there
+over the tops of the wooded hills, but they only made the sky more
+deeply and intensely blue. There was just enough breeze to ripple the
+water so that it caught every sunbeam, and set it dancing on the
+tremulous surface. Below her a fish-hawk poised and dipped, seeking his
+dinner; far out, two black specks showed where her friends were at their
+"sport." Margaret drew a long breath of content.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" she said. "How glad I am that I am not in that
+boat. Oh, pleasant place!"
+
+She looked about her with happy eyes. Before her, the earth fell away in
+an abrupt descent to the lake, steep enough to be dignified by the name
+of precipice; but behind and on either hand it rolled away in billowy
+slopes of green, crowned here and there with patches of wood, and
+crossed by irregular lines of stone wall.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret a third time. "How many beautiful
+places I know! What a wonderful world of beauty it is!"
+
+Her mind went back to Fernley House, the beloved home where she lived
+with her uncle John Montfort: to the rose-garden, where they loved to
+work together, the sunny lawns, the shady alleys of box and laurel, the
+arbors of honeysuckle and grape-vine. She could almost see the beloved
+uncle, pruning-knife in hand, bending over his roses; if only he did not
+cut back the Ramblers too far! She could almost see her little cousins,
+her children, as she called them, Basil and Susan D., running about with
+their butterfly-nets, shouting and calling to each other. Did they think
+of her, as she hourly thought of them? Did Uncle John miss her? She must
+always miss him, no matter how happy she might be with other friends. A
+wave of homesickness ran through her, and brought the quick tears to her
+eyes; but she brushed them away with an indignant little shake of her
+head.
+
+"Goose!" she said. "When will you learn that it is a physical
+impossibility to be in two places at once? You don't want to leave this
+beautiful place and these dear people yet? Of course, you don't! Well,
+then, don't behave so! But all the same, it would be good to hear Uncle
+John's voice!"
+
+At this moment she heard,--not the beloved voice for which she
+longed,--but certainly a sound, breaking the stillness of the afternoon;
+a sound made neither by wind nor water. It did not sound like a bird,
+either; nor--a beast?
+
+"Oh, to be sure!" thought Margaret. "It may be a sheep. I saw the flock
+up there this morning. Of course, it is a sheep."
+
+The sound came again, louder this time, and nearer; something between a
+snorting and a blowing; it must be a very large sheep to make such a
+loud noise.
+
+Margaret turned to look behind her; but it was not a sheep that she
+saw.
+
+Just behind the rock on which she was sitting the land rose in a high,
+green shoulder, on the farther side of which it sloped gradually down to
+a little valley. Over this shoulder now appeared--a head! A head five
+times as big as that of the biggest sheep that ever bore fleece; a head
+crowned by long, sharp, dangerous-looking horns. And now, as Margaret
+sat transfixed with terror, another head appeared, and another, and
+still another; till a whole herd of cattle stood on the ridge looking
+down at her.
+
+Jet black, of colossal size, with gleaming eyes and quivering nostrils,
+they were formidable creatures to any eyes; but to poor Margaret's they
+were monsters as terrible as griffin or dragon. All cattle, even the
+mildest old Brindle that ever stood to be milked, were objects of dire
+alarm to her, but she had never seen animals like these. Tales of the
+wild cattle of Chillingham, of the fierce herds that roam the Western
+prairies and the pampas of the South, rushed to her mind. She felt fear
+stealing over her, a wild, unreasoning panic which neither strength nor
+reason could resist. She dared not move; she dared not cry out for help;
+indeed, who was there to hear if she did cry? She sat still on her rock,
+her hands clasped together, her eyes, wide with terror, fixed on the
+enemy.
+
+The leader of the herd met her gaze with one which to her excited fancy
+seemed threatening and sinister. For a moment he stood motionless; then,
+tossing his head with its gleaming horns, and uttering another loud
+snort, he took a step toward her; the rest followed. Another step and
+another. Margaret glanced wildly around her. On one side was the
+precipice, on either hand a wide stretch of open meadow; no hope of
+escape. She must meet her death here, then, alone, with no human eye to
+see, no human hand to help her in her extremity. She crouched down on
+the rock, and covered her eyes with her hands. The cattle drew nearer.
+Snuffing the air, tossing their horns, with outstretched necks and eager
+eyes, step by step they advanced. Now they were close about her, their
+giant forms blocking the sunlight, their gleaming eyes fixed upon her.
+Margaret felt her senses deserting her; but suddenly--hark! another
+sound fell on her ear; a sound clear, resonant, jubilant; the sound of a
+human voice, singing:
+
+        "I'm an honest lad, though I be poor,
+         And I niver was in love afore--"
+
+"_Gerald!_" cried Margaret. "Gerald, help!" and she dropped quietly off
+the rock, under the very feet of the black cattle.
+
+When she came to herself, she was propped against the rock, and Gerald
+was fanning her with his cap and gazing at her with eyes of anxiety and
+tenderness, which yet had a twinkle in their depths.
+
+"Better?" he asked, as he had asked once before under somewhat similar
+circumstances. "Do say you are better, please! The house isn't on fire
+this time, and neither is the Thames."
+
+Margaret struggled into a sitting posture. "Oh! Gerald," she said, "I am
+so ashamed! You will think I am always fainting, and, indeed, I never
+have in all my life except these two times. But they were so
+terrible--ah! there they are still."
+
+Indeed, the herd of cattle was standing near, still gazing with gleaming
+eyes; but, somehow, the look of ferocity was gone. She could even
+see--with Gerald beside her--that they were noble-looking creatures.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Gerald. "Don't call them terrible; you will hurt their
+poor old feelings. I know them of old, Horatio; fellows of infinite
+jest."
+
+"Are they--are they tame?" asked Margaret, in amazement.
+
+"Tame? I should say so. Look at this fellow! I have known him from a
+calf. Did um want um's nosy rubbed?" he added, addressing the huge
+leader, who was snuffing nearer and nearer. "Come along, then, Popolorum
+Tibby, and tell um's prettiest aunt not to be afraid of um any more."
+
+"But--but they came all around me!" said poor Margaret.
+
+"Small blame to them! Showed their good sense, not to say their taste.
+But to be wholly candid, they came for salt."
+
+"For salt? Those great monsters?"
+
+"To be sure! Ellis, the farmer, makes regular pets of them, and I always
+put a lump of salt in my pocket when I am coming their way. I never saw
+them in this pasture before, though; the fence must be broken. I believe
+I have some grains of salt left now. See him take it like a lady!"
+
+He held out his hand, with a little heap of salt in it. The huge ox came
+forward, stepping daintily, with neck outstretched and nostrils spread;
+put out a tongue like a pink sickle, and neatly, with one comprehensive
+lick, swept off every particle of salt, and looked his appreciation.
+
+Gerald patted the great muzzle affectionately.
+
+"Good old Blunderbore!" he said. "I almost carried you when you were a
+day old, though you may not believe it. Come, Margaret, give him a pat,
+and say you bear no malice."
+
+Margaret put out a timid hand and patted the great black head.
+Blunderbore snuffed and blew, and expressed his friendliness in every
+way he could.
+
+"Why, he is a dear, gentle creature!" said the girl. "I shall never be
+afraid of him again. And yet--oh, Gerald, I am so glad you came!"
+
+"So am I!" said Gerald.
+
+"Because," Margaret went on, "of course, I see how silly and foolish I
+was; but all the same, I was terribly frightened, and I really don't
+know what would have become of me if you had not come, Gerald."
+
+"But I did come, Margaret! I will always come, whenever you want me, if
+it is across the world."
+
+"But--you must think me so _very_ silly, Gerald!"
+
+"Do you wish to know what I think of you?" asked Gerald.
+
+Margaret was silent.
+
+"Because, for the insignificant sum of two cents, I would tell you," he
+went on.
+
+"I haven't two cents with me," said Margaret. "I think it is time to go
+home now, Gerald."
+
+"Generosity is part of my nature," said Gerald; "I'll tell you for
+nothing. Margaret--sit down, please!"
+
+Margaret had risen to her feet. The words had the old merry ring, but a
+deep note quivered in his voice. The girl was afraid, she knew not of
+what; afraid, yet with a fear that was half joy. "I--I must go, Gerald,
+indeed!" she said, faintly.
+
+"You must not go," said Gerald, gravely. "It is not all play, Margaret,
+between you and me. My cap and bells are off now, and you must hear what
+I have to say."
+
+Margaret, still hesitating, looked up in his face, and saw something
+there that brought the sweet color flooding over her neck and brow, so
+swift and hot that instinctively she hid her face in her hands.
+
+But gently, tenderly, Gerald Merryweather drew the slender hands away,
+and held them close in his own.
+
+"My dearest girl," said the young man, "my dearest love, you are not
+afraid of me? Sit down by me; sit down, my Margaret, and let me tell you
+what my heart has been saying ever since the day I first saw you."
+
+So dear Margaret sat down, perhaps because she could hardly stand, and
+listened. And the black cattle listened, too, and so did the fish-hawk
+overhead, and the little birds peeping from their nest in the birch wood
+close at hand; but none of them ever told what Gerald said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE SNOWY OWL
+
+
+"I THINK it is a horrid bother, if you want to know!" said Willy.
+
+"Willy Merryweather! aren't you ashamed of yourself? I never heard
+anything so odious, when we are all so happy, and everything is so
+perfectly lovely. I don't see what you mean."
+
+"I don't care, it _is_ a bother. Nothing is the way it used to be; it's
+all nothing but spooning, all over the lot."
+
+"I should not think you would use vulgar expressions, anyhow, Willy."
+
+"'Spooning' isn't vulgar," said Willy, sulkily. "I've heard Pa say it,
+so there! And--look here, Kitty! Of course, it's all corking, and so on,
+and anyhow, girls like that kind of fuss; but it does spoil everything,
+I tell you. Why, Pa couldn't get a crew for the war canoe yesterday. He
+wanted to go to Pine Cove--at least I did, awfully, and he said all
+right, so we would; and then Jerry was off with Margaret in the
+_Keewaydin_, and Bell and Jack were out in the woods fiddling, and Peggy
+and Phil--I say, Kitty! You don't suppose _they_ are going to get
+spoony, do you?"
+
+Kitty looked very wise, and pursed her lips and nodded her head with an
+air of deep mystery.
+
+"You don't!" repeated Willy, looking aghast.
+
+"Hush, Willy!" said Kitty. "Don't say a word! don't breathe it to
+anybody! I hope--I _think_ they are!"
+
+"What a mean, horrid shame!" cried Willy, indignantly. "I do think it is
+disgusting."
+
+His sister turned on him with flashing eyes. "It is you that is the
+shame!" she cried. "It is you who ought to be ashamed, Willy. Do you
+want poor Phil to be all alone when Jerry is married? Do you know that
+twins sometimes pine away and _die_, Willy Merryweather, when the other
+of them dies?"
+
+"Jerry isn't going to die," said Willy, uncomfortably. "What nonsense
+you talk, Kitty."
+
+"Well, marries. I should think very likely they would, then, if they
+didn't get married themselves. I think you are perfectly heartless,
+Willy. And dear Peggy, too, so nice and jolly! and if she goes away back
+out West _without_ falling in love with Phil, we may never, never see
+her again; and she has promised me a puppy of the very next litter
+Simmerimmeris has. So there!"
+
+Willy was silent for a moment, kicking the pebbles thoughtfully.
+
+"Do you think she is--that?" he asked at length, shamefacedly.
+
+"Of course I don't _know_!" said Kitty, judicially. "Of course very
+likely nothing is positively decided yet; but I am sure she likes him
+very, very much, and he takes her out whenever he has a chance."
+
+"There's nobody else for him to take out," put in Willy; "the others are
+all spoon--"
+
+"Willy, don't be tiresome! and just think! if they should get married
+and go to live out West, then you and I could both go out to see them,
+and ride all the ponies, and punch the cows, and have real lassoes,
+and--and--"
+
+The children were coming home through the wood. Kitty's voice had
+gradually risen, till now it was a shrill squeak of excitement; but at
+this moment it broke off suddenly, for there was a rustling of branches,
+and the next moment Gertrude stood before them with grave looks.
+
+"My dear chicks," she said, "you must not talk so loud. I was in the
+pine parlor, and could not help hearing the last part of what you were
+saying. And anyhow, I would not talk about such things, if I were you.
+Suppose Peggy had been with me! How do you think she would have felt?
+Mammy would not like to have you gossiping in this foolish way."
+
+The children hung their heads.
+
+"Oh! Toots," said Kitty, "I am sorry! I didn't realize that we were
+getting anywhere near the house. We were only thinking--at least I
+was--how lovely it would be if Peggy and Phil should--"
+
+"Kitty dear, hush!" said Gertrude, decidedly. "You would better not
+think, and you certainly _must not_ talk, about anything of the kind.
+There are enough real love-affairs to interest you, you little
+match-maker, without your building castles in the air. Let Peggy and
+Phil alone!"
+
+"I should think there were!" said Willy. "That's just what I was saying,
+Toots; it's nothing but spooning, all over the place. There's no fun
+anywhere; this wretched love-making spoils everything. _I_ think it's
+perfectly childish."
+
+"Do you, Willy dear?" said his sister; and her smile was very sweet as
+she laid her hand on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Yes, I do. Here are the white perch rising like a house afire, and I
+can't get a soul to go with me. It was just the same yesterday, and it's
+like that almost every day now."
+
+"Oh, Willy! I'll go with you," cried Kitty, eagerly. "Why didn't you
+tell me the perch were rising? Let's come right along this minute. Toots
+will help us with the boat, won't you, Toots?"
+
+"Yes, I'll help!" said the Snowy Owl.
+
+Ten minutes later the white boat was speeding on her way to the
+fishing-ground, the little rowers bending to their oars, chattering
+merrily as they went.
+
+"That's one comfort!" Willy was saying. "We've got Toots. Nobody will
+get her away from us."
+
+"I should hope not," said Kitty. "There's nobody good enough, in the
+first place; and besides, of course somebody must stay with Papa and
+Mamma."
+
+"I suppose you will be grown up yourself some day!" said Willy, gruffly.
+
+"I shall be likely to marry very young," said Kitty, seriously. "I heard
+Aunt Anna say so."
+
+Gertrude stood on the wharf, looking after the retreating boat. "Poor
+Willy!" she said, with a smile; "it _is_ hard on him!"
+
+She looked around her. It was afternoon, a still, golden day. The lake
+was as she loved best to see it, a sheet of living crystal, here deep
+blue, here glittering in gold and diamonds, here giving back shades of
+crimson and russet from the autumn woods that crowded down to the
+water's edge. Far out, her eye caught a white flash, the gleam of a
+paddle; there was another, just at the bend of the shore; and was that
+dark spot the prow of a third canoe, moored in the fairy cove of Birch
+Island? Gertrude smiled again, and her smile said many things.
+
+Presently she raised her arms above her head, and brought them down
+slowly, with a powerful gesture. "How good it would be to fly!" she
+said, dreamily. "To fly away up to the iceberg country, where the snowy
+owls live!"
+
+She stood for a long time silent, gazing out over the shining water. At
+last she shook herself with a little laugh, and turned away. The white
+canoe, her own especial pet, was lying on the wharf. She launched it
+carefully, then taking her paddle, knelt down in the bow. A few long,
+swift strokes, and the canoe shot out over the lake, and rested like a
+great white bird with folded wings, then glided slowly on again. It was
+a pity there was none to see, for the picture was a fair one: the
+stately maiden kneeling, her golden hair sweeping about her, her white
+arms rising and falling slowly, rhythmically, in perfect grace.
+
+"Tu-whoo!" said the Snowy Owl.
+
+But only the loon answered her.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By Laura E. Richards
+
+
+_The_ MARGARET SERIES
+
+        Three Margarets
+            Margaret Montfort
+                Peggy
+                    Rita
+                        Fernley House
+
+
+_The_ HILDEGARDE SERIES
+
+        Queen Hildegarde
+          Hildegarde's Holiday
+            Hildegarde's Home
+              Hildegarde's Neighbors
+                Hildegarde's Harvest
+
+
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+Publishers
+
+Estes Press, Summer St., Boston
+
+
+
+
+The Captain January Series
+
+By LAURA E. RICHARDS
+
+Over 350,000 copies of these books have been sold
+
+        CAPTAIN JANUARY                     $ .50
+          Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition  1.25
+          Same. Centennial Edition Limited   2.50
+
+        MELODY                                .50
+          Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition  1.25
+
+        MARIE                                 .50
+
+        ROSIN THE BEAU                        .50
+
+        NARCISSA                              .50
+
+        SOME SAY                              .50
+
+        JIM OF HELLAS                         .50
+
+        SNOW WHITE                            .50
+
+Each volume attractively bound in cloth, with handsome new cover design.
+Frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill
+
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Estes Press, Summer Street, Boston
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 10, "Bellville" changed to "Belleville" (Mr. Claud Belleville)
+
+Page 11, "282" changed to "281" (See page 281)
+
+Page 45, "develope" changed to "develop" (symptoms develop which)
+
+Page 78, double word "and" removed (must go and tell) Original read
+(must go and and tell)
+
+Page 132, "Limavady" changed to "Limavaddy" (Peg of Limavaddy!")
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Merryweathers
+
+Author: Laura E. Richards
+
+Illustrator: Julia Ward Richards
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2008 [EBook #25505]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRYWEATHERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE MERRYWEATHERS</h1>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Cover and Frontis">
+<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/cover01.jpg" width="275" height="400" alt="Cover" title="Cover" />
+</td><td align='center'><br /><img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="290" height="400" alt="&quot;&#39;TU-WHOO!&#39; SAID THE SNOWY OWL.&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;TU-WHOO!&#39; SAID THE SNOWY OWL.&quot;" />
+<br /><span class="caption">&quot;&#39;TU-WHOO!&#39; SAID THE SNOWY OWL.&quot;</span>
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE</h2>
+<h1>MERRYWEATHERS</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>LAURA E. RICHARDS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN<br />
+HILDEGARDE," "GEOFFREY STRONG," ETC.<br />
+<br /><br />
+
+<b>Illustrated by</b><br />
+
+JULIA WARD RICHARDS<br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 190px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.jpg" width="190" height="250" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><br />
+BOSTON<br />
+<big>DANA ESTES &amp; COMPANY</big><br />
+<small>PUBLISHERS</small><br /></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<i><small>Copyright, 1904</small></i><br />
+<span class="smcap"><small>By Dana Estes &amp; Company</small></span><br />
+</div>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+<div class='center'><i><small>All rights reserved</small></i><br />
+
+<small>THE MERRYWEATHERS</small><br />
+
+
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+<b><small>Colonial Press</small></b><br />
+<small>Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds &amp; Co.</small><br />
+<small>Boston, Mass., U. S. A.</small><br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='center'><small>TO</small><br />
+
+H. H. F., Jr.<br />
+<small>WITH AFFECTIONATE GREETING.</small><br /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>FOR REMEMBRANCE</h2>
+
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><span class="smcap">The</span> sunlight falls in gold upon the golden fields,</span><br />
+The ruffling wave gives back the sky in blue;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The asters fringe the meadow's skirts in purple pride,</span><br />
+And proud the goldenrod is standing, too.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh! clear and far across the lonely water,</span><br />
+The wild bird calls his mate at close of day;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My heart cries out, my heart cries out in answer,</span><br />
+And oh, I fondly think of them that's far away.<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, fair the fields where now their feet are treading!</span><br />
+Oh, green the trees that blossom o'er their head!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, deep and sweet the skies above them spreading,</span><br />
+And on their hearth the fire-glow warm and red!<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still may they hear, across the lonely water,</span><br />
+The wild bird call his mate at close of day;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still may their hearts, still may their hearts make answer;</span><br />
+Still may they kindly think of them that's far away!<br /></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Spine and Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'>
+<img src="images/spine01.jpg" width="78" height="400" alt="book spine" title="book spine" />
+</td><td align='left'><div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td align='center'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Arrival</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Camp</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Auf das Wasser zu Singen</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">After the Picnic</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Kitty and Willy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Discussion</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Water Play</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Mail</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Belleville</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Puppy Play</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Merryweather's Vigil</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot"</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">About Visiting</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Moonlight Again</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Concerning Various Things</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">On the Down</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_259">259</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Snowy Owl</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"'<span class="smcap">Tu-whoo!' said the Snowy Owl</span>" (<i><a href="#Page_281">See page <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads '282'">281</ins></a></i>)</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_4"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"'<span class="smcap">Here is yours,' said Bell; 'next to ours</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"'<span class="smcap">'Tis not a plate ship!</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"'<span class="smcap">Come on! come in!</span>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">Mr. Claud <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Bellville'">Belleville</ins> was a tall, pallid youth</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Merryweather's Vigil</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"'<span class="smcap">Simply fierce, your reverence!' said I</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">He was stirring the porridge industriously, while she mixed the johnny-cake</span>"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>THE MERRYWEATHERS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ARRIVAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Oh</span>, Peggy, I am afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am. I feel very shy and queer,
+going among strangers. You see, I have
+never really been away in my life; never
+in this way, I mean. I was always with
+father; and then&mdash;afterward&mdash;I went to
+Fernley; and though so many people have
+come into my life, dear, delightful people,
+I have never somehow gone into theirs.
+And now, to go into a whole great big
+family, only two of whom&mdash;I mean which&mdash;oh,
+dear me! I don't know what I mean,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+but I have only seen two of them, you know,
+and it is formidable, you will admit, Peggy."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I feel just a scrap queer myself,"
+said Peggy; "but I never thought you would.
+And anyhow, we needn't; we both know the
+boys so well, and though you have not actually
+seen the Snowy, you really know her
+very well. Darling thing! Oh, I cannot
+wait till we get there! Do you think we
+ever <i>shall</i> get there, Margaret? This is the
+longest journey I ever made in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"How about the journey from Ohio?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is different. I know all the
+places along the road, and they slip by before
+one can think. Besides, a long journey always
+seems shorter, because you know it is
+long. Well, you needn't laugh, you know
+perfectly well what I mean. Oh, Margaret,
+I saw a glimpse of blue behind the trees.
+Do you suppose that is the lake? do you
+think we are nearly there? Oh! I am so excited!
+Is my hat on straight?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Margaret Montfort, by way of reply,
+straightened her cousin's hat, and then proceeded
+to administer sundry coaxing pats
+to her hair and her ribbons.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a trifle flyaway, dear!" she said.
+"There! now, when you have taken the black
+smut off your nose, you will be as trim as possible.
+Am I all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"You!" said Peggy, with a despairing
+look, as she rubbed away at her nose; "as
+if you ever had a pin or an eyelash out of
+place! Margaret, how <i>do</i> you do it? Why
+does dust avoid you, and cling to me as if I
+were its last refuge? How do you make your
+collar stay like that? I don't see why I was
+born a Misfit Puzzle. Oh&mdash;ee! there <i>is</i> the
+lake! just look, how blue it is! Oh! Margaret,
+I <i>must</i> scream!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must <i>not</i> scream!" said Margaret
+with quiet decision, pulling Peggy down into
+the seat beside her. "You must be good,
+and sit still. See! that old gentleman is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+watching us, Peggy. He will be scandalized
+if you carry on so."</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't look a bit scandalized; he
+looks awfully jolly."</p>
+
+<p>"Peggy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he does, Margaret. Do you suppose
+Mr. Merryweather is anything like that?
+<i>Margaret!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Peggy? <i>please</i> don't speak so
+loud!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it <i>is</i> Mr. Merryweather. I think&mdash;I
+am almost perfectly sure it must be.
+Why, he is positively staring at us. It <i>must</i>
+be Mr. Merryweather!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Merryweather specially addicted
+to staring? I should not suppose so. This
+gentleman is not in the least my idea of
+Mr. Merryweather; and if he does stare,&mdash;there!
+he is looking away now,&mdash;it is because
+he sees a great big girl dancing and
+jumping in her seat as if she were Polly
+Peppercorn."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Next station Merryweather!" chanted the
+brakeman.</p>
+
+<p>"There! Margaret, he is getting his things
+together. It is! it <i>is</i>, I tell you. Oh! I
+<i>shall</i> scream!"</p>
+
+<p>Peggy's threat was uttered in so loud a
+stage whisper, that Margaret looked up in
+alarm, fearing that the gentleman must have
+heard. She met a glance so kind, so twinkling
+with sympathetic merriment, that she
+smiled in spite of herself.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman lifted his hat, instantly,
+and stepped forward. He was not tall, but
+broad and muscular, with keen, dark eyes
+that sparkled under shaggy white eyebrows;
+a most vigorous, positive-looking old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand pardons!" he said, in a
+deep, gruff voice which was the very essence
+of heartiness. "You also are getting off at
+Merryweather, young ladies? I beg the privilege
+of assisting you with your parcels; I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+insist upon it! Permit me, madam!" and
+he took possession of Margaret's travelling-bag,
+Margaret blushing and protesting, while
+Peggy's blue eyes grew to absolute circles,
+and her little mouth opened to another.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind!" said Margaret.
+"Indeed, I can carry it perfectly&mdash;thank
+you so very much! Yes, we are going to
+Mr. Merryweather's camp. Do you know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the old
+gentleman. "Astonishing! Going there myself.
+Permit me to introduce myself&mdash;Colonel
+Ferrers, at your service."</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his hat again, and bowed low.</p>
+
+<p>"Our name is Montfort," said Margaret
+timidly, attracted and yet alarmed by his
+explosive utterance, so different from the
+quiet speech of the Montfort men.</p>
+
+<p>"Not John's daughters!" cried the
+Colonel. "I'll be shot if you are John's
+daughters!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no," cried Margaret, her eyes lightening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+"Not his daughters, but his nieces.
+Do you know Uncle John, Colonel Ferrers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Know John Montfort? know the nose on
+my face? not that there is any resemblance;
+fine-looking man. I have known John Montfort,
+my dear young ladies, ever since he was
+in petticoats. John, Dick, Jim, Roger&mdash;fine
+lads! used to stay at Roseholme&mdash;my place
+in Dutchess County&mdash;forty years ago. School-boys
+when I was in college. All over the
+place, climbing, hunting, fishing, falling off
+the roofs&mdash;great boys! haven't heard of
+them for twenty years. Where are they
+now? all living, I&mdash;eh, what?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father, Roger Montfort, is dead," said
+Margaret, softly; "so is Uncle Richard. Uncle
+John and Uncle James are living, Colonel
+Ferrers; this is Uncle James's daughter.
+Peggy dear, Colonel Ferrers! and I live with
+Uncle John at Fernley House. Oh! how
+delightful to meet some one who knows Uncle
+John!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Pleasure is mine, I assure you!" said the
+Colonel, gallantly. "Harry Monmouth! takes
+me back forty years. Knew Roger, your
+father, well, Miss Montfort. Great scholar;
+fine fellow! nose in his books all day long,
+just like my brother Raymond; great chums,
+Roger and Raymond. I remember once&mdash;ha!
+here we are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Merryweather!" shouted the brakeman.
+The train drew up beside a little wayside
+station. On one side of the track, a platform
+and a shed, with a few barrels and boxes
+lying about; on the other, a long stretch of
+dark blue water, ruffling into brown where
+the wind swept it.</p>
+
+<p>The three travellers, emerging, found three
+persons awaiting them on the platform.
+Gerald Merryweather was first, his hand on
+the rail, his face alight with joy and eagerness;
+close beside him was another person, a
+tall girl in gray, at sight of whom Peggy,
+who had been apparently stricken dumb by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+aspect of Colonel Ferrers, shouted aloud and
+tumbled off the car-step, to the imminent peril
+of life and limb.</p>
+
+<p>"Snowy! Snowy! is it really you?"</p>
+
+<p>"You dear Peggy!" cried Gertrude Merryweather,
+taking her in her arms, and giving
+her a hearty kiss. "I am <i>so</i> glad! and this
+is Margaret&mdash;oh! welcome, most welcome,
+to Merryweather! Dear Colonel Ferrers, how
+do you do? it was so good of you to come!
+But where is Hugh? haven't you brought
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Ferrers drew her a step aside.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Gertrude," he said, in a confidential
+tone, "there is no need of my
+telling <i>you</i> that Hugh is one of the most
+astonishing&mdash;I will say <i>the</i> most astonishing
+boy I ever saw in my life. Expected to come;
+looking forward to it for weeks, greatest
+pleasure of the summer. Yesterday morning,
+Elizabeth Beadle had an attack of lumbago;
+painful thing; confined to her bed; excellent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+woman, none better in the world. Never
+could understand why good people should have
+lumbago; excellent complaint for scoundrels;
+excellent! well, the boy&mdash;his great-aunt, you
+understand!&mdash;refuses to leave her. Says she
+likes to have him read to her! Preposterous!
+I insisted, Elizabeth Beadle insisted, with tears
+in her eyes; tears, sir! I mean my dear! Boy
+immovable; Gibraltar vacillating beside him;
+tottering, sir, on its foundations. I had to come
+away and leave him, perfectly happy, reading
+Tennyson to Elizabeth Beadle. Ask somebody
+else to coerce a boy like that; Thomas Ferrers
+is not the man for it. Where's my Cochin
+China Chittagong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jack?" said Gertrude, laughing. "He is
+behind the shed, with the horses. The old
+horse doesn't like the train, and will not stand
+tying. As soon as Jerry gets the trunks&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Checks?" cried the Colonel, in answer
+to Gerald's request. "Two of them, sir. Sole-leather
+trunk, green carpet-bag. Anything for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+me by express? box, hamper, basket, that sort
+of thing, eh, what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think there was, sir!" said
+Gerald. "A basket of peaches as big as the
+camp, or very near it; and a hamper that
+says 'salmon!' as plainly as if it could speak.
+You're awfully good, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the sort!" retorted the Colonel.
+"Pity if I can't have a little gratification
+once in a way. Ah! there is my Cochin
+China&mdash;how are you, sir, how are you?
+prancing, as usual, like an Egyptian war-horse.
+Come here, and be introduced to the Miss
+Montforts! We are in luck, sir! Miss Montfort,
+Miss&mdash;eh? thank you! Miss Peggy
+Montfort, my nephew, John Ferrers. Here
+sir! take the bags, will you? Which way,
+Gerald? eh? what?"</p>
+
+<p>While the colonel was explaining (and exploding)
+to Gerald and Gertrude, and Margaret
+looking and listening in quiet amusement,
+Peggy had been hanging back, overcome in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+her turn by the shyness which her companion
+had conquered. But now Gertrude
+took her by the hand, and while the trunks
+were being hoisted on the wagon by Gerald
+and Jack, aided by a tall and powerful lad in
+blue overalls, the two walked up and down
+the little platform in earnest talk. Fragments
+of it reached Margaret where she stood,
+as they passed and repassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, last week. She is very well, she
+says, and fluffier than ever, on account of the
+heat. She has enjoyed her school very much.
+She wanted Grace to join her, and I think
+she might have, if all this had not come about.
+Oh, Peggy, I was so glad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Blissful, my dear, is no word for it! they
+have no eyes for any one else. He can't remember
+that there is any one else, and she&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I always said that if Grace did care
+for any one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in October. The wedding is to be
+at Fernley, and&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Anybody coming with me?" inquired
+Gerald, wistfully. "Margaret, will you risk
+life and limb with me and the old horse?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure!" said Margaret. "Is he
+very wild? He doesn't look so."</p>
+
+<p>"Only by comparison with the young
+horse!" said Gerald. "Jacob, don't strain
+your back lifting that carpet-bag!"</p>
+
+<p>Jacob, the youth in blue overalls, smiled
+calmly, and swung a large trunk over his
+shoulder as if it were a hand-satchel.</p>
+
+<p>"It's you I'm scared about, Gerald," he
+said slowly; "fear you'll do yourself a hurt
+pulling on the reins. Frank hasn't been out
+since yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll risk him!" said Gerald. "Now,
+Margaret." He held out his hand, and Margaret
+stepped lightly up to the seat of the
+Concord wagon.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Gerald, "Jack, if you'll
+drive the beach-wagon&mdash;is that all right,
+Toots?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!" said Gertrude. "Peggy, you
+and I will sit together behind; that is, if you
+do not mind the front seat, Colonel Ferrers?
+So! all right now, Jack! we'd better let the
+old horse go first, for he doesn't like to stay
+behind the new one. Oh! Jacob! how are
+you going home? we must make room for
+you somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go across lots," said the blue youth,
+"and be there to take the horses when you
+get there. You better hurry them up the
+least mite, so's I sha'n't have to wait too
+long!"</p>
+
+<p>With a benign smile he vaulted over a five-barred
+gate, and went with a long, leisurely
+stride across the fields.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll run when he gets round the corner!"
+said Gerald. "I know that's the way
+he does it. Get up, Frank! do <i>play</i> you
+are alive, just for once. Oh, Margaret, I am
+so glad to see you. I thought September
+would never come. It has been the longest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+summer I ever knew. Haven't you found
+it so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no!" said truthful Margaret. "It
+has seemed very short to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, of course it has been short too,
+summers always are; like the dachshund!"</p>
+
+<p>"The dachshund!" repeated Margaret.
+"What can a dachshund have to do with
+summer, Gerald?"</p>
+
+<p>"A description I once heard," said Gerald.
+"I was walking with Beppo, my dachs, and a
+little boy stopped to look at him. 'Ain't he
+long?' he said. 'My! ain't he short?' Even
+so summer. Oh, I <i>am</i> glad to see you. Get
+up, Frank!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAMP</h3>
+
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A long</span>, low, irregular building, with a wide
+verandah in front, the lake rippling and ruffling
+almost up to the piers; beyond, great
+hills rolling up and away. To right and left,
+boat-houses and tents; hammocks swung between
+the trees, fishing-rods ranged along the
+sides of the building. This was the Camp.
+As the wagons drove up, Mrs. Merryweather
+hurried from the house, and Mr. Merryweather
+and Phil came up with long strides from the
+wharf. Amid a chorus of eager welcome, a
+babel of questions and answers, the travellers
+were helped out and escorted to the verandah.</p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="500" height="344" alt="&quot;&#39;HERE IS YOURS,&#39; SAID BELL; &#39;NEXT TO OURS.&#39;&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;HERE IS YOURS,&#39; SAID BELL; &#39;NEXT TO OURS.&#39;&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;HERE IS YOURS,&#39; SAID BELL; &#39;NEXT TO OURS.&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Most welcome, all!" cried Mrs. Merryweather.
+"Are you very tired? No? that is
+good! Well, but you must be hungry, I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+sure. There are doughnuts and milk on the
+table; or if you would rather have tea&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not hungry, Miranda!" said
+Mr. Merryweather. "They cannot be hungry
+at three o'clock. Dined at Wayport, Ferrers?
+Of course! Jack, show your uncle his tent!
+Miss Montfort&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show them the way, Papa!" said
+Gertrude. "Where is Bell, Mammy? Oh,
+there she is! Bell, here are Margaret and
+Peggy; girls, this is Bell!"</p>
+
+<p>Bell Merryweather, a sturdy, blue-eyed girl
+with the general aspect of a snow apple,
+greeted the guests with a hearty shake of a
+powerful hand, and a cordial smile.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been looking forward so to your
+coming!" she said. "Don't you want to come
+out to your tent? Here, I'll take your bag,
+Margaret; shall I say 'Margaret' at once?
+it will be so much nicer. This way!"</p>
+
+<p>She led the way, Margaret following,
+Gertrude and Peggy after them, still talking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+eagerly. A row of flagstones led past
+the boat-house, and on under solemn pines
+and feathery birches to where a line of tents
+stood facing the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is yours," said Bell; "next to ours,
+this big one; we are three, you see. Yours
+is small, but I hope you can be comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Comfortable!" echoed Peggy; "I should
+think so! Oh, Margaret, do look! how perfect
+everything is! Oh, what ducky beds! the red
+blankets are just like home; our boys have
+red blankets. Oh, I shall be perfectly happy
+here!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, accustomed to the wide spaces
+and ample closets of Fernley House, was a
+little bewildered at the first glance around
+her. The tent was hardly bigger than the
+stateroom of a moderate-sized steamer. Could
+two persons live here in anything approaching
+comfort? A second glance showed her how
+compactly and conveniently everything was
+arranged. The narrow cots, with their scarlet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+blankets and blue check pillows, stood on
+either side; between them was a table, with
+blotter of birch bark, and an inkstand made by
+hollowing out a quaintly shaped piece of wood
+and sinking in the hollow a small glass tumbler.
+Above the head of each bed hung a long
+shoe-bag with many pockets, while opposite
+the foot were rows of hooks for dresses, a shelf
+on which stood pitcher, basin, etc., and a chest
+of drawers. All was fresh, neat, and tidy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am sure we shall be happy!" said
+Margaret, repeating Peggy's words.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the hook for your lantern," said
+Bell. "Here is a little jar for crackers, but
+be sure to keep it covered, or the squirrels
+will carry them off. I hope you will not
+mind a squirrel coming in now and then?
+they are so tame, they come hopping in to
+see if we have anything for them; I often
+leave a bit of something."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what fun!" said Peggy. "I love
+to tame squirrels. Ours at home will come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+and eat from our hands. Will yours do
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not often; at least, not for me. The
+boys can bring them sometimes. I think they
+like boys best. But I have a dear little field-mouse
+who brings me her babies to look at
+now and then, just to show me how they are
+growing. There, now, we go on chattering,
+when I know you ought to rest awhile, and
+unpack and stow away. It takes quite a bit
+of planning for two persons to fit into a tent.
+By and by, when you are all settled, would
+you like to go out on the water? Hurrah!
+we'll come for you. Come on, Toots!"</p>
+
+<p>The two sisters walked slowly down the
+long slip that led to the floating wharf, and
+sat down with their feet hanging over the
+edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Bell!" said Gertrude, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Bell, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of them? Isn't she
+lovely? and isn't Peggy a dear?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Bell. "I think you have
+just hit it, Toots. Peggy is a dear; just a
+hearty, jolly dear; but Margaret is lovely.
+Do you see a little hint of Hilda? I can't
+tell where it is; not in the features, certainly,
+nor in the coloring. I think it is in the
+brow and eyes; a kind of noble look; I don't
+know how else to put it. You wouldn't say
+anything false or base to this girl, any more
+than you would to Hilda; you wouldn't dare.
+My lamb! I speak as if falseness and baseness
+were the usual note of your conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were a trifle severe," said
+Gertrude, smiling. "Well, anyhow, it is a joy
+to have them here, and dear Colonel Ferrers,
+too. What shall we do this evening? Here
+come the boys for a council."</p>
+
+<p>The twins, Gerald and Phil, came running
+down the wharf, followed by Jack Ferrers.
+The latter, whom some of my readers may
+have known as an awkward, "leggy" boy, was
+now a man. Very tall, towering three or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+four inches above the six-foot Merryweathers,
+he still kept his boyish slenderness and spring,
+though the awkward angles were somehow
+softened away. He no longer stooped and
+shambled, but held his head up and his
+shoulders back; and if he did still prance,
+as his uncle declared, like the Mighty Ones of
+Scripture, it was not an ungraceful prancing.
+Briefly, Jack Ferrers was a fine-looking
+fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Council of War?" asked Gerald; "or
+do we intrude?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down!" said Bell. "We were just
+beginning to plan the evening. What are
+your ideas, if any?"</p>
+
+<p>The boys&mdash;for they were still the boys,
+even if they had passed one and twenty&mdash;stretched
+themselves along the wharf in
+picturesque attitudes.</p>
+
+<p>"I would sing!" announced Gerald.
+"Prose will not express my feelings at this
+juncture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"My fertile brain is simmering,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">My fancy's fire is glimmering;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'd fain betake</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Me to the lake,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">When bright the moonlight's shimmering.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Your turn, Ferguson. Go on; the song
+upraise!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see!" said Phil. "Well&mdash;on the
+whole&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"I can't agree with himmering;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>My</i> fancy's fire is dimmering;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If you would know</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The thing I'd doe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Methinks I'll go a swimmering."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, Phil," said Gertrude. "Not
+the very first night the girls are here; it will
+take them a day or two to get used to camp
+ways, Margaret at least; and we want to do
+something all together, something that Colonel
+Ferrers will like, too. I think&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sing it! sing it!" cried Gerald. "The
+song upraise, Tintinnabula! no escape!
+'Trimmering' is still left you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is there only one vowel?" demanded Bell,
+laughing. "I refuse to be fettered. Wait
+a second!&mdash;now I have it.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Forbear, forbear your clamoring,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And cease this hasty hammering;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">I think, with Jerry,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'Twere wise and merry</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To row by moonlight glamouring.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Your turn, Toots!"</div>
+
+<p>"I cannot!" said Gertrude. "You know
+I cannot, Bell. Besides, there aren't any more
+rhymes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Gerald, "you know what
+you are telling, and you know what happens
+to people who tell them. Perpend, Tootsina!</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"You yodel, yodel yammering,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">You stutter, stutter stammering;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And when you cry,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">'I will not try!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We know you're only shammering."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Gracious!" said Gertrude. "Don't you
+suppose I would make rhymes if I could? It's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+really a dreadful thing to be the only prose
+member of a large family. But Jack comforts
+me; you can't make them either, can
+you, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not to save my life!" said Jack. "Never
+could see how they do it."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can set them to music!" said
+Gertrude. "That is the delightful thing
+about you."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can illustrate them! That is
+one of the many delightful things about
+you!" said Jack, with a low bow.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'They built it up for forty miles,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With mutual bows and pleasing smiles!'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>quoted Gerald. "A truce to this badinage!
+Compliment, unless paid to myself, wearies
+me. We go, then, in canoes?"</div>
+
+<p>"In canoes!" replied the others in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis well! Any special stunts in the way
+of arrangement?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Jack, "in plain prose&mdash;Bell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+will you come with me? It's our turn to get
+supper, isn't it? and I have an idea&mdash;just a
+little one&mdash;which we can talk over while we
+are getting it."</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Oh, guard it, guard it tenderly,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy one idea&mdash;thy first!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>sang Gerald.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"And we, the while, console ourselves;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'Twill be the last, at worst!</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Nay! nay!" he went on, as Jack seized him
+by the shoulders, and made a motion toward
+the water.</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Duck not the bard, the tuneful bard,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who all thy soul reveals;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">To hear the truth, I own, is hard,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet dry thy tearful squeals!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"False construction!" said Bell. "You
+cannot dry squeals."</p>
+
+<p>"They were tearful ones!" Gerald protested.
+"It was the tears I would have dried.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+Tears, idle tears, I know not whence they
+come; tears from the depth of some despairing
+fiddler."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you dry <i>up!</i>" said Jack, dipping
+Gerald's head lightly in the water.</p>
+
+<p>"No ducking between swims!" proclaimed
+Phil. "Law of the Medes and Persians!"</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, it is time to be making the fire!"
+said Bell, rising. "Leave him to his conscience,
+Jack, and come along!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, leave me to me conscience!" said
+Gerald.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Twill cradle me with songs of Araby;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arrah be aisy! hear it sing to me!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Jerry, what <i>has</i> got into you?" asked
+Gertrude, a few minutes later, when Phil had
+followed the others to the house, leaving the
+two Reds, as their mother called them, together.
+"Has the rhyming spider bitten you?
+you are really wild!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nice little sister!" said Gerald, rolling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+over, and resting his head on Gertrude's knee.
+"Nice little red-haired, cream-colored, comfortable
+sister! If I were as good-looking as
+you, Toots, who knows? As it is&mdash;but still I
+am happy, my child, happy! I say! Toots!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Jerry!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jerry, she is a darling!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dixisti!</i>" cried Gerald. "Thou hast
+spoken."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Harry Monmouth</span>!" said Colonel Ferrers.
+"This is pleasant. Merryweather, you are a
+lucky dog!" As he spoke, he looked around
+him, and repeated, "A lucky dog, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>The horn had just blown for supper, three
+long blasts, and already the campers were in
+their places at the long table, with its shining
+white cover. Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather,
+their six children, Bell, Gertrude, and Kitty,
+Gerald, Philip, and Willy, the two Montforts,
+with the Colonel and his nephew, made a
+party of twelve, and filled the table comfortably,
+though there was still room for more.
+The room was a long one, with a vast open
+fireplace stretching half across one side. At
+one end were rows of book-shelves, filled to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+overflowing; at the other, the walls were
+adorned with models for boats, sketches in
+water-color and pen and ink, birds' nests, curious
+fungi, and all manner of odds and ends.
+It was certainly a cheerful room, and so Miles
+Merryweather thought, as his eyes followed
+the Colonel's.</p>
+
+<p>"We like it!" he said, simply. "It suits
+us, the place and the life. It's good for young
+and old both, to get away from hurry and
+bustle, and live for a time the natural
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"Nature, sir!" said the Colonel. "Nature!
+that's it; nothing like it! When I was a lad,
+young men were sent abroad, after their school
+or college course; the grand tour, Paris, Vienna,
+that sort of thing: very good thing in
+its way, too, monstrous good thing. But
+before he sees the world, sir, a lad should
+know how to live, as you say, the natural
+life. Ought to know what a tree is when he
+sees it; upon my soul, he ought. Now my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+milksop&mdash;best fellow in the world, I give
+you my word, except that little fellow at
+home there&mdash;well, sir! when he came to me,
+he didn't know the difference between an oak
+and an elm, give you my word he didn't.
+Remember one day&mdash;he heard me giving
+directions to Giuseppe about cutting some
+ashes&mdash;clump of them in the field below the
+house, needed thinning out&mdash;and he wanted
+to know how ashes could be cut; thought I
+meant those in the fireplace, sir. Monstrous!
+Well, I taught him a little, and you and your
+young folks have taught him a great deal.
+H'm! I don't know that he is now more disgracefully
+ignorant than nine-tenths of the
+young men of his age. Set of noodles! I'll
+tell you what, Merryweather! You ought to
+have a kind of summer school here: get other
+boys, a dozen, two dozen; teach 'em to see
+with their eyes, and all the rest of it. I
+knew a boy once who thought a bat was a
+bird, give you my word I did. And another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+who thought oysters grew on bushes. Get up
+a school, sir, and I'll come myself, and be a
+boy again."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a great inducement," said Mr.
+Merryweather, laughing: "but, Colonel, I
+hope you have brought a boy's appetite
+with you, at least. Who are the cooks to-night,
+Miranda? Oh, I see; Bell and Jack.
+Well, that is all right, Colonel; they make
+one of our best combinations. What have
+you there, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>Jack, in a white cap, and an apron reaching
+not quite half-way to his knees, advanced
+bearing a mighty dish, from which rose fragrant
+steam.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! ha!" said the Colonel, sniffing.
+"Smells good! you had no hand in this, I'll
+be bound, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Colonel Ferrers," said Bell, who
+followed with the teapot and a plate piled
+high with feathery rolls, "it is all Jack's
+doing, every bit. It is his famous pilaff, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+the old Greek professor taught him to make
+in Germany; and it is almost the best thing
+you ever tasted in your life."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said the Colonel, frowning heavily,
+and looking immensely pleased. "So this is
+what he was doing while he was supposed to
+be studying. I always knew the rascal was
+deceiving me. Ha! it <i>is</i> good; it's uncommon
+good! So you did learn something besides
+fiddling, eh, Jack?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cooking is a part of chemistry, Uncle,"
+said Jack, soberly; "a very important part.
+This dish is chemically prepared, sir; please
+regard it as a demonstration!"</p>
+
+<p>"And please try my fried potatoes as a
+further demonstration!" said Bell. "Margaret,
+you are not eating anything."</p>
+
+<p>"She never does!" said Peggy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Margaret, "but I never ate
+so much before. Oh, please not!" as Phil
+tried to heap her plate with potatoes. "They
+are delicious, but I really cannot!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can!" said Gertrude, holding out her
+plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll warrant you!" said Phil. "No one
+doubted that, sweet Chuck!"</p>
+
+<p>"We do not look for the Camp Appetite till
+after twenty-four hours," said Mrs. Merryweather.
+"Give Margaret time! in two days
+she will eat twice as much as she does now."</p>
+
+<p>"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the Colonel.
+"At that rate, it is fortunate for you
+all that I do not outstay my two days. Twice
+as much as I am eating now would clear your
+larder, dear madam. Yes, thanks, Merryweather,
+a little more!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Colonel Ferrers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle Tom! you are not going away
+in two days? We counted on a week at least!"
+cried all in chorus.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible, dear people, impossible! Like
+nothing better; enchanted to stay all summer;
+delightful place. But&mdash;Elizabeth Beadle's
+condition, you understand; and the boy&mdash;I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+must get back. He is too young to have the
+responsibility. Most amazing boy in the
+world; I haven't the slightest doubt that
+he is doing her more good than all the doctors
+in the world&mdash;parcel of fools, mostly&mdash;but
+still he is too young; I must get back."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go, Uncle!" said Jack.</p>
+
+<p>"Or me, Colonel Ferrers!" cried Gertrude.
+"Any one of us would love to go!"</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel beamed on them with his kindliest
+smile, but shook his head resolutely.
+"Thanks! thanks!" he said, heartily. "Good
+children! kind and thoughtful children! but
+I must go. Couldn't be easy, you understand."</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is," said Jack, "Uncle Tom
+cannot be comfortable for more than twenty-four
+hours away from Hugh. After that
+length of time he becomes restive, and symptoms
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'develope'">develop</ins> which&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue, sir!" cried the Colonel.
+"Nothing of the sort, sir! Mrs. Merryweather,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+I hoped you were teaching this fellow
+better manners. Symptoms, indeed! You
+have seen no symptoms in me, of anything
+except pure pleasure&mdash;pleasure in everything
+except the gabbling of a goose!"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely not, dear friend!" said Mrs.
+Merryweather, laughing. "But all the same,
+I think I should not try to detain you when
+once you had made up your mind that Hugh
+needed you."</p>
+
+<p>"All against me!" cried the Colonel.
+"'The little dogs and all'&mdash;I beg ten thousand
+pardons, my dear madam; you know
+the quotation! Well," he added, his face
+changing suddenly as he turned to Mrs. Merryweather
+and spoke in a lower tone, "fortunate
+old fellow, eh? to have one young face&mdash;two,
+perhaps, for my Giraffe loves me
+too&mdash;brighten when one comes. Ah! you,
+with all your wealth&mdash;richest woman of my
+acquaintance, give you my honor!&mdash;cannot
+tell what these boys mean to me. Hilda, too:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+most astonishing how I miss that child! but
+all your young people are so good to me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel!" cried Gertrude from the other
+end of the table. "Will you come with me
+in my canoe after tea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will I?" cried the Colonel. "Won't I?
+Lead the way, my dear!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The young moon shone bright; the lake
+lay a broad sheet of luminous black, with a
+silver path stretching across it. Four canoes
+lay beside the wharf, and the campers were
+taking their places. In the birch canoe, the
+original <i>Cheemaun</i>, Mrs. Merryweather was
+going as passenger, with her husband and
+Phil at bow and stern; in the <i>Nahma</i> was
+Colonel Ferrers, with Gertrude and Peggy;
+Kitty and Willy in the <i>Rob Roy</i>, Gerald and
+Margaret in the <i>Wenonah</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"All ready?" asked the chief. "Where
+shall we go? Where are Jack and Bell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they started ahead," said Phil. "They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+had some stunt on hand, and we are to meet
+them over by the Black Shore."</p>
+
+<p>"Ready&mdash;give way all!"</p>
+
+<p>The paddles dipped, the canoes shot out
+along the silver path, gliding swift and silent
+as spirits. For a time no one spoke. The
+<i>Cheemaun</i>, with the powerful arms at either
+end, took the lead and kept it easily: next
+came the <i>Nahma</i> and the <i>Rob</i>, nearly abreast,
+and vying with each other; but the <i>Wenonah</i>
+lagged behind, and seemed in no special
+hurry.</p>
+
+<p>"Like it?" asked Gerald, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Margaret, softly.</p>
+
+<p>Gerald gave a little grunt of content, and
+was silent again. The paddle dipped noiseless
+in the liquid silver, the dark prow crept
+noiseless along the shining way.</p>
+
+<p>"It is another world!" said Margaret
+presently, still speaking under her breath.
+"I never dreamed of anything like it. A
+silver world! Oh!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;I was only thinking&mdash;one
+ought to be very good, to live in a world so
+beautiful as this, Gerald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Some of us are, Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>Silence again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm awfully glad you like it!" said
+Gerald. "I hoped you would. I've&mdash;I've
+been looking forward all summer to your
+coming."</p>
+
+<p>"I was very glad to come," said Margaret,
+simply. "I was afraid, but I was glad,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid? I should like to know what you
+were afraid of!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;I don't know! I have never been
+with many people, you know. I have never
+seen a large family together before. How
+happy you all are!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what we are!" said Gerald.
+"Especially now! I say, Margaret! the
+child Toots has fallen a victim."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fallen a&mdash;what do you mean, Gerald?
+not into the water?"</p>
+
+<p>"Charms!" said Gerald. "Yours. Bowled
+her over completely. Nice child, the child
+Toots. Think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she looks as good as she is
+beautiful," said Margaret. "Does she really
+like me? I am very glad, for I know I shall
+love her."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think she is the image of me?"
+asked Gerald, plaintively.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I never thought of it!" said downright
+Margaret. "Oh! hark, Gerald; what
+is that? I hear music."</p>
+
+<p>They listened. Directly in front of them
+lay a deep black shadow, and forth from
+this shadow stole notes of music, low, sweet,
+almost unearthly in their purity and clearness.</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently the stunt of Tintinnabula and
+the Camelopard!" said Gerald. "That is the
+Black Shore yonder, and the noise is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+of the Tree-browser's fiddle, in sooth a goodly
+noise. Approach we along the moonglade!
+that is what we call the wake here. Pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lovely!" murmured Margaret. "Oh!
+but hush, and listen!"</p>
+
+<p>The other canoes had slackened their speed,
+and now all four crept on abreast over the
+luminous water. From the black shadow
+ahead forms began to detach themselves, black
+rocks, dark trees stooping to the water's edge,
+fir and pine, with here and there a white birch
+glimmering ghostlike; and still the music
+rose, ever clearer and sweeter, thrilling on the
+silent air. It seemed no voice of anything
+made by man; it was as if the trees spoke,
+the rocks, the water, the very silence itself.
+But now&mdash;now another tone was heard; a
+human voice this time, a full, rich contralto,
+blending with the aerial notes of the violin.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Over all the mountains is peace;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Among the tree-tops</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hardly a breath is stirring;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The birds are silent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Silent in the woodland;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Only wait! only wait!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Soon thou too shalt rest."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Harry Monmouth!" murmured the Colonel
+under his breath. "Am I alive, or is
+this the gate of Heaven?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! who is it?" whispered Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Tintinnabula! rather a neat thing in
+voices, the Tintinnabula's. Nor does the
+song altogether excite to strenutation. Ah!
+but that is the best yet!"</p>
+
+<p>The notes changed. It was Schubert's
+Serenade now that rose from voice and violin
+together. No one stirred. The canoes were
+now close inshore, and the long, soft fingers
+of fir and cedar brushed Margaret's cheek as
+she sat motionless, spellbound. It was a
+world of soft darkness, black upon black: the
+silver world they had just left seemed almost
+garish as she looked back on it. Here in the
+cool shadow, the voices of the night pouring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+forth their wonderful melody&mdash;"Oh!" she
+thought; "if this might last forever!"</p>
+
+<p>But it was over. Floating round a great
+rock that stretched far out from the shore,
+they came upon the musicians, their canoe
+drawn up close to the rock.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they are!" cried Willy. "It's Bell
+and Jack, Kitty; I knew it was. You are
+such a silly!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care!" pouted Kitty. "It did
+sound like nymphs; I am sure that is just the
+way they sound."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite right, Kitty," said her
+mother. "Children, you have given us
+a great treat. May we not have some
+more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we were only waiting for you," said
+Bell; "now we must have choruses, many
+of them!"</p>
+
+<p>And lying close together, the paddles
+stretched across from one canoe to another,
+the Merryweathers sang, to Jack's accompaniment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+song after song in chorus: German
+student songs, with merry refrain of "<i>vivallera
+la</i>" and "<i>juch heira sa sa!</i>" Scottish
+ballads and quaint old Highland boat-songs;
+till Mr. Merryweather declared that it was
+time to go home.</p>
+
+<p>So home they went, down the moonglade
+once more, across the glimmering floor of the
+lake, singing as they went; till, twinkling
+through the fringe of trees, they saw the
+lights of the Camp, and the long outline of
+the float, and the boats swinging at their
+moorings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>AFTER THE PICNIC</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">And</span> what comes next on the programme?"
+asked the Chief.</p>
+
+<p>"Coma, I should say," replied Colonel
+Ferrers. "After that watermelon, I see
+nothing else for it. It's my avowed belief
+that my nephew there could not stir if his
+life depended on it; it stands to reason.
+The boy has eaten more than his own weight.
+Monstrous!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a frightful calumny!" cried Jack,
+laughing. "Really, Uncle Tom, you cannot
+expect me to sit still under that."</p>
+
+<p>He rose lightly to his feet, and grasping a
+branch of the tree above his head, drew himself
+up, and after kicking his long legs several
+times in the air, finally twisted them round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+the branch, and in another moment had disappeared
+in the shadowy depths of the great
+hemlock.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I say!" his voice floated down.
+"This is a great tree to climb. You'd better
+come up, Uncle Tom, if you feel the slightest
+symptoms of coma."</p>
+
+<p>The other lads did not wait to be invited,
+but flung themselves at the tree, and were
+soon lost to sight, though not to sound.
+Colonel Ferrers turned to his hostess with a
+frown which tried hard not to turn into a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, did you ever hear of such impudence
+as that?" he asked. "These young
+fellows of to-day are the most impudent
+scoundrels I ever came across. Time was,
+though, when we could have climbed a tree
+with the best of them; eh, Merryweather?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt you could now, Colonel,"
+said his host, "if you were put to it; but
+I confess it is more comfortable under a tree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+than in it, nowadays, especially after a Gargantuan
+feast like this."</p>
+
+<p>It had indeed been a great picnic. The
+boys, while on a tramp, had discovered a
+grove of pines and hemlocks, huge old trees,
+which had unaccountably escaped the woodman's
+axe. The pines shot up straight and
+tall for a hundred feet and more, their trunks
+seamed and scarred, their clouds of dusky
+green plumes tossing far overhead; the hemlocks
+were no less massive in girth, but they
+were twisted into all manner of grotesque
+shapes, and their feathery branches hung low,
+making a dense canopy over the heads of the
+picnickers. Here, under one of these hemlocks,
+the cloth had been laid, and decorated
+with ferns and hemlock tassels. Then the
+baskets were unpacked, and the campers
+feasted as only dwellers in the open air
+can feast. Ham and pasty, sandwiches and
+rolls, jam and doughnuts&mdash;nothing seemed
+to come amiss; and they finished off with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+watermelon of such mighty proportions that
+it took all the united energies of the boys to
+dispose of it.</p>
+
+<p>But it was finally disposed of, and now
+came the hour that is apt to be a little difficult
+at picnics; the hour between the feast
+and the going home.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a new game," said Mrs. Merryweather.
+"Perhaps you would like to try it
+presently; but first, Colonel Ferrers, while
+the boys are skylarking, or rather tree-larking,
+up there, I want to hear the story you
+were telling Miles on the drive over. I could
+not hear very well on the back seat, and besides,
+I was making up my game. It was
+some adventure of yours when you were a
+boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Capital story!" said Mr. Merryweather.
+"Do tell it, Colonel; I want to hear it again."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel smiled, and puffed meditatively
+at his cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"Story of the barrel, eh?" he said. "Upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+my word, now, I think it is pretty hard to
+make me tell that story before all these young
+people. What do you say, Gertrude? you
+don't want to hear about your old friend's
+being a young fool, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Colonel Ferrers," said Gertrude; "a
+story that makes your eyes twinkle so must
+be one that we all want to hear. Do begin,
+please!"</p>
+
+<p>And all the girls, who had been putting
+away the table-cloth and "tidying-up" generally,
+gathered about the Colonel in an eager
+group.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! well!" he said, glancing from one
+bright face to another. "After all, what are
+we old fogies for, but to point a moral and
+adorn a tale? Listen, then. This happened
+when I was a young jackanapes of about my
+nephew's age; I knew everything in the world
+then, you understand, and nobody else knew
+much of anything. That was my belief, as
+it is the belief of most young men."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Uncle," said a voice from above, "there
+are three young men up here who are prepared
+to drop things on your head if you
+slander their generation."</p>
+
+<p>"Slander your generation, sir?" cried the
+Colonel, "by likening it to my own? Of all
+the monstrous insolence I ever heard&mdash;you
+may be thankful, sir, that I name yours in
+the same breath with it. Be good enough to
+hold your tongue, sir, and attend to your business,
+which is that of listening to me. Well,
+my dear madam, at the period of which I
+speak, I was in the office of my uncle, Marmaduke
+Ferrers, India merchant, importer of
+tea, silks, that sort of thing. Learning the
+trade, you understand; though, as I say,
+I was not aware that there was anything in
+particular to learn. This is one of the lessons
+I did learn. One day I was sent to the warehouse
+to count some barrels, and see them
+stowed away in the vault where they belonged.
+They were a special thing, barrels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+of minerals for some collection museum, I
+forget what. Out of our own line, but we
+had undertaken to store and keep them for a
+time. The vault was directly under the warehouse,
+which was some way from the office.
+So! I went down and found no one there;
+The men were at their dinner, you understand.
+They may have been a little in a hurry, may
+have started a few minutes before the bell
+rang; I don't know how it was. At any rate,
+I was in a towering passion; thought the whole
+business was going to the dogs for want of
+discipline, wanted to dismiss every man in the
+warehouse. Men who had been there before
+I was born, and knew more about tea than I
+was likely to know in my lifetime. Well,
+sir, it came into my ass's head that I would
+give these men a lesson, show them that
+there was some one in the place that meant to
+have things done when he wanted them done.
+I would stow those barrels myself. I was
+strong as a bull, you remember&mdash;I beg ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+thousand pardons! you and your husband
+were infants when this happened; not out of
+long clothes, I am positive. But I was
+uncommonly strong, and thought Milo and
+Hercules would have found me a tough subject
+to tackle. Well&mdash;speaking of tackle&mdash;there
+was the rope and pulley, all ready
+for lowering; block up at the ceiling, rope
+dangling,&mdash;just over the trap that led into
+the vault. There were the barrels; nothing
+was easier, I thought. Child's play; I would
+have every one of the barrels lowered and
+stowed before those scoundrels came back
+from their dinner. I pushed the first barrel
+to the edge of the trap (lifted the trap-door
+first, you understand), hooked on the 'fall,'
+pleased as Punch with myself&mdash;the only man
+in the world, I give you my word; then I got
+a good hold on the rope, and&mdash;kicked the
+barrel over the edge."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Colonel Ferrers!" cried the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" roared the boys in the tree.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Loaded with minerals, you understand!
+stone, metal, I don't know what. The barrel
+went down, and I went up."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Oh!</i> Colonel Ferrers!"</p>
+
+<p>"Up to the ceiling, I give you my word.
+High room, too, great warehouse, twenty feet
+if it was one. There I hung, and there I
+swung, a spectacle for gods and men."</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>did</i> you do?" asked Mrs. Merryweather,
+as soon as she could control her
+laughter. "Dear friend, it is most heartless
+to laugh, but how can we help it? How did
+you ever get down? did you have to wait till
+the men came back?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam. My pride would not allow
+that. I learned my lesson, or a part of it,
+while I hung there like Mahomet's coffin; I
+learned that Gravitation did not trouble itself
+about superior young men; but I did not learn
+all that there was to learn; that took the sequel.
+Well, I hung there, as I say, revolving
+slowly; centrifugal force, you understand; I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+was really exemplifying the workings of natural
+forces; interesting demonstration, if there
+had been any one there to see. My crumb of
+comfort was that there was no one. I must
+get down before those men came back from
+dinner; that was the one thing necessary in
+the world at that moment. I measured the
+space of the trap as I swung; I prided myself
+on my correct eye; you see I was a most
+complete ass: I have seen only a few completer.
+I thought I could jump down astride
+of the trap, so to speak, and get no harm. I
+came down the rope, hand over fist, till I got
+to the end of it; only about six feet between
+me and safety: then I jumped."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear madam, I did not. I went
+down into the cellar, on top of the barrel, and
+I carry the mark of the edge of that barrel on
+my shoulders to this day, and shall to my
+latest day. And the moral of this story,"
+the Colonel concluded, glancing up into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+depths of the great hemlock, "the moral, my
+young friends, is: wait till you know something
+before you decide that you know everything."</p>
+
+<p>When the laughter had subsided, Mr. Merryweather
+said: "Your story, Colonel, reminds
+me of a scrape that Roger and I once got into,
+years ago. No, it wasn't Roger, it was my
+brother Will. My children all know it, but it
+may be new to you and our other guests. It
+happened when we were out sailing one day,
+on this very pond. The water was pretty low
+that year, and we got over into a cove on the
+north side, where we seldom went, and didn't
+know the ground thoroughly. Indeed, in
+very low water, one is apt to find that one
+doesn't know any ground thoroughly. New
+ledges and rocks are constantly cropping out&mdash;as
+you shall hear. Well, we were sailing
+along in fine style, before a fair wind, when
+suddenly&mdash;we ran aground."</p>
+
+<p>"On the shore?" asked the Colonel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No; on a rock. It was getting dark,
+and we could not see very well, but I could
+see a nose of rock, and it looked like the end
+of a ledge. 'I'll get out and shove her off!'
+said I. I sounded with an oar, and found the
+water barely ankle-deep on the ledge. So I
+took off my shoes and stockings, rolled up my
+trousers a little, and stepped in&mdash;up to my
+neck!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha!" roared the Colonel. "Ho! ho!
+that was sport. I wish I had seen you."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment!" said the Chief. "The
+picture is not ready for exhibition yet. When
+Will had got through laughing at me, he went
+to work&mdash;I found I could not stir the boat
+alone&mdash;he went to work and got ready.
+Stripped to the skin&mdash;he had on a new
+suit, and was something of a dandy in those
+days&mdash;stepped carefully overboard&mdash;and
+landed in water three inches deep."</p>
+
+<p>"Merryweather, you are making this up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am not, my dear sir. There we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+stood, I up to my chin, he with his toes under
+water, and laughed till we were so weak that
+we had to go ashore and sit down before we
+had strength to push that boat off. There is
+my Roland for your Oliver, Colonel. And
+now, Miranda, I think we are ready for your
+game. Come down, boys!"</p>
+
+<p>The boys came scrambling down, still
+laughing over the stories, and soon all were
+seated on the carpet of dry, fragrant pine-needles.
+The girls had found some oak-leaves
+("It is my belief," said Mr. Merryweather,
+"that if Bell went to a picnic in a coal-mine
+or on a sand-bank, she would still manage
+to find oak-leaves somewhere!"), and were
+busily twining garlands for the heads of the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>"Are we all ready?" asked Mrs. Merryweather.
+"Well! my game&mdash;a very simple
+one&mdash;is called <i>Vocabulary</i>. It came from
+my reading the other day an admirable little
+book written by a wise professor, in which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+deplores the poverty of our vocabularies, and
+makes a suggestion for our enlarging them.
+He advises us to add two or three words to
+our list every week. The first time we use a
+new word, he says, it will be embarrassing to
+us and, it may be, amusing to our hearers;
+but if we have courage and patience, we shall
+be doing a good work not only for ourselves,
+but for all our generation and the generations
+that are to come. Well, this naturally
+appealed to me, and I was thinking of proposing
+it to you all this evening; and then,
+as we were driving over, it occurred to me
+that it might be made into a rather amusing
+game."</p>
+
+<p>"Miranda," said her husband, "is there
+anything in life that you do <i>not</i> think can be
+made into a rather amusing game? But go
+on!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mammy!" said Phil. "Do you remember
+when you and I both had the toothache,
+and you thought it might be amusing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+to count the jumps and see how many there
+were in a minute?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so it would have been," said his
+mother, "if we had only had a little more
+fortitude. Now if you are all going to laugh
+at me, you shall not learn the game."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we will be good!" exclaimed the
+Merryweathers. "We truly will."</p>
+
+<p>"The game of <i>Vocabulary</i>," said Mrs. Merryweather,
+"is played thus. One&mdash;I, for example&mdash;begins
+to tell a story. I say, 'I went
+out to walk this morning, and I met&mdash;' there
+I stop short, and you, in turn, give a verb
+synonymous, more or less, with 'met.' This
+goes around the circle till some one cannot find
+a verb, and that some one must continue the
+story, stopping at any word he likes. I fear
+this is not very clear; perhaps we can illustrate
+it best playing it. I will begin as I
+suggested. I went out to walk this morning,
+and on my way I met&mdash;" she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Encountered!" said Mr. Merryweather.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Approached!" said the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"Ran up against!" said Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"Fell afoul of!" said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Fell in with!" said Bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Peggy, you come next."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I can't!" cried poor Peggy. "They
+have said everything; Mrs. Merryweather, I
+can't <i>ever</i> play anything of this kind, you
+know. I am too stupid."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, my child; you are not in the
+least stupid. If you cannot think of a word,
+go on with the story."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't know how!" cried Peggy,
+her eyes growing large and round, with a look
+that Gertrude and Margaret knew only too
+well. The tears were not far behind those
+round blue eyes; and Margaret hastened to
+the rescue. "You met a man, dear!" she
+whispered. "That is all you need say."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I met a man!" said Peggy, with
+a gasp.</p>
+
+<p>"Person!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Individual!"</p>
+
+<p>"Anthropoid ape!"</p>
+
+<p>"Masculine mortal!"</p>
+
+<p>"Chump!"</p>
+
+<p>"I object to the definition!" said Mrs.
+Merryweather. "In case of a false definition,
+the falsifier takes up the thread. Go
+on, Jerry."</p>
+
+<p>"This man (he <i>was</i> a chump, you'll see!)
+was so ugly that not a crow dared to stay
+in the same county with him, and so disagreeable
+that it gave one spasms to look at
+him; also, he had not the manners to take
+off his hat&mdash;" he stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>"Cap!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hood!"</p>
+
+<p>"Helmet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bonnet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Head-dress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tam-o'-shanter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mitre!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tiara!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fez!"</p>
+
+<p>"Turban!"</p>
+
+<p>"Beretta!"</p>
+
+<p>"I give in!" cried the Colonel. "I cannot
+think of another thing, so I continue the
+tale.</p>
+
+<p>"This odious person, after passing me in
+the unmannerly fashion described, was about
+to proceed further; but I, seizing him by the
+coat collar, lifted my stout stick, and gave
+him a good sound&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thrashing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Licking!"</p>
+
+<p>"Beating!"</p>
+
+<p>"Chastisement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hiding!"</p>
+
+<p>"Walloping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whipping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Scourging!"</p>
+
+<p>"Drubbing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Trouncing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thwacking!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lashing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Flogging!"</p>
+
+<p>"Caning!"</p>
+
+<p>"Larruping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fustigating!"</p>
+
+<p>"Basting!"</p>
+
+<p>"Leathering!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thumping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whopping!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rib-roasting!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merryweather.
+"This is rather terrible, I think. There
+seem to be more terms to express personal
+violence than anything else."</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't begun to give them all,
+either!" said Phil. "If we are allowed to
+use modern slang&mdash;I know you prefer ancient,
+Mammy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know you are a saucy boy!" said his
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear friends," said the Chief, rising.
+"This is all very fine: but the simple fact is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+it is beginning to rain, and I think it advisable
+for us to beat, fustigate, (where <i>did</i> you
+get that, Miranda?) or wallop, a retreat!"</p>
+
+<p>Then there was scrambling up, and running
+to and fro, and gathering up of baskets and
+shawls. The good old horse, which had been
+grazing peacefully in a clearing hard by, was
+harnessed, and Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather,
+Colonel Ferrers, and the <i>impedimenta</i> bundled
+in and off as hastily as might be. Finally, as
+the rain began to pour down in good earnest,
+the younger campers gathered into a solid
+phalanx and walked home across the fields,
+singing in chorus, and informing all whom
+it might concern that they were</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Marching along,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fifty score strong,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>KITTY AND WILLY</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Ma!</span>" said Willy Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>"Baa!" replied his mother, without looking
+up from her writing.</p>
+
+<p>Willy fidgeted, and looked over his
+shoulder. "Mammy, I wish you would
+speak to Kitty."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak to Kitty? certainly. How do you
+do, Kitty?"</p>
+
+<p>Willy looked uncomfortable, but went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I spoke for the Rangeley boat, and now
+she wants it. She always wants it, and it
+isn't fair."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't always want it, Willy! I haven't
+been in it for two days. I think you are
+very unkind."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Mrs. Merryweather had finished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+her sentence; she looked up, and surveyed
+the two children with a half-abstracted
+gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" she asked, abruptly. "I
+thought Kitty and Willy were here."</p>
+
+<p>Kitty took hold of the hem of her apron,
+and Willy felt of the knife in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather
+in a tone of wonder. "You should
+always answer a question, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"We are Kitty and Willy ourselves!"
+murmured the children, the red beginning to
+creep around their ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Merryweather, reprovingly.
+"Don't say such things as that, my
+dears. I know Kitty and Willy perfectly
+well; they are brother and sister, two cheerful,
+affectionate children, who love each other.
+I don't know anything about you two; run
+away, please, for I am busy."</p>
+
+<p>As the children moved slowly away, she
+called after them: "If you should see Kitty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+and Willy, you might send them to me, if you
+please!"</p>
+
+<p>Round on the other side of the big oak-tree,
+sheltered from the eyes that looked so
+abstractedly over their glasses, Willy rubbed
+his shoulders uncomfortably against the bark,
+while Kitty kicked a bit of stick to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't any use in talking to Mammy
+when she does that way!" said Willy, half
+to himself, but with a side glance at Kitty.
+"If she would have only listened to me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She never will!" said Kitty, responding
+to the half glance. "She always says there
+is no need of quarrelling, and she doesn't see
+why she should have to hear disagreeable
+remarks."</p>
+
+<p>"Other children scrap," said Willy. "I
+don't see why we can't now and then."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she just won't have it, Will, so
+where's the use? Never mind about the
+Rangeley; you may have it, and I'll take
+the <i>Wobbler</i>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't care!" said Willy. "You may
+have her."</p>
+
+<p>"So may you!"</p>
+
+<p>Silence. Willy rubbing his shoulders, Kitty
+kicking her bit of stick.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Kitty looked up brightly, and
+shook her curls back. "I've got over mine,
+Willy!" she announced. "Are you getting
+over yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-es!" said Willy, slowly. "I&mdash;s'pose
+I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't we go together?" asked Kitty.
+"Then we can both have the Rangeley."</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" said Willy, brightening at
+once. "Where shall we go? We might
+play Pirate a bit&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And then go for the milk! That would
+be great!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, come on, Kit."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but, Willy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must go <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'and and'">and</ins> tell Mammy first."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Once more the two children presented
+themselves before their mother, who was still
+writing busily. At the first "Mammy!" she
+looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dears!" she said, "I was wondering
+where you were. What are you going
+to play this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"We thought perhaps we might have the
+Rangeley together, and play Pirate!" said
+Willy.</p>
+
+<p>"And then go for the milk!" said Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure!" said Mrs. Merryweather.
+"Yes, Papa said you might have the boat if
+you wanted it. That will be very nice, only
+be careful, dears. Give Mammy a kiss, and
+have a great good time."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Run her up!" said the Pirate Captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir!" replied the mate.</p>
+
+<p>The Jolly Roger fluttered up to the mast-head:
+skull and crossbones black as ink could
+make them, ground very nearly white; it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+a splendid flag. The Captain was a terrible
+figure, clad in yellow oilskins many sizes too
+big for him, with ferocious mustaches curling
+up to his eyes. His belt contained a perfect
+armory of weapons; item, a pistol that
+had lost its barrel; item, three wooden daggers,
+assorted sizes; item, one tomahawk,
+home-made. The mate was scarcely less terrifying,
+for though a blue petticoat showed
+beneath his oilskin jacket, and curls flowed
+from under his sou'wester, he made up for it
+by a mass of oakum beard and whisker that
+was truly awe-inspiring. Also, he had the
+truncheon which used to be a curling stick,
+and a deadly weapon of singular appearance
+which was understood to be a boomerang.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out, Bill! avast there! dost see any
+foes about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir! I see a craft on the jib
+boom&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Lee bow</i>, Kitty!&mdash;I mean Bill; not jib
+boom! You are always saying that."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="500" height="376" alt="&quot;&#39;&#39;TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!&#39;&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;&#39;TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!&#39;&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;&#39;TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I meant lee bow!" said Bill, anxious to
+please. "Anyhow, I see a craft, your Honor.
+I think she is a plate ship from the Spanish
+Main. Shall we run her down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the glass!" exclaimed the Pirate
+Captain: and through that instrument, which
+the ignorant might have mistaken for a battered
+tin horn, he scrutinized the "craft,"
+which lay on the water at some distance.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis not a plate ship!" he announced at
+length. "I think we have had enough plate
+ships lately. This is a Dutch lugger from
+Samarcand, laden with raisins and fig-paste
+and lichi nuts and cream dates. I shouldn't
+wonder if she had narghiles too, and scimitars,&mdash;I
+need a new scimitar,&mdash;and all sorts
+of things. Up helm, and crowd on all sail in
+pursuit!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir! stunsels?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stunsels, balloon-jibs, topgallant spinnakers,
+royal skyscrapers, everything you can
+think of. Ha! we are off! Row hard now,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+Bill! The lubbers are asleep, and we shall
+run them down easily. Are the cutlasses
+ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, ay, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! we are gaining on them. Ho, ho!
+bend to your oars, my hearties! grappling-chains
+ready there! ho! on to the chase!"</p>
+
+<p>Now Phil was very busy making a fly for
+lake trout, and explaining the manufacture
+of it to Peggy; and Peggy was absorbed in
+watching him, and in counting the number of
+separate aches she felt after her first lesson
+in rowing. Moreover, the bloody pirates
+had conducted their conversation in a half-whisper,
+and the wind was the other way.
+But suddenly, Peggy looked up and saw
+them, now at only a few yards distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious!" she cried. "What is
+it? Do look, Phil!"</p>
+
+<p>Phil looked hastily around; chuckled, and
+fell into an attitude of abject terror.
+"Mercy! mercy!" he cried; cowering down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+in his seat. ("It's the kids; please be frightened!)
+Oh! what will become of us? We
+are lost!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! save me, spare me!" cried Peggy,
+following suit, and clasping her hands in
+supplication.</p>
+
+<p>The pirate bark ran alongside, and grappling-
+irons were tossed aboard the ill-fated
+merchantman. The Pirate Captain, standing
+in the stern of his vessel, surveyed them with
+baleful looks.</p>
+
+<p>"What ship is this?"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Weeping Woodchuck</i>, Captain Zebedee
+Moses of Squedunk, please your Honor's
+Worship!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well I am Captain England, and this is
+the <i>Gory Griffin</i>. If you have a cargo of
+raisins and fig-paste and cream dates, hand
+them over; otherwise, prepare to walk the
+plank this instant!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, spare us! spare this tender maiden!"
+cried Phil. "I have no fig-paste, but wouldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+fresh doughnuts do as well, O man of blood?
+Life is sweet&mdash;and fish is needed for supper!"</p>
+
+<p>At these remarks the pirate's ferocious
+scowl relaxed somewhat. "Hand over your
+doughnuts!" he said, briefly. "This once I
+spare ye, but cross not my path again! I
+jolly well forgot about tea," he added, as
+Phil tossed him some doughnuts; "I suppose
+it must be about time to go for the milk,
+perhaps, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Phil looked at his watch. "Well, I should
+say it jolly well was!" he replied. "You'd
+better be off, young ones&mdash;I mean Scourges
+of the Deep!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It was quite a pull over to the point where
+the milk-cans were waiting, but Kitty and
+Willy were both good oars, and the doughnuts
+were crisp and fortifying.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's take the point by storm!" suggested
+the gallant England, who had not
+had his fill of glory. "The cans might be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+treasure, you know, and we can creep up
+silently."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's no one to hear us be silent!"
+said Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's nothing! We can hear ourselves,
+and, anyhow, it is good practice.
+Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!"
+Leaving the boat on the shore, they crept up
+the beach, pounced on the milk-can,&mdash;a tall
+"separator" which held the whole provision
+for the family supper and breakfast,&mdash;and
+bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas!
+for the gallant pirates! In getting aboard,
+one of them slipped; the other stumbled;
+between the two, neither could tell just how,
+the tall can toppled, and fell into the boat;
+the stopper flew out&mdash;"Then all the mighty
+floods were out!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"But where <i>can</i> the children be?" asked
+Mrs. Merryweather, for the tenth time.</p>
+
+<p>The horn had blown for supper, the fish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+were fried, the campers were hungry and
+thirsty; and the milk had not come.</p>
+
+<p>"Where <i>can</i> they be?" said every one.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Merryweather put down the glass
+with which he had been sweeping the lake.
+"They are out there!" he said. "I see
+them, but they don't seem to be rowing.
+Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry?
+Thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>A calm roar went out across the lake.
+"Come&mdash;in&mdash;to&mdash;tea!"</p>
+
+<p>A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don't&mdash;want&mdash;any&mdash;tea!"</p>
+
+<p>The second roar was still calm, but peremptory.
+"<i>Come&mdash;in!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell,
+and the boat crept over the water. What
+could be the matter with the children?</p>
+
+<p>"Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant
+England!" said Phil. "When it comes to
+Willy's not wanting his tea!"</p>
+
+<p>"They have had some accident!" said Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+Merryweather. "Broken an oar, probably,
+or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing.
+Well, here they come."</p>
+
+<p>The whole family started for the wharf,
+but a piteous wail arose from the now approaching
+boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't everybody come down! we
+want just Papa and Mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"Stay here, dear people, please!" said
+Mrs. Merryweather; and both parents hurried
+down to the wharf, toward which two
+dejected little figures were now tugging a
+very heavy boat.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Will?" said Mr.
+Merryweather. "Speak up, son."</p>
+
+<p>"We&mdash;spilt the milk!" said Willy, in a
+carefully measured tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Every drop!" said Willy, grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried
+Kitty. "The old can&mdash;just&mdash;upset! and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over
+my legs!"</p>
+
+<p>"There! there! come ashore; never mind
+about the milk!" said Mr. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather,
+heartily. "My poor chicks, where have you
+been all this time? Why didn't you come
+straight home?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were&mdash;afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We
+have been rowing around for ever and ever so
+long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and&mdash;wet&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But by this time Kitty was near enough
+for her father to bend down and lift her
+bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping
+milk as she was, into her mother's arms.
+On her mother's shoulder she sobbed out the
+rest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was
+twelve, and not specially small of her age;
+but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather
+sat down on the wharf and rocked to and fro,
+hushing her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There! there!" she said, soothingly.
+"My lamb! as if all the milk in the world
+were worth your crying about! and crying
+into the spilt milk, too, and making the boat
+all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along,
+Papa and Willy&mdash;dear little boy, it really is
+only funny, so don't fret, not one little scrap.
+Kitty and I will come in about two minutes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A DISCUSSION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> morning reading was over, but the
+girls lingered in the pine parlor, where the
+whole family had been gathered to hear some
+thrilling chapters of Parkman. Margaret and
+Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her drawing-board;
+Peggy was carving the handle of a
+walking-stick, while Kitty struggled with
+some refractory knitting-needles.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pleasant place in which they were
+sitting: a little clear space of pine-needles,
+embroidered here and there with tiny ferns,
+and shut in by walls of dusky pine, soft and
+fragrant. The tree-trunks made excellent
+(though sometimes rather sticky) chair-backs;
+the sunshine filtered in through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+branches overhead, making a golden half-light
+which was the very essence of restfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret,
+breaking the silence that had followed the
+departure of the rest of the family. "How
+strange it seems, sitting here in this green
+peace and quiet, to read of all those terrible
+happenings. How can it be the same world?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was a man, that La Salle!" exclaimed
+Peggy. "I never heard of such a man.
+Think of that winter voyage! Think of that
+man, brought up in luxury, with every kind
+of accomplishment, and that kind of thing,
+wading in snow-water up to his knees, and
+sleeping on the frozen ground, rolled in his
+blanket, while his clothes dried and froze
+stiff on the trees! think of him standing
+alone against courts and savages, and winning
+every time&mdash;till he was killed by
+those wretches. It is the greatest story I
+ever read. Now, if all history were like this,
+Margaret, I never should complain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't you like history, Peggy?" asked
+Bell, looking up in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to detest it," said Peggy, laughing.
+"Julius C&aelig;sar, and William the Conqueror,
+and all those people used to bore me dreadfully,
+though Margaret did her very best to
+make them interesting; didn't you, you
+dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tried, Peggy," said Margaret, with a
+smile; "but you never would admit that
+they were real people, just as real as if they
+were alive to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, of course I know they were
+alive once, but so were mummies, and you
+can't expect me to be interested in <i>them</i>.
+However, I think I really am improving.
+'Hereward' brought William alive for me,
+it truly did; and this Parkman book delights
+me. Oh! I should like to have made that
+voyage down the Mississippi, girls! I think,
+on the whole, I would rather be Cavalier de
+La Salle than any one I ever heard of."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In spite of all the suffering and tragedy?"
+said Gertrude. "I could not say that, much
+as I admire him."</p>
+
+<p>"Who would you be, if you could choose?
+Let us all say!" cried Bell. "A new game!
+two minutes for reflection!" and she took out
+her watch with a business-like air.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Gertrude. "But there are so
+many!"</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!" said Bell; and there was an
+instant of absolute stillness. Taking advantage
+of it, a chipmunk ran across the brown
+carpet, and pausing midway, sat up on his
+haunches and surveyed the new and singular
+mountain ranges that had risen on his horizon.
+One of the mountains stirred&mdash;whisk! he
+was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Time's up!" said Bell. "Margaret, I
+will begin with you. With all history to
+choose from, who will you be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! must I be first?" cried Margaret.
+"As Gertrude says, there are so many; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+yet when you come to think them over, there
+is something against every one; I mean something
+one would not like to do or to suffer.
+But,&mdash;on the whole,&mdash;I <i>think</i> I would be
+Elizabeth of Hungary."</p>
+
+<p>"Our Lady of the Roses? Well, she was
+lovely, though I should be sorry to marry her
+husband. The story would have been somewhat
+different if I had; but I am not a saint.
+Peggy, your turn!"</p>
+
+<p>"This man we are reading about!" said
+Peggy, decidedly. "La Salle!"</p>
+
+<p>"Toots!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bell, you know I never <i>can</i> decide between
+Shakespeare and Raphael. I have to
+be both; they lived quite far enough apart for
+separate incarnations."</p>
+
+<p>"Greedy, grasping girl!" said Bell. "Kitty,
+who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jim Hawkins!" said Kitty, promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"No fiction allowed this time, Missy, only
+history!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! well, then&mdash;Francis Drake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bound to have a pirate, aren't you,
+Kitty?" said Gertrude, mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"He wasn't a pirate!" cried Kitty, indignantly.
+"He was a great hero."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>L'un n'emp&ecirc;chait pas l'autre</i>, in those
+days!" said Bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now for yourself, Bell!" said Margaret.
+"It is your turn."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't need any two minutes," said
+Bell. "I am always William the Silent. I
+should be Beethoven if it were not for the
+deafness, but that I could not have borne."</p>
+
+<p>"You all want to be men, don't you?"
+observed Margaret, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes, so we do! you are the only
+one who chose a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody would be a man if they
+could!" cried Peggy, throwing grammar to
+the winds, as she was apt to do when
+excited.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, everybody would not!" cried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+Margaret, her soft eyes lighting up. "Nothing
+would induce me to be a man."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you would make a very
+good one, to be sure!" said Peggy, looking
+affectionately at her cousin. "But I bet&mdash;I
+mean wager&mdash;you told me I might say
+'wager,' Margaret!&mdash;that none of the other
+girls would hesitate a minute if they had the
+chance. I wouldn't! Think of it! No petticoats,
+no fuss, no having to remember to do
+this, and not to do that; and no hairpins, or
+gloves, or best hats&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Bell; "that is only the smallest
+part, Peggy. I don't mind the hairpin
+part&mdash;though of course it is a joy to get out
+here and dispense with them&mdash;but still, that
+is only a trifle. The thing I think about is
+the freedom, the strength, the power to go
+right ahead and <i>do</i> things!" and, as she
+spoke, Bell threw her head back and stretched
+her arms abroad with a vigorous gesture.
+"Of course we girls are all well and strong,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+but it isn't the same strength as a man's.
+We are constantly running up against things
+we cannot, ought not to do. I <i>do</i> envy the
+boys, I cannot help it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes!" cried Margaret, leaning forward, a
+soft flush rising to her cheeks. "I know&mdash;it
+is glorious to see them; but, Bell, isn't the
+very weakness part of our strength? Isn't it
+just because women <i>know</i> the&mdash;the things
+they cannot do, that they are able to understand
+and sympathize, and&mdash;and help, in
+ways that men cannot, because they do not
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think Margaret is right!" said Gertrude,
+slowly. "And besides, there is strength
+and strength, Bell. For long endurance of
+pain or hardship, the woman will outlast the
+man nine times out of ten, I believe; and I
+heard Doctor Strong say once that women
+would often bear pain quietly that would set
+a man raving. Yes, I come over to your side,
+May Margaret. I would take Joan of Arc, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+it were not for the stake. Let me see&mdash;oh,
+I know! I will be Grace Darling."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was she?" asked Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>"The lighthouse-keeper's daughter, at Longstone,
+off the Yorkshire coast. A ship, the
+<i>Forfarshire</i>, was wrecked on the rocks near
+by, and there seemed no chance of saving
+any of the crew; but Grace persuaded her
+father to try, and just those two rowed out,
+in a most terrible storm, to the reef on which
+the vessel had been wrecked, and saved the
+nine men, all that were left out of sixty-three,
+who were clinging to the rocks, waiting
+for death. Why wasn't that just as fine as
+commanding an army, or even leading a forlorn
+hope in battle? Then there was dear
+Margaret Roper&mdash;I think she is the one for
+you, May Margaret!&mdash;and Cochrane's Bonny
+Grizzy, and&mdash;oh, ever and ever so many of
+them. Yes, I take up my stand once and for
+all on my own side."</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Bell, shaking her head. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+hear what you say, Betsy, but it makes no
+difference,&mdash;does it, Peggy?&mdash;though I admit
+the force of your remarks."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit!" said Peggy. "I wouldn't
+have been Mrs. La Salle for a farm."</p>
+
+<p>"There wasn't any!" said Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"The principle remains the same," said
+Peggy, "as Miss Russell used to say."</p>
+
+<p>"There is another thing!" said Margaret.
+"Your life out here, Bell, shows me how
+much girls <i>can</i> do; I mean in the active,
+outdoor, athletic way. More than I ever
+dreamed they could do. It really seems to
+me that, except just for the petticoats, you
+have very few drawbacks. I suppose it is
+having all the brothers. Why, you know
+as much as they do about the woods and
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's partly the boys," said Bell; "but
+it is much more Papa. You see, from the
+time we could walk, he has always taken us
+out into the woods and fields, and made us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+use our eyes and ears, and talked to us about
+things. We should not know anything, if it
+were not for Papa."</p>
+
+<p>"He does seem to know almost everything!"
+said Margaret. "I never saw any
+one like him."</p>
+
+<p>"There <i>isn't</i> any one like him," said Gertrude,
+decidedly. "What have you got there,
+Margaret?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had drawn a letter from her
+pocket, and was looking it over.</p>
+
+<p>"An argument on my side," she said, smiling.
+"May I read it aloud?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do! do!" cried all the girls.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret smoothed out the crumpled pages
+affectionately. "He carried it in his pocket
+two days before he remembered to post it!"
+she said. "I judge from the date, and the
+appearance of the envelope. There was
+candy in his pocket, and"&mdash;she sniffed
+at the letter&mdash;"yes! tar, without doubt.
+Now listen!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<span class="smcap">Dear Cousin Margaret</span>:&mdash;We miss
+you awfully, and Uncle John says it is no
+kind of a house without you, and it isn't.
+We went a walk yesterday, Susan D. and me
+and the dogs, because you know it was Sunday;
+Uncle John was coming too, but he had
+roomatizm and coud not. Well Cousin Margaret,
+we walked over the big hill and just
+then the dogs began howling and yelling in
+the most awful manner, and running round
+and round like they were crazy; and we ran
+to see what was up, and we found out, I tell
+you! It was white hornets, about ten thousand
+of them, and the dogs had rolled in a
+nest of them, and they were stinging their
+noses, and they flew at us with perfeck fewry,
+I mean the hornets did. I hollered and ran,
+but Susan D. said wait she knew what to do,
+so she said "Come on," and we ran down to
+the brook and she took mud and put it on
+my stings before she touched her own, and
+it took a good deal of the pane out though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+not all. And then she put it on the dogs'
+noses, and they understood like persons, and
+poked them into the mud themselves and soon
+forgot their pane. But I thought I would tell
+you this Cousin Margaret, because Susan D.
+did really behave like a perfeck brick, and
+you always said girls were as brave as boys
+but I never thought so before but now I do;
+because I hollered right out when they stung
+me which I am ashamed of. You said confession
+was good for the sole, and so I think:
+so now I will say good-by from</p>
+
+<div class='right'>
+"'<span class="smcap">Basil</span>.'"<br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"What a dear boy!" cried Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is!" said Margaret, the happy
+tears springing to her eyes. "He is one of
+the very dearest boys that ever lived, Gertrude;
+so manly and honest, and so funny,
+too. Gerald knows him!" she added, shyly.
+"I wish he had been at home when you were
+there, Peggy."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he must be a brick!" said Peggy.
+"Now, Margaret, you know he is, and you
+know that nothing but 'brick' expresses
+what I mean. Girls, I appeal to you. Margaret
+wants me to talk like a professor all the
+time, and I am not a professor, and am never
+likely to be one. Bell, isn't 'brick' all
+right?"</p>
+
+<p>Bell looked conscious. "I confess I say it,
+Peggy; I confess it seems much heartier than
+the same thing in what my mother calls good
+English. Still&mdash;I believe it would sound very
+queer to me if she used it; the mother, I
+mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Grace used to say 'a quadrangular piece
+of baked clay!'" said Gertrude. "Don't you
+remember, Peggy?"</p>
+
+<p>"So she did&mdash;dear thing! Well, but, Bell,
+would you have girls talk just the way
+grown-up people do? It would sound awfully
+stiff and poky. I don't mean that it sounds so
+when your mother talks!" she cried; "of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+course you know I don't mean that. But
+girls <i>aren't</i> grown-up, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But they are going to be!" said Margaret.
+"If they don't learn good English
+now, how are they going to do it later? It
+does seem to me a terrible pity, with all our
+great, glorious language, to use so little of it,
+and to use it so often wrong. You may think
+me priggish and professorial, and anything else
+you like, Peggy dear, but that is what I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"I love you to distraction," said Peggy;
+"you are an angel, but I think you carry it
+too far. What would you say instead of
+'brick?' how would you describe this boy&mdash;who
+simply <i>is</i> a brick?"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret reflected. "I should say he was
+a nice, manly boy!" she said, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice! now, Margaret! 'nice' is niminy,
+you know it is, and piminy too."</p>
+
+<p>"The great advantage of 'brick,'" said Bell,
+"is that it is one word, and 'nice manly boy'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+is three, and doesn't mean the same thing
+then."</p>
+
+<p>"There!" cried Peggy, in triumph. "What
+do you say to that, Margaret? Find one word
+in your old 'good English' that does express
+'brick?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;it isn't easy!" Margaret admitted.
+"'Trump' is the only one I can think of, and
+I suppose that was slang fifty years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"The mother says that when a word has
+held its own for twenty years, it isn't slang
+any more," said Gertrude. "The question
+is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the sound of a horn was
+heard; a long, ringing blast, followed by a
+second and a third.</p>
+
+<p>The girls sprang to their feet. "Hurrah for
+a swim!" cried Bell. "Come, bricks and
+trumps&mdash;I'll race you all to the tents!"
+And off they went with a flash of petticoats,
+leaving the chipmunk to speculate on the
+sudden upheavals of nature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WATER PLAY</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> floating wharf, as has been said, lay
+at the end of a long, narrow slip that ran out
+on piers over the water. Down the slip, one
+by one, now came the Merryweathers and
+their guests, in bathing array, the boys shouting
+and skylarking,&mdash;the girls singing and
+tossing their long hair about. Jack and Phil
+brought out a long spring-board, and set it
+up at the end of the wharf; and then the fun
+began. Mr. Merryweather was the first to
+run along the board, and take a sober and
+dignified dive. He was followed by Gerald,
+turning handsprings, and carolling to the
+effect that he was a pirate king, he was;
+hurrah for the pirate king! Next came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+Jack, who turned a back somersault, ending
+with a noble splash; and so, one by one, like
+so many ducks, they dove and leaped and
+tumbled in, and splashed and swam about
+in the clear water. Peggy was with the rest,
+splashing as merrily as any of them; but
+Margaret sat on the wharf, in her pretty blue
+bathing-dress, her feet tucked under her,
+looking on.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="500" height="382" alt="&quot;&#39;COME ON! COME IN!&#39;&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;COME ON! COME IN!&#39;&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;COME ON! COME IN!&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Come on, Margaret!" cried Peggy.
+"Come on! come in! It's perfectly great!"</p>
+
+<p>"In a minute," said Margaret. "I like to
+watch you a bit first; it takes me a little
+while to get my courage up."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, oh, come with me!" sang Gerald,
+emerging from the water, at her feet, and
+clinging to the wharf, while he shook the
+drops from his hair and eyes. "Come swim
+with me and be my swan! Come where the
+duckweed twineth! Come!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Gerald, yes; in just a minute. Is
+it very cold?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Cold? No; just right. Liquid crystal,
+sparkling sapphire, perfection! Come, you
+must have your swimming lesson. Forget
+the cheerful swain,&mdash;behold the stern instructor!"</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand with an imperative
+gesture. Margaret laid hers in it
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me get near the rope!" she said,
+rather nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the rope, close by your hand.
+Now, then, hold fast! There we go!"</p>
+
+<p>With one hand on the rope, and the other
+in Gerald's, Margaret slid into the water,
+giving a little cry as it bubbled up about her.
+"Gerald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Right here, my lady. There; both hands
+on the rope now. Take it easy! Now you
+are all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye'&mdash;yes, Gerald. Oh, isn't it glorious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather! It's really the element to live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+in, you see. A mistake was made somewhere.
+If I had but gills, I should ask no
+more of fate. As it is&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He dove, and came up on the other side
+of the rope. "Don't you think I would be
+charming with gills,&mdash;pretty little quivering,
+rosy gills,&mdash;instead of side whiskers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw you in side whiskers," said
+Margaret, demurely, "so I cannot tell. You
+certainly don't seem to need the gills, though.
+How <i>do</i> you manage to keep under so long?
+Yesterday, when you stayed down picking up
+these pebbles, I was sure something had happened.
+Really, Gerald, I was very much
+frightened."</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have been switched," said
+Gerald. "I never thought of your noticing.
+I say, come down with me, and I'll show you
+the trick of it. It's just as easy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for worlds!" cried Margaret, clutching
+the rope, as if she expected to be dragged
+from it by force. "I never should come up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+alive. Oh, look, Gerald! what are they going
+to do now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Going to dive over the elephants. Do
+you mind&mdash;oh, here is the child, Toots.
+Toots, will you stay here by Margaret, while
+I take my place in the ring? You are sure
+you are all right, Margaret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; do go. I want to see it. Gertrude,
+what <i>are</i> they doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look and see," said Gertrude. "Put your
+arms on the rope, and lift yourself higher.
+That's right."</p>
+
+<p>Phil and Jack and Willy had placed themselves
+side by side, on their hands and knees,
+at the edge of the wharf, and were calling
+loudly for Gerald. He stepped back to the
+farther end of the float, then, running forward,
+soared into the air, over the backs of
+the "elephants," and came down straight
+as an arrow into the water; then, scrambling
+out, took his place in the row, while Phil
+performed the same man&#339;uvre. Over and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+over and over they went, running, rising,
+plunging, rising again. Margaret grew dizzy
+watching them. Now Mr. Merryweather advanced,
+holding a rubber hoop, which was
+neither more nor less than the discarded tire
+of a bicycle. This he and Gerald held out at
+arm's length, and the other boys dove through
+it, amid the applause of the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pretty!" cried Peggy. "Do you do
+that, girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gertrude does; I haven't tried it yet,"
+said Bell, who was floating placidly, her arms
+under her head, her face turned to the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to try," said Peggy. "May
+I, Mr. Merryweather?"</p>
+
+<p>"By all means!" said the Chief, heartily.
+"Take a good run&mdash;steady, Jerry. Hold it
+out well&mdash;there! hurrah!"</p>
+
+<p>For Peggy had gone through the hoop like
+a bird, and after a clean dive, was coming up
+again, radiant and panting.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Peggy, how splendid!" cried Margaret,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+her eyes shining with pleasure and
+pride in her Peggy's prowess. "Gertrude,
+didn't she do it well? Such a pretty, graceful
+thing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>C'&eacute;tait une corquerre!</i>" said Gerald,
+heartily. "<i>Elle est aussi une corquerre, la
+Peggy.</i> You will be doing it soon yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never, never! You cannot seem to
+understand, Gerald, that I am not <i>made</i> for
+these things. I love to see them; I admire
+them intensely, but I cannot so much as think
+of trying."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Point de stonte pour Marguerite?</i>" said
+Gerald. "Alas the day! Because you really
+would do them so corkingly, you know, if
+only you should do them. Well, see here, I
+am going to give you a troll. You will like
+that, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"A troll? I thought they were mountain
+goblins. I don't want one, thank you, sir!
+water nixies and pixies are as much as I can
+bear in the goblin line."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Verb, not substantive!" replied Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"I troll, thou lettest thyself be trolled,
+he, she, or it sees you being trolled and
+wishes that he, she, or it had such luck.
+Observe!"</p>
+
+<p>He climbed into one of the Rangeley boats
+that lay near the float, loosed her moorings,
+and, taking up the oars, brought her close to
+the rope. "Now, Margaret, catch hold; here,
+at the stern!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do with me, Gerald?
+I fear thee, ancient mariner, I fear thy
+skinny hand!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hold you with my glittering eye, you
+cannot choose but come. I am going to take
+you off a-trolling. Hold on tight with your
+hands, and let all the rest of you go, as if you
+had nothing to do with it."</p>
+
+<p>He took a few strokes, slowly and easily.
+Margaret, clinging to the stern, was drawn
+along without effort or motion of her own.
+Her long hair floated behind her; her white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+arms gleamed like ivory through the clear
+water; her face was alight with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"'Not wholly bad, Lysander Pratt?'"
+quoted Gerald, interrogatively.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Gerald! it is almost too perfect! no,
+you needn't stop, I only said <i>almost</i>. The
+water feels like silk flowing by me: no, silk
+is rough beside it; it feels like&mdash;like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like water, possibly?" said Gerald;
+"stranger things have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there isn't anything else like it, is
+there? Oh! are you sure you will not take
+cold or anything, Gerald? I could go on forever,
+floating here&mdash;trolling, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing easier," said Gerald, pulling on
+with long, steady strokes. "We will just
+keep on; I ask nothing better. Years passed.
+A form was seen, gray and bent with age,
+feebly tugging at a pair of oars. Trailing
+behind the crazy boat, another figure might
+be distinguished&mdash;I forbear further description,
+Margaret: I may grow old, but not you;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+please stay as you are always. Anyhow, the
+people will flock to the shore. Ha! the Muse!
+the afflatus descends.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The people thronged the rocky shore,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And viewed that graybeard old and hoar;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">'Oh! why thus dodderest at the oar,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Unhappy soul?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The answer came: 'Forever more</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">She wished to troll!'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Gerald, I think we'd better go back
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! she hasn't finished. Never interrupt
+a Muse! it isn't the thing to do.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"And still along that rocky coast,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A gibbering yet a gallant ghost,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He dodders, dodders at his post,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Nor nears the goal;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">For she, the spook he cares for most,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Still loves to troll."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Gerald, take me back, please! see, we are
+ever so far from shore, and it is time for me
+to go in, I am sure."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Just look down, Margaret! see the bottom,
+all white sand; isn't that pleasant? Hi!
+there's a bream watching his nest. See him
+fanning about over it, never leaving the place.
+He'll keep that up for hours at a time.
+Domestic party, the bream! this is an excellent
+opportunity to study the habits of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Gerald, I am cold!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be there in two minutes!" said
+Gerald, settling to his oars. "Hold tight,
+now, Margaret! troll as the wolves of Apennine
+were all upon your track!" and with
+long, powerful strokes he sent the boat flying
+through the water, while Margaret fairly
+shrieked with delight and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Her face had been turned away from the
+float; but now she was speeding toward it,
+and looked eagerly to see what the others of
+the party were doing. To her great amazement,
+no one was in sight. The wharf lay
+wet and glistening in the sunshine, but no
+blue-clad figures leaped and pranced across it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+no merry faces emerged from the blue, sparkling
+water. All was silent and solitary.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Gerald," cried Margaret, "where
+are they all? have they gone in? Surely I
+heard their voices just a moment ago, and a
+great splash: where can they be?"</p>
+
+<p>"A stunt!" replied Gerald. "For our
+benefit, I presume, but I scorn their levity.
+I advise you to take no notice of their childish
+pranks. I myself was young, once upon a
+time, but what then?"</p>
+
+<p>They were now at the float, and Margaret
+looked about her, in utter amazement. All
+was silent; not a voice, not a whisper; no
+soul was in sight. It was as if she and Gerald
+were alone in the world. She stepped out on
+the float: at the instant, up from under her
+feet rose a sound as if the biggest giant that
+ever swung a club were sneezing. "A&mdash;<i>tchoo!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret screamed outright. "Gerald!
+what is it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come out from there!" cried Gerald.
+"They are under the float, imbeciles that they
+are. The Pater has gone ashore, and the
+others manifest their nature, that is all.
+Come out, Apes of the Apennines! or
+I'll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The threat remained unfinished, for the
+Merryweathers came out. Swarming up from
+under the float, where they had been treading
+water at their ease, with plenty of breathing-space,
+they flung themselves with one accord
+upon Gerald's boat, capsized it, and dragged
+him into the water. A great splashing contest
+ensued, with much shouting and merriment,
+and they were still hard at it when "All in!"
+sounded from the boat-house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MAIL</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Still</span> raining, Phil?" asked Mrs. Merryweather,
+looking up from her writing.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, honored parent! or rather, to be
+exact, anything but still. Up on the hill, the
+wind is fierce. I had to ride round the blast
+once or twice, instead of going through it.
+Solid old wind, that!"</p>
+
+<p>He threw off his dripping oilskin jacket,
+and came in, unslinging the letter-bag from
+his shoulder as he came.</p>
+
+<p>"Letters! letters!" he cried. "Who wants
+letters?"</p>
+
+<p>Every one gathered around him, holding
+out eager hands.</p>
+
+<p>"One for me, Phil!"</p>
+
+<p>"For me, Protector of the Poor!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! please, Phil! I want three at least."</p>
+
+<p>"If there is none for me, Fergy my boy, I
+shudder at the consequences for you!"</p>
+
+<p>Phil distributed letters and papers; the
+family subsided on chairs and benches with
+their treasures, and for some minutes nothing
+was heard but the rustle of paper and the
+steady downpour of the rain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried Peggy, presently. "Oh&mdash;eee!
+splendid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sapolio!" exclaimed Gerald; and "Well!
+well!" said Mrs. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>The three exclamations were simultaneous,
+and Bell, who had no letters, raised her hand
+with an imperative gesture. "Exclamation
+must be followed by explanation!" she said.
+"Law of the Medes and Persians. We shall
+be glad to hear from the exclaimers."</p>
+
+<p>"Who? me? did I?" asked Peggy, looking
+up with sparkling eyes. "Semiramis has
+eight puppies. Think of it! eight whole
+puppies!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I never buy more than half a puppy at a
+time," said Gerald, "unless it is for a veal
+and ham pie."</p>
+
+<p>"Gerald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a fact, Mater; I never do.
+What kind of puppies, thou of Limavaddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gordon setters, black and tan: oh, she
+says they are perfect beauties. She says&mdash;this
+is Jean, you know, my sister&mdash;'they are
+all like Semmy except one, and he is <i>blue</i>.'
+Who ever heard of a blue puppy? You shall
+have one, Snowy: I promised you one, don't
+you remember? oh&mdash;eee! and the new colt
+is a perfect beauty too, and they have named
+her Peggy. Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>Peggy looked down at her letter, then
+looked up again shyly. "I&mdash;don't suppose
+you would care to hear any of it?" she said,
+interrogatively.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we should!" said Mrs. Merryweather,
+heartily. "We should like it extremely,
+Peggy. A letter from the Far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+West; why, it will be a journey for all
+of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Great!" said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Corking!" said Gerald. And one and all,
+in their several ways, expressed their desire to
+hear the letter.</p>
+
+<p>Dimpling with pleasure, her rosy face beaming,
+Peggy began to read.</p>
+
+<p>"'Dear old'&mdash;oh, well, I won't read just
+the beginning, because it is just the way we
+talk to each other, you know. I wish you
+knew Jean, Snowy. Let me see! oh, yes,
+here it is.</p>
+
+<p>"'This is eight birthdays all at once, for
+what do you think, Peggy? this morning we
+missed Semmy at breakfast, and could not
+find her anywhere. There were kidneys, and
+you know she always finishes the dish off, because
+she is so fond of them. Well, and so I
+went to look for her, and she wasn't in her
+box, or in the shed, or behind the kitchen
+stove, or anywhere where she usually is. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+I went out to the stable, and there I heard
+little squeaks and squeals, the funniest you
+ever heard, and then a growl in Semmy's
+voice as I opened the door. Then the dear
+thing heard my step, and was ashamed of
+growling, and began thumping her tail on the
+floor till I should have thought she would
+break it. And there she was, all cuddled
+down in a pile of hay, and the dear little
+darling things all cuddled round her. I
+never saw anything so perfectly dear! they
+were all blind, and bald all over, and pink,
+and squealing like anything; you never <i>did</i>
+see anything so lovely in all your life, at least
+I never did. Well, she let me take them up,
+one by one, old darling, though I could see
+that it made her nervous. Most of them are
+like her, beautifully marked, with pink noses,
+and black ears, and just the right blackness
+and tanness on them; but one is very queer,
+great splotches of black on his nose and his
+hind quarters, and all the rest of him white.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+So they named him "Magpie," right off; but
+I haven't come to the names yet. He is not
+very pretty, but he looks <i>very</i> bright, and I
+shouldn't wonder if he was terribly clever, to
+make up for not being so handsome as the
+others. And the other different one is a perfect
+beauty, though you may not think so
+when I tell you that he is <i>blue</i>. Yes, truly
+blue; of course I don't mean sky blue, nor
+navy, but the black is all mixed in through
+the white,&mdash;I can't explain to you just how
+it is&mdash;but anyhow, at a little distance, he
+does truly and honestly look blue. Well, so&mdash;I
+was the first to find them, so Father
+said I might name them, but of course I
+wanted us all to do it together; so we all
+thought, and each made a list. Oh, Peggy,
+we did want you; and I wanted to wait till
+you could send your list too, but the others
+thought you would not mind, and it is nicer
+to have them named quickly, because then
+their names seem to belong to them more,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+and they look like them. Perhaps, I mean,
+if you had been called something else till you
+were two or three years old, you might not
+have been so just exactly Peggy as you are,
+you dear old thing.'</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I ought not to have read that,"
+said Peggy, looking up with a blush; "but it
+is as like Jean as I am like Peggy, if I am
+like it, whatever it is."</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly are like 'it,'" said Gertrude,
+laughing, "and 'it' certainly is a dear old
+thing. Go on, please. We are all longing
+to hear the list."</p>
+
+<p>Peggy threw her a kiss, and went on.</p>
+
+<p>"'I will not give you all the lists, for that
+would take up all the rest of my letter; but
+here is the one we finally made out. There
+are three females, and five males, you know:
+<i>Cleopatra</i>, <i>Meg</i> (Merrilies; that was Flora's,
+because she is just reading "Guy Mannering"),
+<i>Diana</i>, <i>Guy</i> (for the same reason),
+<i>Shot</i>, <i>Hector</i>, <i>Ajax</i>, and <i>Magpie</i>.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do think that is a queer list,"
+Peggy concluded, folding up the letter. "I
+wish they had called one 'Gray Brother,' or
+'Bagheera.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But they are not wolves or panthers,"
+objected Mr. Merryweather. "I should say
+that was a very fair list of names, Peggy, as
+names go. It is always hard to find a good
+name for a dog. 'Shot' is an excellent
+name. We had a good old dog named Shot,
+and I have always liked the name."</p>
+
+<p>"Mammy," said Bell, "are we not to hear
+something from you?"</p>
+
+<p>"From me, my dear?" repeated Mrs.
+Merryweather. "What would you like to
+hear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you were an amiable
+gramophone," replied her daughter, with
+affectionate disrespect. "And I <i>think</i> you
+really know what I mean, madam, in spite
+of that innocent look. On reading your
+letters, you and Jerry exclaimed: 'Well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+well!' and 'Sapolio!' at the same instant,
+and your letters are on the same kind of
+paper, I cannot help seeing that. Have you
+something to break to us? 'Sapolio' is a
+baleful utterance, delivered as Jerry delivered
+it just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! I should think it was!" muttered
+Gerald, gloomily. He had brightened up
+while Peggy was reading her letter, but now
+his usually bright face was clouded with
+unmistakable vexation.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Mrs. Merryweather, with what
+seemed a rather elaborately cheerful expression.
+"My letter? It is from Cousin Anna
+Belleville. She tells me that Claud has been
+with her at Bar Harbor for some time, and
+that he is coming to visit us on his way back.
+He will be here some day next week, she
+thinks."</p>
+
+<p>A certain pensiveness stole over the aspect
+of the Merryweathers. Bell and Gertrude
+exchanged a swift glance, but said nothing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+Gerald whistled, "Wrap me up in my tarpaulin
+jacket!"</p>
+
+<p>After a brief silence, Mr. Merryweather said,
+thoughtfully, "I was thinking of taking the
+boys off on a camping trip next week."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot, Miles," said his wife, quickly.
+"It is out of the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Merryweather.
+"I only&mdash;a&mdash;quite so!"</p>
+
+<p>He relapsed into inarticulate murmurs over
+his pipe. Mrs. Merryweather, after a reproachful
+glance at him, turned to Gerald, as
+she folded her letter. "You have a letter
+from Claud, Gerald?" she asked, cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I have, madam," said Gerald, with a brow
+of thunder. "He informs me that he is
+looking forward with the greatest pleasure
+to roughing it a bit with us, and says that
+we must make no preparations, but let him
+take things just as they are. He's a Christian
+soul, that's what he is."</p>
+
+<p>"What is to be the order of the evening?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+asked Mrs. Merryweather, addressing Bell
+with a shade of warning in her voice. "Are
+we to have games, or boat-building?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! boat-building! the regatta is to-morrow,
+and we are not half ready."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general rush toward cupboards
+and lockers, and in an incredibly short space
+of time the whole room was a pleasant litter
+of chips, shingles, and brown paper. The rules
+for the regattas at Merryweather were few
+and simple. All boats must be built by their
+owners, unaided; no boat must be over a foot
+long from stem to stern; all sails must be of
+paper. Aside from these limitations, the
+fancies of the campers might roam at will;
+accordingly, the boats were of every shape and
+description, from Kitty's shingle, ballasted
+with pebbles, to Phil's elaborate catamaran.
+Peggy was struggling with a stout and somewhat
+"nubbly" piece of wood, which was
+slowly shaping itself under the vigorous
+strokes of her jack-knife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She's coming on!" Peggy declared, cheerfully.
+"She really begins to look quite like
+a boat now, doesn't she, Mr. Merryweather?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!" the Chief assented. "I don't
+see why she should not make a very good
+boat, Peggy. I would round off her stern a
+bit, if I were you. So! that's better."</p>
+
+<p>"What is her name, Peggy?" inquired
+Mrs. Merryweather. "I must be entering the
+names in the Log."</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Lovely Peggy</i>, of course!" said Phil.
+"What else should it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"It might be the <i>Limavaddy!</i>" said Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"Gerald, I <i>wish</i> you would tell me what
+you mean by 'Limavaddy,'" said Peggy. "It
+sounds like&mdash;I don't know what; tea-caddy,
+or something like that. Mrs. Merryweather,
+won't you tell me what it means?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a compliment he is paying you,
+Peggy," said her hostess, smiling. "Peg of
+Limavaddy is the charming heroine of a charming
+ballad of Thackeray's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'This I do declare,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Happy is the laddy</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who the heart can share</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of Peg of Limavaddy.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Married if she were,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Blest would be the daddy</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Of the children fair</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Of Peg of Limavaddy.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Beauty is not rare</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In the land of Paddy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fair beyond compare</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Is Peg of Limavaddy.'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>That is not one of the prettiest stanzas, but it
+shows you why Gerald has nicknamed you."</div>
+
+<p>"I say with Captain Corcoran," Gerald
+observed, pausing in the critical adjustment
+of a sail:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Though I'm anything but clever,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I could talk like that forever.'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>As thus!</div>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"When she makes the tea,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Brews it from a caddy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who so blithe as she,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peg of Limavaddy?</span><br />
+<br />
+"See her o'er the stove,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Broiling of a haddie;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Thus she won my love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peg of Limavaddy.</span><br />
+<br />
+"But building of a boat,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Her success is shady;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bet you she won't float,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Peg of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Limavady'">Limavaddy</ins>!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Wait till to-morrow," cried Peggy, laughing,
+"and you'll see whether she floats or not.
+And anyhow, she is my first boat. Isn't
+there a special class for beginners, Mr. Merryweather?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! no fear or favor shown; the rigor
+of the game, little Peggy. Margaret, have
+you given up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, please, Mr. Merryweather!" said
+Margaret, looking up from her knitting with
+a smile. "I could not; it simply was not
+possible. Gerald was positive at first that he
+could teach me, but after one lesson he was
+equally positive that he could not. I needed
+no conviction, because I knew I could not."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nobody can do absolutely everything,"
+said Gerald, "except the Codger,&mdash;I allude
+to my revered uncle, Margaret,&mdash;and I have
+at times desired to drown him for that qualification.
+You shall be the starter, Margaret;
+you'll do that to perfection."</p>
+
+<p>"What are the duties of a starter?" asked
+Margaret; "I shall be very glad to do anything
+I really can."</p>
+
+<p>"To sit still and look pretty!" said Gerald,
+demurely. "I <i>think</i> you can manage it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I the full list?" asked Mrs. Merryweather.
+"I'll read it aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Principal Whale</i>,&mdash;Papa."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would not call my father
+names!" murmured Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry, do be still!</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Tintinnabula</i>, Bell.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Jollycumpop</i>, Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Come-at-a-Body</i>, Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Molasses Cooky</i>, Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Polly Cologne</i>, Kitty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Whopper</i>, Willy."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"All but Peggy's," said Gertrude. "Peggy,
+you must decide on the name of your
+boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Gertrude, that is the hardest part
+of all. Margaret, you must name her for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not <i>Semiramis</i>, after the happy
+mother of the puppies?" suggested Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole puppies!" echoed Gerald.
+"Don't half name them, Margaret!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why isn't that the name for the boat?"
+cried Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"It is! it is!" cried all the rest. "The
+<i>Whole Puppy</i>, it is!" And Peggy laughing,
+submitted.</p>
+
+<p>"I never <i>was</i> so teased in all my life!"
+she said; "but I feel it doing me good."</p>
+
+<p>"That is our one object, my charming
+child!" said Gerald, gravely. "We invited
+you here in the hope that our united efforts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+might counteract the pernicious influences of
+Fernley House."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody will ever explain to me what a
+Come-at-a-Body is!" said Margaret. "Whenever
+I ask, you all say, 'Oh, hush! it might
+come!' Mrs. Merryweather, won't you tell
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will read you the description of it in
+the Log," said Mrs. Merryweather, smiling;
+"that is the best I can do for you."</p>
+
+<p>She turned over the pages of the book that
+lay open in her lap. "Here it is!" she said.
+"Now mark and learn, Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Come-at-a-Body is found only in its
+native habitat, where it may be observed at
+the proper season, indulging in the peculiar
+actions that characterize it. It has more
+arms than legs, and more hair than either.
+It moves with great rapidity, its gait being
+something between a wallop and a waddle;
+and as it comes (one of its peculiarities is
+that it always comes, and never goes), it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+utters loud screams, and gnashes its teeth in
+time with its movements.'</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my dear, you know all that I do!"
+Mrs. Merryweather concluded with a candid
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you so much!" said Margaret,
+laughing. "I am certainly enlightened."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Phil, who was sitting near
+the door, laid down his work, and held up a
+warning hand. "Hark!" he said. "What
+is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only the wind!" said some one.</p>
+
+<p>"Or the car rattling o'er the stony street!"
+said another.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Phil. "I heard a voice, I am
+sure. Listen!"</p>
+
+<p>All were silent. Outside the rain was
+pouring, the wind wailing in long sighing
+gusts; but&mdash;yes! mingling with the wind, a
+voice was certainly calling:</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo! hallo, there! Merryweather!"</p>
+
+<p>Gerald sprang to his feet, and struck his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+twin brother on the shoulder. "The Philistines
+are upon thee, Samson!" he cried. "I
+should know that voice in the shock of spears:
+it is Claud Belleville!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. BELLEVILLE</h3>
+
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 251px;">
+<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="251" height="400" alt="&quot;MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH.&quot;" title="&quot;MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;MR. CLAUD <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'BELLVILLE'">BELLEVILLE</ins> WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Montforts and Jack Ferrers looked up
+with much curiosity and some apprehension
+as the twins returned ushering in the unexpected
+visitor. Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather
+and the girls welcomed him cordially, but
+Margaret could not help contrasting their
+somewhat subdued cheerfulness with the joyous
+outburst that had welcomed herself and
+Peggy on their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Claud Belleville was a tall, pallid
+youth, with blond hair carefully arranged,
+pale blue eyes, in one of which an eyeglass
+was neatly fitted, and a languid air. He
+spoke with a pronounced English accent, and,
+on being presented to the other guests, said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+"Oh! very, very, very!" in a most affable
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>The Merryweathers bestirred themselves,
+some bringing dry garments, some preparing
+a hasty meal; the guest meanwhile stood in
+the centre of the hearthstone, and adjured
+them not to put themselves to inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my dear people, I beg of you!" he
+said. "Nothing, positively nothing, but a
+biscuit and a cup of tea! Really, now, I
+cannot allow it. Thanks, Jerry! awfully
+good of you, don't you know! oh! very,
+very, very! now, my dear fellow, <i>not</i> your
+best coat! It is too absurd."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't my best, it's my worst!" said
+Gerald, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! very good! very diverting! thanks
+awfully! don't mention it. Well, Cousin
+Miranda, this is charming; this is positively
+charming. So delightfully primitive, don't
+you know! oh, very, very, very! I told my
+people that before I went back to Paris I must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+positively look you up. It is such an age
+since I have seen any of you. My little
+cousins are all grown up into young ladies,
+and such charming young ladies: I congratulate
+you, Cousin, <i>de tout mon c&#339;ur!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Claud!" said Mrs. Merryweather,
+quietly. "I trust your mother is
+quite well? I only received her note, and
+Gerald yours, to-day. She spoke of your
+coming next week; if we had known that
+you were coming to-night, we would have
+sent to the station for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes; I knew that!" said Mr. Belleville.
+"I know your hospitality never fails,
+Cousin Miranda. But you know me, too&mdash;a
+butterfly&mdash;here to-day, gone to-morrow! A
+summons from the Dunderblincks&mdash;races
+going on at their place, don't you know; midsummer
+<i>f&ecirc;tes</i>, that sort of thing&mdash;changed
+my plans. Mamma said, 'You will have to
+give up the Camp, <i>Ch&eacute;ri!</i>' 'No!' I said.
+'They expect me; I have passed my word, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+is all I have. I go to the Camp to-day.' I
+came&mdash;I saw&mdash;I dare not say I conquered!"
+Here he bowed, and threw a killing glance at
+Gertrude, who was passing at the moment,
+carrying the teapot.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Can</i> this be the little Gertrude?" he
+added, addressing her, and lowering his voice
+to a sentimental half-tone. "She has not
+forgotten Cousin Claud?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not, Claud!" replied Gertrude,
+smiling. "It is only three years since you
+were with us at home for two or three weeks.
+I remember you perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>"Only three years!" murmured Mr. Belleville.
+"Is it possible? but what momentous
+years! The change from the <i>petite fille</i>, the
+charming child, to the woman, the&mdash;but I
+must not say too much!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll burn your bloom&mdash;your boots, if
+you stand so near the fire!" said Gerald, in
+a growl so threatening that Margaret looked
+up startled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>Your</i> boots, dear fellow!" Mr. Belleville
+corrected him. "Right! I am a little near
+the cheerful blaze. I am a fire-worshipper,
+you know; oh, very, very, very!"</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, you'd better see to the boats before
+you go to bed!" said Mr. Merryweather,
+speaking for the first time since his greeting
+of the newcomer.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sir!" said the twins, rising with
+alacrity. "Jack, will you come along?"</p>
+
+<p>"Always thoughtful, Cousin Miles!" said
+Mr. Belleville. "Always the prop of the
+family! so unchanged!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Merryweather's reply was inarticulate,
+and its tone caused his wife to begin
+hastily a series of inquiries for the visitor's
+family.</p>
+
+<p>The twins and Jack Ferrers walked slowly
+down the slip in the rain. No one spoke till
+they reached the float; then Gerald said
+slowly: "Sapolio&mdash;Saccarappa&mdash;Sarcophagus&mdash;<i>Squedunk!</i>"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Feel better?" asked his brother, sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one thing," said Gerald, still
+speaking slowly and emphatically, "that I
+wish, in this connection, distinctly understood.
+Indoors he is safe: hospitality&mdash;salt&mdash;Arabs&mdash;that
+kind of thing. But if in the immediate
+proximity of the cleansing flood"&mdash;he waved
+his hand toward the lake&mdash;"he continues to
+patronize the parents, in he goes! I have
+spoken!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should not presume to restrain my half-hour
+elder!" said Phil. "Jack, I'm afraid
+we shall have to put this curled darling in
+your tent. It's only for the night, fortunately."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! of course! delighted!" said Jack,
+somewhat embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Very, very, very, eh?" said Phil. "Oh!
+what's the use of making believe, with any
+one we know so well as you? It's a nuisance,
+and we don't pretend it isn't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mark my words, John Ferrers!" broke
+in Gerald. "We mean to be civil to this
+youth. He is our second cousin, and we
+know it. He is also a blooming, blossoming,
+burgeoning Ass, and he doesn't know it. They
+seldom do. We mean, I say, to be civil to
+him, barring patronage of the parents. He
+has been our thorn, and we have borne him&mdash;at
+intervals, mercifully not too short&mdash;all
+our lives. But we aren't going to pretend
+that we love him, because we don't. No more
+doesn't he love us.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"The love that's lost between us</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Is not the love for me;</span><br />
+But there's a flood both fair and broad,<br />
+In which I'd duck my charming Claud<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">As gladly as could be!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</div>
+
+<p>"Are you ready?" asked the Chief.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, Pater! not just yet. My rudder
+has got fouled with the cargo."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Somebody lend me a safety-pin, please!
+my mainsail is coming loose."</p>
+
+<p>"Has anybody got any ballast to spare?
+just one pebble!"</p>
+
+<p>These cries and many others resounded from
+the float, where the campers were gathered,
+and were putting the last touches to their
+toy boats. Finally Mr. Merryweather declared
+that there should be no more delay. The
+boats were carefully placed in the Ark, a great
+white rowboat manned by the Chief and Phil,
+who proceeded to row out leisurely to a white-flagged
+buoy at some distance from the shore.
+Gerald and Jack in one canoe, Gertrude and
+Peggy in another, were stationed at either
+side of the course; while Margaret and Claud
+Belleville, in a Rangeley boat, were so placed
+as to take the time of the various boats as
+they came in. This arrangement was not
+satisfactory to all the campers, but when protests
+were made in the family council the
+night before, Mr. Merryweather had calmly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+remarked that it was impossible to please
+everybody, and that the visitors should be
+given the post of honor. Gerald muttered
+that he did not see why Margaret should be
+butchered to make a Claudian holiday; to
+which his father replied that the matter was
+settled, and perhaps he, Gerald, would better
+be seeing to the lanterns.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you a little hard on the boy?"
+asked Mrs. Merryweather, when she and her
+husband were left alone together.</p>
+
+<p>"He needs something to bite on!" was the
+reply. "He is going through a kind of moral
+teething."</p>
+
+<p>This regatta was the first that Margaret
+had ever seen, and she was greatly excited.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us when we are just right!" she
+cried to the Chief as she passed the Ark.
+"Oh! anchor by the red flag? yes, I remember,
+you told me before. Now, Mr.
+Belleville, will you throw out the anchor,
+please?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Must I?" rejoined Mr. Belleville. "It
+seems a pity! So charming to row about a
+bit, don't you think? oh! well, if you insist!"&mdash;as
+he met Margaret's horrified gaze.
+"Here goes!"</p>
+
+<p>The anchor splashed overboard, and the
+young man laid down his oars.</p>
+
+<p>"You take this <i>au grand s&eacute;rieux</i>, I see,
+Miss Montfort, like my good cousins themselves.
+I confess I never can attain their
+perennial youthfulness, try how I will. I feel
+a Methuselah, I give you my word I do. Oh!
+very, very, very!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," said Margaret,
+simply. "We are here to take the time, as
+the boats pass the line. There is no other
+object in our being here."</p>
+
+<p>"No other? Alas! poor Claud!" sighed
+Mr. Belleville. "Now, to me, Miss Montfort,
+the sailing of toy boats is the smallest
+possible factor in this afternoon's pleasure.
+It is not, believe me, the childish sport<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+that I shall remember when I am far
+away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said Margaret, vaguely, her eyes
+on the white boat.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not ask what it is that I shall
+carry with me across the ocean?" Claud's
+voice dropped to its favorite smooth half-tone,
+what he was fond of describing to his friends
+as "<i>ma mi-voix caressante</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"There is a glamour, Miss Montfort, a
+magic, that does not always put itself into
+words. The perfect day, the perfect vision,
+will dwell with me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, look!" cried Margaret, starting forward,
+eagerly, "they are giving the signal.
+Gerald repeats it. Oh, they are off! Look,
+look, Mr. Belleville! What a pretty sight."</p>
+
+<p>It was, indeed, a pretty sight. The fairy
+fleet started in line, their white and brown
+sails taking the breeze gallantly, their prows
+(where they had prows) dancing over the
+dancing ripples. One or two proved unruly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+turning round and round, and in one case
+finally turning bottom side up, with hardly
+a struggle. But most of the little vessels
+kept fairly well within the course, heading,
+more or less, for the shore.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was enchanted.</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderfully they keep together!"
+she said. "Oh! but now they begin to
+separate. Look, there is a poor little one
+wobbling off all by itself. I wonder&mdash;I am
+afraid it is Peggy's. Yes, I am sure it is.
+Poor Peggy! Oh! the first three are going
+much faster than the rest. I wonder whose
+they are. How prettily they sail! Did you
+ever see anything prettier?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see something infinitely prettier," said
+Mr. Belleville, fixing his eyes on his companion.
+But Margaret, wholly unconscious
+of his languishing gaze, was watching the
+race with an intensity of eagerness that left
+no room for any other impressions.</p>
+
+<p>The three forward boats came on swiftly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+their prows dipping lightly, their paper sails
+spread full to the breeze. Shouts came ringing
+over the water, from the other boats, and
+from the shore, where the rest of the campers
+were gathered in an excited knot.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Jollycumpop!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Come-at-a-Body!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Good work, <i>Jolly!</i> Keep it up!"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Whale</i> is gaining. Hit her up, Spermaceti!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Jollycumpop</i> has it! <i>Jollycumpop!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Jolly is</i> first," cried Margaret; "but
+the <i>Come-at-a-Body</i> is very, very close. Which
+do you think will win, Mr. Belleville?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which do you wish to win?" asked Mr.
+Belleville.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how can I tell? One is Gertrude's,
+the other Gerald's."</p>
+
+<p>"There can be little doubt in that case, I
+imagine," said Claud Belleville, with a peculiar
+smile. "As a matter of simple gallantry&mdash;dear
+me, how unfortunate!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, his oar slipped from his hand,
+and fell with a splash into the water. The
+<i>Come-at-a-Body</i> was nearest to the Rangeley
+boat. The oar did not absolutely touch the
+tiny vessel, but the shock of the disturbed
+water was enough to check her gallant progress.
+She paused,&mdash;wavered,&mdash;finally recovered
+herself, and went bravely on. But
+in that pause the <i>Jollycumpop</i> crossed the
+line triumphantly, amid loud acclamations.</p>
+
+<p>"The little Gertrude wins!" exclaimed
+Mr. Belleville, recovering his oar with graceful
+composure. "We can hardly regret an accident
+which contributes even slightly to give
+the victory where it so manifestly belongs,
+can we, Miss Montfort?"</p>
+
+<p>But Margaret Montfort turned upon him,
+her fair face flushed with anger, her gentle
+eyes full of fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Belleville, you dropped that oar on
+purpose!" she said, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you suspect me of such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+thing?" replied Mr. Belleville, laughing.
+"But, <i>quand m&ecirc;me!</i> would it have been
+wholly unjustifiable if I had done so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wholly, to my mind!" said Margaret.
+"In fact, I cannot imagine such a thing being
+done by any one who&mdash;" she checked herself.</p>
+
+<p>"By any one who is related to these dear
+people?" said Mr. Belleville, lightly. "Ah!
+Miss Montfort, a bond of blood does not
+always mean a bond of sympathy. These
+dear people bore me, and I bore them. Believe
+me, it is reciprocal. But do you yourself
+never tire of this everlasting childishness,
+these <i>jeux d'enfance</i>, on the part of persons
+who, after all, are mostly beyond the nursery?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not!" said Margaret, concisely. "If
+you will take in the anchor, Mr. Belleville,
+I think I should like to go ashore, if you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>"I have offended you!" cried Claud Belleville.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+"You, to whom from the first instant
+I have felt so irresistibly drawn. I am unfortunate,
+indeed. But you cannot be seriously
+angry. Give me a chance to redeem
+myself, I implore you, Miss Montfort. See
+what a charming little cove opens yonder,
+just opposite. Delightful to drift and dream
+for an hour, in the company of one who
+understands&mdash;oh, very, very, very."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand," said Margaret,
+"and I have no desire to do so, Mr. Belleville.
+I beg you to take me ashore at once,&mdash;this
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>"And if I were bold enough to delay
+obedience for a few moments? If I felt confident
+that I could overcome this stern&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Gertrude," called Margaret, as the owner
+of the victorious <i>Jollycumpop</i> passed them
+with a triumphant greeting, "can you give
+us a tow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Gertrude. "Anything
+wrong?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, dear cousin," said Claud,
+"I challenge you to a race."</p>
+
+<p>And with a glance at Margaret, half reproachful,
+half mocking, he bent to his oars,
+with the first sign of energy he had shown
+since his arrival.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>PUPPY PLAY</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Bell</span>, may I speak to you a moment?"
+said Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>Bell looked up from a critical inspection of
+the <i>Tintinnabula</i>, which had been somewhat
+injured in the race. "Certainly, May Margaret!"
+she said. "Do you want to know
+why my poor boatie did not win? I have just
+found out." Then, looking up, and seeing
+Margaret's disturbed face, she rose instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Something is wrong?" she said, quickly.
+"Come this way, under the trees, where it is
+quiet. You have had no bad news, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" said Margaret. "But&mdash;Bell,
+I have something very disagreeable to tell
+you. It seems terrible to say anything that
+may make trouble, but nothing makes so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+much trouble as untruth, and I do think you
+ought to know this. I don't think the <i>Jollycumpop</i>
+really won the race!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Margaret! she came in well
+ahead; didn't you see&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Bell!" and Margaret told in a
+few words the story of the dropped oar.</p>
+
+<p>Bell listened with keen attention, and when
+Margaret had finished, whistled two bars of
+the Siegfried <i>motif</i> very correctly before she
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"The little animal!" she said at last.
+"Well, Margaret, do you know, the best
+thing to do, in my opinion, is&mdash;to say nothing
+about it, at present."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;Bell! Gerald really won!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know! but, even as it is, Jerry can
+hardly keep his hands off Claud. My one
+prayer is that we may be able to get the boy
+off to-morrow without an open quarrel breaking
+out. You see, Margaret, when they were
+little, it was all right for Jerry to thrash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+him. He did it punctually and thoroughly,
+every time they met, and it was very good
+for the boy; but now of course it is out of
+the question."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he come here?" inquired Margaret.
+"Did ever any one manage to make
+so much trouble in so short a time? the very
+air seems changed."</p>
+
+<p>Bell shrugged her shoulders. "His mother
+made him come, probably," she said. "He
+is really devoted to his mother; when you
+see him with her, you forgive a great deal.
+She is very fond of my father, and is always
+hoping that he may be able to influence
+Claud, and to appreciate him. After all,
+the boy has no father, and he has been systematically
+spoiled ever since he was born.
+I wish to-morrow were over."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Margaret, slowly, "I am to
+say nothing about this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Please not!" said her friend. "My dear,
+I see you are troubled, because you saw the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+horrid thing done; and you don't think it
+right to conceal the truth, even for a time.
+I am just as angry as you, but remember,
+there is 'a time to speak and a time to be
+silent.' This is a time to be silent, I am
+very sure; if we were to tell the boys now, it
+would be a match thrown into a powder-magazine.
+To-morrow, when Claud is safely off
+to his Dunderblincks, we will tell them; there
+will be an explosion then, but it will do no
+harm; and in a day or two the two boats can
+have a race by themselves, and that will decide
+the case. Are you convinced, Justitia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Entirely!" said Margaret. "You are
+very wise, Bell; I suppose I was too angry to
+see clearly; I have never been so angry in
+my life. As you say, I suppose it is because
+I saw it; and it <i>was</i> a horrid thing to see. I
+too wish to-morrow were over."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The morrow came, and the morning passed
+peacefully enough. The wagon was ordered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+which was to carry the visitor to the evening
+train. The elders began to breathe freely,
+and it was with a mind comparatively at rest
+that Mr. Merryweather strolled down to the
+float after dinner, to inspect a boat which had
+been hauled up for repairs. The other "menfolks"
+of the family followed him, and all
+stood round after the fashion of their kind,
+saying little, but enjoying themselves in their
+own way.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd caulk her a bit, Jerry," said the
+Chief; "and then give her a couple of coats
+of shellac. She'll do then for the rest of the
+season."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Pater!" said Jerry.</p>
+
+<p>"And if it be possible," his father went
+on, "so far as in you lies, do not spill
+the shellac about. Shellac is an excellent
+thing in its place, but I don't like it on
+the seat of my chair, where I found it
+this morning, nor sprinkled over the new
+'Century,' as it was last night. And it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+isn't as if there were any to spare; the can
+is very low."</p>
+
+<p>"I know!" said Gerald, penitently. "I
+am awfully sorry, Pater. I threw a cushion
+at Fergs, and it upset the can. I scraped up
+as much as I could; I think there is enough
+left for this job. If not, would that varnish
+do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Varnish&mdash;" said Mr. Merryweather; and
+he plunged into a dissertation upon the abominations
+of most varnishes and the iniquities
+of their makers. Gerald replied, defending
+certain kinds for certain purposes; the others
+chimed in, and a heated discussion was going
+on, when Claud Belleville joined the party.
+In spotless gray tweeds, with a white Manila
+hat and a lavender necktie, he made a singular
+contrast to the campers in their flannel
+shirts and dingy corduroys.</p>
+
+<p>At his appearance, Gerald rose from his
+squatting posture at the stern of the boat,
+while Phil and Jack amiably made way for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+the newcomer at the edge of the wharf, where,
+for some unexplained reason, men always like
+to stand. Claud, finding himself between
+Gerald and his father, turned toward the
+latter with an air of cheerful benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Miles," he said, "you must promise
+me, you really must, to come to us at Bar
+Harbor before the end of the summer. I
+gave my word to Mamma that I would induce
+you to come. She longs to see you."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like very much to see her," said
+Mr. Merryweather. "We were always very
+good friends, your mother and I. Give her
+my love, and tell her that some time when she
+is in New York I shall run on to see her;
+possibly this autumn, before you sail. It
+would not be possible for me to leave here
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but yes!" cried Mr. Belleville, airily.
+"It could be possible, Cousin Miles. Here are
+the boys, absolutely <i>au fait</i> in bog-trotting of
+every description; in fact, suited to the life&mdash;in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+all its aspects." He swept Gerald with
+a comprehensive glance, from his mop of red
+hair, tanned into rust-color, to his feet, clad in
+superannuated "sneakers."</p>
+
+<p>"They can do all the honors of the place as
+they should be done," he added. "But you,
+Cousin Miles, you must positively come to
+Bar Harbor. You live too much the life of
+the fields. Mamma is constantly deploring
+it. We will show you a little life, Mamma
+and I. I will put you up at my Club, and
+take you out in my new auto; in a week, you
+will not know yourself, I give you my word.
+Oh, very, very, very!"</p>
+
+<p>As the speaker stood beaming benevolence
+at Mr. Merryweather, and diffusing contempt
+among the rest of the party, two hands were
+laid on his shoulders; hands which gripped
+like steel, and propelled him forward with
+irresistible force. He staggered, struggled to
+save himself&mdash;and the next instant disappeared
+with a loud splash beneath the water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gerald confronted his father with a face of
+white fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I told him, sir, plainly and distinctly,
+that if he patronized you I should duck him!"
+he said. "He has had fair warning: this
+has gone on long enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Gerald," said Mr. Merryweather, gravely,
+"you are behaving like a foolish and ill-tempered
+child. I am fully able to take care
+of myself. We will talk of this later. Meantime
+you will apologize to your cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly, sir! I intended to, of
+course."</p>
+
+<p>While this brief colloquy had been going
+on, Phil and Jack, with sparkling eyes, waited
+at the edge of the wharf for the reappearance
+of Mr. Belleville. Up he came presently,
+splashing and sputtering, his eyes flashing
+angry sparks. Phil held out a hand; a
+vigorous pull, a scramble, and he stood once
+more on the wharf. Gerald walked up to
+him at once. "I beg your pardon, Claud!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+he said. "I had no business to do it, and
+I apologize."</p>
+
+<p>Claud gave a spiteful laugh, and shook
+himself in his cousin's direction, spattering
+him with drops. "Don't mention it, dear
+fellow!" he said, through his chattering teeth.
+"It serves me right for expecting civilized
+manners in the backwoods. This no doubt
+appears to you an exquisite pleasantry, and its
+delicacy will be appreciated, no doubt, by
+others of your circle. <i>Enfin</i>, in the presence
+of your father, whom I respect, I can but
+accept your apology. Since you are sorry&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say I was sorry!" Gerald broke
+in. "I said I begged your pardon."</p>
+
+<p>"My son, will you go at once and attend
+to the fire?" said Mr. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>"Father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>At once!</i>" repeated Mr. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>Gerald went.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil, take your cousin in, and get him
+some dry clothes. His own will be dry before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+the wagon comes, if you hang them by the
+kitchen stove. Hurry now!"</p>
+
+<p>Phil and Claud went off in surly silence,
+and Mr. Merryweather turned to Jack Ferrers,
+who had remained an amused but somewhat
+embarrassed spectator of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Puppy play, Jack!" he said, quietly.
+"You have seen plenty of it in Germany.
+One puppy <i>is</i> a puppy, more's the pity, and
+the other has red hair. Well! well! I did
+hope this could have been avoided; but we
+must not let it go any further. I wish Roger
+were here. I wonder if you can help me out,
+Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best, sir!" said Jack, heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, I must go off; I ought to be at
+the village landing this moment, to see about
+that freight that is coming. Do you think
+you can keep the peace till I come back?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can," said Jack. "I'll make
+a good try for it, anyhow, Mr. Merryweather."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good lad!" said the Chief.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+"You could knock both their heads together,
+if you put your mind&mdash;and your biceps&mdash;to
+it; but I hope that will not be necessary. In
+any case, don't let them fight! I promised
+his mother."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, and, settling himself in a boat,
+departed with long, powerful strokes.</p>
+
+<p>Jack, left alone, shook his curly head, and
+felt of his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah'm fit!" he said, quoting another and
+a bigger Jock than himself. "But it's a pity.
+That fellow is not only a puppy, he is a cur.
+I never saw anybody who needed a thrashing
+more." And he went and coiled himself in a
+hammock, and prepared to keep watch.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Mr. Claud Belleville, once
+more dry, if somewhat shorn of his glory,
+reappeared upon the scene. As he came out
+of his tent, Gerald strolled carelessly out of the
+boat-house, his hands in his pockets.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Rowdy, a word with you, if you
+please!" said Claud.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Cad, two, if you like!" said
+Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"In France, where I live," Mr. Belleville
+resumed, "when we are insulted, we fight."</p>
+
+<p>"No! do you really?" cried Gerald, his
+eyes sparkling as he began eagerly to turn
+back his cuffs. "Hooray! I say, shake hands,
+Claud. I didn't think you had it in you.
+There's a bully place up behind the woodshed.
+Come on!"</p>
+
+<p>Claud Belleville, who really was no coward,
+started forward readily: but at this moment
+Destiny intervened, in the shape of six foot
+four of John Ferrers. Uncoiling his length
+from the hammock, he took two strides forward,
+and lifting Gerald in his arms as if he
+were an infant, carried him off bodily. Gerald,
+who was strong and agile as a young panther,
+fought and struggled, pouring out a torrent of
+angry protest; but in vain. When Jack put
+forth his full strength, there was no possibility
+of resistance. He bore the furious lad to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+tent, and throwing him on the cot, deliberately
+sat down on his feet, in calm and cheerful
+silence. Gerald twisted and writhed, exhausted
+himself in struggles, threats, prayers;
+all in vain! Jack sat like a statue. Finally
+the boy relapsed into sullen silence, and lay
+panting, his hand clenched, his blue eyes dark
+with anger and chagrin.</p>
+
+<p>By and by came the sound of wheels; a
+wagon stopped in front of the camp. There
+were sounds of leave-taking; "Good-by,
+Claud!" "Our love to your mother!" in various
+tones and modulations; then the sound
+of wheels once more, rattling up the hill and
+away in the distance. Then Jack Ferrers
+rose, and smiled down on his prostrate
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Awfully sorry, old man!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>Gerald was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry! you're not going to cut up
+rough?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to say," said Gerald, coldly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are my guest, and manners forbid. We
+will change the subject, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Manners didn't forbid your chucking the
+Charmer into the drink!" said Jack. "Ho!
+did you see him blink when he came up? It
+was worth while, Jerry, even if I have to
+fight you, but I don't believe I shall. You
+see, your father had to go off, and he asked
+me to keep the peace, and I said I would;
+and I didn't see any other way, wildcat that
+you are. A sweet condition the Charmer
+would have been in to go back to his Mamma,
+if I had not done as I did!"</p>
+
+<p>"I might have known the Pater was at the
+bottom of it!" said Gerald, his face lightening,
+and his voice taking on its own kindly
+ring. "Fine man; but the extent to which
+he won't let me thrash Claud is simply
+disgusting. When it comes to setting a Megatherium
+on a man&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And to the Megatherium sitting on the
+man&mdash;" said Jack, laughing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No more o' that, Jack, if thou love me!
+There's the horn! Come on, and let that
+flint-hearted parent see that we are all right."</p>
+
+<p>The pair strolled in to supper, arm in arm,
+singing, to the tune of "Home, Sweet Home!"</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Claud, Claud, sweet, sweet Claud!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">There's no ass like Claud,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">There is no ass like Claud!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>and were promptly silenced by Mrs. Merryweather.</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Merryweather</span> had had a busy day.
+There had been a picnic at Oak Island, which
+had taken all the morning and a good part of
+the afternoon; then there had been a dozen
+letters to write for the late mail; and finally
+she had taken Kitty's turn with Willy at
+getting supper, as Kitty had a headache.
+The sisters protested, each one claiming her
+right to take the extra duty; but Mrs. Merryweather
+had her own reasons for being glad
+of the hour of play-work with her little boy.
+Willy had been rather out of spirits, which
+meant that he, as well as his sister, had eaten
+too many huckleberries; this afternoon he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+had been decidedly cross, and required treatment.</p>
+
+<p>Coming into the kitchen at five o'clock,
+she found the fire lighted, and the kettle on,
+for Willy was a faithful soul; but he was
+frowning heavily over his chopping-tray.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish mince-meat had never been invented!"
+he said, gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" said his mother. "I don't!
+I am glad it was, even if I did not have three
+helps last night."</p>
+
+<p>"I was so hungry, I had to eat something,"
+said Willy, in an injured tone. "When I
+grow up, I mean to have beefsteak every
+day, and never have anything made over
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll remember that, the next time we have
+brown-bread brewis!" said his mother smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that's different!" said Willy.</p>
+
+<p>"Most things are different," said Mrs.
+Merryweather, "if you look at them in a
+different way. Is that ready, son?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As ready as it is ever going to be. I've
+chopped till my arm is almost broken."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see! It looks as if you had cracked it.
+Well, now, it isn't time yet to make the rolls,
+so we can take breath a bit. Come out on
+the porch, and let us play something till the
+kettle boils."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel like playing!" said Willy,
+dolefully; "I don't feel like doing anything,
+Mammy."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Merryweather looked at him a moment;
+then taking his hands in hers, she said
+suddenly, "'For heaven's sake let us sit upon
+the ground, and tell sad stories of the death
+of kings!' That is a passage from Richard
+II., and it seems to fit the occasion. Sit down,
+Willy; right here on the floor by me; I'll
+begin. Two minutes for composition!"</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, looking out over the water,
+while Willy glanced sidewise at her, half-interested
+in spite of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I have it!" she said, presently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"King John put on such frightful airs,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He met his death by eating pears.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Your turn, Willy! two minutes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mammy, I can't play!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you <i>are</i> playing. Only one minute
+more."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then&mdash;does it have to be the real
+way they died? because I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"No! facts not required in this game."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"King Og<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Was lost in a bog."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Your metre is faulty," said his mother,
+thoughtfully, "but the statement is interesting.
+My turn; you shall hold the watch for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Time's up!" cried Willy, beginning to
+kindle.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is it? What short minutes! Let me
+see!</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"King Xerxes<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Was killed by Turkses."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs06.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="MRS. MERRYWEATHER&#39;S VIGIL." title="MRS. MERRYWEATHER&#39;S VIGIL." />
+<span class="caption">MRS. MERRYWEATHER&#39;S VIGIL.</span>
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I wanted Xerxes. Wait, Mammy.
+I have one!</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"King David<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Could not be sav&egrave;d!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried his mother. "That is the
+best yet. But we might branch out a little,
+I think, Willy. This condensed couplet is
+forcible, but not very graceful. How do you
+like this?</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Tiglath-pileser, Tiglath-pileser,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He tried to buy a lemon-squeezer;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">But no such thing had e'er been seen,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">So in a melancholy green,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Oh, very green, and very yellow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He pined away and died, poor fellow!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"That is splendid," said Willy, "but you
+took a little more than two minutes. My
+turn now!</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The great and mighty Alexander<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Was bit to death by a salamander."</span><br />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>Done</i> to death is more poetic!" said his
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but 'bit' is more savage. I like
+'bit.' Your time's up, Mammy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Willy, I am going to give you a
+subtle one this time; one in which something
+is left to the imagination.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The Emperor Domitian<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Consulted a physician!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"But you didn't kill him."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but the physician did."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not really. What do you think of
+this game?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's bully. Did you really just
+make it up, Mammy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just! Now the kettle is boiling, and we
+must come in; but as we go, let me inform
+you that&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"The Emperor Tiberius<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">He died of something serious;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">But now we'll stop,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And make the pop-</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ov<i>ers</i> before we weary us!"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Willy's gloom was effectually banished, and
+he continued to slaughter kings till the supper-horn
+blew.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of this and other mental exercises,
+added to a cup of tea, was such that when bed-time
+came, Mrs. Merryweather found herself
+singularly wide awake. In vain she counted
+hundreds; in vain she ransacked her memory
+for saints, kings, and cities alphabetically
+arranged; in vain she made a list of Johns,
+beginning with the Baptist and ending with
+John O'Groats; the second hundred found
+her wider awake than ever, as she tossed on
+her narrow cot. Mr. Merryweather, in the
+opposite cot, was breathing deep and regularly;
+he was sound asleep, at least, and that
+was a good thing. Other than this, no sound
+broke the perfect stillness of the night. The
+full moon rode high, and lake and woodland<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+were flooded with silver light. A glorious
+night! Mrs. Merryweather sighed; what
+was the use of staying in bed on such a
+night as this, when one could not sleep? If
+only there were some excuse for getting up!</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she remembered that, the night
+being very warm, and the two children apparently
+entirely recovered from their slight indisposition,
+they had been allowed to sleep out
+on the Point, in accordance with a promise
+made some days ago by their father. She
+had not been quite willing, but had yielded
+to pressure, and they had gone out, very
+happy, with their blankets and the india-rubber
+floor-cloth.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Merryweather sat up in bed. "I ought
+to go and see if those chicks are all right!"
+she said. "After all, they certainly were not
+quite well this afternoon, whatever Miles may
+say." She glanced half-defiantly at the other
+cot, but Miles said nothing. She rose quietly,
+put on wrapper and slippers, and opening<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+noiselessly the screen-door of the tent, slipped
+out into the open, and stood for a moment
+looking about her. How beautiful it was!
+what a wonderful silver world! Sleep was
+good, but surely, to be awake, on such a night
+as this, was better.</p>
+
+<p>She stole past the other tents, pausing an
+instant at the door of each to listen for the
+regular breathing which is the sweetest music
+a mother can hear; then she made her way
+out to the Point, through the sweet tangle of
+fern and berry-bushes, under the bending trees
+that dropped dew on her head as she passed.</p>
+
+<p>The Point lay like the prow of some great
+vessel in a silver sea. One tall pine stood for
+the mast; under this pine, rolled in scarlet
+blankets, their rosy faces turned toward the
+moon, lay the children, sound asleep. Willy
+had curled one arm under his head, and his
+other hand was locked in his sister's.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little things!" murmured their
+mother. "That means that Kitty-my-pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+was a little bit frightened before she went to
+sleep. Dear little things!"</p>
+
+<p>She stood there for some time looking down
+at them.</p>
+
+<p>"The moon is full on their faces!" she
+said. "My old nurse would tell me that they
+would be moonstruck 'for sartain sure!'
+How terrified I used to be, lest a ray of
+moonlight should shine on my bed, and I
+should wake a lunatic!"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at the moon; looked again,
+and yet again. "That is very singular!"
+said Mrs. Merryweather. "Something seems
+to be happening to the moon."</p>
+
+<p>Something <i>was</i> happening to the moon. It
+was as if a piece had been bitten out of the
+shining round. Was it a little cloud? no!
+no cloud could possibly look like that, so
+black, so thick, so&mdash;"Good gracious!"
+said Mrs. Merryweather; "it is an eclipse!"</p>
+
+<p>An eclipse it certainly was. Slowly, surely,
+the black shadow crept, crept, over the silver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+disk; now a quarter of its surface was hidden;
+now it went creeping, creeping on
+toward the half.</p>
+
+<p>"It is going to be a total eclipse!" said
+Mrs. Merryweather. "I suppose I ought to
+wake some of them."</p>
+
+<p>She stood a moment more, looking irresolutely
+at the sleeping children. "I cannot
+possibly wake them!" she said at last.
+"Little lambs! they are sleeping so beautifully,
+and they certainly were <i>not</i> quite themselves
+this afternoon. Besides, there will be
+plenty more eclipses; I'll go and wake some
+of the others."</p>
+
+<p>The black shadow crept on. Hardly less
+silent, Mrs. Merryweather paused before the
+tent where her daughters slept. Bell and
+Gertrude scorned cots, and their mattresses
+were spread on the floor at night, and rolled
+up in the daytime. There the two girls lay,
+still and placid, statue-like, save for the
+gentle heaving of their quiet breasts. A fair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+picture for a mother to look on. Miranda
+Merryweather looked, and drew a happy
+breath; looked again, and shook her head.
+"I cannot wake them!" she murmured to
+herself. "They are both tired after that expedition;
+Bell paddled very hard on the way
+back; she was much more flushed than I like
+to see her, when she came in. And Gertrude
+sleeps so lightly, I fear she might not get to
+sleep again if I were to wake her now."</p>
+
+<p>The black shadow crept on; the mother
+crept into the boys' tent, and stood beside
+Gerald's cot. The lad lay with his arms flung
+wide apart; his curly hair was tossed over
+his broad open forehead; his clear-cut features
+were set as if in marble.</p>
+
+<p>"He has such a beautiful forehead!" said
+Mrs. Merryweather. "He sleeps so very
+sound, that if I were to wake him he might
+not be able to sleep again. Dear Jerry!"</p>
+
+<p>She moved over to Phil's cot: Phil was
+uneasy, and as she stopped to straighten the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+bedclothes, he turned on his side, muttering
+something that sounded like "Bother breakfast!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor laddie!" said Mrs. Merryweather.
+"He looks as if he might have a headache.
+I wish I had made him take a nice little cup
+of hot malted milk before he went to bed. It
+is out of the question to wake him, when
+he is sleeping so uneasily."</p>
+
+<p>She left the tent, with hardly a glance
+toward Jack Ferrers, who lay in the farthest
+cot. The idea of waking him, and having
+him disturb her own boys, was too preposterous
+to be entertained for an instant.</p>
+
+<p>The black shadow had crept entirely over
+the moon; no silver disk now, only a shield
+of dull bronze; "like some of the Pompeiian
+bronzes!" Mrs. Merryweather thought. "It
+is very extraordinary. I suppose I really
+<i>ought</i> to wake Miles."</p>
+
+<p>She entered her own tent, and stood by
+her husband's cot. Miles Merryweather was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+sleeping quite as soundly as any of his children;
+in fact, he was a very statue of sleep;
+but his wife laid her hand gently on his
+shoulder. "Miles!" she said; it must be
+confessed that she did not speak very loud.
+"Miles, there is an eclipse!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Merryweather did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>"Miles! do you want to wake up?"</p>
+
+<p>No reply; no motion of the long, still form.
+Mrs. Merryweather breathed more freely.
+"Miles was more tired to-night than I have
+seen him all summer!" she said. "He cannot
+remember that we are not twenty-five any
+more. It is very bad for a man to get overtired
+when he is no longer young. Well, I
+certainly did try to wake him; but such a
+<i>very</i> sound sleep as this shows how much he
+needed it. I am sure it is much more important
+for him to sleep than to see the eclipse;
+it isn't as if he had not seen plenty of eclipses
+in his life. Of course, if it had been the sun,
+it would have been different."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She stood at the door of the tent, watching.
+Slowly, slowly, the black shadow passed;
+slowly, slowly, the silver crescent widened to a
+broad arc, and finally to the perfect argent
+round; once more the whole world lay bathed
+in silver light. Mrs. Merryweather gazed on
+peacefully, and murmured under her breath
+certain words that she loved:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Now the sun is gone to sleep,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Seated in thy silver chair,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">State in wonted measure keep.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hesperus entreats thy light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Goddess excellently bright!'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"But if Roger had been here," said Miranda
+Merryweather, "I should certainly have waked
+him, because he is a scientific man, and it
+would have been only right!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>"SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE
+FORGOT&mdash;"</h3>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"A wet sheet and a flowing sea,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A wind that follows fast&mdash;"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Phil Merryweather</span> was singing as he
+brought his boat about. "Slacken your sheet,
+Peggy! easy&mdash;that's right! a half-hitch&mdash;look
+here, young lady! I believe you
+have been humbugging us all; don't tell me
+you never sailed a boat before!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never in all my life!" said Peggy, looking
+up joyously. "I have only dreamed of it
+and thought about it, ever since I can remember.
+And I have read the 'Seaman's Friend,'
+and 'Two Years Before the Mast,' so I do
+know a little bit about how things ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+go. I think every girl ought to learn how
+to sail a boat, if she possibly can; but out on
+the ranch, you see, there really wasn't any
+chance. We could only make believe, but we
+used to have great fun doing that."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you make your believe? I should
+like to hear about it. Ease her off a bit&mdash;so&mdash;as
+you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we made a boat out of the great
+swing in the barn. It is a huge barn, and
+the swing is big enough for three elephants to
+swing on at once; and Hugh fastened hammocks
+along it lengthwise, and then rigged
+ropes and pulleys for us, and an old canvas
+hammock with the ends cut off for a sail; so
+we swung, and called it sailing, and had
+storms and shipwrecks, and all kinds of
+adventures. It was great fun. Oh, I do wish
+some of you could come out to the ranch some
+day. If there was only water, it would be
+the best place in the world&mdash;except this and
+Fernley."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm coming some day!" said Phil. "See
+if I don't. It must be corking sport, riding
+about over those great plains."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it is!" cried Peggy. "When you
+come, Phil, you shall ride Monte. He is the
+most beautiful creature, a Spanish jennet.
+Jack Del Monte sent him to brother Jim, but
+he isn't up to Jim's weight, so he lets me ride
+him. He is like the horses in poetry, that is
+the only way I can describe him; white as
+milk, with great dark eyes, and graceful&mdash;oh,
+I <i>do</i> want you to see him. No horse in
+poetry was ever half so beautiful; in fact, I
+think I take back what I said; I don't really
+think poets know much about horses; do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed,'" quoted
+Phil, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I know!" said Peggy, indignantly. "Now,
+the idea, Phil! one thinks of a poor dear horse
+all over ostrich feathers behind, which is dreadful.
+But then, I don't understand poetry,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+except about battles, Macaulay and Scott.
+Don't you love 'Marmion'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do!" said Phil, heartily. "Hi!"</p>
+
+<p>This last brief exclamation was made in a
+tone of some concern.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Peggy. "Am I trimming
+wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right as a trivet! but&mdash;have you ever
+heard of a williwaw, Peggy?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a squall, isn't it? Captain Slocum
+tells about them in 'Sailing Alone Round the
+World.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That's it! Well, I think we are going to
+get one. If you will take the helm again for
+a moment, I'll take in a reef."</p>
+
+<p>Peggy took the tiller in her strong little
+brown hand, and looked on admiringly while
+Phil reefed the sail with creditable swiftness.
+Soon all was tight, and the two young people
+watched with cheerful interest the coming on
+of the squall.</p>
+
+<p>On it came, a line of white on the water, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+gray curtain of driving rain above it. The
+wind began to sing in the rigging of the
+sailboat; next moment she heeled heavily
+over, and sped along with her lee rail under
+water.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd sit pretty well up to windward if I
+were you," shouted Phil. "You'll be dryest
+on the gunwale, if you don't mind!"</p>
+
+<p>As Peggy seated herself with alacrity on
+the gunwale, Phil looked at her with approval.
+Her eyes were shining, her whole rosy face
+alight with happy excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's the kind of girl I like to see!"
+said this young gentleman, forgetting that he
+had been seeing three of the same kind ever
+since he could remember; but sisters are
+different!</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad, eh?" he said, as he took
+another turn on the sheet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Phil, it is perfectly splendid! why,
+we are simply flying! Oh, I wish it was like
+this all the time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hi!" said Phil again. "Everybody doesn't
+seem to be of your opinion, Peggy. That boat
+over there will be in trouble if she doesn't
+look out. Sapolio! there is something wrong.
+We'd better run over and see."</p>
+
+<p>At a little distance a small boat was tossing
+violently on the water; her sail was lowered,
+and a white handkerchief was fluttering from
+the stern like a signal of distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready about!" said Phil. Peggy crouched
+down on the seat, the boom swung over, and
+the gallant little <i>Petrel</i> flew swiftly as her
+namesake to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything wrong?" asked Phil, as he
+ran alongside the crippled boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Broke our rudder!" was the reply, from
+a pleasant-looking lad; "must have been
+cracked before we started. If you could lend
+us a pair of oars&mdash;I was very stupid to come
+out without a pair&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment a clear, shrill voice was
+heard above the noise of wind and water, crying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+aloud, "My Veezy Vee! my Veezy Vee!
+It <i>is</i> my Veezy Vee! Don't tell me it isn't, for
+it simply <i>is!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Viola!</i>" cried Peggy. "Vanity! can it
+be you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear! I was once, perhaps, but
+with all my crimps out, how can you have the
+heart? If ever I get ashore alive,&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be ridiculous, Viola!" said the lad,
+in a tone of brotherly tolerance. "You are in
+no more danger&mdash;now&mdash;then if you were
+in bed. Though I admit it might have been
+rather fussy if we hadn't met you!" he added,
+with a meaning look at Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"How far have you to go?" asked Phil.
+"Buffum's Point? Well, now, look here! that
+will be a long, hard pull against this wind.
+You'd much better let us tow you down to our
+camp, and then you can ship a new rudder,
+and go home any old time when the wind sets
+right."</p>
+
+<p>The young man hesitated. "Why&mdash;you're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+awfully good," he said, "but I think we'd
+better get home&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do, <i>do</i> let us go, Tom!" cried the
+pretty girl who had waved the handkerchief,
+and who seemed still, somehow, to be waving
+everything about her. "No, I won't be quiet!
+It's my Veezy Vee, I tell you; it's Peggy
+Montfort, and I am simply expiring to talk to
+her. Besides, if I am going to be drowned, I
+want to be drowned with another girl. Oh,
+Peggy, isn't it dreadful? Do you think we
+shall ever get home alive?"</p>
+
+<p>Here the wind caught her hat, and in a
+frantic effort to retain it, she very nearly fell
+overboard. "There!" she cried. "I told
+you so, Tommy; I knew I should be drowned."</p>
+
+<p>"I never said you wouldn't," replied her
+brother, with some heat, "if you play such
+pranks as that. You simply <i>must</i> sit still,
+Vi!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's all very well to say I must sit
+still, Tommy Vincent. If <i>you</i> had a hat that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+was the pride of your life, instead of a felt
+saucepan, perhaps you wouldn't want to have
+it carried off and drowned before your eyes.
+My precious hatty!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we are all right, Viola," said Peggy.
+"It is perfectly splendid, I think. Besides,
+the worst of it is past. Look! the sky is
+lightening already; the whole thing will be
+over soon."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am drenched to the skin!" cried
+poor Viola. "The rain has gone through and
+wet my poor bones, I know it has; I shall
+<i>never</i> be dry again, I am convinced, never:
+there isn't a school-book in the world dry
+enough to dry me, Peggy, not even Hallam's
+'Middle Ages.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! who cares for a wetting?" said
+Peggy, shaking herself like a Newfoundland
+dog. "It only adds to the fun."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! that's all very well for you, Veezy
+Vee!" cried poor Viola. "But if <i>you</i> had
+on a silk waist, you would feel differently, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+know you would. And my hat simply <i>was</i> the
+sweetest thing you ever saw; wasn't it, Tom?
+Sugar was salt beside it; wasn't it, Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom, who had been holding a consultation
+with Phil over the broken rudder, answered
+by a brief, though not unfriendly growl, and
+paid no further attention to her. The painter
+of his boat was made fast to the <i>Petrel's</i> stern,
+and the latter was soon winging her way
+toward the Camp, towing the disabled boat
+behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you Vincent of 1903?" asked Phil,
+leaning over the stern, his hand on the tiller
+and one eye on the clouds. "Thought so!
+Used to see you about the yard. My name is
+Merryweather; 1902."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad to know you!" said Tom Vincent.
+"I thought it must be you; I used to see you
+rowing, of course. Your brother&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was interrupted by excited squeaks from
+his sister, who was gazing at Phil with sparkling
+eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No!" she cried. "It <i>can't</i> be! It would
+be <i>too</i> delicious! <i>not</i> Merryweather! Don't
+ask me to believe it, Peggy, for it simply
+is beyond my powers. <i>Not</i> the Snowy's
+brother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed!" said Peggy, laughing as she,
+too, leaned back over the stern. "Let me
+introduce you; Mr. Philip Merryweather,
+Miss Viola Vincent."</p>
+
+<p>"Awfully glad!" said Phil, making a motion
+toward where his hat should have been.
+"I've often heard my sister speak of you,
+Miss Vincent."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, I <i>adore</i> the
+Snowy!" cried Viola. "She is simply the
+dearest creature on the face of the earth. I
+would give the wide world&mdash;I would give
+my very best frill to see her. Don't tell me
+she is near here, for I should expire with joy;
+simply expire!"</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly will not," said Phil, smiling,
+"if the consequences would really be so terrible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+Miss Vincent. Otherwise, I might venture
+to predict that you would see her in about ten
+minutes. If you feel any untoward symptoms
+developing, please consider it unsaid!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Tom, isn't it <i>too</i> thrilling?" cried
+Viola. "Oh! Tom, aren't you perfectly <i>rigid</i>
+with excitement? It makes Tom rigid, Mr.
+Merryweather, and it makes me flutter; we
+are so different. <i>Aren't</i> you rigid, Tommy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother,
+good-naturedly. "I am not in the least rigid,
+though I shall be delighted to see Miss Merryweather,
+of course."</p>
+
+<p>"You can see the camp now, through the
+trees," said Phil. "There is the flag, just
+over that tall pine. Flag by day; lantern by
+night. That is 'Merryweather.' Ready
+about, Peggy, for the last tack!"</p>
+
+<p>The squall had passed, and though the
+water was still rough, the waves were tossing
+merrily in blue and white under a brilliant
+sun. The <i>Petrel</i> sped along, the silver foam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+bubbling up before her prow, and the <i>Seamew</i>,
+as the other boat was named, followed as
+swiftly.</p>
+
+<p>Peggy leaned back over the stern once
+more, and holding out her hand to her old
+schoolmate, gave her slender fingers a squeeze
+that made her cry out.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Vanity," said Peggy; "I forgot
+how soft your hands always were. But I
+am so glad to see you, even if I am not
+going to expire about it. Do tell me how
+you came here, and where you are staying,
+and all about it, now that we can hear ourselves
+speak."</p>
+
+<p>"How did I come here, my dear?" repeated
+Viola Vincent. "Witchcraft!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, you foolish thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, what I say; simply that and nothing
+more, just like the Raven. Witchcraft!
+The very minute I get home, I am going to get
+a pointed black hat and a red cloak, and a
+crutch-stick. I think they will be quite sweet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+don't you? Don't you think pointed hats are
+quite sweet, Mr. Merryweather?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pointed hats," replied Phil, gravely, "have
+always seemed to me the acme of sweetness;
+that is why they call them sugar-loaf hats, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, you <i>are</i> funny!
+Oh, I <i>hoped</i> you were going to be funny,"
+cried Viola; "you <i>look</i> funny, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!" said Phil; and "Viola,
+don't be a goose!" said her brother again.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean it as a compliment!" cried Viola.
+"Mr. Merryweather, I mean it as the very
+highest compliment I can pay, I truly do.
+With such a simply entrancing name as
+Merryweather, it would be such a dreadful
+pity to be sober as a judge, you know;
+though the only judge I know is too frisky
+for anything. Kittens, my dear, I&mdash;I mean,
+Mr. Merryweather&mdash;I <i>beg</i> your pardon! are
+actually <i>grim</i> beside Judge Gay; aren't they,
+Tommy? Did you ever see a grim kitten,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+Mr. Merryweather? Wouldn't it be too horrid
+for anything? Well, but what I meant
+to say is, the only weeniest speck of a fault I
+ever had to find with the Snowy&mdash;darling
+thing!&mdash;was that she was a little bit&mdash;just
+the tiniest winiest scrap&mdash;too serious. If
+your name were Tombs, you know, or Graves,
+or Scull,&mdash;I knew a girl named Scull,&mdash;of
+course you would have to <i>be</i> serious to live up
+to it; but when your name is Merryweather,
+you ought to live up to <i>that</i>, and so I always
+told the Snowy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure the Snowy was always jolly
+enough," said Peggy, bluntly, "except when
+you wanted to get into mischief, Vanity!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I <i>always</i> wanted to get into mischief,"
+replied Viola; "so that made it a
+little hard for me, Peggy, you must admit it
+did, especially when I adored the Snowy, and
+couldn't bear to have her look grave at me.
+Mr. Merryweather, when the Snowy looked
+<i>really</i> grave at me, it froze my young blood,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+just like Hamlet's; didn't it, Peggy? I used
+to go and sit on the radiator to get thawed
+out, didn't I, Peggy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course," said Peggy, laughing.
+"But all this time, Vanity, we have not
+heard about the witchcraft that brought you
+to this part of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! so you haven't. Well, now you
+shall. You see I am eighteen this summer,
+so Puppa said I should choose where we
+should go, whether to the mountains, or to
+Newport, or to this lake, where he knew of a
+camp he could have. So I thought I would
+say Newport, on account of my new frills; I
+had some perfectly heavenly new frills, and
+of course Newport is the best place to show
+them. But just as I was going to <i>say</i> 'Newport,'
+<i>something</i> made me turn right round
+and say to come here. I supposed it was
+partly because of course I knew Puppa hated
+Newport, and he is such a perfect duck about
+going there; but now I know that it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+witchcraft, and something inside me, black
+cats or something, made me know, without
+knowing anything about it, that you and the
+Snowy were going to be here, Peggy. So
+now I am perfectly happy! Oh! Oh! Why,
+there <i>is</i> the Snowy! Oh, Snowy, you darling!
+It's me! It's Vanity! How <i>do</i> you
+do? Isn't this <i>too</i> perfectly entrancing for
+anything!"</p>
+
+<p>With a graceful turn, Phil brought his
+boat alongside the wharf, where a group of
+campers, Gertrude among them, were gathered
+to receive them. Gertrude had Viola in her
+arms in a moment, and was welcoming her
+with a warmth that made the emotional little
+creature sob with real pleasure and affection.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Snowy!" she cried, "I always liked
+you better than any one else, Snowy. I never
+thought I was going to see you again."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, dear little Viola!" cried Gertrude.
+"Have you dropped from the clouds?
+Why, this is too good to be true. But you are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+wet through! Come in this moment with me,
+and get on dry things!"</p>
+
+<p>She hurried Viola away to the tents, and
+Mr. Merryweather took possession of her
+brother with the same hospitable intent,
+though Tom Vincent protested that he was
+"no wetter than was entirely comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>Phil, taking in his sail, turned an expressive
+eye on his twin, who had come aboard
+to help him.</p>
+
+<p>"Gee!" he said, thoughtfully. "A new
+variety, Obadiah! Pollybirdia singularis, as
+Edward Lear hath it."</p>
+
+<p>"She's mighty pretty!" said Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"She is that!" said Phil.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ABOUT VISITING</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Good-by</span>, Tommy, dear. Be sure to tell
+Mamma that I thought she would not mind
+my staying, when Mrs. Merryweather was so
+perfectly heavenly as to ask me. Be sure to
+tell her that my skirt is <i>all</i> cockled up, so that
+you could put it in your waistcoat pocket,
+Tom; and that the <i>only</i> way to save it is to
+press it <i>damp</i>, and let it <i>dry</i> before I put it
+on. Tell her that I have got on a dress of
+the Snowy's that is simply <i>divine</i>,&mdash;more becoming
+than anything I ever had on; and
+that my silk waist has run&mdash;oh, tell her it
+has run <i>miles</i>, Tom, so that I can never&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, Vi!" cried Tom Vincent,
+pushing his boat off. "<i>I</i> must run, before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+you swamp me entirely with messages. I'll
+come back for you to-morrow, and bring your
+toggery. Ever so many thanks, everybody.
+You've been awfully good. I've had a corking
+time. Good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>The sail filled, the boat swung round, and
+was soon speeding along the lake, while her
+owner still waved his cap and looked back to
+the wharf, where the campers stood, giving
+back his greeting with hearty good will.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice chap!" said Gerald to Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Corker!" said Phil to Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor," added Gerald, turning to look after
+the girls as they walked back along the slip,
+"nor is the sororial adjunct totally devoid
+of attraction. What thinkest, Fergy?"</p>
+
+<p>He shot a quick glance at his brother, and
+seemed to await his reply with some eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"I think she's as pretty as a picture," said
+Phil, soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a nose on your face, if it comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+to that," said Gerald. "At least it passes for
+one. <i>Weiter!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she's awfully jolly, and all that,"
+said Phil. "Nice, jolly, good-natured girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Granted; she's great fun."</p>
+
+<p>"But," Phil went on, slowly,&mdash;"oh, well!
+you know what I mean. If our girls went
+on like that, we should be under the painful
+necessity of ducking them. Now, Peggy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused and examined the mooring of
+the boat, critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Peggy," Gerald repeated, jogging
+him with his elbow. "Always finish a sentence
+when you can, son. It argues poverty
+of invention to have to stop in the middle.
+You can always fall back on 'tooral looral
+lido,' if you can't think of anything else.
+What about Peggy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing. Only she is just like the
+rest of us, and that seems more natural; that's
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"And 'beyond a doubt we are the people;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+and wisdom will perish with us,'" quoted
+Gerald, his face brightening as he spoke.
+"'Tis well. Come on, thou antiquated ape,
+and let us pump out the float."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the girls had sought their favorite
+pine parlor, and were deep in talk. <i>High</i>
+would be a more descriptive adjective; for
+Viola Vincent was the principal talker, and
+her shrill, clear treble quivered up to the very
+tree-tops, startling the birds in their nests,
+and sending the squirrels scampering to and
+fro with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, this is too delicious, simply <i>too!</i>
+I should expire, if I lived here, of pure joy.
+Oh, Snowy, what a darling you are! Your
+nose is just as straight as ever, isn't it?
+Rulers, my dear, are crooked beside it, aren't
+they? If I had a straight nose, I should pass
+away from sheer bliss. My nose turns up
+more every year; it's the only aspiring thing
+about me. Pothooks are straight by comparison.
+Isn't it a calamity?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Tiptilted like the petal of a flower," said
+Gertrude, laughing. "I always thought your
+nose one of your prettinesses, Vanity, and I
+believe you think so, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! my <i>dear</i>, how <i>can</i> you?" cried Viola,
+caressing her little nose, which was certainly
+piquant and pretty enough to please any one.
+"You don't really mean it, do you? You
+just say it to comfort me, don't you? You
+<i>are</i> such a comforting darling! Where did
+you get that heavenly shade of green, Snowy?
+I never saw anything so lovely in my life. It
+is just the color of jade. My dear, I saw
+some jade bracelets the other day that were
+simply <i>made</i> for you. I wanted to tear them
+from the girl's arms, and say, 'What are you
+doing with the Snowy's bracelets?' She was
+a dump, with a complexion like Doctor Somebody
+or other's liniment. A person who can
+wear jade is simply the&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come, Vanity!" said Peggy, good-naturedly.
+"Come out of the millinery business,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+and tell us about yourself, and about the
+other girls. What has become of Vex&mdash;of
+Vivia Varnham?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! haven't you heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word! You have never written, you
+know, since we left school, and she would not
+be likely to."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't love each other quite to distraction,
+did you?" said Viola. "Poor V. V.!
+she really was the limit sometimes, wasn't
+she? I never minded her, of course, because I
+never listened to what she said. Besides, she
+was like pickles, you know; you just took her
+with the rest of your dinner, and she didn't
+make much difference. I used to tell her so.
+Well, poor V. V.! You never could guess:
+married, my dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Married!" echoed Peggy and Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>"Married! to a missionary; widower, with
+four children. Gone to China! You need not
+believe it unless you like; I don't believe it
+myself, though I saw them married."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is hard to believe, Vi!" said Gertrude.
+"How did it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, <i>the</i> limit! positively, the boundary
+line, arctic circle, and that sort of thing.
+Love at first sight, on both sides. Spectacles,
+bald,&mdash;not the spectacles, but he,&mdash;snuffy
+to a degree! You really never <i>did!</i> I was the
+first person she told. I simply screamed.
+'My dear!' I said, 'you <i>cannot</i> mean it. You
+could <i>not</i> live with that waistcoat!'</p>
+
+<p>"She told me I was frivolous&mdash;which I
+never attempted to deny&mdash;and said I did not
+understand, which was the truth. She looked
+really quite sweet in her wedding-dress, and
+when she went away she was quite softened,
+she truly was, and wept a little weep, and so
+did I. You see, Snowy, the very first thing I
+can remember in my life is V. V.'s breaking
+my doll over my head. I miss her dreadfully,
+I do indeed; nobody has been&mdash;well, acidulated,
+to me since she went, and I need the
+tonic. And speaking of tonics, where is Beef?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+where is the Fluffy? You know"&mdash;turning
+to Margaret&mdash;"I used to call the Snowy
+and the Fluffy and the Horny my triple tonic,
+Beef, Wine, and Iron; and the Fluffy was
+Beef. Steady and square, you know, and red
+and brown; exactly like beef; simply <i>no</i> difference
+except the clothes. How is she,
+Snowy?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Fluffy&mdash;Bertha Haughton, you know,
+Margaret&mdash;is teaching in Blankton High
+School; very busy, very happy, indeed, perfectly
+absorbed in her work. I have a letter
+from her in my pocket this minute, that came
+last night. Would you like to hear it?"</p>
+
+<p>And amid a clamor of eager assent, she
+drew out the letter and read as follows.</p>
+
+<p>"'Dear Snowy: It is good to hear about
+all the jolly times at Camp. I wish I could
+come, but see no way to it just now. Yes, I
+know school is over, but there are the rank
+lists to make out, and all kinds of odd end-of-the-year
+chores to be done; besides, two of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+boys have conditions to work out,&mdash;going to
+college in the fall,&mdash;and I am tutoring them.
+They are two of the dearest boys that ever were,
+only not very bright, and I have promised to
+stand by them.' This is the way she behaves,
+after teaching all the year; she is incorrigible!
+'All the others passed without conditions,
+and three of them got honors, so I am very
+proud and happy. This has been the best
+year of all; but then, I say that every year,
+don't I? I do feel more and more that I am
+doing the thing in the whole world that I like
+best to do.'</p>
+
+<p>"The rest is just messages, and so on; but
+you see how happy she is, and how utterly
+absorbed."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, it is <i>too</i> amazing!" cried Viola
+Vincent. "The very thought of teaching
+makes me simply dissolve with terror; little
+drops of water, my dear, would be all that
+would be left of poor Vanity; not a grain of
+sand to hold her together. Hush! let me tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+you something! Last year I tried to teach a
+class in Sunday school,&mdash;great, terrible boys,
+taller than I was,&mdash;and I <i>almost</i> expired, I
+assure you I did. They never knew their
+lessons, and two of them made eyes at me,
+and the rest made faces at each other; it was
+simply excruciating. Then the rector asked
+me if I didn't think I could dress more simply;
+said I set an example, and so on. I told him
+I was dressed like a broomstick then, as far as
+simplicity was concerned, and so I was, simply
+and positively like a broomstick; only my
+dress&mdash;it was a rose-colored foulard, <i>the</i> most
+angelic shade you ever saw, girls; just like a
+sunset cloud, somebody said&mdash;happened to
+have ruffles to the waist, and ribbons fluttering
+about more or less. He <i>said</i> I fluttered,
+and I told him I certainly did. 'I always
+flutter, Mr. Monk,' I said. 'When I don't
+flutter, I shall be dead.' Which was true.
+He was quite peevish, but I was firm; you
+know you <i>have</i> to be firm about such things.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+Only, the next Sunday he happened to come
+by when one of those great dreadful boys
+asked me if Solomon's seal was tame, and I
+said I didn't think it was. Well, I <i>didn't!</i>
+But he wrote me a note next day, saying he
+thought teaching was not my <i>forte</i>, and perhaps
+I would like visiting better. I fully
+agreed with him, so now I visit, and it is
+simply dandy. I just love it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us about your visiting, Vi!" said
+Gertrude. "I am going to take it up next
+winter, and I should like to know how you
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear! Such sport! There are some
+dear old ladies I go to see, perfect old ducks;
+in a Home, you know. I go once a week,
+and I put on <i>all</i> my frills, and never wear the
+same dress twice if I can help it, and I tell
+them all about the parties I go to, and what
+I wear, and what my partners are like, and
+about the suppers, and take them my German
+favors, and they simply <i>love</i> it! Mr. Monk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+thinks it's terrible that I don't read them
+tracts; my dear, they abominate tracts, and
+so do I; we found that out at once. So I
+read them the gayest, frilliest little stories
+I can find, that are really <i>nice</i>, and they
+<i>adore</i> it. One day&mdash;my <i>dears!</i> will you
+promise never to breathe it if I tell you something?
+never even to <i>sneeze</i> it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We promise! We promise!" cried all
+the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;hush! It was simply fierce; and
+<i>the</i> greatest sport I ever had in my life.
+There is one old lady in the Home who is too
+perfectly sweet for anything. Miss Bathsheba
+Barry; did you ever hear such a delicious
+name? She is just my height, and as
+pretty as a picture in her cap and kerchief.
+They all wear caps and kerchiefs, and little
+gray gowns, the most becoming costume you
+ever saw; I am going into the Home the very
+minute my looks begin to go, because I <i>do</i> look
+quite&mdash;but wait! Hush! not a word! Well!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+I had been teasing Miss Barry for ever and
+ever so long to let me dress up in her things,
+because I knew they would suit me, and at
+last, one day, the dear old thing consented.
+It was the time for the matron's afternoon
+visit, and she is very jolly, and I wanted to
+surprise her. So I put on the little gray gown,
+and the delicious cap, just like Rembrandt's
+mother, and the white net kerchief&mdash;don't
+you adore white net, Snowy? it softens the
+face so!&mdash;and the apron; and then I went
+and sat down in Miss Barry's chair by the
+window, with her knitting, and put on her
+spectacles&mdash;oh! how she did laugh. Then
+we heard steps, and Miss Barry went
+into the closet and shut the door all but
+a crack to peep through, and I turned
+my head away from the door, and knitted
+away for dear life. Oh, girls! The door
+opened, and I heard Mrs. Poddle say, 'This
+way, gentlemen! This is Miss Barry's room.'
+<i>Gentlemen!</i> My dears, I thought I should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+pass away! Then there came great, loud
+men's steps, and I heard Mr. Monk's voice&mdash;'This
+is one of our most interesting inmates,
+Bishop! Eighty-seven years old, and as
+sprightly as a girl. A most pious and
+exemplary person. Good morning, Miss
+Barry! How is your rheumatism to-day?'</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs07.jpg" width="500" height="371" alt="&quot;&#39;SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!&#39; SAID I.&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!&#39; SAID I.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!&#39; SAID I.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"'Simply fierce, your reverence!' said I, in
+a little squeaky voice, as like Miss Barry's as
+I could make it. I kept my face turned
+away, and pretended to be counting stitches
+very hard.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ahem!' said Mr. Monk. I could hear
+that he was surprised, for, of course, Miss
+Barry wouldn't say 'simply fierce,' but it
+slipped out before I knew it.</p>
+
+<p>"'Miss Barry,' he said, 'I have brought
+Bishop Ballantyne to see you. I am sure you
+will be glad to receive him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, I should perfectly <i>love</i> to see the
+Bishop!' I said; because Bishop Ballantyne
+is simply a duck, an adorable duck; but still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+I did not turn round; and I could hear Miss
+Barry squeaking with laughter in the closet,
+and it was really getting quite awful. But
+now Mr. Monk began to suspect something.
+I believe he thought I had been drinking, or
+rather that Miss Barry had, poor old dear.
+He said, in a pretty awful voice: 'What
+does this mean? Miss Barry, I desire that, if
+you are unable to rise, you will at least turn
+round, and receive Bishop Ballantyne in a
+fitting manner. I cannot conceive&mdash;I must
+beg you to believe, Bishop, that this has never
+happened before. I am beyond measure distressed.
+Miss Barry,&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"And then he stopped, for I turned round.
+I had to, of course; there was nothing else
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>"'How do you do, Bishop Ballantyne?'
+I said. 'Can you tell me whether Solomon's
+seal was tame or not?'</p>
+
+<p>"For a minute they both stared as if they
+had seen a ghost; but then the Bishop went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+off into a great roar of laughter, and I
+thought he would laugh himself into fits, and
+me, too; and the more solemn Mr. Monk
+looked, the more we laughed; and Miss Barry
+was cackling like a hen in the closet&mdash;oh, it
+was great, girls, it truly was! At last Mr.
+Monk had to laugh too, he couldn't help it;
+it was simply too utter, you know. He said
+I was enough to break up an entire parish;
+and the Bishop said he would take me into
+his, cap and all. And then the matron came
+back, and Miss Barry came out, and we all
+stayed to tea, the Bishop and Mr. Monk and
+I, and had the time of our lives; at least, I
+did.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, girls, visiting <i>can</i> be the greatest
+sport in the world, if you only know how to
+do it. But we all had to promise Mr. Monk
+and Mrs. Poddle not to tell, because they said
+it was enough to break up the discipline of the
+Home, and I suppose it was."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOONLIGHT AGAIN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> evening was showery, and indoor
+games were the order of it. The first half-hour
+after the dishes were washed (a task
+performed to music, all hands joining in the
+choruses of "John Peel," "Blow, ye winds of
+morning," etc.) was spent quietly enough,
+four of the party at parcheesi, the others busy
+over crokinole and jackstraws; but by and by
+there was a cry of "Boston!" and instantly
+boards and counters were put away on their
+shelf, and the decks cleared for action. The
+whole party drew their chairs into a circle,
+and the fun began. A pleasant sight it was
+to see Mr. Merryweather blindfold in the middle
+of the circle, calling out the numbers two
+by two, and trying to catch the flitting figures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+as they changed places. A pleasant sight it
+was to see the young people leaping, crouching,
+and gliding across the circle, avoiding his
+outstretched arms with surprising agility.</p>
+
+<p>"Two and Fourteen!" he would cry; and
+Gerald and Bell would slip from their places,
+like shadows. Gerald was across in two long,
+noiseless lopes, while Bell whisked under her
+father's very hand, which almost closed on
+her flying skirt; and a shout of "All over!"
+greeted the accomplishment of the exchange.</p>
+
+<p>"This will never do!" said Mr. Merryweather.
+"You all have quicksilver in your
+heels, I believe. Seven and Twelve! Come
+Seven, come Twelve!"</p>
+
+<p>Seven and Twelve were Jack Ferrers and
+Peggy, and they came. Jack, gathering his
+long legs under him, crept on all fours half-way
+round the circle, and then made a plunge
+for the chair which Peggy had just vacated.
+He landed on the edge, and over went chair
+and Jack into the fireplace with a resounding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+crash. This startled Peggy so that she ran
+directly into Mr. Merryweather's arms, and
+was caught and firmly held.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see!" said Mr. Merryweather.
+"One pigtail! But I believe all you wretched
+girls dress your hair precisely alike for 'Boston.'
+Ha! peculiar sleeve-buttons! Now
+who has buttons like these? Peggy!"</p>
+
+<p>Then it was Peggy's turn to be blindfolded,
+and a vigorous "<i>Colin Maillard</i>" she made,
+flying hither and thither, and coming within
+an ace of catching Gerald himself, who was
+rarely caught. Finally she seized a flying
+pigtail belonging to Kitty; and so the merry
+game went on till all were out of breath with
+running and laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Phil went to the door to breathe the cool
+air, and came back with the announcement,
+"All clear overhead, perfectly corking moonlight.
+Why do we stay indoors?"</p>
+
+<p>"Canoes!" cried the younger Merryweathers;
+and there was a rush for the door;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+but the Chief stopped them with a gesture.
+"Too late!" he said. "It is nine o'clock
+now; time you were in bed, Kitty."</p>
+
+<p>"We might sit on the float and sing a
+little," suggested Mrs. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>"The float! The float!" shouted the boys
+and girls. There was a snatching up of pillows
+and wraps, and the whole family
+trooped down to the float, where they established
+themselves in a variety of picturesque
+attitudes. Again it was a wonderful night;
+the late moon was just rising above the dark
+trees, no longer the full round, but still brilliant
+enough to fill the world with light.</p>
+
+<p>"This has been a wonderful moon!" said
+some one.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Gerald; "it is quite the last
+thing in moons, not the ordinary article at
+all. We don't have ordinary moons on this
+pond. Who made that highly intellectual
+remark?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was I," said Bell, laughing; "and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+maintain, Jerry, that this moon <i>has</i> been a
+very long, and a very&mdash;well, a very splendid
+one. Just think! not a single cloudy evening
+till this one; and now it clears off in time
+to give us our moonlight hour before bed-time."</p>
+
+<p>"The harvest moon is always long," said
+Mr. Merryweather. "Bell is perfectly right,
+Jerry."</p>
+
+<p>"Strike home!" said Gerald, baring his
+breast with a dramatic gesture. "Strike
+home!</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'There's no more moonlight for poor Uncle J.,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For he's gone whar de snubbed niggers go.'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"I was just going to propose singing," said
+his mother; "but before we begin, suppose
+we do honor to this good moon, that has
+treated us so well. Let every one give a
+quotation in her honor. I will begin:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'That orb&egrave;d maiden with white fire laden,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whom mortals call the moon,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">By the midnight breezes strewn.'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>Shelley. I am a cloud, be it understood!"</div>
+
+<p>"I should hardly have guessed it," said Mr.
+Merryweather. "My turn? I'll go back to
+Milton:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Now glowed the firmament</span><br />
+With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led<br />
+The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,<br />
+Rising in clouded majesty, at length<br />
+Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,<br />
+And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.'"<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say!" murmured Gerald; "that is
+a peach!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry," said his mother, plaintively, "have
+you <i>no</i> adjectives, my poor destitute child? I
+can imagine few things less peach-like than
+that glorious passage. But never mind! Jack,
+it is your turn."</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'The gray sea and the long black land,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And the yellow half-moon large and low&mdash;'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>said Jack, half under his breath.</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>"It isn't yellow, and it isn't half," said
+Gerald. "But never mind, as the Mater says.
+Margaret, you come next."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret looked up, her face full of tranquil
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking," she said, "of some lines
+from 'Evangeline,' that I have always loved.
+I say them over to myself every night in this
+wonderful moon-time:</p>
+
+<div class='poem2'>
+"'Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of the forest,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On the river</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous gleam of the moonlight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and devious spirit.'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Peggy, what have you for us?" asked
+Mrs. Merryweather.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" cried poor Peggy, "you know I
+never can remember poetry, Mrs. Merryweather.
+I shall have to take to 'Mother
+Goose.' I know I am terribly prosy&mdash;well,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+prosaic, then, Margaret; what's the difference?
+But I can't think of anything except:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'The Man in the Moon<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Came down too soon,'&mdash;</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>and that doesn't go with all these lovely
+things you have all been saying."</div>
+
+<p>"It gives me mine, though!" said Phil.
+And he sang, merrily:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'The Man in the Moon was looking down,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With winking and with blinking frown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And stars beamed out bright</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To look on the night;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Man in the Moon was looking!'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Phil!" cried Gertrude. "How can you?
+Comic opera is an insult to a moon like this."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed!" said her brother. "Sorry
+I spoke. Next time I'll sing it to some other
+moon,&mdash;one of Jupiter's; or the brick one in
+Doctor Hale's story. Go on, Toots, since
+you are so superior. It's your turn."</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That tips with silver all the fruit-tree tops,'"</span><br />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class='unindent'>said Gertrude. "I can't remember the next
+line."</div>
+
+<p>"What I miss in this game," said Gerald,
+in a critical tone, "is accuracy. There isn't
+a fruit-tree on the Point."</p>
+
+<p>"And the moon, of course, limits herself
+strictly to the point!" said Gertrude, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"It's more than you do!" retorted her
+brother. "But a truce to badinage! I go
+back to prose and 'Happy Thoughts.' 'I say
+"O moon!" rapturously, but nothing comes
+of it.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But something shall come of it this time,
+Jerry," said his mother. "Perhaps we have
+had enough quotations now. Give us the
+'Gipsy Song.'"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing loth, Gerald sang the wild, beautiful
+song, his sisters humming the accompaniment.
+Then one song and another was
+called for, and the night rang with ballad
+and barcarole, glee and round. There never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+seemed to be any limit to the Merryweather
+repertoire.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Bell whispered to Gertrude; the
+latter passed the whisper on to Margaret and
+Peggy. Silently all four girls rose and slipped
+away, with a word breathed into Mrs. Merryweather's
+ear, begging her to keep up the
+singing.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the girls going?" asked their
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"They will be back in a moment," said
+Mrs. Merryweather. "Give us 'Prinz Eugen,'
+boys; all of you together!"</p>
+
+<p>And out rolled, in booming bass and silvery
+tenor, the glorious old camp song of the German
+wars:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woll't dem Kaiser wied'rum kriegen</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stadt und Festung Belgerad."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>This was a favorite song of the Merryweather
+boys, and they never knew which
+verse to leave out, so they generally sang all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+nine of them. They did so this time, and
+finally ended with a prolonged roar of:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Liess ihm bringen recht zu Peterwardein."<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>A moment of silence followed. Indeed,
+none of the singers had any breath left.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'And silence like a poultice falls,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To heal the blows of sound!'"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='unindent'>quoted Mr. Merryweather. "Hark! what is
+that?"</div>
+
+<p>Again the sound of singing was heard.
+This time it came from the direction of the
+tents. Girl's voices, thrilling clear and sweet
+on the stillness. The air was even more familiar
+than that of "Prinz Eugen," one of
+the sweetest airs that ever echoed to moonlight
+and the night:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dass ich so traurig bin;"&mdash;</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>The girls came singing out into the moonlight,
+hand in hand. They were in bathing-dress;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+their long hair floated over their
+shoulders; their white arms shone in the white
+light. Instead of coming back to the float,
+they plunged into the water, and swam, still
+singing, to a rock that reared a great rounded
+back from the water. Up on this rock they
+climbed, and sat them down, shaking off the
+water in diamond spray; and still their voices
+rang out, clear and thrilling on the quiet
+air:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"Die sch&ouml;nste Jungfrau sitzet<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Dort oben wunderbar;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Sie k&auml;mmt ihr goldenes Haar."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Gee!" muttered Gerald to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty!" said Mr. Merryweather, taking
+his pipe from between his teeth. "Miranda,
+I don't know that I ever saw anything much
+prettier than that."</p>
+
+<p>His wife made no reply, but her eyes spoke
+for her. None of the lads could look more
+eagerly or more joyfully at that lovely picture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+Were not two of the maidens her very
+own?</p>
+
+<p>Gertrude was facing them as she sang. Her
+red-gold hair fell like a mantle of glory about
+her, far below her waist; her arms, clasped
+behind her head, were like carved ivory; her
+face was lifted, and the moon shone full on
+its pure outlines and candid brow. Bell's rosy
+face was partly in shadow, but her noble voice
+floated out rich and strong, filling the air with
+melody. There was no possibility of doubt, to
+Mrs. Merryweather's mind, which two of
+the quartette were most attractive. Yet
+when she said softly to the son who happened
+to be next her: "Aren't they lovely, Jerry?"
+he answered, abstractedly, "Isn't she!" and
+his eyes were fixed, not on stately Gertrude,
+or stalwart Bell, but on a slender figure between
+them, that clung timidly to the rock,
+one hand clasped in Peggy's. Also, it is to
+be noted that, when the song was over, and
+Peggy made an exceptionally clean and graceful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+dive off the rock, Phil exclaimed, "Jove!
+that was a corker!" to which John Ferrers
+replied, "Yes; the sweetest contralto I ever
+heard."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"I never heard you sing better than you did
+last night," said Jack to Bell. It was next
+morning, and he was stirring the porridge industriously,
+while she mixed the johnny-cake.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/gs08.jpg" width="500" height="371" alt="&quot;HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE.&quot;" title="&quot;HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE.&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"So glad!" said Bell, simply. "I aim to
+please. I'd put in a little more water, Jack,
+if I were you; it's getting too stiff."</p>
+
+<p>Jack poured in the water, and stirred for
+some minutes in silence. Presently he said:
+"I heard from those people last night."</p>
+
+<p>"From the Conservatory? Oh, Jack! do
+tell me! I have been thinking so much
+about it. Is it all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," said Jack, slowly. "They
+offer me two thousand, and there is an excellent
+chance for private pupils besides; I
+have decided to accept it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jack, how splendid! Oh, I am so
+glad! I knew it would come&mdash;the chance&mdash;if
+you only had patience, and you surely
+have had it. How happy Hilda will be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Jack, soberly. "I owe it to
+Hilda, every bit of it, as I owe several other
+things. This, for example."</p>
+
+<p>"This?" repeated Bell. "Meaning the
+porridge?"</p>
+
+<p>She spoke lightly, yet there was an undertone
+of feeling in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"The porridge, and all the rest of it," said
+Jack. "The place, the life, the friends, the
+happiness, and&mdash;you&mdash;all!"</p>
+
+<p>It might have been noted that the "all"
+was added after a moment's pause, as if it
+were an afterthought.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Hilda!" said Bell, softly. "We all
+owe her a very great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"If it had not been for Hildegarde
+Grahame," said Jack, "I should have grown
+up a savage."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh! no, you would not, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should, Bell. When I first came
+to Roseholme, I was just at the critical time.
+I adored my father, who was an angel,&mdash;too
+much of one to understand a mere human
+boy. I came to please him, and at first I
+didn't get hold of Uncle Tom at all, nor he
+of me. He thought me an ass,&mdash;well, he
+was right enough there,&mdash;and I thought him
+a bear and a brute. I was on the point of
+running away and starting out on my own
+account, my fiddle and I against the world,
+when I met Hilda, and she changed life from
+an enemy into a friend."</p>
+
+<p>Bell was silent for a moment; then, "I
+have often wondered&mdash;" she said, and broke
+off short.</p>
+
+<p>"So have I!" said Jack. "I don't know
+now why I didn't. Yes, I do, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Bell, her eyes on her
+mixing-bowl.</p>
+
+<p>"It's hard to put it into words," said Jack,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+with a queer little laugh. "I suppose I felt
+that I never should have had a chance; but&mdash;but
+yet, I am not sure that I should not
+have tried my luck, even then, if&mdash;if something
+else had not happened to me."</p>
+
+<p>Bell asked no more questions: the johnny-cake
+seemed to be at a critical point; she
+stirred assiduously, and Jack, turning to look
+at her, could see only the tip of a very rosy
+little ear under the brown, clustering hair.</p>
+
+<p>There was another silence, broken only by
+the singing of the teakettle and the soft,
+thick "hub-bubble" of the boiling porridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Bell!" said Jack, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Jack."</p>
+
+<p>"I had another letter last night, that I
+haven't told you about yet."</p>
+
+<p>"From Hilda?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. From the manager of the Arion
+Quartette. They want me to go on a tour
+with them in the autumn, before the Conservatory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+opens. It's a great chance, and
+they offer me twice what I am worth."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, turning her face,
+shining with pleasure, full on him. "How
+glorious! how perfectly glorious! Oh! this
+is great news indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one difficulty," said Jack.
+"I have to provide my own accompanist."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can easily do that!" said Bell.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I?" cried Jack Ferrers, dropping
+the porridge spoon and coming forward, his
+two hands held out, his brown face in a glow.
+"Can I, Bell? There is only one accompanist
+in the world for me, and I want her
+for life. Can I have her, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, and another spoon
+was dropped.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Children, you are letting that porridge
+burn!" cried Mrs. Merryweather, as she
+hurried into the kitchen a few minutes
+later.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mammy, I am so sorry!" said Bell,
+looking up,</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"All kind o' smily round the lips,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And teary round the lashes."</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mammy, I am so glad!" cried Jack
+Ferrers; and without more ado he kissed
+Mrs. Merryweather. "I like burnt porridge!"
+said this young gentleman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Where</span> are you going, Margaret?" asked
+Willy.</p>
+
+<p>"Up to the farm. Bell lost one of her
+knitting-needles, and thought she might have
+dropped it there; she is up there now, hunting
+for it, and here it was in my tent all the
+time. Would you like to come with me,
+Willy?"</p>
+
+<p>Willy twinkled with pleasure, and fell into
+step beside her, and the two walked along the
+pleasant grassy road through the fields, talking
+busily. They had become great friends,
+and Willy was never tired of hearing about
+Basil, who, he declared, "must certainly be
+a corker."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he is, Willy," said Margaret,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+with resignation. "There seems nothing else
+for any nice person to be. Did I tell you
+how brave he was when a great savage dog
+attacked our poor puppies? Oh, you must
+hear that."</p>
+
+<p>The recital of Basil's heroism lasted till
+they reached the farmhouse, both in a state
+of high enthusiasm, and Willy filled with
+ardent longings for attacks by savage dogs,
+that he might show qualities equal to those
+of the youthful hero. (N. B. Basil, honest,
+freckled, and practical, would have been much
+surprised to hear himself held up as a youthful
+embodiment of Bayard and the Cid in one.)</p>
+
+<p>"I'll wait for you out here, Margaret," he
+said, when they came to the door. "No,
+I don't want to come in; they will tell me
+how I've grown, and I do get so tired of it.
+I'll sit on the fence and think; I like to
+think."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret nodded sympathetically and went
+in. The door opened directly into a wide,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+sunny kitchen, as bright as sunshine and
+cleanliness could make it. An elderly woman
+was standing before a great wheel, spinning
+wool; beside her, Bell, Gertrude, and Peggy
+stood watching with absorbed attention. All
+looked up at Margaret's entrance, and the
+woman, who had a kind, strong face and
+sweet brown eyes, laid down her shuttle with
+a smile of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know if this is you," she said.
+"You're quite a stranger, ain't you? I kind
+o' looked for you when the gals come in."</p>
+
+<p>"I meant to come, Mrs. Meadows, I truly
+did; but I was tidying up the tent, and I am
+so slow about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Meadows," said Peggy, laughing,
+"she wipes every nail-head three times a day,
+and goes over the whole with a microscope
+when she has finished, to see if she can find
+a speck of dust."</p>
+
+<p>"Doos she so?" inquired Mrs. Meadows.
+"I don't hardly dare to ask her to set down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+in this room, then. What with the wool
+flyin' and all, it's a sight, most times."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mrs. Meadows!" exclaimed Gertrude.
+"When you know you are almost as
+particular as she is! But, Margaret, do you
+see what we are doing? We are having a
+spinning lesson. It is <i>so</i> exciting! Come
+and watch."</p>
+
+<p>"I came to bring your knitting-needle,"
+said Margaret. "Look! it was in my tent,
+just the end of it sticking out of a crack in
+the floor. If I had not tidied up, in the way
+you reprobate, Bell, you might never have
+got it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, somebody would have stepped
+on it," laughed Bell. "But I confess I am
+very grateful for this special attack of tidying.
+Now, Mrs. Meadows, I shall be all
+ready for that new yarn as soon as you have
+it spun."</p>
+
+<p>"My land! don't you want I should color
+it? I was callatin' to color all this lot."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, I like this gray mixture so much;
+it is just the color for the boys' stockings.
+By the way, have you seen the boys, Mrs.
+Meadows? I was looking for them everywhere
+before I came up."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see, where did I see them boys?"
+Mrs. Meadows pondered, drawing the yarn
+slowly through her fingers. "Gerild and
+Phillup, you mean? They passed through
+the yard right after dinner, I should say it
+was, on their velocipedies; going at a great
+rate, they was. Here's Jacob, mebbe he'll
+know."</p>
+
+<p>Jacob, massive and comely, in his customary
+blue overalls, entered, beaming shyly.
+"Good mornin', ladies!" he said. "Mother
+treatin' you well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Jacob!" said Bell. "We are
+having a spinning lesson, and find it very
+interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know. Well, I allers got on
+without that branch of edication myself,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+said Jacob. He was standing near the door,
+and the girls noticed that he kept his hands
+behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, ain't you give the girls no
+apples?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" cried Mrs. Meadows, apologetically.
+"I never thought on't."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, ain't that a sight!" said Jacob, reprovingly.
+"I thought I could trust you not
+to let 'em starve, mother, but yet someways
+I felt I ought to bring the apples myself. I
+dono's they're fit to eat, though."</p>
+
+<p>Still beaming shy benevolence, he brought
+from behind him a basket of beautiful rosy
+apples, every one of which had evidently been
+polished with care&mdash;and the sleeve of his
+coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what perfect beauties!" cried the
+girls. "Oh, thank you, Jacob!"</p>
+
+<p>"What kind are they?" asked Peggy.
+"They <i>are</i> good!" Peggy never lost a moment
+in sampling an apple, and her teeth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+now met in the firm, crisp flesh with every
+sign of approval.</p>
+
+<p>"Benoni! about the best fall apple there
+is, round these parts; that is, for any one as
+likes 'em crips. Some prefer a sweet apple,
+but I like a fruit that's got some sperit in it,
+same as I do folks. Well, I wish you all
+good appetite; I must be goin' back to my
+hoein' lesson, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Jacob, have you seen Jerry and Phil,
+lately?" asked Gertrude.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I ain't. Yes I hev, too. They went
+rocketin' past me this noon, and give me
+some sarse as they went, and I give it 'em
+back. I ain't seen 'em sence. They're up to
+mischief, wherever they be, you can count on
+that."</p>
+
+<p>Jacob diffused his smile again, and withdrew.
+The girls, still eating their apples,
+turned eagerly to Mrs. Meadows. "Now, Mrs.
+Meadows," they said, "we must go on
+with our lesson. Margaret, sit down and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+learn with us; you know you want to
+learn."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret. "But I
+don't think I'd better now, girls. Willy came
+up with me, and he is waiting for me outside;
+I promised to look at a nest he has found,
+and I don't like to disappoint him. May
+I come some other day, please, Mrs.
+Meadows?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I guess you may!" said Mrs.
+Meadows. "Sorry to have ye go now, but
+glad to see ye next time, and so you'll find it
+nine days in the week, Miss Montfort. Good
+day to ye, if ye must go."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret shook the good woman's hand,
+nodded gaily to the girls, and went out, to
+find Willy sitting patiently on the fence.</p>
+
+<p>"Was I a very long time, Willy?" she
+asked. "I thought you might have got out
+of patience and gone home."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Willy, soberly. "You were a
+good while, but then, girls always are. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+a fellow has sisters, you know, he gets used
+to waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! indeed!" said Margaret, much
+amused.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Willy. "I don't think girls
+have much idea of time, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Willy, I don't know that I have
+ever considered the question. You see, I
+have always been a girl myself, so perhaps
+I am not qualified to judge. But&mdash;do you
+think boys have so very much more idea?
+It seems to me I know some one who has
+been late for tea several times this week."</p>
+
+<p>Willy looked conscious. "Well," he said,
+"I know; but that is different. When you
+are late for tea,&mdash;I mean when a boy is,&mdash;he
+is generally doing something that he wants
+very much indeed to get through with, fishing,
+or splicing a bat, or something that
+really has to be done. Besides, he knows
+they won't wait tea for him, so it doesn't
+make any difference."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I see!" said Margaret. "And girls are
+never doing anything important. Aren't you
+rather severe on us, Willy?"</p>
+
+<p>Willy was about to reassure her kindly, for
+he was extremely fond of her; but at this
+moment a cheery "Hallo!" was heard, and
+the twins rode up on their bicycles, bright-eyed
+and flushed after a fine spurt.</p>
+
+<p>"Neck and neck!" said Gerald. "Margaret,
+I hope you don't object to being a
+winning-post. That was a great run."</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been?" asked Margaret,
+as the two dismounted and walked along on
+either side of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Over to the Corners, to send a telegram
+for the Pater. And thereby hangs a tale."</p>
+
+<p>"May we hear it? We love a tale, don't
+we, Willy?"</p>
+
+<p>Willy did not look particularly enthusiastic,
+but he murmured something, which Gerald
+did not wait to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the Pater desired to send a telegram,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+even winged words, to that man who has
+been trying to send us shellac for the last
+three weeks, and who has, we fear, broken
+down from the strain. A neat despatch it
+was: 'Send to-morrow, or not at all.&mdash;M.
+Merryweather.' Well, we had just sent it,
+when we heard some one behind us say, '<i>Oh</i>,
+gosh!' in a tone of such despair that we
+turned round to see if it was the shellac man
+in person. It was little Bean, the pitcher of
+the Corners team, all dressed up in his baseball
+togs, scarlet breeches and blue shirt,
+quite the bird of paradise, and reading a yellow
+telegram, and his face black as thunder.
+He was an impressionist study, wasn't he,
+Fergy? We asked what was up, or rather
+down, for elevation had no part in him. It
+appeared that a match was on for this afternoon,
+between the Baked Beans and the
+Sweet Peas, the Corners and the Spruce Point
+team. The Beans were all here except the
+pitcher and first-baseman, brothers, who were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+to come over by themselves, as they lived at
+some distance from the rest of the team; and
+this telegram conveyed the cheering information,
+that, instead of coming over, they had
+come down with mumps, and were, in point
+of fact, in their little beds."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a shame!" said Margaret.
+"Poor lads! and mumps are such a distressing
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I rejoice to see that you also get your
+singular and plural mixed in regard to
+mumps," said Gerald. "You are human,
+after all. But to tell the truth, I don't know
+that sympathy with the mumpers was the
+prevailing sentiment at the Corners."</p>
+
+<p>"Gee! I should think not," said Phil.
+"This was the match of the season, you see,
+Margaret. The farmers had come from far
+and near, and brought their wives and babies;
+and the Corner fellows had got this gorgeous
+uniform made, and bought out all the
+red flannel in the county; and here were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+these two wretched chumps down with
+mumps."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but Phil," cried Margaret, "they
+didn't do it on purpose, poor things; and
+think how they were suffering! You are
+heartless, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"They would have suffered more if the
+Baked Beans had got hold of them," said
+Phil, with a grin; "or the other fellows
+either, for that matter. But as it turned out,
+it was the best thing that could have happened
+for the Beans. He wasn't much of a
+pitcher."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Willy, beginning
+to be interested. "Did they get
+another pitcher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did they? Well, I should remark! I let
+on in a casual way that the former pitcher of
+a certain college team was not more than a
+hundred miles from the spot at that moment.
+You should have seen that fellow's face, Margaret.
+It really was a study. Perfect bewilderment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+for a minute, and then&mdash;well, I
+believe he would have gone down on all fours
+and carried Jerry to the field if he would not
+have gone in any other way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! please, Phil. I am bewildered, too.
+Is Gerald a&mdash;a pitcher?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is he? My child, he is the great original
+North American jug."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pooh!" said Gerald. "Don't be an
+ass, Ferguson! You are as good a first-baseman
+as I am pitcher, any day. Of course we
+were glad to help them out, though I drew
+the line at scarlet breeches. My mother's
+angry shade hovered above me and forbade.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"'Go fight in fortune's deepest ditches,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But oh, avoid the scarlet breeches!'</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>I could hear her say it. So I told him that
+my hair and my temper were the only red I
+ever wore, and he submitted, though sadly.
+So we played; and it was a great game. And
+we smote them hip and thigh, even to the
+going down of the sun; or would have, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+the day had been shorter. Phil made three
+runs, Will."</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry made three more Will," said Phil;
+"and pitched like one o'clock, I tell you. I
+never saw you play better, Obadiah. Those
+last balls were perfect peaches. I wish you
+had seen the game, Margaret."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I," said Margaret. "I have never
+seen a game of baseball."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I say!" cried Phil and Willy. "What
+a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you live?" asked Willy, in such
+open wonder and commiseration that the
+others all laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"She lives in an enchanted castle, Willy,"
+said Gerald; "with a magician who keeps
+her in chains&mdash;of roses and pearls. He has
+two attendant spirits who help to keep her in
+durance that is not precisely vile. How is
+Mrs. Cook, Margaret? Do you know, you
+have hardly told me anything about Fernley
+all this time? I want to know ever so many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+things. What became of the pretty lady whose
+house was burned? Do you remember that?
+I never shall forget it as long as I live."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret, blushing.
+"She is still abroad, Gerald. I doubt if she
+ever returns, or at least not for a long time.
+She is well, and really happy, I think. Isn't
+it wonderful?"</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't see Miss Wolfe come down the
+ladder!" said Gerald. "That was the most
+wonderful thing I ever saw. Just as she
+stepped out on the window-sill, the fire caught
+the hem of her skirt. I thought she was gone
+that time. I was just going to drop you and
+run, when she stooped and squeezed the skirts
+together&mdash;woollen skirts, fortunately&mdash;and
+put it out; and then came swinging down
+that rope to the ladder, and down the ladder
+to the ground, as if she had been born in a
+circus. I tell you, that was something to see.
+Pity you missed it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did she miss it?" asked Willy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+"And what do you mean by dropping her,
+Jerry?"</p>
+
+<p>Gerald, whose eyes were shining with the
+excitement of recollection, turned and looked
+down at his small brother as if suddenly recalling
+his existence.</p>
+
+<p>"Margaret was&mdash;busy!" he said, briefly.
+"And, I say, Father William, don't you want
+to take my biky down and give him a feed
+of oats? he is hungry. See him paw the
+ground!" and he gave the bicycle a twirl.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go," said Phil, remounting his
+own. "Come along, Willy, and I'll race you
+to Camp."</p>
+
+<p>But for once Willy held back. "I was
+going to take Margaret to see a redwing's
+nest," he said. "I promised her I would."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Margaret will excuse you," said Phil.
+"Won't you, Margaret? Redwings' nests always
+look better in the morning, besides.
+Come on, boy, and I'll tell you all about the
+game."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Willy still hesitated, looking at Margaret;
+and she in her turn hesitated, blushing rosy
+red. "Don't let me keep you, Willy dear,"
+she said. "If you would like to hear about
+the game&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Go on</i>, young un!" said Gerald, in a tone
+of decision so unlike his usual bantering way,
+that Willy stared, then yielded; and slowly
+mounting the bicycle, started off with Phil
+along the road.</p>
+
+<p>They rode for some time in silence, Phil
+being apparently lost in thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Willy at last, in an injured
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it, Belted Will?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were going to tell me about
+the game," said Willy, moodily. "I say,
+Phil! I think it was awfully rude of you and
+Jerry to yank me off that way, when I had
+promised Margaret to take her somewhere,
+and we were going straight there when
+you came along and broke in. I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+think that's any kind of way to do, and
+I am sure Ma would say so, too. What
+do you suppose Margaret thinks of me
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ri tum ti tum ti tido!" carolled Phil.
+"What do I suppose she thinks of you, Belted
+One? Why, she thinks you are one of the
+nicest boys she ever saw; and so you are,
+when not in doleful dumps. See here, old
+chap! you'll be older before you are younger,
+and some day you will know a hawk from a
+handsaw, <i>or</i> hernshaw, according to which
+reading of 'Hamlet' you prefer. And now
+as to this game!"</p>
+
+<p>He plunged into a detailed account of the
+great match, and soon Willy's eyes were sparkling,
+and his cheeks glowing, and he had forgotten
+all about Margaret and the redwing's
+nest.</p>
+
+<p>But as they crested the hill, which on the
+other side dipped down to the camp, Phil
+glanced back along the road. Margaret and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+Gerald were walking slowly, deep in talk, and
+did not see the wave of his hand. "Heigh,
+ho!" said Phil; but he smiled even while he
+sighed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE DOWN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> afternoon, when most of the campers
+were off fishing, Margaret wandered alone up
+to the top of the great down behind the camp.
+Thoroughly in love with the camp life as she
+was, in most of its aspects, she could not learn
+to care for fishing. To sit three, four, five
+hours in a boat, on the chance of killing a
+harmless and beautiful creature, did not, she
+protested, appeal to her; and many a lively
+argument had she had on the subject with
+Bell and Gertrude, who were ardent fisher-maidens.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Margaret, it is the sport!" Bell
+would cry. "It isn't just killing, it is
+sport!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Bell, if the sport does not amuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+me!" Margaret would answer. "If I want
+to kill something, I would rather kill spiders,
+though I am trying not to be so afraid of
+them&mdash;or mosquitoes."</p>
+
+<p>Then the girls would cry out that she was
+hopeless, and would gather up their reels and
+rods and leave her to her own peaceful devices,
+having even the generosity not to twit
+her with inconsistency when she enjoyed her
+delicately-fried perch at supper.</p>
+
+<p>These solitary afternoons were sure to be
+pleasant ones for Margaret. She loved the
+merry companionship of the campers, but she
+loved, too, to wander through the woods,
+among the great straight-stemmed pines and
+dark feathery hemlocks, or to track the little
+clear brook through its windings, from the
+great bog to its outlet into the lake; or, as
+now, to stroll about over the great down, looking
+down on the blue water below.</p>
+
+<p>It was a perfect afternoon. Little white
+clouds drifted here and there over the tops of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+the wooded hills, but they only made the sky
+more deeply and intensely blue. There was
+just enough breeze to ripple the water so that
+it caught every sunbeam, and set it dancing
+on the tremulous surface. Below her a fish-hawk
+poised and dipped, seeking his dinner;
+far out, two black specks showed where her
+friends were at their "sport." Margaret drew
+a long breath of content.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pleasant place!" she said. "How
+glad I am that I am not in that boat. Oh,
+pleasant place!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked about her with happy eyes.
+Before her, the earth fell away in an abrupt
+descent to the lake, steep enough to be dignified
+by the name of precipice; but behind
+and on either hand it rolled away in billowy
+slopes of green, crowned here and there with
+patches of wood, and crossed by irregular lines
+of stone wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret a
+third time. "How many beautiful places I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+know! What a wonderful world of beauty it
+is!"</p>
+
+<p>Her mind went back to Fernley House, the
+beloved home where she lived with her uncle
+John Montfort: to the rose-garden, where
+they loved to work together, the sunny lawns,
+the shady alleys of box and laurel, the arbors
+of honeysuckle and grape-vine. She could
+almost see the beloved uncle, pruning-knife in
+hand, bending over his roses; if only he did
+not cut back the Ramblers too far! She could
+almost see her little cousins, her children, as
+she called them, Basil and Susan D., running
+about with their butterfly-nets, shouting and
+calling to each other. Did they think of her,
+as she hourly thought of them? Did Uncle
+John miss her? She must always miss him,
+no matter how happy she might be with other
+friends. A wave of homesickness ran through
+her, and brought the quick tears to her eyes;
+but she brushed them away with an indignant
+little shake of her head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Goose!" she said. "When will you learn
+that it is a physical impossibility to be in two
+places at once? You don't want to leave this
+beautiful place and these dear people yet? Of
+course, you don't! Well, then, don't behave
+so! But all the same, it would be good to
+hear Uncle John's voice!"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment she heard,&mdash;not the beloved
+voice for which she longed,&mdash;but certainly
+a sound, breaking the stillness of the
+afternoon; a sound made neither by wind nor
+water. It did not sound like a bird, either;
+nor&mdash;a beast?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, to be sure!" thought Margaret. "It
+may be a sheep. I saw the flock up there this
+morning. Of course, it is a sheep."</p>
+
+<p>The sound came again, louder this time, and
+nearer; something between a snorting and a
+blowing; it must be a very large sheep to
+make such a loud noise.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret turned to look behind her; but it
+was not a sheep that she saw.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Just behind the rock on which she was sitting
+the land rose in a high, green shoulder,
+on the farther side of which it sloped gradually
+down to a little valley. Over this shoulder
+now appeared&mdash;a head! A head five times
+as big as that of the biggest sheep that ever
+bore fleece; a head crowned by long, sharp,
+dangerous-looking horns. And now, as Margaret
+sat transfixed with terror, another head
+appeared, and another, and still another; till
+a whole herd of cattle stood on the ridge
+looking down at her.</p>
+
+<p>Jet black, of colossal size, with gleaming
+eyes and quivering nostrils, they were formidable
+creatures to any eyes; but to poor
+Margaret's they were monsters as terrible as
+griffin or dragon. All cattle, even the mildest
+old Brindle that ever stood to be milked, were
+objects of dire alarm to her, but she had never
+seen animals like these. Tales of the wild
+cattle of Chillingham, of the fierce herds that
+roam the Western prairies and the pampas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+of the South, rushed to her mind. She felt
+fear stealing over her, a wild, unreasoning
+panic which neither strength nor reason could
+resist. She dared not move; she dared not
+cry out for help; indeed, who was there to
+hear if she did cry? She sat still on her rock,
+her hands clasped together, her eyes, wide with
+terror, fixed on the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The leader of the herd met her gaze with
+one which to her excited fancy seemed threatening
+and sinister. For a moment he stood
+motionless; then, tossing his head with its
+gleaming horns, and uttering another loud
+snort, he took a step toward her; the rest followed.
+Another step and another. Margaret
+glanced wildly around her. On one side was
+the precipice, on either hand a wide stretch of
+open meadow; no hope of escape. She must
+meet her death here, then, alone, with no human
+eye to see, no human hand to help her in
+her extremity. She crouched down on the
+rock, and covered her eyes with her hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+The cattle drew nearer. Snuffing the air, tossing
+their horns, with outstretched necks and
+eager eyes, step by step they advanced. Now
+they were close about her, their giant forms
+blocking the sunlight, their gleaming eyes
+fixed upon her. Margaret felt her senses deserting
+her; but suddenly&mdash;hark! another
+sound fell on her ear; a sound clear, resonant,
+jubilant; the sound of a human voice,
+singing:</p>
+
+<div class='poem'>
+"I'm an honest lad, though I be poor,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And I niver was in love afore&mdash;"</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<p>"<i>Gerald!</i>" cried Margaret. "Gerald,
+help!" and she dropped quietly off the rock,
+under the very feet of the black cattle.</p>
+
+<p>When she came to herself, she was propped
+against the rock, and Gerald was fanning her
+with his cap and gazing at her with eyes of
+anxiety and tenderness, which yet had a
+twinkle in their depths.</p>
+
+<p>"Better?" he asked, as he had asked once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+before under somewhat similar circumstances.
+"Do say you are better, please! The house
+isn't on fire this time, and neither is the
+Thames."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret struggled into a sitting posture.
+"Oh! Gerald," she said, "I am so ashamed!
+You will think I am always fainting, and,
+indeed, I never have in all my life except
+these two times. But they were so terrible&mdash;ah!
+there they are still."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the herd of cattle was standing
+near, still gazing with gleaming eyes; but,
+somehow, the look of ferocity was gone. She
+could even see&mdash;with Gerald beside her&mdash;that
+they were noble-looking creatures.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" said Gerald. "Don't call them
+terrible; you will hurt their poor old feelings.
+I know them of old, Horatio; fellows of
+infinite jest."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they&mdash;are they tame?" asked Margaret,
+in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Tame? I should say so. Look at this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+fellow! I have known him from a calf.
+Did um want um's nosy rubbed?" he added,
+addressing the huge leader, who was snuffing
+nearer and nearer. "Come along, then, Popolorum
+Tibby, and tell um's prettiest aunt
+not to be afraid of um any more."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but they came all around me!"
+said poor Margaret.</p>
+
+<p>"Small blame to them! Showed their
+good sense, not to say their taste. But to be
+wholly candid, they came for salt."</p>
+
+<p>"For salt? Those great monsters?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure! Ellis, the farmer, makes
+regular pets of them, and I always put a
+lump of salt in my pocket when I am coming
+their way. I never saw them in this pasture
+before, though; the fence must be broken.
+I believe I have some grains of salt left now.
+See him take it like a lady!"</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand, with a little heap of
+salt in it. The huge ox came forward, stepping
+daintily, with neck outstretched and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+nostrils spread; put out a tongue like a pink
+sickle, and neatly, with one comprehensive
+lick, swept off every particle of salt, and
+looked his appreciation.</p>
+
+<p>Gerald patted the great muzzle affectionately.</p>
+
+<p>"Good old Blunderbore!" he said. "I
+almost carried you when you were a day old,
+though you may not believe it. Come, Margaret,
+give him a pat, and say you bear no
+malice."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret put out a timid hand and patted
+the great black head. Blunderbore snuffed
+and blew, and expressed his friendliness in
+every way he could.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he is a dear, gentle creature!"
+said the girl. "I shall never be afraid of
+him again. And yet&mdash;oh, Gerald, I am so
+glad you came!"</p>
+
+<p>"So am I!" said Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," Margaret went on, "of course,
+I see how silly and foolish I was; but all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+same, I was terribly frightened, and I really
+don't know what would have become of me if
+you had not come, Gerald."</p>
+
+<p>"But I did come, Margaret! I will always
+come, whenever you want me, if it is
+across the world."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;you must think me so <i>very</i> silly,
+Gerald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish to know what I think of
+you?" asked Gerald.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Because, for the insignificant sum of two
+cents, I would tell you," he went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't two cents with me," said Margaret.
+"I think it is time to go home now,
+Gerald."</p>
+
+<p>"Generosity is part of my nature," said
+Gerald; "I'll tell you for nothing. Margaret&mdash;sit
+down, please!"</p>
+
+<p>Margaret had risen to her feet. The words
+had the old merry ring, but a deep note
+quivered in his voice. The girl was afraid,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+she knew not of what; afraid, yet with a fear
+that was half joy. "I&mdash;I must go, Gerald,
+indeed!" she said, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not go," said Gerald, gravely.
+"It is not all play, Margaret, between you
+and me. My cap and bells are off now, and
+you must hear what I have to say."</p>
+
+<p>Margaret, still hesitating, looked up in his
+face, and saw something there that brought
+the sweet color flooding over her neck and
+brow, so swift and hot that instinctively she
+hid her face in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>But gently, tenderly, Gerald Merryweather
+drew the slender hands away, and held them
+close in his own.</p>
+
+<p>"My dearest girl," said the young man,
+"my dearest love, you are not afraid of me?
+Sit down by me; sit down, my Margaret, and
+let me tell you what my heart has been saying
+ever since the day I first saw you."</p>
+
+<p>So dear Margaret sat down, perhaps because
+she could hardly stand, and listened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+And the black cattle listened, too, and so did
+the fish-hawk overhead, and the little birds
+peeping from their nest in the birch wood
+close at hand; but none of them ever told
+what Gerald said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SNOWY OWL</h3>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">I think</span> it is a horrid bother, if you want
+to know!" said Willy.</p>
+
+<p>"Willy Merryweather! aren't you ashamed
+of yourself? I never heard anything so
+odious, when we are all so happy, and everything
+is so perfectly lovely. I don't see what
+you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care, it <i>is</i> a bother. Nothing is
+the way it used to be; it's all nothing but
+spooning, all over the lot."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not think you would use vulgar
+expressions, anyhow, Willy."</p>
+
+<p>"'Spooning' isn't vulgar," said Willy,
+sulkily. "I've heard Pa say it, so there!
+And&mdash;look here, Kitty! Of course, it's all
+corking, and so on, and anyhow, girls like that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+kind of fuss; but it does spoil everything, I
+tell you. Why, Pa couldn't get a crew for
+the war canoe yesterday. He wanted to go
+to Pine Cove&mdash;at least I did, awfully, and
+he said all right, so we would; and then
+Jerry was off with Margaret in the <i>Keewaydin</i>,
+and Bell and Jack were out in the woods
+fiddling, and Peggy and Phil&mdash;I say, Kitty!
+You don't suppose <i>they</i> are going to get
+spoony, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>Kitty looked very wise, and pursed her lips
+and nodded her head with an air of deep
+mystery.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't!" repeated Willy, looking
+aghast.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Willy!" said Kitty. "Don't say
+a word! don't breathe it to anybody! I hope&mdash;I
+<i>think</i> they are!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a mean, horrid shame!" cried Willy,
+indignantly. "I do think it is disgusting."</p>
+
+<p>His sister turned on him with flashing eyes.
+"It is you that is the shame!" she cried. "It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+is you who ought to be ashamed, Willy. Do
+you want poor Phil to be all alone when Jerry
+is married? Do you know that twins sometimes
+pine away and <i>die</i>, Willy Merryweather,
+when the other of them dies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jerry isn't going to die," said Willy,
+uncomfortably. "What nonsense you talk,
+Kitty."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, marries. I should think very likely
+they would, then, if they didn't get married
+themselves. I think you are perfectly heartless,
+Willy. And dear Peggy, too, so nice and
+jolly! and if she goes away back out West
+<i>without</i> falling in love with Phil, we may
+never, never see her again; and she has
+promised me a puppy of the very next litter
+Simmerimmeris has. So there!"</p>
+
+<p>Willy was silent for a moment, kicking the
+pebbles thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think she is&mdash;that?" he asked
+at length, shamefacedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I don't <i>know!</i>" said Kitty, judicially.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+"Of course very likely nothing is
+positively decided yet; but I am sure she likes
+him very, very much, and he takes her out
+whenever he has a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"There's nobody else for him to take out,"
+put in Willy; "the others are all spoon&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Willy, don't be tiresome! and just think!
+if they should get married and go to live out
+West, then you and I could both go out to see
+them, and ride all the ponies, and punch the
+cows, and have real lassoes, and&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The children were coming home through
+the wood. Kitty's voice had gradually risen,
+till now it was a shrill squeak of excitement;
+but at this moment it broke off suddenly, for
+there was a rustling of branches, and the next
+moment Gertrude stood before them with
+grave looks.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear chicks," she said, "you must not
+talk so loud. I was in the pine parlor, and
+could not help hearing the last part of what
+you were saying. And anyhow, I would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+talk about such things, if I were you. Suppose
+Peggy had been with me! How do you think
+she would have felt? Mammy would
+not like to have you gossiping in this foolish
+way."</p>
+
+<p>The children hung their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Toots," said Kitty, "I am sorry! I
+didn't realize that we were getting anywhere
+near the house. We were only thinking&mdash;at
+least I was&mdash;how lovely it would be if
+Peggy and Phil should&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Kitty dear, hush!" said Gertrude, decidedly.
+"You would better not think, and
+you certainly <i>must not</i> talk, about anything of
+the kind. There are enough real love-affairs
+to interest you, you little match-maker, without
+your building castles in the air. Let
+Peggy and Phil alone!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think there were!" said Willy.
+"That's just what I was saying, Toots; it's
+nothing but spooning, all over the place.
+There's no fun anywhere; this wretched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+love-making spoils everything. <i>I</i> think it's
+perfectly childish."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you, Willy dear?" said his sister; and
+her smile was very sweet as she laid her hand
+on the boy's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do. Here are the white perch rising
+like a house afire, and I can't get a soul
+to go with me. It was just the same yesterday,
+and it's like that almost every day now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Willy! I'll go with you," cried Kitty,
+eagerly. "Why didn't you tell me the perch
+were rising? Let's come right along this minute.
+Toots will help us with the boat, won't
+you, Toots?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'll help!" said the Snowy Owl.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later the white boat was speeding
+on her way to the fishing-ground, the
+little rowers bending to their oars, chattering
+merrily as they went.</p>
+
+<p>"That's one comfort!" Willy was saying.
+"We've got Toots. Nobody will get her away
+from us."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not," said Kitty. "There's
+nobody good enough, in the first place; and
+besides, of course somebody must stay with
+Papa and Mamma."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you will be grown up yourself
+some day!" said Willy, gruffly.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be likely to marry very young,"
+said Kitty, seriously. "I heard Aunt Anna
+say so."</p>
+
+<p>Gertrude stood on the wharf, looking after
+the retreating boat. "Poor Willy!" she said,
+with a smile; "it <i>is</i> hard on him!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked around her. It was afternoon,
+a still, golden day. The lake was as she loved
+best to see it, a sheet of living crystal, here
+deep blue, here glittering in gold and diamonds,
+here giving back shades of crimson
+and russet from the autumn woods that
+crowded down to the water's edge. Far out,
+her eye caught a white flash, the gleam of a
+paddle; there was another, just at the bend of
+the shore; and was that dark spot the prow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+of a third canoe, moored in the fairy cove of
+Birch Island? Gertrude smiled again, and
+her smile said many things.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she raised her arms above her
+head, and brought them down slowly, with a
+powerful gesture. "How good it would be to
+fly!" she said, dreamily. "To fly away up
+to the iceberg country, where the snowy owls
+live!"</p>
+
+<p>She stood for a long time silent, gazing out
+over the shining water. At last she shook
+herself with a little laugh, and turned away.
+The white canoe, her own especial pet, was
+lying on the wharf. She launched it carefully,
+then taking her paddle, knelt down in
+the bow. A few long, swift strokes, and the
+canoe shot out over the lake, and rested like a
+great white bird with folded wings, then
+glided slowly on again. It was a pity there
+was none to see, for the picture was a fair
+one: the stately maiden kneeling, her golden
+hair sweeping about her, her white arms rising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+and falling slowly, rhythmically, in perfect
+grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Tu-whoo!" said the Snowy Owl.</p>
+
+<p>But only the loon answered her.</p>
+
+
+<h2>THE END.</h2>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+<div class='bbox'><div class='bbox2'>
+<h2>BOOKS FOR GIRLS</h2>
+
+<h3>By Laura E. Richards</h3>
+</div><div class='bbox2'>
+
+<h3><i>The</i> MARGARET SERIES</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="The Margaret Seriex">
+<tr><td align='left'>Three Margarets</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Margaret Montfort</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Peggy</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 6em;">Rita</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Fernley House</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='bbox2'>
+<h3><i>The</i> HILDEGARDE SERIES</h3>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="The Hildegarde Series">
+<tr><td align='left'>Queen Hildegarde</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hildegarde's Holiday</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hildegarde's Home</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hildegarde's Neighbors</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Hildegarde's Harvest</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</div><div class='bbox2'>
+<div class='center'><b>
+DANA ESTES &amp; COMPANY<br />
+Publishers<br />
+Estes Press, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Summer St.,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Boston</b></div>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+<div class='bbox'><div class='bbox2'>
+<h2>The Captain January Series</h2>
+
+<h3>By LAURA E. RICHARDS</h3>
+</div><div class='bbox2'>
+<div class='center'>Over 350,000 copies of these books have been sold</div>
+</div><div class='bbox2'>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Captain January Series">
+<tr><td align='left'>CAPTAIN JANUARY</td><td align='right'>$ .50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition</span></td><td align='right'>1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Same. Centennial Edition Limited</span></td><td align='right'>2.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MELODY</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition</span></td><td align='right'>1.25</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>MARIE</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>ROSIN THE BEAU</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>NARCISSA</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SOME SAY</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>JIM OF HELLAS</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>SNOW WHITE</td><td align='right'>.50</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+</div><div class='bbox2'><div class='center'>
+Each volume attractively bound in cloth, with<br />
+handsome new cover design. Frontispiece by<br />
+Frank T. Merrill</div>
+</div><div class='bbox2'>
+<div class='center'><b>
+DANA ESTES &amp; COMPANY<br />
+Publishers<br />
+Estes Press, &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Summer St.,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Boston</b></div>
+</div></div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,5737 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Merryweathers
+
+Author: Laura E. Richards
+
+Illustrator: Julia Ward Richards
+
+Release Date: May 17, 2008 [EBook #25505]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRYWEATHERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+[Illustration: "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL."]
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+BY
+
+LAURA E. RICHARDS
+
+        AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN
+        HILDEGARDE," "GEOFFREY STRONG," ETC.
+
+  =Illustrated by=
+  JULIA WARD RICHARDS
+
+[Illustration]
+
+        BOSTON
+        DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+        PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+        _Copyright, 1904_
+        BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+
+        =Colonial Press=
+        Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
+        Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                TO
+
+           H. H. F., Jr.
+
+     WITH AFFECTIONATE GREETING.
+
+
+
+
+FOR REMEMBRANCE
+
+
+          The sunlight falls in gold upon the golden fields,
+        The ruffling wave gives back the sky in blue;
+          The asters fringe the meadow's skirts in purple pride,
+        And proud the goldenrod is standing, too.
+
+          Oh! clear and far across the lonely water,
+        The wild bird calls his mate at close of day;
+          My heart cries out, my heart cries out in answer,
+        And oh, I fondly think of them that's far away.
+
+          Oh, fair the fields where now their feet are treading!
+        Oh, green the trees that blossom o'er their head!
+          Oh, deep and sweet the skies above them spreading,
+        And on their hearth the fire-glow warm and red!
+
+          Still may they hear, across the lonely water,
+        The wild bird call his mate at close of day;
+          Still may their hearts, still may their hearts make answer;
+        Still may they kindly think of them that's far away!
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+     I. THE ARRIVAL                                   11
+
+    II. THE CAMP                                      26
+
+   III. AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN                      39
+
+    IV. AFTER THE PICNIC                              55
+
+     V. KITTY AND WILLY                               75
+
+    VI. A DISCUSSION                                  90
+
+   VII. WATER PLAY                                   106
+
+  VIII. THE MAIL                                     119
+
+    IX. MR. BELLEVILLE                               138
+
+     X. PUPPY PLAY                                   155
+
+    XI. MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL                    171
+
+   XII. "SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT"         186
+
+  XIII. ABOUT VISITING                               204
+
+   XIV. MOONLIGHT AGAIN                              220
+
+    XV. CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS                    239
+
+   XVI. ON THE DOWN                                  259
+
+  XVII. THE SNOWY OWL                                273
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                           PAGE
+
+  "'TU-WHOO!' SAID THE SNOWY OWL" (_See page 281_)  _Frontispiece_
+
+  "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS'"              28
+
+  "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"                                81
+
+  "'COME ON! COME IN!'"                                    107
+
+  "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH"          138
+
+  MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL                                175
+
+  "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I"                217
+
+  "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE
+      MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE"                               233
+
+
+
+
+THE MERRYWEATHERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE ARRIVAL
+
+
+"OH, Peggy, I am afraid!"
+
+"Why, Margaret!"
+
+"Yes, I am. I feel very shy and queer, going among strangers. You see, I
+have never really been away in my life; never in this way, I mean. I was
+always with father; and then--afterward--I went to Fernley; and though
+so many people have come into my life, dear, delightful people, I have
+never somehow gone into theirs. And now, to go into a whole great big
+family, only two of whom--I mean which--oh, dear me! I don't know what I
+mean, but I have only seen two of them, you know, and it is formidable,
+you will admit, Peggy."
+
+"Well, I feel just a scrap queer myself," said Peggy; "but I never
+thought you would. And anyhow, we needn't; we both know the boys so
+well, and though you have not actually seen the Snowy, you really know
+her very well. Darling thing! Oh, I cannot wait till we get there! Do
+you think we ever _shall_ get there, Margaret? This is the longest
+journey I ever made in my life."
+
+"How about the journey from Ohio?"
+
+"Oh, that is different. I know all the places along the road, and they
+slip by before one can think. Besides, a long journey always seems
+shorter, because you know it is long. Well, you needn't laugh, you know
+perfectly well what I mean. Oh, Margaret, I saw a glimpse of blue behind
+the trees. Do you suppose that is the lake? do you think we are nearly
+there? Oh! I am so excited! Is my hat on straight?"
+
+Margaret Montfort, by way of reply, straightened her cousin's hat, and
+then proceeded to administer sundry coaxing pats to her hair and her
+ribbons.
+
+"You are a trifle flyaway, dear!" she said. "There! now, when you have
+taken the black smut off your nose, you will be as trim as possible. Am
+I all right?"
+
+"You!" said Peggy, with a despairing look, as she rubbed away at her
+nose; "as if you ever had a pin or an eyelash out of place! Margaret,
+how _do_ you do it? Why does dust avoid you, and cling to me as if I
+were its last refuge? How do you make your collar stay like that? I
+don't see why I was born a Misfit Puzzle. Oh--ee! there _is_ the lake!
+just look, how blue it is! Oh! Margaret, I _must_ scream!"
+
+"You must _not_ scream!" said Margaret with quiet decision, pulling
+Peggy down into the seat beside her. "You must be good, and sit still.
+See! that old gentleman is watching us, Peggy. He will be scandalized
+if you carry on so."
+
+"He doesn't look a bit scandalized; he looks awfully jolly."
+
+"Peggy!"
+
+"Well, he does, Margaret. Do you suppose Mr. Merryweather is anything
+like that? _Margaret!_"
+
+"What is it, Peggy? _please_ don't speak so loud!"
+
+"Perhaps it _is_ Mr. Merryweather. I think--I am almost perfectly sure
+it must be. Why, he is positively staring at us. It _must_ be Mr.
+Merryweather!"
+
+"Is Mr. Merryweather specially addicted to staring? I should not suppose
+so. This gentleman is not in the least my idea of Mr. Merryweather; and
+if he does stare,--there! he is looking away now,--it is because he sees
+a great big girl dancing and jumping in her seat as if she were Polly
+Peppercorn."
+
+"Next station Merryweather!" chanted the brakeman.
+
+"There! Margaret, he is getting his things together. It is! it _is_, I
+tell you. Oh! I _shall_ scream!"
+
+Peggy's threat was uttered in so loud a stage whisper, that Margaret
+looked up in alarm, fearing that the gentleman must have heard. She met
+a glance so kind, so twinkling with sympathetic merriment, that she
+smiled in spite of herself.
+
+The gentleman lifted his hat, instantly, and stepped forward. He was not
+tall, but broad and muscular, with keen, dark eyes that sparkled under
+shaggy white eyebrows; a most vigorous, positive-looking old gentleman.
+
+"A thousand pardons!" he said, in a deep, gruff voice which was the very
+essence of heartiness. "You also are getting off at Merryweather, young
+ladies? I beg the privilege of assisting you with your parcels; I
+insist upon it! Permit me, madam!" and he took possession of Margaret's
+travelling-bag, Margaret blushing and protesting, while Peggy's blue
+eyes grew to absolute circles, and her little mouth opened to another.
+
+"You are very kind!" said Margaret. "Indeed, I can carry it
+perfectly--thank you so very much! Yes, we are going to Mr.
+Merryweather's camp. Do you know--"
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the old gentleman. "Astonishing! Going there
+myself. Permit me to introduce myself--Colonel Ferrers, at your
+service."
+
+He lifted his hat again, and bowed low.
+
+"Our name is Montfort," said Margaret timidly, attracted and yet alarmed
+by his explosive utterance, so different from the quiet speech of the
+Montfort men.
+
+"Not John's daughters!" cried the Colonel. "I'll be shot if you are
+John's daughters!"
+
+"Oh! no," cried Margaret, her eyes lightening. "Not his daughters, but
+his nieces. Do you know Uncle John, Colonel Ferrers?"
+
+"Know John Montfort? know the nose on my face? not that there is any
+resemblance; fine-looking man. I have known John Montfort, my dear young
+ladies, ever since he was in petticoats. John, Dick, Jim, Roger--fine
+lads! used to stay at Roseholme--my place in Dutchess County--forty
+years ago. School-boys when I was in college. All over the place,
+climbing, hunting, fishing, falling off the roofs--great boys! haven't
+heard of them for twenty years. Where are they now? all living, I--eh,
+what?"
+
+"My father, Roger Montfort, is dead," said Margaret, softly; "so is
+Uncle Richard. Uncle John and Uncle James are living, Colonel Ferrers;
+this is Uncle James's daughter. Peggy dear, Colonel Ferrers! and I live
+with Uncle John at Fernley House. Oh! how delightful to meet some one
+who knows Uncle John!"
+
+"Pleasure is mine, I assure you!" said the Colonel, gallantly. "Harry
+Monmouth! takes me back forty years. Knew Roger, your father, well, Miss
+Montfort. Great scholar; fine fellow! nose in his books all day long,
+just like my brother Raymond; great chums, Roger and Raymond. I remember
+once--ha! here we are!"
+
+"Merryweather!" shouted the brakeman. The train drew up beside a little
+wayside station. On one side of the track, a platform and a shed, with a
+few barrels and boxes lying about; on the other, a long stretch of dark
+blue water, ruffling into brown where the wind swept it.
+
+The three travellers, emerging, found three persons awaiting them on the
+platform. Gerald Merryweather was first, his hand on the rail, his face
+alight with joy and eagerness; close beside him was another person, a
+tall girl in gray, at sight of whom Peggy, who had been apparently
+stricken dumb by the aspect of Colonel Ferrers, shouted aloud and
+tumbled off the car-step, to the imminent peril of life and limb.
+
+"Snowy! Snowy! is it really you?"
+
+"You dear Peggy!" cried Gertrude Merryweather, taking her in her arms,
+and giving her a hearty kiss. "I am _so_ glad! and this is Margaret--oh!
+welcome, most welcome, to Merryweather! Dear Colonel Ferrers, how do you
+do? it was so good of you to come! But where is Hugh? haven't you
+brought him?"
+
+Colonel Ferrers drew her a step aside.
+
+"My dear Gertrude," he said, in a confidential tone, "there is no need
+of my telling _you_ that Hugh is one of the most astonishing--I will say
+_the_ most astonishing boy I ever saw in my life. Expected to come;
+looking forward to it for weeks, greatest pleasure of the summer.
+Yesterday morning, Elizabeth Beadle had an attack of lumbago; painful
+thing; confined to her bed; excellent woman, none better in the world.
+Never could understand why good people should have lumbago; excellent
+complaint for scoundrels; excellent! well, the boy--his great-aunt, you
+understand!--refuses to leave her. Says she likes to have him read to
+her! Preposterous! I insisted, Elizabeth Beadle insisted, with tears in
+her eyes; tears, sir! I mean my dear! Boy immovable; Gibraltar
+vacillating beside him; tottering, sir, on its foundations. I had to
+come away and leave him, perfectly happy, reading Tennyson to Elizabeth
+Beadle. Ask somebody else to coerce a boy like that; Thomas Ferrers is
+not the man for it. Where's my Cochin China Chittagong?"
+
+"Jack?" said Gertrude, laughing. "He is behind the shed, with the
+horses. The old horse doesn't like the train, and will not stand tying.
+As soon as Jerry gets the trunks--"
+
+"Checks?" cried the Colonel, in answer to Gerald's request. "Two of
+them, sir. Sole-leather trunk, green carpet-bag. Anything for me by
+express? box, hamper, basket, that sort of thing, eh, what?"
+
+"I should think there was, sir!" said Gerald. "A basket of peaches as
+big as the camp, or very near it; and a hamper that says 'salmon!' as
+plainly as if it could speak. You're awfully good, sir!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort!" retorted the Colonel. "Pity if I can't have a
+little gratification once in a way. Ah! there is my Cochin China--how
+are you, sir, how are you? prancing, as usual, like an Egyptian
+war-horse. Come here, and be introduced to the Miss Montforts! We are in
+luck, sir! Miss Montfort, Miss--eh? thank you! Miss Peggy Montfort, my
+nephew, John Ferrers. Here sir! take the bags, will you? Which way,
+Gerald? eh? what?"
+
+While the colonel was explaining (and exploding) to Gerald and Gertrude,
+and Margaret looking and listening in quiet amusement, Peggy had been
+hanging back, overcome in her turn by the shyness which her companion
+had conquered. But now Gertrude took her by the hand, and while the
+trunks were being hoisted on the wagon by Gerald and Jack, aided by a
+tall and powerful lad in blue overalls, the two walked up and down the
+little platform in earnest talk. Fragments of it reached Margaret where
+she stood, as they passed and repassed.
+
+"Yes, last week. She is very well, she says, and fluffier than ever, on
+account of the heat. She has enjoyed her school very much. She wanted
+Grace to join her, and I think she might have, if all this had not come
+about. Oh, Peggy, I was so glad!"
+
+"Blissful, my dear, is no word for it! they have no eyes for any one
+else. He can't remember that there is any one else, and she--"
+
+"Well, I always said that if Grace did care for any one--"
+
+"Yes, in October. The wedding is to be at Fernley, and--"
+
+"Anybody coming with me?" inquired Gerald, wistfully. "Margaret, will
+you risk life and limb with me and the old horse?"
+
+"With pleasure!" said Margaret. "Is he very wild? He doesn't look so."
+
+"Only by comparison with the young horse!" said Gerald. "Jacob, don't
+strain your back lifting that carpet-bag!"
+
+Jacob, the youth in blue overalls, smiled calmly, and swung a large
+trunk over his shoulder as if it were a hand-satchel.
+
+"It's you I'm scared about, Gerald," he said slowly; "fear you'll do
+yourself a hurt pulling on the reins. Frank hasn't been out since
+yesterday."
+
+"I'll risk him!" said Gerald. "Now, Margaret." He held out his hand, and
+Margaret stepped lightly up to the seat of the Concord wagon.
+
+"Now," said Gerald, "Jack, if you'll drive the beach-wagon--is that all
+right, Toots?"
+
+"Certainly!" said Gertrude. "Peggy, you and I will sit together behind;
+that is, if you do not mind the front seat, Colonel Ferrers? So! all
+right now, Jack! we'd better let the old horse go first, for he doesn't
+like to stay behind the new one. Oh! Jacob! how are you going home? we
+must make room for you somewhere."
+
+"I'll go across lots," said the blue youth, "and be there to take the
+horses when you get there. You better hurry them up the least mite, so's
+I sha'n't have to wait too long!"
+
+With a benign smile he vaulted over a five-barred gate, and went with a
+long, leisurely stride across the fields.
+
+"He'll run when he gets round the corner!" said Gerald. "I know that's
+the way he does it. Get up, Frank! do _play_ you are alive, just for
+once. Oh, Margaret, I am so glad to see you. I thought September would
+never come. It has been the longest summer I ever knew. Haven't you
+found it so?"
+
+"Why, no!" said truthful Margaret. "It has seemed very short to me."
+
+"Oh, well, of course it has been short too, summers always are; like the
+dachshund!"
+
+"The dachshund!" repeated Margaret. "What can a dachshund have to do
+with summer, Gerald?"
+
+"A description I once heard," said Gerald. "I was walking with Beppo, my
+dachs, and a little boy stopped to look at him. 'Ain't he long?' he
+said. 'My! ain't he short?' Even so summer. Oh, I _am_ glad to see you.
+Get up, Frank!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CAMP
+
+
+[Illustration: "'HERE IS YOURS,' SAID BELL; 'NEXT TO OURS.'"]
+
+A LONG, low, irregular building, with a wide verandah in front, the lake
+rippling and ruffling almost up to the piers; beyond, great hills
+rolling up and away. To right and left, boat-houses and tents; hammocks
+swung between the trees, fishing-rods ranged along the sides of the
+building. This was the Camp. As the wagons drove up, Mrs. Merryweather
+hurried from the house, and Mr. Merryweather and Phil came up with long
+strides from the wharf. Amid a chorus of eager welcome, a babel of
+questions and answers, the travellers were helped out and escorted to
+the verandah.
+
+"Most welcome, all!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "Are you very tired? No?
+that is good! Well, but you must be hungry, I am sure. There are
+doughnuts and milk on the table; or if you would rather have tea--"
+
+"They are not hungry, Miranda!" said Mr. Merryweather. "They cannot be
+hungry at three o'clock. Dined at Wayport, Ferrers? Of course! Jack,
+show your uncle his tent! Miss Montfort--"
+
+"I'll show them the way, Papa!" said Gertrude. "Where is Bell, Mammy?
+Oh, there she is! Bell, here are Margaret and Peggy; girls, this is
+Bell!"
+
+Bell Merryweather, a sturdy, blue-eyed girl with the general aspect of a
+snow apple, greeted the guests with a hearty shake of a powerful hand,
+and a cordial smile.
+
+"We have been looking forward so to your coming!" she said. "Don't you
+want to come out to your tent? Here, I'll take your bag, Margaret; shall
+I say 'Margaret' at once? it will be so much nicer. This way!"
+
+She led the way, Margaret following, Gertrude and Peggy after them,
+still talking eagerly. A row of flagstones led past the boat-house, and
+on under solemn pines and feathery birches to where a line of tents
+stood facing the water.
+
+"Here is yours," said Bell; "next to ours, this big one; we are three,
+you see. Yours is small, but I hope you can be comfortable."
+
+"Comfortable!" echoed Peggy; "I should think so! Oh, Margaret, do look!
+how perfect everything is! Oh, what ducky beds! the red blankets are
+just like home; our boys have red blankets. Oh, I shall be perfectly
+happy here!"
+
+Margaret, accustomed to the wide spaces and ample closets of Fernley
+House, was a little bewildered at the first glance around her. The tent
+was hardly bigger than the stateroom of a moderate-sized steamer. Could
+two persons live here in anything approaching comfort? A second glance
+showed her how compactly and conveniently everything was arranged. The
+narrow cots, with their scarlet blankets and blue check pillows,
+stood on either side; between them was a table, with blotter of birch
+bark, and an inkstand made by hollowing out a quaintly shaped piece of
+wood and sinking in the hollow a small glass tumbler. Above the head of
+each bed hung a long shoe-bag with many pockets, while opposite the foot
+were rows of hooks for dresses, a shelf on which stood pitcher, basin,
+etc., and a chest of drawers. All was fresh, neat, and tidy.
+
+"Yes, I am sure we shall be happy!" said Margaret, repeating Peggy's
+words.
+
+"Here is the hook for your lantern," said Bell. "Here is a little jar
+for crackers, but be sure to keep it covered, or the squirrels will
+carry them off. I hope you will not mind a squirrel coming in now and
+then? they are so tame, they come hopping in to see if we have anything
+for them; I often leave a bit of something."
+
+"Oh! what fun!" said Peggy. "I love to tame squirrels. Ours at home will
+come and eat from our hands. Will yours do that?"
+
+"Not often; at least, not for me. The boys can bring them sometimes. I
+think they like boys best. But I have a dear little field-mouse who
+brings me her babies to look at now and then, just to show me how they
+are growing. There, now, we go on chattering, when I know you ought to
+rest awhile, and unpack and stow away. It takes quite a bit of planning
+for two persons to fit into a tent. By and by, when you are all settled,
+would you like to go out on the water? Hurrah! we'll come for you. Come
+on, Toots!"
+
+The two sisters walked slowly down the long slip that led to the
+floating wharf, and sat down with their feet hanging over the edge.
+
+"Well, Bell!" said Gertrude, eagerly.
+
+"Well!" said Bell, slowly.
+
+"What do you think of them? Isn't she lovely? and isn't Peggy a dear?"
+
+"Yes," said Bell. "I think you have just hit it, Toots. Peggy is a dear;
+just a hearty, jolly dear; but Margaret is lovely. Do you see a little
+hint of Hilda? I can't tell where it is; not in the features, certainly,
+nor in the coloring. I think it is in the brow and eyes; a kind of noble
+look; I don't know how else to put it. You wouldn't say anything false
+or base to this girl, any more than you would to Hilda; you wouldn't
+dare. My lamb! I speak as if falseness and baseness were the usual note
+of your conversation."
+
+"I thought you were a trifle severe," said Gertrude, smiling. "Well,
+anyhow, it is a joy to have them here, and dear Colonel Ferrers, too.
+What shall we do this evening? Here come the boys for a council."
+
+The twins, Gerald and Phil, came running down the wharf, followed by
+Jack Ferrers. The latter, whom some of my readers may have known as an
+awkward, "leggy" boy, was now a man. Very tall, towering three or four
+inches above the six-foot Merryweathers, he still kept his boyish
+slenderness and spring, though the awkward angles were somehow softened
+away. He no longer stooped and shambled, but held his head up and his
+shoulders back; and if he did still prance, as his uncle declared, like
+the Mighty Ones of Scripture, it was not an ungraceful prancing.
+Briefly, Jack Ferrers was a fine-looking fellow.
+
+"Council of War?" asked Gerald; "or do we intrude?"
+
+"Sit down!" said Bell. "We were just beginning to plan the evening. What
+are your ideas, if any?"
+
+The boys--for they were still the boys, even if they had passed one and
+twenty--stretched themselves along the wharf in picturesque attitudes.
+
+"I would sing!" announced Gerald. "Prose will not express my feelings at
+this juncture.
+
+        "My fertile brain is simmering,
+         My fancy's fire is glimmering;
+            I'd fain betake
+            Me to the lake,
+         When bright the moonlight's shimmering.
+
+"Your turn, Ferguson. Go on; the song upraise!"
+
+"Let me see!" said Phil. "Well--on the whole--
+
+        "I can't agree with himmering;
+         _My_ fancy's fire is dimmering;
+            If you would know
+            The thing I'd doe,
+         Methinks I'll go a swimmering."
+
+"Oh! no, Phil," said Gertrude. "Not the very first night the girls are
+here; it will take them a day or two to get used to camp ways, Margaret
+at least; and we want to do something all together, something that
+Colonel Ferrers will like, too. I think--"
+
+"Sing it! sing it!" cried Gerald. "The song upraise, Tintinnabula! no
+escape! 'Trimmering' is still left you."
+
+"Is there only one vowel?" demanded Bell, laughing. "I refuse to be
+fettered. Wait a second!--now I have it.
+
+        "Forbear, forbear your clamoring,
+         And cease this hasty hammering;
+             I think, with Jerry,
+             'Twere wise and merry
+         To row by moonlight glamouring.
+
+Your turn, Toots!"
+
+"I cannot!" said Gertrude. "You know I cannot, Bell. Besides, there
+aren't any more rhymes."
+
+"Oh!" cried Gerald, "you know what you are telling, and you know what
+happens to people who tell them. Perpend, Tootsina!
+
+        "You yodel, yodel yammering,
+         You stutter, stutter stammering;
+             And when you cry,
+             'I will not try!'
+         We know you're only shammering."
+
+"Gracious!" said Gertrude. "Don't you suppose I would make rhymes if I
+could? It's really a dreadful thing to be the only prose member of a
+large family. But Jack comforts me; you can't make them either, can you,
+Jack?"
+
+"Not to save my life!" said Jack. "Never could see how they do it."
+
+"But you can set them to music!" said Gertrude. "That is the delightful
+thing about you."
+
+"And you can illustrate them! That is one of the many delightful things
+about you!" said Jack, with a low bow.
+
+        "'They built it up for forty miles,
+         With mutual bows and pleasing smiles!'"
+
+quoted Gerald. "A truce to this badinage! Compliment, unless paid to
+myself, wearies me. We go, then, in canoes?"
+
+"In canoes!" replied the others in chorus.
+
+"'Tis well! Any special stunts in the way of arrangement?"
+
+"Oh!" said Jack, "in plain prose--Bell, will you come with me? It's our
+turn to get supper, isn't it? and I have an idea--just a little
+one--which we can talk over while we are getting it."
+
+        "Oh, guard it, guard it tenderly,
+            Thy one idea--thy first!"
+
+sang Gerald.
+
+        "And we, the while, console ourselves;
+           'Twill be the last, at worst!
+
+Nay! nay!" he went on, as Jack seized him by the shoulders, and made a
+motion toward the water.
+
+        "Duck not the bard, the tuneful bard,
+            Who all thy soul reveals;
+         To hear the truth, I own, is hard,
+            Yet dry thy tearful squeals!"
+
+"False construction!" said Bell. "You cannot dry squeals."
+
+"They were tearful ones!" Gerald protested. "It was the tears I would
+have dried. Tears, idle tears, I know not whence they come; tears from
+the depth of some despairing fiddler."
+
+"Suppose you dry _up_!" said Jack, dipping Gerald's head lightly in the
+water.
+
+"No ducking between swims!" proclaimed Phil. "Law of the Medes and
+Persians!"
+
+"Besides, it is time to be making the fire!" said Bell, rising. "Leave
+him to his conscience, Jack, and come along!"
+
+"Yes, leave me to me conscience!" said Gerald.
+
+        "'Twill cradle me with songs of Araby;
+         Arrah be aisy! hear it sing to me!"
+
+"Jerry, what _has_ got into you?" asked Gertrude, a few minutes later,
+when Phil had followed the others to the house, leaving the two Reds, as
+their mother called them, together. "Has the rhyming spider bitten you?
+you are really wild!"
+
+"Nice little sister!" said Gerald, rolling over, and resting his head
+on Gertrude's knee. "Nice little red-haired, cream-colored, comfortable
+sister! If I were as good-looking as you, Toots, who knows? As it
+is--but still I am happy, my child, happy! I say! Toots!"
+
+"Yes, Jerry!"
+
+"What do you think of her?"
+
+"Oh, Jerry, she is a darling!"
+
+"_Dixisti!_" cried Gerald. "Thou hast spoken."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+AUF DAS WASSER ZU SINGEN
+
+
+"HARRY MONMOUTH!" said Colonel Ferrers. "This is pleasant. Merryweather,
+you are a lucky dog!" As he spoke, he looked around him, and repeated,
+"A lucky dog, sir!"
+
+The horn had just blown for supper, three long blasts, and already the
+campers were in their places at the long table, with its shining white
+cover. Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather, their six children, Bell, Gertrude,
+and Kitty, Gerald, Philip, and Willy, the two Montforts, with the
+Colonel and his nephew, made a party of twelve, and filled the table
+comfortably, though there was still room for more. The room was a long
+one, with a vast open fireplace stretching half across one side. At one
+end were rows of book-shelves, filled to overflowing; at the other, the
+walls were adorned with models for boats, sketches in water-color and
+pen and ink, birds' nests, curious fungi, and all manner of odds and
+ends. It was certainly a cheerful room, and so Miles Merryweather
+thought, as his eyes followed the Colonel's.
+
+"We like it!" he said, simply. "It suits us, the place and the life.
+It's good for young and old both, to get away from hurry and bustle, and
+live for a time the natural life."
+
+"Nature, sir!" said the Colonel. "Nature! that's it; nothing like it!
+When I was a lad, young men were sent abroad, after their school or
+college course; the grand tour, Paris, Vienna, that sort of thing: very
+good thing in its way, too, monstrous good thing. But before he sees the
+world, sir, a lad should know how to live, as you say, the natural life.
+Ought to know what a tree is when he sees it; upon my soul, he ought.
+Now my milksop--best fellow in the world, I give you my word, except
+that little fellow at home there--well, sir! when he came to me, he
+didn't know the difference between an oak and an elm, give you my word
+he didn't. Remember one day--he heard me giving directions to Giuseppe
+about cutting some ashes--clump of them in the field below the house,
+needed thinning out--and he wanted to know how ashes could be cut;
+thought I meant those in the fireplace, sir. Monstrous! Well, I taught
+him a little, and you and your young folks have taught him a great deal.
+H'm! I don't know that he is now more disgracefully ignorant than
+nine-tenths of the young men of his age. Set of noodles! I'll tell you
+what, Merryweather! You ought to have a kind of summer school here: get
+other boys, a dozen, two dozen; teach 'em to see with their eyes, and
+all the rest of it. I knew a boy once who thought a bat was a bird, give
+you my word I did. And another who thought oysters grew on bushes. Get
+up a school, sir, and I'll come myself, and be a boy again."
+
+"That is a great inducement," said Mr. Merryweather, laughing: "but,
+Colonel, I hope you have brought a boy's appetite with you, at least.
+Who are the cooks to-night, Miranda? Oh, I see; Bell and Jack. Well,
+that is all right, Colonel; they make one of our best combinations. What
+have you there, Jack?"
+
+Jack, in a white cap, and an apron reaching not quite half-way to his
+knees, advanced bearing a mighty dish, from which rose fragrant steam.
+
+"H'm! ha!" said the Colonel, sniffing. "Smells good! you had no hand in
+this, I'll be bound, sir!"
+
+"Indeed, Colonel Ferrers," said Bell, who followed with the teapot and a
+plate piled high with feathery rolls, "it is all Jack's doing, every
+bit. It is his famous pilaff, that the old Greek professor taught him
+to make in Germany; and it is almost the best thing you ever tasted in
+your life."
+
+"H'm!" said the Colonel, frowning heavily, and looking immensely
+pleased. "So this is what he was doing while he was supposed to be
+studying. I always knew the rascal was deceiving me. Ha! it _is_ good;
+it's uncommon good! So you did learn something besides fiddling, eh,
+Jack?"
+
+"Cooking is a part of chemistry, Uncle," said Jack, soberly; "a very
+important part. This dish is chemically prepared, sir; please regard it
+as a demonstration!"
+
+"And please try my fried potatoes as a further demonstration!" said
+Bell. "Margaret, you are not eating anything."
+
+"She never does!" said Peggy.
+
+"Oh!" cried Margaret, "but I never ate so much before. Oh, please not!"
+as Phil tried to heap her plate with potatoes. "They are delicious, but
+I really cannot!"
+
+"I can!" said Gertrude, holding out her plate.
+
+"I'll warrant you!" said Phil. "No one doubted that, sweet Chuck!"
+
+"We do not look for the Camp Appetite till after twenty-four hours,"
+said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give Margaret time! in two days she will eat
+twice as much as she does now."
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" exclaimed the Colonel. "At that rate, it is fortunate
+for you all that I do not outstay my two days. Twice as much as I am
+eating now would clear your larder, dear madam. Yes, thanks,
+Merryweather, a little more!"
+
+"Oh, Colonel Ferrers!"
+
+"Oh, Uncle Tom! you are not going away in two days? We counted on a week
+at least!" cried all in chorus.
+
+"Impossible, dear people, impossible! Like nothing better; enchanted to
+stay all summer; delightful place. But--Elizabeth Beadle's condition,
+you understand; and the boy--I must get back. He is too young to have
+the responsibility. Most amazing boy in the world; I haven't the
+slightest doubt that he is doing her more good than all the doctors in
+the world--parcel of fools, mostly--but still he is too young; I must
+get back."
+
+"Let me go, Uncle!" said Jack.
+
+"Or me, Colonel Ferrers!" cried Gertrude. "Any one of us would love to
+go!"
+
+The Colonel beamed on them with his kindliest smile, but shook his head
+resolutely. "Thanks! thanks!" he said, heartily. "Good children! kind
+and thoughtful children! but I must go. Couldn't be easy, you
+understand."
+
+"The fact is," said Jack, "Uncle Tom cannot be comfortable for more than
+twenty-four hours away from Hugh. After that length of time he becomes
+restive, and symptoms develop which--"
+
+"Hold your tongue, sir!" cried the Colonel. "Nothing of the sort, sir!
+Mrs. Merryweather, I hoped you were teaching this fellow better
+manners. Symptoms, indeed! You have seen no symptoms in me, of anything
+except pure pleasure--pleasure in everything except the gabbling of a
+goose!"
+
+"Surely not, dear friend!" said Mrs. Merryweather, laughing. "But all
+the same, I think I should not try to detain you when once you had made
+up your mind that Hugh needed you."
+
+"All against me!" cried the Colonel. "'The little dogs and all'--I beg
+ten thousand pardons, my dear madam; you know the quotation! Well," he
+added, his face changing suddenly as he turned to Mrs. Merryweather and
+spoke in a lower tone, "fortunate old fellow, eh? to have one young
+face--two, perhaps, for my Giraffe loves me too--brighten when one
+comes. Ah! you, with all your wealth--richest woman of my acquaintance,
+give you my honor!--cannot tell what these boys mean to me. Hilda, too:
+most astonishing how I miss that child! but all your young people are so
+good to me--"
+
+"Colonel!" cried Gertrude from the other end of the table. "Will you
+come with me in my canoe after tea?"
+
+"Will I?" cried the Colonel. "Won't I? Lead the way, my dear!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The young moon shone bright; the lake lay a broad sheet of luminous
+black, with a silver path stretching across it. Four canoes lay beside
+the wharf, and the campers were taking their places. In the birch canoe,
+the original _Cheemaun_, Mrs. Merryweather was going as passenger, with
+her husband and Phil at bow and stern; in the _Nahma_ was Colonel
+Ferrers, with Gertrude and Peggy; Kitty and Willy in the _Rob Roy_,
+Gerald and Margaret in the _Wenonah_.
+
+"All ready?" asked the chief. "Where shall we go? Where are Jack and
+Bell?"
+
+"Oh, they started ahead," said Phil. "They had some stunt on hand, and
+we are to meet them over by the Black Shore."
+
+"Ready--give way all!"
+
+The paddles dipped, the canoes shot out along the silver path, gliding
+swift and silent as spirits. For a time no one spoke. The _Cheemaun_,
+with the powerful arms at either end, took the lead and kept it easily:
+next came the _Nahma_ and the _Rob_, nearly abreast, and vying with each
+other; but the _Wenonah_ lagged behind, and seemed in no special hurry.
+
+"Like it?" asked Gerald, presently.
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, softly.
+
+Gerald gave a little grunt of content, and was silent again. The paddle
+dipped noiseless in the liquid silver, the dark prow crept noiseless
+along the shining way.
+
+"It is another world!" said Margaret presently, still speaking under her
+breath. "I never dreamed of anything like it. A silver world! Oh!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Nothing--I was only thinking--one ought to be very good, to live in a
+world so beautiful as this, Gerald!"
+
+"Some of us are, Margaret!"
+
+Silence again.
+
+"I'm awfully glad you like it!" said Gerald. "I hoped you would.
+I've--I've been looking forward all summer to your coming."
+
+"I was very glad to come," said Margaret, simply. "I was afraid, but I
+was glad, too."
+
+"Afraid? I should like to know what you were afraid of!"
+
+"Oh--I don't know! I have never been with many people, you know. I have
+never seen a large family together before. How happy you all are!"
+
+"That's what we are!" said Gerald. "Especially now! I say, Margaret! the
+child Toots has fallen a victim."
+
+"Fallen a--what do you mean, Gerald? not into the water?"
+
+"Charms!" said Gerald. "Yours. Bowled her over completely. Nice child,
+the child Toots. Think so?"
+
+"I think she looks as good as she is beautiful," said Margaret. "Does
+she really like me? I am very glad, for I know I shall love her."
+
+"Don't you think she is the image of me?" asked Gerald, plaintively.
+
+"No, I never thought of it!" said downright Margaret. "Oh! hark, Gerald;
+what is that? I hear music."
+
+They listened. Directly in front of them lay a deep black shadow, and
+forth from this shadow stole notes of music, low, sweet, almost
+unearthly in their purity and clearness.
+
+"Evidently the stunt of Tintinnabula and the Camelopard!" said Gerald.
+"That is the Black Shore yonder, and the noise is that of the
+Tree-browser's fiddle, in sooth a goodly noise. Approach we along the
+moonglade! that is what we call the wake here. Pretty?"
+
+"Lovely!" murmured Margaret. "Oh! but hush, and listen!"
+
+The other canoes had slackened their speed, and now all four crept on
+abreast over the luminous water. From the black shadow ahead forms began
+to detach themselves, black rocks, dark trees stooping to the water's
+edge, fir and pine, with here and there a white birch glimmering
+ghostlike; and still the music rose, ever clearer and sweeter, thrilling
+on the silent air. It seemed no voice of anything made by man; it was as
+if the trees spoke, the rocks, the water, the very silence itself. But
+now--now another tone was heard; a human voice this time, a full, rich
+contralto, blending with the aerial notes of the violin.
+
+        "Over all the mountains is peace;
+         Among the tree-tops
+         Hardly a breath is stirring;
+         The birds are silent,
+         Silent in the woodland;
+         Only wait! only wait!
+         Soon thou too shalt rest."
+
+"Harry Monmouth!" murmured the Colonel under his breath. "Am I alive, or
+is this the gate of Heaven?"
+
+"Oh! who is it?" whispered Margaret.
+
+"Tintinnabula! rather a neat thing in voices, the Tintinnabula's. Nor
+does the song altogether excite to strenutation. Ah! but that is the
+best yet!"
+
+The notes changed. It was Schubert's Serenade now that rose from voice
+and violin together. No one stirred. The canoes were now close inshore,
+and the long, soft fingers of fir and cedar brushed Margaret's cheek as
+she sat motionless, spellbound. It was a world of soft darkness, black
+upon black: the silver world they had just left seemed almost garish as
+she looked back on it. Here in the cool shadow, the voices of the night
+pouring forth their wonderful melody--"Oh!" she thought; "if this might
+last forever!"
+
+But it was over. Floating round a great rock that stretched far out from
+the shore, they came upon the musicians, their canoe drawn up close to
+the rock.
+
+"Here they are!" cried Willy. "It's Bell and Jack, Kitty; I knew it was.
+You are such a silly!"
+
+"I don't care!" pouted Kitty. "It did sound like nymphs; I am sure that
+is just the way they sound."
+
+"You are quite right, Kitty," said her mother. "Children, you have given
+us a great treat. May we not have some more?"
+
+"Oh, we were only waiting for you," said Bell; "now we must have
+choruses, many of them!"
+
+And lying close together, the paddles stretched across from one canoe to
+another, the Merryweathers sang, to Jack's accompaniment, song after
+song in chorus: German student songs, with merry refrain of "_vivallera
+la_" and "_juch heira sa sa!_" Scottish ballads and quaint old Highland
+boat-songs; till Mr. Merryweather declared that it was time to go home.
+
+So home they went, down the moonglade once more, across the glimmering
+floor of the lake, singing as they went; till, twinkling through the
+fringe of trees, they saw the lights of the Camp, and the long outline
+of the float, and the boats swinging at their moorings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AFTER THE PICNIC
+
+
+"AND what comes next on the programme?" asked the Chief.
+
+"Coma, I should say," replied Colonel Ferrers. "After that watermelon, I
+see nothing else for it. It's my avowed belief that my nephew there
+could not stir if his life depended on it; it stands to reason. The boy
+has eaten more than his own weight. Monstrous!"
+
+"What a frightful calumny!" cried Jack, laughing. "Really, Uncle Tom,
+you cannot expect me to sit still under that."
+
+He rose lightly to his feet, and grasping a branch of the tree above his
+head, drew himself up, and after kicking his long legs several times in
+the air, finally twisted them round the branch, and in another moment
+had disappeared in the shadowy depths of the great hemlock.
+
+"Oh! I say!" his voice floated down. "This is a great tree to climb.
+You'd better come up, Uncle Tom, if you feel the slightest symptoms of
+coma."
+
+The other lads did not wait to be invited, but flung themselves at the
+tree, and were soon lost to sight, though not to sound. Colonel Ferrers
+turned to his hostess with a frown which tried hard not to turn into a
+smile.
+
+"Now, did you ever hear of such impudence as that?" he asked. "These
+young fellows of to-day are the most impudent scoundrels I ever came
+across. Time was, though, when we could have climbed a tree with the
+best of them; eh, Merryweather?"
+
+"I have no doubt you could now, Colonel," said his host, "if you were
+put to it; but I confess it is more comfortable under a tree than in
+it, nowadays, especially after a Gargantuan feast like this."
+
+It had indeed been a great picnic. The boys, while on a tramp, had
+discovered a grove of pines and hemlocks, huge old trees, which had
+unaccountably escaped the woodman's axe. The pines shot up straight and
+tall for a hundred feet and more, their trunks seamed and scarred, their
+clouds of dusky green plumes tossing far overhead; the hemlocks were no
+less massive in girth, but they were twisted into all manner of
+grotesque shapes, and their feathery branches hung low, making a dense
+canopy over the heads of the picnickers. Here, under one of these
+hemlocks, the cloth had been laid, and decorated with ferns and hemlock
+tassels. Then the baskets were unpacked, and the campers feasted as only
+dwellers in the open air can feast. Ham and pasty, sandwiches and rolls,
+jam and doughnuts--nothing seemed to come amiss; and they finished off
+with a watermelon of such mighty proportions that it took all the
+united energies of the boys to dispose of it.
+
+But it was finally disposed of, and now came the hour that is apt to be
+a little difficult at picnics; the hour between the feast and the going
+home.
+
+"I have a new game," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Perhaps you would like to
+try it presently; but first, Colonel Ferrers, while the boys are
+skylarking, or rather tree-larking, up there, I want to hear the story
+you were telling Miles on the drive over. I could not hear very well on
+the back seat, and besides, I was making up my game. It was some
+adventure of yours when you were a boy."
+
+"Capital story!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Do tell it, Colonel; I want to
+hear it again."
+
+The Colonel smiled, and puffed meditatively at his cigar.
+
+"Story of the barrel, eh?" he said. "Upon my word, now, I think it is
+pretty hard to make me tell that story before all these young people.
+What do you say, Gertrude? you don't want to hear about your old
+friend's being a young fool, do you?"
+
+"Oh! Colonel Ferrers," said Gertrude; "a story that makes your eyes
+twinkle so must be one that we all want to hear. Do begin, please!"
+
+And all the girls, who had been putting away the table-cloth and
+"tidying-up" generally, gathered about the Colonel in an eager group.
+
+"Well! well!" he said, glancing from one bright face to another. "After
+all, what are we old fogies for, but to point a moral and adorn a tale?
+Listen, then. This happened when I was a young jackanapes of about my
+nephew's age; I knew everything in the world then, you understand, and
+nobody else knew much of anything. That was my belief, as it is the
+belief of most young men."
+
+"Uncle," said a voice from above, "there are three young men up here who
+are prepared to drop things on your head if you slander their
+generation."
+
+"Slander your generation, sir?" cried the Colonel, "by likening it to my
+own? Of all the monstrous insolence I ever heard--you may be thankful,
+sir, that I name yours in the same breath with it. Be good enough to
+hold your tongue, sir, and attend to your business, which is that of
+listening to me. Well, my dear madam, at the period of which I speak, I
+was in the office of my uncle, Marmaduke Ferrers, India merchant,
+importer of tea, silks, that sort of thing. Learning the trade, you
+understand; though, as I say, I was not aware that there was anything in
+particular to learn. This is one of the lessons I did learn. One day I
+was sent to the warehouse to count some barrels, and see them stowed
+away in the vault where they belonged. They were a special thing,
+barrels of minerals for some collection museum, I forget what. Out of
+our own line, but we had undertaken to store and keep them for a time.
+The vault was directly under the warehouse, which was some way from the
+office. So! I went down and found no one there; The men were at their
+dinner, you understand. They may have been a little in a hurry, may have
+started a few minutes before the bell rang; I don't know how it was. At
+any rate, I was in a towering passion; thought the whole business was
+going to the dogs for want of discipline, wanted to dismiss every man in
+the warehouse. Men who had been there before I was born, and knew more
+about tea than I was likely to know in my lifetime. Well, sir, it came
+into my ass's head that I would give these men a lesson, show them that
+there was some one in the place that meant to have things done when he
+wanted them done. I would stow those barrels myself. I was strong as a
+bull, you remember--I beg ten thousand pardons! you and your husband
+were infants when this happened; not out of long clothes, I am positive.
+But I was uncommonly strong, and thought Milo and Hercules would have
+found me a tough subject to tackle. Well--speaking of tackle--there was
+the rope and pulley, all ready for lowering; block up at the ceiling,
+rope dangling,--just over the trap that led into the vault. There were
+the barrels; nothing was easier, I thought. Child's play; I would have
+every one of the barrels lowered and stowed before those scoundrels came
+back from their dinner. I pushed the first barrel to the edge of the
+trap (lifted the trap-door first, you understand), hooked on the 'fall,'
+pleased as Punch with myself--the only man in the world, I give you my
+word; then I got a good hold on the rope, and--kicked the barrel over
+the edge."
+
+"Oh! Colonel Ferrers!" cried the girls.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" roared the boys in the tree.
+
+"Loaded with minerals, you understand! stone, metal, I don't know what.
+The barrel went down, and I went up."
+
+"_Oh!_ Colonel Ferrers!"
+
+"Up to the ceiling, I give you my word. High room, too, great warehouse,
+twenty feet if it was one. There I hung, and there I swung, a spectacle
+for gods and men."
+
+"What _did_ you do?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, as soon as she could
+control her laughter. "Dear friend, it is most heartless to laugh, but
+how can we help it? How did you ever get down? did you have to wait till
+the men came back?"
+
+"No, madam. My pride would not allow that. I learned my lesson, or a
+part of it, while I hung there like Mahomet's coffin; I learned that
+Gravitation did not trouble itself about superior young men; but I did
+not learn all that there was to learn; that took the sequel. Well, I
+hung there, as I say, revolving slowly; centrifugal force, you
+understand; I was really exemplifying the workings of natural forces;
+interesting demonstration, if there had been any one there to see. My
+crumb of comfort was that there was no one. I must get down before those
+men came back from dinner; that was the one thing necessary in the world
+at that moment. I measured the space of the trap as I swung; I prided
+myself on my correct eye; you see I was a most complete ass: I have seen
+only a few completer. I thought I could jump down astride of the trap,
+so to speak, and get no harm. I came down the rope, hand over fist, till
+I got to the end of it; only about six feet between me and safety: then
+I jumped."
+
+"And did you--"
+
+"No, my dear madam, I did not. I went down into the cellar, on top of
+the barrel, and I carry the mark of the edge of that barrel on my
+shoulders to this day, and shall to my latest day. And the moral of this
+story," the Colonel concluded, glancing up into the depths of the great
+hemlock, "the moral, my young friends, is: wait till you know something
+before you decide that you know everything."
+
+When the laughter had subsided, Mr. Merryweather said: "Your story,
+Colonel, reminds me of a scrape that Roger and I once got into, years
+ago. No, it wasn't Roger, it was my brother Will. My children all know
+it, but it may be new to you and our other guests. It happened when we
+were out sailing one day, on this very pond. The water was pretty low
+that year, and we got over into a cove on the north side, where we
+seldom went, and didn't know the ground thoroughly. Indeed, in very low
+water, one is apt to find that one doesn't know any ground thoroughly.
+New ledges and rocks are constantly cropping out--as you shall hear.
+Well, we were sailing along in fine style, before a fair wind, when
+suddenly--we ran aground."
+
+"On the shore?" asked the Colonel.
+
+"No; on a rock. It was getting dark, and we could not see very well, but
+I could see a nose of rock, and it looked like the end of a ledge. 'I'll
+get out and shove her off!' said I. I sounded with an oar, and found the
+water barely ankle-deep on the ledge. So I took off my shoes and
+stockings, rolled up my trousers a little, and stepped in--up to my
+neck!"
+
+"Ha! ha!" roared the Colonel. "Ho! ho! that was sport. I wish I had seen
+you."
+
+"Wait a moment!" said the Chief. "The picture is not ready for
+exhibition yet. When Will had got through laughing at me, he went to
+work--I found I could not stir the boat alone--he went to work and got
+ready. Stripped to the skin--he had on a new suit, and was something of
+a dandy in those days--stepped carefully overboard--and landed in water
+three inches deep."
+
+"Merryweather, you are making this up!"
+
+"Indeed I am not, my dear sir. There we stood, I up to my chin, he with
+his toes under water, and laughed till we were so weak that we had to go
+ashore and sit down before we had strength to push that boat off. There
+is my Roland for your Oliver, Colonel. And now, Miranda, I think we are
+ready for your game. Come down, boys!"
+
+The boys came scrambling down, still laughing over the stories, and soon
+all were seated on the carpet of dry, fragrant pine-needles. The girls
+had found some oak-leaves ("It is my belief," said Mr. Merryweather,
+"that if Bell went to a picnic in a coal-mine or on a sand-bank, she
+would still manage to find oak-leaves somewhere!"), and were busily
+twining garlands for the heads of the company.
+
+"Are we all ready?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "Well! my game--a very
+simple one--is called _Vocabulary_. It came from my reading the other
+day an admirable little book written by a wise professor, in which he
+deplores the poverty of our vocabularies, and makes a suggestion for our
+enlarging them. He advises us to add two or three words to our list
+every week. The first time we use a new word, he says, it will be
+embarrassing to us and, it may be, amusing to our hearers; but if we
+have courage and patience, we shall be doing a good work not only for
+ourselves, but for all our generation and the generations that are to
+come. Well, this naturally appealed to me, and I was thinking of
+proposing it to you all this evening; and then, as we were driving over,
+it occurred to me that it might be made into a rather amusing game."
+
+"Miranda," said her husband, "is there anything in life that you do
+_not_ think can be made into a rather amusing game? But go on!"
+
+"Dear Mammy!" said Phil. "Do you remember when you and I both had the
+toothache, and you thought it might be amusing to count the jumps and
+see how many there were in a minute?"
+
+"Well, so it would have been," said his mother, "if we had only had a
+little more fortitude. Now if you are all going to laugh at me, you
+shall not learn the game."
+
+"Oh, we will be good!" exclaimed the Merryweathers. "We truly will."
+
+"The game of _Vocabulary_," said Mrs. Merryweather, "is played thus.
+One--I, for example--begins to tell a story. I say, 'I went out to walk
+this morning, and I met--' there I stop short, and you, in turn, give a
+verb synonymous, more or less, with 'met.' This goes around the circle
+till some one cannot find a verb, and that some one must continue the
+story, stopping at any word he likes. I fear this is not very clear;
+perhaps we can illustrate it best playing it. I will begin as I
+suggested. I went out to walk this morning, and on my way I met--" she
+stopped.
+
+"Encountered!" said Mr. Merryweather.
+
+"Approached!" said the Colonel.
+
+"Ran up against!" said Gerald.
+
+"Fell afoul of!" said Phil.
+
+"Fell in with!" said Bell.
+
+"Peggy, you come next."
+
+"Oh! I can't!" cried poor Peggy. "They have said everything; Mrs.
+Merryweather, I can't _ever_ play anything of this kind, you know. I am
+too stupid."
+
+"Nonsense, my child; you are not in the least stupid. If you cannot
+think of a word, go on with the story."
+
+"But I don't know how!" cried Peggy, her eyes growing large and round,
+with a look that Gertrude and Margaret knew only too well. The tears
+were not far behind those round blue eyes; and Margaret hastened to the
+rescue. "You met a man, dear!" she whispered. "That is all you need
+say."
+
+"Well--I met a man!" said Peggy, with a gasp.
+
+"Person!"
+
+"Individual!"
+
+"Anthropoid ape!"
+
+"Masculine mortal!"
+
+"Chump!"
+
+"I object to the definition!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "In case of a
+false definition, the falsifier takes up the thread. Go on, Jerry."
+
+"This man (he _was_ a chump, you'll see!) was so ugly that not a crow
+dared to stay in the same county with him, and so disagreeable that it
+gave one spasms to look at him; also, he had not the manners to take off
+his hat--" he stopped short.
+
+"Cap!"
+
+"Hood!"
+
+"Helmet!"
+
+"Bonnet!"
+
+"Head-dress!"
+
+"Tam-o'-shanter!"
+
+"Mitre!"
+
+"Tiara!"
+
+"Fez!"
+
+"Turban!"
+
+"Beretta!"
+
+"I give in!" cried the Colonel. "I cannot think of another thing, so I
+continue the tale.
+
+"This odious person, after passing me in the unmannerly fashion
+described, was about to proceed further; but I, seizing him by the coat
+collar, lifted my stout stick, and gave him a good sound--"
+
+"Thrashing!"
+
+"Licking!"
+
+"Beating!"
+
+"Chastisement!"
+
+"Hiding!"
+
+"Walloping!"
+
+"Whipping!"
+
+"Scourging!"
+
+"Drubbing!"
+
+"Trouncing!"
+
+"Thwacking!"
+
+"Lashing!"
+
+"Flogging!"
+
+"Caning!"
+
+"Larruping!"
+
+"Fustigating!"
+
+"Basting!"
+
+"Leathering!"
+
+"Thumping!"
+
+"Whopping!"
+
+"Rib-roasting!"
+
+"Dear me!" cried Mrs. Merryweather. "This is rather terrible, I think.
+There seem to be more terms to express personal violence than anything
+else."
+
+"We haven't begun to give them all, either!" said Phil. "If we are
+allowed to use modern slang--I know you prefer ancient, Mammy--"
+
+"I know you are a saucy boy!" said his mother.
+
+"My dear friends," said the Chief, rising. "This is all very fine: but
+the simple fact is, it is beginning to rain, and I think it advisable
+for us to beat, fustigate, (where _did_ you get that, Miranda?) or
+wallop, a retreat!"
+
+Then there was scrambling up, and running to and fro, and gathering up
+of baskets and shawls. The good old horse, which had been grazing
+peacefully in a clearing hard by, was harnessed, and Mr. and Mrs.
+Merryweather, Colonel Ferrers, and the _impedimenta_ bundled in and off
+as hastily as might be. Finally, as the rain began to pour down in good
+earnest, the younger campers gathered into a solid phalanx and walked
+home across the fields, singing in chorus, and informing all whom it
+might concern that they were
+
+        "Marching along,
+         Fifty score strong,
+         Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+KITTY AND WILLY
+
+
+"MA!" said Willy Merryweather.
+
+"Baa!" replied his mother, without looking up from her writing.
+
+Willy fidgeted, and looked over his shoulder. "Mammy, I wish you would
+speak to Kitty."
+
+"Speak to Kitty? certainly. How do you do, Kitty?"
+
+Willy looked uncomfortable, but went on.
+
+"I spoke for the Rangeley boat, and now she wants it. She always wants
+it, and it isn't fair."
+
+"I don't always want it, Willy! I haven't been in it for two days. I
+think you are very unkind."
+
+By this time Mrs. Merryweather had finished her sentence; she looked
+up, and surveyed the two children with a half-abstracted gaze.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked, abruptly. "I thought Kitty and Willy were
+here."
+
+Kitty took hold of the hem of her apron, and Willy felt of the knife in
+his pocket.
+
+"Who are you?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather in a tone of wonder. "You
+should always answer a question, you know."
+
+"We are Kitty and Willy ourselves!" murmured the children, the red
+beginning to creep around their ears.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Merryweather, reprovingly. "Don't say such things as
+that, my dears. I know Kitty and Willy perfectly well; they are brother
+and sister, two cheerful, affectionate children, who love each other. I
+don't know anything about you two; run away, please, for I am busy."
+
+As the children moved slowly away, she called after them: "If you should
+see Kitty and Willy, you might send them to me, if you please!"
+
+Round on the other side of the big oak-tree, sheltered from the eyes
+that looked so abstractedly over their glasses, Willy rubbed his
+shoulders uncomfortably against the bark, while Kitty kicked a bit of
+stick to and fro.
+
+"There isn't any use in talking to Mammy when she does that way!" said
+Willy, half to himself, but with a side glance at Kitty. "If she would
+have only listened to me--"
+
+"She never will!" said Kitty, responding to the half glance. "She always
+says there is no need of quarrelling, and she doesn't see why she should
+have to hear disagreeable remarks."
+
+"Other children scrap," said Willy. "I don't see why we can't now and
+then."
+
+"Well, she just won't have it, Will, so where's the use? Never mind
+about the Rangeley; you may have it, and I'll take the _Wobbler_."
+
+"I don't care!" said Willy. "You may have her."
+
+"So may you!"
+
+Silence. Willy rubbing his shoulders, Kitty kicking her bit of stick.
+
+Presently Kitty looked up brightly, and shook her curls back. "I've got
+over mine, Willy!" she announced. "Are you getting over yours?"
+
+"Ye-es!" said Willy, slowly. "I--s'pose I am."
+
+"Why don't we go together?" asked Kitty. "Then we can both have the
+Rangeley."
+
+"All right!" said Willy, brightening at once. "Where shall we go? We
+might play Pirate a bit--"
+
+"And then go for the milk! That would be great!"
+
+"All right, come on, Kit."
+
+"Oh! but, Willy--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"We must go and tell Mammy first."
+
+Once more the two children presented themselves before their mother, who
+was still writing busily. At the first "Mammy!" she looked up quickly.
+
+"Well, dears!" she said, "I was wondering where you were. What are you
+going to play this afternoon?"
+
+"We thought perhaps we might have the Rangeley together, and play
+Pirate!" said Willy.
+
+"And then go for the milk!" said Kitty.
+
+"To be sure!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Yes, Papa said you might have the
+boat if you wanted it. That will be very nice, only be careful, dears.
+Give Mammy a kiss, and have a great good time."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Run her up!" said the Pirate Captain.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" replied the mate.
+
+The Jolly Roger fluttered up to the mast-head: skull and crossbones
+black as ink could make them, ground very nearly white; it was a
+splendid flag. The Captain was a terrible figure, clad in yellow
+oilskins many sizes too big for him, with ferocious mustaches curling up
+to his eyes. His belt contained a perfect armory of weapons; item, a
+pistol that had lost its barrel; item, three wooden daggers, assorted
+sizes; item, one tomahawk, home-made. The mate was scarcely less
+terrifying, for though a blue petticoat showed beneath his oilskin
+jacket, and curls flowed from under his sou'wester, he made up for it by
+a mass of oakum beard and whisker that was truly awe-inspiring. Also, he
+had the truncheon which used to be a curling stick, and a deadly weapon
+of singular appearance which was understood to be a boomerang.
+
+"Look out, Bill! avast there! dost see any foes about?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir! I see a craft on the jib boom--"
+
+"_Lee bow_, Kitty!--I mean Bill; not jib boom! You are always saying
+that."
+
+[Illustration: "''TIS NOT A PLATE SHIP!'"]
+
+"I meant lee bow!" said Bill, anxious to please. "Anyhow, I see a craft,
+your Honor. I think she is a plate ship from the Spanish Main. Shall we
+run her down?"
+
+"Give me the glass!" exclaimed the Pirate Captain: and through that
+instrument, which the ignorant might have mistaken for a battered tin
+horn, he scrutinized the "craft," which lay on the water at some
+distance.
+
+"'Tis not a plate ship!" he announced at length. "I think we have had
+enough plate ships lately. This is a Dutch lugger from Samarcand, laden
+with raisins and fig-paste and lichi nuts and cream dates. I shouldn't
+wonder if she had narghiles too, and scimitars,--I need a new
+scimitar,--and all sorts of things. Up helm, and crowd on all sail in
+pursuit!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir! stunsels?"
+
+"Stunsels, balloon-jibs, topgallant spinnakers, royal skyscrapers,
+everything you can think of. Ha! we are off! Row hard now, Bill! The
+lubbers are asleep, and we shall run them down easily. Are the cutlasses
+ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!"
+
+"Ho! we are gaining on them. Ho, ho! bend to your oars, my hearties!
+grappling-chains ready there! ho! on to the chase!"
+
+Now Phil was very busy making a fly for lake trout, and explaining the
+manufacture of it to Peggy; and Peggy was absorbed in watching him, and
+in counting the number of separate aches she felt after her first lesson
+in rowing. Moreover, the bloody pirates had conducted their conversation
+in a half-whisper, and the wind was the other way. But suddenly, Peggy
+looked up and saw them, now at only a few yards distance.
+
+"Good gracious!" she cried. "What is it? Do look, Phil!"
+
+Phil looked hastily around; chuckled, and fell into an attitude of
+abject terror. "Mercy! mercy!" he cried; cowering down in his seat.
+("It's the kids; please be frightened!) Oh! what will become of us? We
+are lost!"
+
+"Oh! save me, spare me!" cried Peggy, following suit, and clasping her
+hands in supplication.
+
+The pirate bark ran alongside, and grappling-irons were tossed aboard
+the ill-fated merchantman. The Pirate Captain, standing in the stern of
+his vessel, surveyed them with baleful looks.
+
+"What ship is this?"
+
+"The _Weeping Woodchuck_, Captain Zebedee Moses of Squedunk, please your
+Honor's Worship!"
+
+"Well I am Captain England, and this is the _Gory Griffin_. If you have
+a cargo of raisins and fig-paste and cream dates, hand them over;
+otherwise, prepare to walk the plank this instant!"
+
+"Oh, spare us! spare this tender maiden!" cried Phil. "I have no
+fig-paste, but wouldn't fresh doughnuts do as well, O man of blood?
+Life is sweet--and fish is needed for supper!"
+
+At these remarks the pirate's ferocious scowl relaxed somewhat. "Hand
+over your doughnuts!" he said, briefly. "This once I spare ye, but cross
+not my path again! I jolly well forgot about tea," he added, as Phil
+tossed him some doughnuts; "I suppose it must be about time to go for
+the milk, perhaps, is it?"
+
+Phil looked at his watch. "Well, I should say it jolly well was!" he
+replied. "You'd better be off, young ones--I mean Scourges of the Deep!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was quite a pull over to the point where the milk-cans were waiting,
+but Kitty and Willy were both good oars, and the doughnuts were crisp
+and fortifying.
+
+"Let's take the point by storm!" suggested the gallant England, who had
+not had his fill of glory. "The cans might be treasure, you know, and
+we can creep up silently."
+
+"But there's no one to hear us be silent!" said Kitty.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing! We can hear ourselves, and, anyhow, it is good
+practice. Come on, now! Be silent as the grave!" Leaving the boat on the
+shore, they crept up the beach, pounced on the milk-can,--a tall
+"separator" which held the whole provision for the family supper and
+breakfast,--and bore it in triumph to the boat. But, alas! for the
+gallant pirates! In getting aboard, one of them slipped; the other
+stumbled; between the two, neither could tell just how, the tall can
+toppled, and fell into the boat; the stopper flew out--"Then all the
+mighty floods were out!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But where _can_ the children be?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, for the
+tenth time.
+
+The horn had blown for supper, the fish were fried, the campers were
+hungry and thirsty; and the milk had not come.
+
+"Where _can_ they be?" said every one.
+
+Mr. Merryweather put down the glass with which he had been sweeping the
+lake. "They are out there!" he said. "I see them, but they don't seem to
+be rowing. Give me the megaphone, will you, Jerry? Thanks!"
+
+A calm roar went out across the lake. "Come--in--to--tea!"
+
+A faint pipe was heard in reply. "Don't--want--any--tea!"
+
+The second roar was still calm, but peremptory. "_Come--in!_"
+
+Slowly, very slowly, the oars rose and fell, and the boat crept over the
+water. What could be the matter with the children?
+
+"Too much bloodshed has upset the gallant England!" said Phil. "When it
+comes to Willy's not wanting his tea!"
+
+"They have had some accident!" said Mr. Merryweather. "Broken an oar,
+probably, or lost a rowlock. No. They are both rowing. Well, here they
+come."
+
+The whole family started for the wharf, but a piteous wail arose from
+the now approaching boat.
+
+"Please don't everybody come down! we want just Papa and Mamma."
+
+"Stay here, dear people, please!" said Mrs. Merryweather; and both
+parents hurried down to the wharf, toward which two dejected little
+figures were now tugging a very heavy boat.
+
+"What's the matter, Will?" said Mr. Merryweather. "Speak up, son."
+
+"We--spilt the milk!" said Willy, in a carefully measured tone.
+
+"Oh, my dears! all of it?" inquired their mother.
+
+"Every drop!" said Willy, grimly.
+
+"Oh, Mammy, we are so sorry!" cried Kitty. "The old can--just--upset!
+and we are so wet, and it keeps splashing all over my legs!"
+
+"There! there! come ashore; never mind about the milk!" said Mr.
+Merryweather.
+
+"Never mind!" echoed Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "My poor chicks, where
+have you been all this time? Why didn't you come straight home?"
+
+"We were--afraid!" sobbed Kitty. "We have been rowing around for ever
+and ever so long, and we are so tired, and hungry, and--wet--"
+
+But by this time Kitty was near enough for her father to bend down and
+lift her bodily out of the boat, and put her, all dripping milk as she
+was, into her mother's arms. On her mother's shoulder she sobbed out the
+rest of the pitiful little story. Kitty was twelve, and not specially
+small of her age; but she was the baby, and Mrs. Merryweather sat down
+on the wharf and rocked to and fro, hushing her.
+
+"There! there!" she said, soothingly. "My lamb! as if all the milk in
+the world were worth your crying about! and crying into the spilt milk,
+too, and making the boat all the wetter! Hush! hush! Run along, Papa and
+Willy--dear little boy, it really is only funny, so don't fret, not one
+little scrap. Kitty and I will come in about two minutes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A DISCUSSION
+
+
+THE morning reading was over, but the girls lingered in the pine parlor,
+where the whole family had been gathered to hear some thrilling chapters
+of Parkman. Margaret and Bell had their sewing, Gertrude her
+drawing-board; Peggy was carving the handle of a walking-stick, while
+Kitty struggled with some refractory knitting-needles.
+
+It was a pleasant place in which they were sitting: a little clear space
+of pine-needles, embroidered here and there with tiny ferns, and shut in
+by walls of dusky pine, soft and fragrant. The tree-trunks made
+excellent (though sometimes rather sticky) chair-backs; the sunshine
+filtered in through the branches overhead, making a golden half-light
+which was the very essence of restfulness.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret, breaking the silence that had
+followed the departure of the rest of the family. "How strange it seems,
+sitting here in this green peace and quiet, to read of all those
+terrible happenings. How can it be the same world?"
+
+"He was a man, that La Salle!" exclaimed Peggy. "I never heard of such a
+man. Think of that winter voyage! Think of that man, brought up in
+luxury, with every kind of accomplishment, and that kind of thing,
+wading in snow-water up to his knees, and sleeping on the frozen ground,
+rolled in his blanket, while his clothes dried and froze stiff on the
+trees! think of him standing alone against courts and savages, and
+winning every time--till he was killed by those wretches. It is the
+greatest story I ever read. Now, if all history were like this,
+Margaret, I never should complain."
+
+"Don't you like history, Peggy?" asked Bell, looking up in wonder.
+
+"I used to detest it," said Peggy, laughing. "Julius Caesar, and William
+the Conqueror, and all those people used to bore me dreadfully, though
+Margaret did her very best to make them interesting; didn't you, you
+dear?"
+
+"I tried, Peggy," said Margaret, with a smile; "but you never would
+admit that they were real people, just as real as if they were alive
+to-day."
+
+"Oh, well, of course I know they were alive once, but so were mummies,
+and you can't expect me to be interested in _them_. However, I think I
+really am improving. 'Hereward' brought William alive for me, it truly
+did; and this Parkman book delights me. Oh! I should like to have made
+that voyage down the Mississippi, girls! I think, on the whole, I would
+rather be Cavalier de La Salle than any one I ever heard of."
+
+"In spite of all the suffering and tragedy?" said Gertrude. "I could not
+say that, much as I admire him."
+
+"Who would you be, if you could choose? Let us all say!" cried Bell. "A
+new game! two minutes for reflection!" and she took out her watch with a
+business-like air.
+
+"Oh!" cried Gertrude. "But there are so many!"
+
+"Silence!" said Bell; and there was an instant of absolute stillness.
+Taking advantage of it, a chipmunk ran across the brown carpet, and
+pausing midway, sat up on his haunches and surveyed the new and singular
+mountain ranges that had risen on his horizon. One of the mountains
+stirred--whisk! he was gone.
+
+"Time's up!" said Bell. "Margaret, I will begin with you. With all
+history to choose from, who will you be?"
+
+"Oh! must I be first?" cried Margaret. "As Gertrude says, there are so
+many; and yet when you come to think them over, there is something
+against every one; I mean something one would not like to do or to
+suffer. But,--on the whole,--I _think_ I would be Elizabeth of Hungary."
+
+"Our Lady of the Roses? Well, she was lovely, though I should be sorry
+to marry her husband. The story would have been somewhat different if I
+had; but I am not a saint. Peggy, your turn!"
+
+"This man we are reading about!" said Peggy, decidedly. "La Salle!"
+
+"Toots!"
+
+"Bell, you know I never _can_ decide between Shakespeare and Raphael. I
+have to be both; they lived quite far enough apart for separate
+incarnations."
+
+"Greedy, grasping girl!" said Bell. "Kitty, who are you?"
+
+"Jim Hawkins!" said Kitty, promptly.
+
+"No fiction allowed this time, Missy, only history!"
+
+"Oh, dear! well, then--Francis Drake!"
+
+"Bound to have a pirate, aren't you, Kitty?" said Gertrude,
+mischievously.
+
+"He wasn't a pirate!" cried Kitty, indignantly. "He was a great hero."
+
+"_L'un n'empechait pas l'autre_, in those days!" said Bell.
+
+"Well, now for yourself, Bell!" said Margaret. "It is your turn."
+
+"Oh, I didn't need any two minutes," said Bell. "I am always William the
+Silent. I should be Beethoven if it were not for the deafness, but that
+I could not have borne."
+
+"You all want to be men, don't you?" observed Margaret, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why--yes, so we do! you are the only one who chose a woman."
+
+"Everybody would be a man if they could!" cried Peggy, throwing grammar
+to the winds, as she was apt to do when excited.
+
+"No, indeed, everybody would not!" cried Margaret, her soft eyes
+lighting up. "Nothing would induce me to be a man."
+
+"I don't think you would make a very good one, to be sure!" said Peggy,
+looking affectionately at her cousin. "But I bet--I mean wager--you told
+me I might say 'wager,' Margaret!--that none of the other girls would
+hesitate a minute if they had the chance. I wouldn't! Think of it! No
+petticoats, no fuss, no having to remember to do this, and not to do
+that; and no hairpins, or gloves, or best hats--"
+
+"Ah!" said Bell; "that is only the smallest part, Peggy. I don't mind
+the hairpin part--though of course it is a joy to get out here and
+dispense with them--but still, that is only a trifle. The thing I think
+about is the freedom, the strength, the power to go right ahead and _do_
+things!" and, as she spoke, Bell threw her head back and stretched her
+arms abroad with a vigorous gesture. "Of course we girls are all well
+and strong, but it isn't the same strength as a man's. We are
+constantly running up against things we cannot, ought not to do. I _do_
+envy the boys, I cannot help it."
+
+"Yes!" cried Margaret, leaning forward, a soft flush rising to her
+cheeks. "I know--it is glorious to see them; but, Bell, isn't the very
+weakness part of our strength? Isn't it just because women _know_
+the--the things they cannot do, that they are able to understand and
+sympathize, and--and help, in ways that men cannot, because they do not
+know?"
+
+"I think Margaret is right!" said Gertrude, slowly. "And besides, there
+is strength and strength, Bell. For long endurance of pain or hardship,
+the woman will outlast the man nine times out of ten, I believe; and I
+heard Doctor Strong say once that women would often bear pain quietly
+that would set a man raving. Yes, I come over to your side, May
+Margaret. I would take Joan of Arc, if it were not for the stake. Let
+me see--oh, I know! I will be Grace Darling."
+
+"Who was she?" asked Kitty.
+
+"The lighthouse-keeper's daughter, at Longstone, off the Yorkshire
+coast. A ship, the _Forfarshire_, was wrecked on the rocks near by, and
+there seemed no chance of saving any of the crew; but Grace persuaded
+her father to try, and just those two rowed out, in a most terrible
+storm, to the reef on which the vessel had been wrecked, and saved the
+nine men, all that were left out of sixty-three, who were clinging to
+the rocks, waiting for death. Why wasn't that just as fine as commanding
+an army, or even leading a forlorn hope in battle? Then there was dear
+Margaret Roper--I think she is the one for you, May Margaret!--and
+Cochrane's Bonny Grizzy, and--oh, ever and ever so many of them. Yes, I
+take up my stand once and for all on my own side."
+
+"Well!" said Bell, shaking her head. "I hear what you say, Betsy, but
+it makes no difference,--does it, Peggy?--though I admit the force of
+your remarks."
+
+"Not a bit!" said Peggy. "I wouldn't have been Mrs. La Salle for a
+farm."
+
+"There wasn't any!" said Margaret.
+
+"The principle remains the same," said Peggy, "as Miss Russell used to
+say."
+
+"There is another thing!" said Margaret. "Your life out here, Bell,
+shows me how much girls _can_ do; I mean in the active, outdoor,
+athletic way. More than I ever dreamed they could do. It really seems to
+me that, except just for the petticoats, you have very few drawbacks. I
+suppose it is having all the brothers. Why, you know as much as they do
+about the woods and all."
+
+"Yes, it's partly the boys," said Bell; "but it is much more Papa. You
+see, from the time we could walk, he has always taken us out into the
+woods and fields, and made us use our eyes and ears, and talked to us
+about things. We should not know anything, if it were not for Papa."
+
+"He does seem to know almost everything!" said Margaret. "I never saw
+any one like him."
+
+"There _isn't_ any one like him," said Gertrude, decidedly. "What have
+you got there, Margaret?"
+
+Margaret had drawn a letter from her pocket, and was looking it over.
+
+"An argument on my side," she said, smiling. "May I read it aloud?"
+
+"Do! do!" cried all the girls.
+
+Margaret smoothed out the crumpled pages affectionately. "He carried it
+in his pocket two days before he remembered to post it!" she said. "I
+judge from the date, and the appearance of the envelope. There was candy
+in his pocket, and"--she sniffed at the letter--"yes! tar, without
+doubt. Now listen!
+
+        "'DEAR COUSIN MARGARET:--We miss you awfully,
+        and Uncle John says it is no kind of a house
+        without you, and it isn't. We went a walk
+        yesterday, Susan D. and me and the dogs,
+        because you know it was Sunday; Uncle John was
+        coming too, but he had roomatizm and coud not.
+        Well Cousin Margaret, we walked over the big
+        hill and just then the dogs began howling and
+        yelling in the most awful manner, and running
+        round and round like they were crazy; and we
+        ran to see what was up, and we found out, I
+        tell you! It was white hornets, about ten
+        thousand of them, and the dogs had rolled in a
+        nest of them, and they were stinging their
+        noses, and they flew at us with perfeck fewry,
+        I mean the hornets did. I hollered and ran, but
+        Susan D. said wait she knew what to do, so she
+        said "Come on," and we ran down to the brook
+        and she took mud and put it on my stings before
+        she touched her own, and it took a good deal of
+        the pane out though not all. And then she put
+        it on the dogs' noses, and they understood like
+        persons, and poked them into the mud themselves
+        and soon forgot their pane. But I thought I
+        would tell you this Cousin Margaret, because
+        Susan D. did really behave like a perfeck
+        brick, and you always said girls were as brave
+        as boys but I never thought so before but now I
+        do; because I hollered right out when they
+        stung me which I am ashamed of. You said
+        confession was good for the sole, and so I
+        think: so now I will say good-by from
+
+                                         "'BASIL.'"
+
+"What a dear boy!" cried Gertrude.
+
+"Oh, he is!" said Margaret, the happy tears springing to her eyes. "He
+is one of the very dearest boys that ever lived, Gertrude; so manly and
+honest, and so funny, too. Gerald knows him!" she added, shyly. "I wish
+he had been at home when you were there, Peggy."
+
+"Yes; he must be a brick!" said Peggy. "Now, Margaret, you know he is,
+and you know that nothing but 'brick' expresses what I mean. Girls, I
+appeal to you. Margaret wants me to talk like a professor all the time,
+and I am not a professor, and am never likely to be one. Bell, isn't
+'brick' all right?"
+
+Bell looked conscious. "I confess I say it, Peggy; I confess it seems
+much heartier than the same thing in what my mother calls good English.
+Still--I believe it would sound very queer to me if she used it; the
+mother, I mean."
+
+"Grace used to say 'a quadrangular piece of baked clay!'" said Gertrude.
+"Don't you remember, Peggy?"
+
+"So she did--dear thing! Well, but, Bell, would you have girls talk just
+the way grown-up people do? It would sound awfully stiff and poky. I
+don't mean that it sounds so when your mother talks!" she cried; "of
+course you know I don't mean that. But girls _aren't_ grown-up, you
+know."
+
+"But they are going to be!" said Margaret. "If they don't learn good
+English now, how are they going to do it later? It does seem to me a
+terrible pity, with all our great, glorious language, to use so little
+of it, and to use it so often wrong. You may think me priggish and
+professorial, and anything else you like, Peggy dear, but that is what I
+think."
+
+"I love you to distraction," said Peggy; "you are an angel, but I think
+you carry it too far. What would you say instead of 'brick?' how would
+you describe this boy--who simply _is_ a brick?"
+
+Margaret reflected. "I should say he was a nice, manly boy!" she said,
+presently.
+
+"Nice! now, Margaret! 'nice' is niminy, you know it is, and piminy too."
+
+"The great advantage of 'brick,'" said Bell, "is that it is one word,
+and 'nice manly boy' is three, and doesn't mean the same thing then."
+
+"There!" cried Peggy, in triumph. "What do you say to that, Margaret?
+Find one word in your old 'good English' that does express 'brick?'"
+
+"Well--it isn't easy!" Margaret admitted. "'Trump' is the only one I can
+think of, and I suppose that was slang fifty years ago."
+
+"The mother says that when a word has held its own for twenty years, it
+isn't slang any more," said Gertrude. "The question is--"
+
+At this moment the sound of a horn was heard; a long, ringing blast,
+followed by a second and a third.
+
+The girls sprang to their feet. "Hurrah for a swim!" cried Bell. "Come,
+bricks and trumps--I'll race you all to the tents!" And off they went
+with a flash of petticoats, leaving the chipmunk to speculate on the
+sudden upheavals of nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WATER PLAY
+
+
+THE floating wharf, as has been said, lay at the end of a long, narrow
+slip that ran out on piers over the water. Down the slip, one by one,
+now came the Merryweathers and their guests, in bathing array, the boys
+shouting and skylarking,--the girls singing and tossing their long hair
+about. Jack and Phil brought out a long spring-board, and set it up at
+the end of the wharf; and then the fun began. Mr. Merryweather was the
+first to run along the board, and take a sober and dignified dive. He
+was followed by Gerald, turning handsprings, and carolling to the effect
+that he was a pirate king, he was; hurrah for the pirate king! Next
+came Jack, who turned a back somersault, ending with a noble splash;
+and so, one by one, like so many ducks, they dove and leaped and tumbled
+in, and splashed and swam about in the clear water. Peggy was with the
+rest, splashing as merrily as any of them; but Margaret sat on the
+wharf, in her pretty blue bathing-dress, her feet tucked under her,
+looking on.
+
+[Illustration: "'COME ON! COME IN!'"]
+
+"Come on, Margaret!" cried Peggy. "Come on! come in! It's perfectly
+great!"
+
+"In a minute," said Margaret. "I like to watch you a bit first; it takes
+me a little while to get my courage up."
+
+"Come, oh, come with me!" sang Gerald, emerging from the water, at her
+feet, and clinging to the wharf, while he shook the drops from his hair
+and eyes. "Come swim with me and be my swan! Come where the duckweed
+twineth! Come!"
+
+"Oh, Gerald, yes; in just a minute. Is it very cold?"
+
+"Cold? No; just right. Liquid crystal, sparkling sapphire, perfection!
+Come, you must have your swimming lesson. Forget the cheerful
+swain,--behold the stern instructor!"
+
+He held out his hand with an imperative gesture. Margaret laid hers in
+it timidly.
+
+"Let me get near the rope!" she said, rather nervously.
+
+"Here is the rope, close by your hand. Now, then, hold fast! There we
+go!"
+
+With one hand on the rope, and the other in Gerald's, Margaret slid into
+the water, giving a little cry as it bubbled up about her. "Gerald!"
+
+"Right here, my lady. There; both hands on the rope now. Take it easy!
+Now you are all right."
+
+"Ye'--yes, Gerald. Oh, isn't it glorious?"
+
+"Rather! It's really the element to live in, you see. A mistake was
+made somewhere. If I had but gills, I should ask no more of fate. As it
+is--"
+
+He dove, and came up on the other side of the rope. "Don't you think I
+would be charming with gills,--pretty little quivering, rosy
+gills,--instead of side whiskers?"
+
+"I never saw you in side whiskers," said Margaret, demurely, "so I
+cannot tell. You certainly don't seem to need the gills, though. How
+_do_ you manage to keep under so long? Yesterday, when you stayed down
+picking up these pebbles, I was sure something had happened. Really,
+Gerald, I was very much frightened."
+
+"I ought to have been switched," said Gerald. "I never thought of your
+noticing. I say, come down with me, and I'll show you the trick of it.
+It's just as easy!"
+
+"Not for worlds!" cried Margaret, clutching the rope, as if she expected
+to be dragged from it by force. "I never should come up alive. Oh,
+look, Gerald! what are they going to do now?"
+
+"Going to dive over the elephants. Do you mind--oh, here is the child,
+Toots. Toots, will you stay here by Margaret, while I take my place in
+the ring? You are sure you are all right, Margaret?"
+
+"Oh, yes; do go. I want to see it. Gertrude, what _are_ they doing?"
+
+"Look and see," said Gertrude. "Put your arms on the rope, and lift
+yourself higher. That's right."
+
+Phil and Jack and Willy had placed themselves side by side, on their
+hands and knees, at the edge of the wharf, and were calling loudly for
+Gerald. He stepped back to the farther end of the float, then, running
+forward, soared into the air, over the backs of the "elephants," and
+came down straight as an arrow into the water; then, scrambling out,
+took his place in the row, while Phil performed the same manoeuvre.
+Over and over and over they went, running, rising, plunging, rising
+again. Margaret grew dizzy watching them. Now Mr. Merryweather advanced,
+holding a rubber hoop, which was neither more nor less than the
+discarded tire of a bicycle. This he and Gerald held out at arm's
+length, and the other boys dove through it, amid the applause of the
+girls.
+
+"Oh, pretty!" cried Peggy. "Do you do that, girls?"
+
+"Gertrude does; I haven't tried it yet," said Bell, who was floating
+placidly, her arms under her head, her face turned to the sky.
+
+"I am going to try," said Peggy. "May I, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"By all means!" said the Chief, heartily. "Take a good run--steady,
+Jerry. Hold it out well--there! hurrah!"
+
+For Peggy had gone through the hoop like a bird, and after a clean dive,
+was coming up again, radiant and panting.
+
+"Oh, Peggy, how splendid!" cried Margaret, her eyes shining with
+pleasure and pride in her Peggy's prowess. "Gertrude, didn't she do it
+well? Such a pretty, graceful thing to do."
+
+"_C'etait une corquerre!_" said Gerald, heartily. "_Elle est aussi une
+corquerre, la Peggy._ You will be doing it soon yourself."
+
+"Oh, never, never! You cannot seem to understand, Gerald, that I am not
+_made_ for these things. I love to see them; I admire them intensely,
+but I cannot so much as think of trying."
+
+"_Point de stonte pour Marguerite?_" said Gerald. "Alas the day! Because
+you really would do them so corkingly, you know, if only you should do
+them. Well, see here, I am going to give you a troll. You will like
+that, I am sure."
+
+"A troll? I thought they were mountain goblins. I don't want one, thank
+you, sir! water nixies and pixies are as much as I can bear in the
+goblin line."
+
+"Verb, not substantive!" replied Gerald.
+
+"I troll, thou lettest thyself be trolled, he, she, or it sees you being
+trolled and wishes that he, she, or it had such luck. Observe!"
+
+He climbed into one of the Rangeley boats that lay near the float,
+loosed her moorings, and, taking up the oars, brought her close to the
+rope. "Now, Margaret, catch hold; here, at the stern!"
+
+"What are you going to do with me, Gerald? I fear thee, ancient mariner,
+I fear thy skinny hand!"
+
+"I hold you with my glittering eye, you cannot choose but come. I am
+going to take you off a-trolling. Hold on tight with your hands, and let
+all the rest of you go, as if you had nothing to do with it."
+
+He took a few strokes, slowly and easily. Margaret, clinging to the
+stern, was drawn along without effort or motion of her own. Her long
+hair floated behind her; her white arms gleamed like ivory through the
+clear water; her face was alight with pleasure.
+
+"'Not wholly bad, Lysander Pratt?'" quoted Gerald, interrogatively.
+
+"Oh, Gerald! it is almost too perfect! no, you needn't stop, I only said
+_almost_. The water feels like silk flowing by me: no, silk is rough
+beside it; it feels like--like--"
+
+"Like water, possibly?" said Gerald; "stranger things have been."
+
+"Well, there isn't anything else like it, is there? Oh! are you sure you
+will not take cold or anything, Gerald? I could go on forever, floating
+here--trolling, I mean."
+
+"Nothing easier," said Gerald, pulling on with long, steady strokes. "We
+will just keep on; I ask nothing better. Years passed. A form was seen,
+gray and bent with age, feebly tugging at a pair of oars. Trailing
+behind the crazy boat, another figure might be distinguished--I forbear
+further description, Margaret: I may grow old, but not you; please stay
+as you are always. Anyhow, the people will flock to the shore. Ha! the
+Muse! the afflatus descends.
+
+        "The people thronged the rocky shore,
+         And viewed that graybeard old and hoar;
+         'Oh! why thus dodderest at the oar,
+           Unhappy soul?'
+         The answer came: 'Forever more
+           She wished to troll!'"
+
+"Gerald, I think we'd better go back now."
+
+"Wait! she hasn't finished. Never interrupt a Muse! it isn't the thing
+to do.
+
+        "And still along that rocky coast,
+         A gibbering yet a gallant ghost,
+         He dodders, dodders at his post,
+             Nor nears the goal;
+         For she, the spook he cares for most,
+             Still loves to troll."
+
+"Gerald, take me back, please! see, we are ever so far from shore, and
+it is time for me to go in, I am sure."
+
+"Just look down, Margaret! see the bottom, all white sand; isn't that
+pleasant? Hi! there's a bream watching his nest. See him fanning about
+over it, never leaving the place. He'll keep that up for hours at a
+time. Domestic party, the bream! this is an excellent opportunity to
+study the habits of--"
+
+"Gerald, I am cold!"
+
+"We'll be there in two minutes!" said Gerald, settling to his oars.
+"Hold tight, now, Margaret! troll as the wolves of Apennine were all
+upon your track!" and with long, powerful strokes he sent the boat
+flying through the water, while Margaret fairly shrieked with delight
+and excitement.
+
+Her face had been turned away from the float; but now she was speeding
+toward it, and looked eagerly to see what the others of the party were
+doing. To her great amazement, no one was in sight. The wharf lay wet
+and glistening in the sunshine, but no blue-clad figures leaped and
+pranced across it, no merry faces emerged from the blue, sparkling
+water. All was silent and solitary.
+
+"Why, Gerald," cried Margaret, "where are they all? have they gone in?
+Surely I heard their voices just a moment ago, and a great splash: where
+can they be?"
+
+"A stunt!" replied Gerald. "For our benefit, I presume, but I scorn
+their levity. I advise you to take no notice of their childish pranks. I
+myself was young, once upon a time, but what then?"
+
+They were now at the float, and Margaret looked about her, in utter
+amazement. All was silent; not a voice, not a whisper; no soul was in
+sight. It was as if she and Gerald were alone in the world. She stepped
+out on the float: at the instant, up from under her feet rose a sound as
+if the biggest giant that ever swung a club were sneezing. "A--_tchoo_!"
+
+Margaret screamed outright. "Gerald! what is it?"
+
+"Come out from there!" cried Gerald. "They are under the float,
+imbeciles that they are. The Pater has gone ashore, and the others
+manifest their nature, that is all. Come out, Apes of the Apennines! or
+I'll--"
+
+The threat remained unfinished, for the Merryweathers came out. Swarming
+up from under the float, where they had been treading water at their
+ease, with plenty of breathing-space, they flung themselves with one
+accord upon Gerald's boat, capsized it, and dragged him into the water.
+A great splashing contest ensued, with much shouting and merriment, and
+they were still hard at it when "All in!" sounded from the boat-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE MAIL
+
+
+"STILL raining, Phil?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, looking up from her
+writing.
+
+"Still, honored parent! or rather, to be exact, anything but still. Up
+on the hill, the wind is fierce. I had to ride round the blast once or
+twice, instead of going through it. Solid old wind, that!"
+
+He threw off his dripping oilskin jacket, and came in, unslinging the
+letter-bag from his shoulder as he came.
+
+"Letters! letters!" he cried. "Who wants letters?"
+
+Every one gathered around him, holding out eager hands.
+
+"One for me, Phil!"
+
+"For me, Protector of the Poor!"
+
+"Oh! please, Phil! I want three at least."
+
+"If there is none for me, Fergy my boy, I shudder at the consequences
+for you!"
+
+Phil distributed letters and papers; the family subsided on chairs and
+benches with their treasures, and for some minutes nothing was heard but
+the rustle of paper and the steady downpour of the rain.
+
+"Oh!" cried Peggy, presently. "Oh--eee! splendid!"
+
+"Sapolio!" exclaimed Gerald; and "Well! well!" said Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+The three exclamations were simultaneous, and Bell, who had no letters,
+raised her hand with an imperative gesture. "Exclamation must be
+followed by explanation!" she said. "Law of the Medes and Persians. We
+shall be glad to hear from the exclaimers."
+
+"Who? me? did I?" asked Peggy, looking up with sparkling eyes.
+"Semiramis has eight puppies. Think of it! eight whole puppies!"
+
+"I never buy more than half a puppy at a time," said Gerald, "unless it
+is for a veal and ham pie."
+
+"Gerald!"
+
+"Well, it's a fact, Mater; I never do. What kind of puppies, thou of
+Limavaddy?"
+
+"Gordon setters, black and tan: oh, she says they are perfect beauties.
+She says--this is Jean, you know, my sister--'they are all like Semmy
+except one, and he is _blue_.' Who ever heard of a blue puppy? You shall
+have one, Snowy: I promised you one, don't you remember? oh--eee! and
+the new colt is a perfect beauty too, and they have named her Peggy.
+Oh!"
+
+Peggy looked down at her letter, then looked up again shyly. "I--don't
+suppose you would care to hear any of it?" she said, interrogatively.
+
+"Indeed we should!" said Mrs. Merryweather, heartily. "We should like it
+extremely, Peggy. A letter from the Far West; why, it will be a journey
+for all of us."
+
+"Great!" said Phil.
+
+"Corking!" said Gerald. And one and all, in their several ways,
+expressed their desire to hear the letter.
+
+Dimpling with pleasure, her rosy face beaming, Peggy began to read.
+
+"'Dear old'--oh, well, I won't read just the beginning, because it is
+just the way we talk to each other, you know. I wish you knew Jean,
+Snowy. Let me see! oh, yes, here it is.
+
+"'This is eight birthdays all at once, for what do you think, Peggy?
+this morning we missed Semmy at breakfast, and could not find her
+anywhere. There were kidneys, and you know she always finishes the dish
+off, because she is so fond of them. Well, and so I went to look for
+her, and she wasn't in her box, or in the shed, or behind the kitchen
+stove, or anywhere where she usually is. So I went out to the stable,
+and there I heard little squeaks and squeals, the funniest you ever
+heard, and then a growl in Semmy's voice as I opened the door. Then the
+dear thing heard my step, and was ashamed of growling, and began
+thumping her tail on the floor till I should have thought she would
+break it. And there she was, all cuddled down in a pile of hay, and the
+dear little darling things all cuddled round her. I never saw anything
+so perfectly dear! they were all blind, and bald all over, and pink, and
+squealing like anything; you never _did_ see anything so lovely in all
+your life, at least I never did. Well, she let me take them up, one by
+one, old darling, though I could see that it made her nervous. Most of
+them are like her, beautifully marked, with pink noses, and black ears,
+and just the right blackness and tanness on them; but one is very queer,
+great splotches of black on his nose and his hind quarters, and all the
+rest of him white. So they named him "Magpie," right off; but I haven't
+come to the names yet. He is not very pretty, but he looks _very_
+bright, and I shouldn't wonder if he was terribly clever, to make up for
+not being so handsome as the others. And the other different one is a
+perfect beauty, though you may not think so when I tell you that he is
+_blue_. Yes, truly blue; of course I don't mean sky blue, nor navy, but
+the black is all mixed in through the white,--I can't explain to you
+just how it is--but anyhow, at a little distance, he does truly and
+honestly look blue. Well, so--I was the first to find them, so Father
+said I might name them, but of course I wanted us all to do it together;
+so we all thought, and each made a list. Oh, Peggy, we did want you; and
+I wanted to wait till you could send your list too, but the others
+thought you would not mind, and it is nicer to have them named quickly,
+because then their names seem to belong to them more, and they look
+like them. Perhaps, I mean, if you had been called something else till
+you were two or three years old, you might not have been so just exactly
+Peggy as you are, you dear old thing.'
+
+"Perhaps I ought not to have read that," said Peggy, looking up with a
+blush; "but it is as like Jean as I am like Peggy, if I am like it,
+whatever it is."
+
+"You certainly are like 'it,'" said Gertrude, laughing, "and 'it'
+certainly is a dear old thing. Go on, please. We are all longing to hear
+the list."
+
+Peggy threw her a kiss, and went on.
+
+"'I will not give you all the lists, for that would take up all the rest
+of my letter; but here is the one we finally made out. There are three
+females, and five males, you know: _Cleopatra_, _Meg_ (Merrilies; that
+was Flora's, because she is just reading "Guy Mannering"), _Diana_,
+_Guy_ (for the same reason), _Shot_, _Hector_, _Ajax_, and _Magpie_.'
+
+"Well, I do think that is a queer list," Peggy concluded, folding up the
+letter. "I wish they had called one 'Gray Brother,' or 'Bagheera.'"
+
+"But they are not wolves or panthers," objected Mr. Merryweather. "I
+should say that was a very fair list of names, Peggy, as names go. It is
+always hard to find a good name for a dog. 'Shot' is an excellent name.
+We had a good old dog named Shot, and I have always liked the name."
+
+"Mammy," said Bell, "are we not to hear something from you?"
+
+"From me, my dear?" repeated Mrs. Merryweather. "What would you like to
+hear?"
+
+"I should think you were an amiable gramophone," replied her daughter,
+with affectionate disrespect. "And I _think_ you really know what I
+mean, madam, in spite of that innocent look. On reading your letters,
+you and Jerry exclaimed: 'Well, well!' and 'Sapolio!' at the same
+instant, and your letters are on the same kind of paper, I cannot help
+seeing that. Have you something to break to us? 'Sapolio' is a baleful
+utterance, delivered as Jerry delivered it just now."
+
+"Gee! I should think it was!" muttered Gerald, gloomily. He had
+brightened up while Peggy was reading her letter, but now his usually
+bright face was clouded with unmistakable vexation.
+
+"Oh!" said Mrs. Merryweather, with what seemed a rather elaborately
+cheerful expression. "My letter? It is from Cousin Anna Belleville. She
+tells me that Claud has been with her at Bar Harbor for some time, and
+that he is coming to visit us on his way back. He will be here some day
+next week, she thinks."
+
+A certain pensiveness stole over the aspect of the Merryweathers. Bell
+and Gertrude exchanged a swift glance, but said nothing. Gerald
+whistled, "Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket!"
+
+After a brief silence, Mr. Merryweather said, thoughtfully, "I was
+thinking of taking the boys off on a camping trip next week."
+
+"You cannot, Miles," said his wife, quickly. "It is out of the
+question."
+
+"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Merryweather. "I only--a--quite so!"
+
+He relapsed into inarticulate murmurs over his pipe. Mrs. Merryweather,
+after a reproachful glance at him, turned to Gerald, as she folded her
+letter. "You have a letter from Claud, Gerald?" she asked, cheerfully.
+
+"I have, madam," said Gerald, with a brow of thunder. "He informs me
+that he is looking forward with the greatest pleasure to roughing it a
+bit with us, and says that we must make no preparations, but let him
+take things just as they are. He's a Christian soul, that's what he is."
+
+"What is to be the order of the evening?" asked Mrs. Merryweather,
+addressing Bell with a shade of warning in her voice. "Are we to have
+games, or boat-building?"
+
+"Oh! boat-building! the regatta is to-morrow, and we are not half
+ready."
+
+There was a general rush toward cupboards and lockers, and in an
+incredibly short space of time the whole room was a pleasant litter of
+chips, shingles, and brown paper. The rules for the regattas at
+Merryweather were few and simple. All boats must be built by their
+owners, unaided; no boat must be over a foot long from stem to stern;
+all sails must be of paper. Aside from these limitations, the fancies of
+the campers might roam at will; accordingly, the boats were of every
+shape and description, from Kitty's shingle, ballasted with pebbles, to
+Phil's elaborate catamaran. Peggy was struggling with a stout and
+somewhat "nubbly" piece of wood, which was slowly shaping itself under
+the vigorous strokes of her jack-knife.
+
+"She's coming on!" Peggy declared, cheerfully. "She really begins to
+look quite like a boat now, doesn't she, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"Certainly!" the Chief assented. "I don't see why she should not make a
+very good boat, Peggy. I would round off her stern a bit, if I were you.
+So! that's better."
+
+"What is her name, Peggy?" inquired Mrs. Merryweather. "I must be
+entering the names in the Log."
+
+"The _Lovely Peggy_, of course!" said Phil. "What else should it be?"
+
+"It might be the _Limavaddy_!" said Gerald.
+
+"Gerald, I _wish_ you would tell me what you mean by 'Limavaddy,'" said
+Peggy. "It sounds like--I don't know what; tea-caddy, or something like
+that. Mrs. Merryweather, won't you tell me what it means?"
+
+"It is a compliment he is paying you, Peggy," said her hostess, smiling.
+"Peg of Limavaddy is the charming heroine of a charming ballad of
+Thackeray's.
+
+        "'This I do declare,
+           Happy is the laddy
+           Who the heart can share
+            Of Peg of Limavaddy.
+          Married if she were,
+            Blest would be the daddy
+          Of the children fair
+            Of Peg of Limavaddy.
+          Beauty is not rare
+            In the land of Paddy,
+          Fair beyond compare
+            Is Peg of Limavaddy.'
+
+That is not one of the prettiest stanzas, but it shows you why Gerald
+has nicknamed you."
+
+"I say with Captain Corcoran," Gerald observed, pausing in the critical
+adjustment of a sail:
+
+        "'Though I'm anything but clever,
+          I could talk like that forever.'
+
+As thus!
+
+        "When she makes the tea,
+           Brews it from a caddy,
+         Who so blithe as she,
+           Peg of Limavaddy?
+
+        "See her o'er the stove,
+           Broiling of a haddie;
+         Thus she won my love,
+           Peg of Limavaddy.
+
+        "But building of a boat,
+           Her success is shady;
+         Bet you she won't float,
+           Peg of Limavaddy!"
+
+"Wait till to-morrow," cried Peggy, laughing, "and you'll see whether
+she floats or not. And anyhow, she is my first boat. Isn't there a
+special class for beginners, Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"No, no! no fear or favor shown; the rigor of the game, little Peggy.
+Margaret, have you given up?"
+
+"Oh, yes, please, Mr. Merryweather!" said Margaret, looking up from her
+knitting with a smile. "I could not; it simply was not possible. Gerald
+was positive at first that he could teach me, but after one lesson he
+was equally positive that he could not. I needed no conviction, because
+I knew I could not."
+
+"Nobody can do absolutely everything," said Gerald, "except the
+Codger,--I allude to my revered uncle, Margaret,--and I have at times
+desired to drown him for that qualification. You shall be the starter,
+Margaret; you'll do that to perfection."
+
+"What are the duties of a starter?" asked Margaret; "I shall be very
+glad to do anything I really can."
+
+"To sit still and look pretty!" said Gerald, demurely. "I _think_ you
+can manage it."
+
+"Have I the full list?" asked Mrs. Merryweather. "I'll read it aloud.
+
+"The _Principal Whale_,--Papa."
+
+"I wish you would not call my father names!" murmured Gerald.
+
+"Jerry, do be still!
+
+"The _Tintinnabula_, Bell.
+
+"The _Jollycumpop_, Gertrude.
+
+"The _Come-at-a-Body_, Gerald.
+
+"The _Molasses Cooky_, Phil.
+
+"The _Polly Cologne_, Kitty.
+
+"The _Whopper_, Willy."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"All but Peggy's," said Gertrude. "Peggy, you must decide on the name of
+your boat."
+
+"Oh! Gertrude, that is the hardest part of all. Margaret, you must name
+her for me."
+
+"Why not _Semiramis_, after the happy mother of the puppies?" suggested
+Margaret.
+
+"The whole puppies!" echoed Gerald. "Don't half name them, Margaret!"
+
+"Why isn't that the name for the boat?" cried Phil.
+
+"It is! it is!" cried all the rest. "The _Whole Puppy_, it is!" And
+Peggy laughing, submitted.
+
+"I never _was_ so teased in all my life!" she said; "but I feel it doing
+me good."
+
+"That is our one object, my charming child!" said Gerald, gravely. "We
+invited you here in the hope that our united efforts might counteract
+the pernicious influences of Fernley House."
+
+"Nobody will ever explain to me what a Come-at-a-Body is!" said
+Margaret. "Whenever I ask, you all say, 'Oh, hush! it might come!' Mrs.
+Merryweather, won't you tell me?"
+
+"I will read you the description of it in the Log," said Mrs.
+Merryweather, smiling; "that is the best I can do for you."
+
+She turned over the pages of the book that lay open in her lap. "Here it
+is!" she said. "Now mark and learn, Margaret.
+
+"'The Come-at-a-Body is found only in its native habitat, where it may
+be observed at the proper season, indulging in the peculiar actions that
+characterize it. It has more arms than legs, and more hair than either.
+It moves with great rapidity, its gait being something between a wallop
+and a waddle; and as it comes (one of its peculiarities is that it
+always comes, and never goes), it utters loud screams, and gnashes its
+teeth in time with its movements.'
+
+"Now, my dear, you know all that I do!" Mrs. Merryweather concluded with
+a candid smile.
+
+"Thank you so much!" said Margaret, laughing. "I am certainly
+enlightened."
+
+At this moment Phil, who was sitting near the door, laid down his work,
+and held up a warning hand. "Hark!" he said. "What is that?"
+
+"Only the wind!" said some one.
+
+"Or the car rattling o'er the stony street!" said another.
+
+"No!" said Phil. "I heard a voice, I am sure. Listen!"
+
+All were silent. Outside the rain was pouring, the wind wailing in long
+sighing gusts; but--yes! mingling with the wind, a voice was certainly
+calling:
+
+"Hallo! hallo, there! Merryweather!"
+
+Gerald sprang to his feet, and struck his twin brother on the shoulder.
+"The Philistines are upon thee, Samson!" he cried. "I should know that
+voice in the shock of spears: it is Claud Belleville!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MR. BELLEVILLE
+
+
+[Illustration: "MR. CLAUD BELLEVILLE WAS A TALL, PALLID YOUTH."]
+
+THE Montforts and Jack Ferrers looked up with much curiosity and some
+apprehension as the twins returned ushering in the unexpected visitor.
+Mr. and Mrs. Merryweather and the girls welcomed him cordially, but
+Margaret could not help contrasting their somewhat subdued cheerfulness
+with the joyous outburst that had welcomed herself and Peggy on their
+arrival.
+
+Mr. Claud Belleville was a tall, pallid youth, with blond hair carefully
+arranged, pale blue eyes, in one of which an eyeglass was neatly fitted,
+and a languid air. He spoke with a pronounced English accent, and, on
+being presented to the other guests, said "Oh! very, very, very!" in
+a most affable tone.
+
+The Merryweathers bestirred themselves, some bringing dry garments, some
+preparing a hasty meal; the guest meanwhile stood in the centre of the
+hearthstone, and adjured them not to put themselves to inconvenience.
+
+"Now, my dear people, I beg of you!" he said. "Nothing, positively
+nothing, but a biscuit and a cup of tea! Really, now, I cannot allow it.
+Thanks, Jerry! awfully good of you, don't you know! oh! very, very,
+very! now, my dear fellow, _not_ your best coat! It is too absurd."
+
+"It isn't my best, it's my worst!" said Gerald, bluntly.
+
+"Oh! very good! very diverting! thanks awfully! don't mention it. Well,
+Cousin Miranda, this is charming; this is positively charming. So
+delightfully primitive, don't you know! oh, very, very, very! I told my
+people that before I went back to Paris I must positively look you up.
+It is such an age since I have seen any of you. My little cousins are
+all grown up into young ladies, and such charming young ladies: I
+congratulate you, Cousin, _de tout mon coeur_!"
+
+"Thank you, Claud!" said Mrs. Merryweather, quietly. "I trust your
+mother is quite well? I only received her note, and Gerald yours,
+to-day. She spoke of your coming next week; if we had known that you
+were coming to-night, we would have sent to the station for you."
+
+"Ah, yes; I knew that!" said Mr. Belleville. "I know your hospitality
+never fails, Cousin Miranda. But you know me, too--a butterfly--here
+to-day, gone to-morrow! A summons from the Dunderblincks--races going on
+at their place, don't you know; midsummer _fetes_, that sort of
+thing--changed my plans. Mamma said, 'You will have to give up the Camp,
+_Cheri_!' 'No!' I said. 'They expect me; I have passed my word, it is
+all I have. I go to the Camp to-day.' I came--I saw--I dare not say I
+conquered!" Here he bowed, and threw a killing glance at Gertrude, who
+was passing at the moment, carrying the teapot.
+
+"_Can_ this be the little Gertrude?" he added, addressing her, and
+lowering his voice to a sentimental half-tone. "She has not forgotten
+Cousin Claud?"
+
+"Certainly not, Claud!" replied Gertrude, smiling. "It is only three
+years since you were with us at home for two or three weeks. I remember
+you perfectly."
+
+"Only three years!" murmured Mr. Belleville. "Is it possible? but what
+momentous years! The change from the _petite fille_, the charming child,
+to the woman, the--but I must not say too much!"
+
+"You'll burn your bloom--your boots, if you stand so near the fire!"
+said Gerald, in a growl so threatening that Margaret looked up
+startled.
+
+"_Your_ boots, dear fellow!" Mr. Belleville corrected him. "Right! I am
+a little near the cheerful blaze. I am a fire-worshipper, you know; oh,
+very, very, very!"
+
+"Boys, you'd better see to the boats before you go to bed!" said Mr.
+Merryweather, speaking for the first time since his greeting of the
+newcomer.
+
+"All right, sir!" said the twins, rising with alacrity. "Jack, will you
+come along?"
+
+"Always thoughtful, Cousin Miles!" said Mr. Belleville. "Always the prop
+of the family! so unchanged!"
+
+Mr. Merryweather's reply was inarticulate, and its tone caused his wife
+to begin hastily a series of inquiries for the visitor's family.
+
+The twins and Jack Ferrers walked slowly down the slip in the rain. No
+one spoke till they reached the float; then Gerald said slowly:
+"Sapolio--Saccarappa--Sarcophagus--_Squedunk_!"
+
+"Feel better?" asked his brother, sympathetically.
+
+"There is one thing," said Gerald, still speaking slowly and
+emphatically, "that I wish, in this connection, distinctly understood.
+Indoors he is safe: hospitality--salt--Arabs--that kind of thing. But if
+in the immediate proximity of the cleansing flood"--he waved his hand
+toward the lake--"he continues to patronize the parents, in he goes! I
+have spoken!"
+
+"I should not presume to restrain my half-hour elder!" said Phil. "Jack,
+I'm afraid we shall have to put this curled darling in your tent. It's
+only for the night, fortunately."
+
+"Oh! of course! delighted!" said Jack, somewhat embarrassed.
+
+"Very, very, very, eh?" said Phil. "Oh! what's the use of making
+believe, with any one we know so well as you? It's a nuisance, and we
+don't pretend it isn't."
+
+"Mark my words, John Ferrers!" broke in Gerald. "We mean to be civil to
+this youth. He is our second cousin, and we know it. He is also a
+blooming, blossoming, burgeoning Ass, and he doesn't know it. They
+seldom do. We mean, I say, to be civil to him, barring patronage of the
+parents. He has been our thorn, and we have borne him--at intervals,
+mercifully not too short--all our lives. But we aren't going to pretend
+that we love him, because we don't. No more doesn't he love us.
+
+          "The love that's lost between us
+           Is not the love for me;
+        But there's a flood both fair and broad,
+        In which I'd duck my charming Claud
+           As gladly as could be!"
+
+. . . . . . .
+
+"Are you ready?" asked the Chief.
+
+"Oh! no, Pater! not just yet. My rudder has got fouled with the cargo."
+
+"Somebody lend me a safety-pin, please! my mainsail is coming loose."
+
+"Has anybody got any ballast to spare? just one pebble!"
+
+These cries and many others resounded from the float, where the campers
+were gathered, and were putting the last touches to their toy boats.
+Finally Mr. Merryweather declared that there should be no more delay.
+The boats were carefully placed in the Ark, a great white rowboat manned
+by the Chief and Phil, who proceeded to row out leisurely to a
+white-flagged buoy at some distance from the shore. Gerald and Jack in
+one canoe, Gertrude and Peggy in another, were stationed at either side
+of the course; while Margaret and Claud Belleville, in a Rangeley boat,
+were so placed as to take the time of the various boats as they came in.
+This arrangement was not satisfactory to all the campers, but when
+protests were made in the family council the night before, Mr.
+Merryweather had calmly remarked that it was impossible to please
+everybody, and that the visitors should be given the post of honor.
+Gerald muttered that he did not see why Margaret should be butchered to
+make a Claudian holiday; to which his father replied that the matter was
+settled, and perhaps he, Gerald, would better be seeing to the lanterns.
+
+"Aren't you a little hard on the boy?" asked Mrs. Merryweather, when she
+and her husband were left alone together.
+
+"He needs something to bite on!" was the reply. "He is going through a
+kind of moral teething."
+
+This regatta was the first that Margaret had ever seen, and she was
+greatly excited.
+
+"Tell us when we are just right!" she cried to the Chief as she passed
+the Ark. "Oh! anchor by the red flag? yes, I remember, you told me
+before. Now, Mr. Belleville, will you throw out the anchor, please?"
+
+"Must I?" rejoined Mr. Belleville. "It seems a pity! So charming to row
+about a bit, don't you think? oh! well, if you insist!"--as he met
+Margaret's horrified gaze. "Here goes!"
+
+The anchor splashed overboard, and the young man laid down his oars.
+
+"You take this _au grand serieux_, I see, Miss Montfort, like my good
+cousins themselves. I confess I never can attain their perennial
+youthfulness, try how I will. I feel a Methuselah, I give you my word I
+do. Oh! very, very, very!"
+
+"I don't understand you," said Margaret, simply. "We are here to take
+the time, as the boats pass the line. There is no other object in our
+being here."
+
+"No other? Alas! poor Claud!" sighed Mr. Belleville. "Now, to me, Miss
+Montfort, the sailing of toy boats is the smallest possible factor in
+this afternoon's pleasure. It is not, believe me, the childish sport
+that I shall remember when I am far away."
+
+"Oh!" said Margaret, vaguely, her eyes on the white boat.
+
+"You do not ask what it is that I shall carry with me across the ocean?"
+Claud's voice dropped to its favorite smooth half-tone, what he was fond
+of describing to his friends as "_ma mi-voix caressante_."
+
+"There is a glamour, Miss Montfort, a magic, that does not always put
+itself into words. The perfect day, the perfect vision, will dwell with
+me--"
+
+"Oh, look!" cried Margaret, starting forward, eagerly, "they are giving
+the signal. Gerald repeats it. Oh, they are off! Look, look, Mr.
+Belleville! What a pretty sight."
+
+It was, indeed, a pretty sight. The fairy fleet started in line, their
+white and brown sails taking the breeze gallantly, their prows (where
+they had prows) dancing over the dancing ripples. One or two proved
+unruly, turning round and round, and in one case finally turning bottom
+side up, with hardly a struggle. But most of the little vessels kept
+fairly well within the course, heading, more or less, for the shore.
+
+Margaret was enchanted.
+
+"How wonderfully they keep together!" she said. "Oh! but now they begin
+to separate. Look, there is a poor little one wobbling off all by
+itself. I wonder--I am afraid it is Peggy's. Yes, I am sure it is. Poor
+Peggy! Oh! the first three are going much faster than the rest. I wonder
+whose they are. How prettily they sail! Did you ever see anything
+prettier?"
+
+"I see something infinitely prettier," said Mr. Belleville, fixing his
+eyes on his companion. But Margaret, wholly unconscious of his
+languishing gaze, was watching the race with an intensity of eagerness
+that left no room for any other impressions.
+
+The three forward boats came on swiftly, their prows dipping lightly,
+their paper sails spread full to the breeze. Shouts came ringing over
+the water, from the other boats, and from the shore, where the rest of
+the campers were gathered in an excited knot.
+
+"_Jollycumpop!_"
+
+"_Come-at-a-Body!_"
+
+"Good work, _Jolly_! Keep it up!"
+
+"The _Whale_ is gaining. Hit her up, Spermaceti!"
+
+"_Jollycumpop_ has it! _Jollycumpop!_"
+
+"The _Jolly is_ first," cried Margaret; "but the _Come-at-a-Body_ is
+very, very close. Which do you think will win, Mr. Belleville?"
+
+"Which do you wish to win?" asked Mr. Belleville.
+
+"Oh, how can I tell? One is Gertrude's, the other Gerald's."
+
+"There can be little doubt in that case, I imagine," said Claud
+Belleville, with a peculiar smile. "As a matter of simple
+gallantry--dear me, how unfortunate!"
+
+As he spoke, his oar slipped from his hand, and fell with a splash into
+the water. The _Come-at-a-Body_ was nearest to the Rangeley boat. The
+oar did not absolutely touch the tiny vessel, but the shock of the
+disturbed water was enough to check her gallant progress. She
+paused,--wavered,--finally recovered herself, and went bravely on. But
+in that pause the _Jollycumpop_ crossed the line triumphantly, amid loud
+acclamations.
+
+"The little Gertrude wins!" exclaimed Mr. Belleville, recovering his oar
+with graceful composure. "We can hardly regret an accident which
+contributes even slightly to give the victory where it so manifestly
+belongs, can we, Miss Montfort?"
+
+But Margaret Montfort turned upon him, her fair face flushed with anger,
+her gentle eyes full of fire.
+
+"Mr. Belleville, you dropped that oar on purpose!" she said, quietly.
+
+"How can you suspect me of such a thing?" replied Mr. Belleville,
+laughing. "But, _quand meme_! would it have been wholly unjustifiable if
+I had done so?"
+
+"Wholly, to my mind!" said Margaret. "In fact, I cannot imagine such a
+thing being done by any one who--" she checked herself.
+
+"By any one who is related to these dear people?" said Mr. Belleville,
+lightly. "Ah! Miss Montfort, a bond of blood does not always mean a bond
+of sympathy. These dear people bore me, and I bore them. Believe me, it
+is reciprocal. But do you yourself never tire of this everlasting
+childishness, these _jeux d'enfance_, on the part of persons who, after
+all, are mostly beyond the nursery?"
+
+"I do not!" said Margaret, concisely. "If you will take in the anchor,
+Mr. Belleville, I think I should like to go ashore, if you please."
+
+"I have offended you!" cried Claud Belleville. "You, to whom from the
+first instant I have felt so irresistibly drawn. I am unfortunate,
+indeed. But you cannot be seriously angry. Give me a chance to redeem
+myself, I implore you, Miss Montfort. See what a charming little cove
+opens yonder, just opposite. Delightful to drift and dream for an hour,
+in the company of one who understands--oh, very, very, very."
+
+"I do not understand," said Margaret, "and I have no desire to do so,
+Mr. Belleville. I beg you to take me ashore at once,--this moment."
+
+"And if I were bold enough to delay obedience for a few moments? If I
+felt confident that I could overcome this stern--"
+
+"Gertrude," called Margaret, as the owner of the victorious
+_Jollycumpop_ passed them with a triumphant greeting, "can you give us a
+tow?"
+
+"Certainly," said Gertrude. "Anything wrong?"
+
+"On the contrary, dear cousin," said Claud, "I challenge you to a race."
+
+And with a glance at Margaret, half reproachful, half mocking, he bent
+to his oars, with the first sign of energy he had shown since his
+arrival.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PUPPY PLAY
+
+
+"BELL, may I speak to you a moment?" said Margaret.
+
+Bell looked up from a critical inspection of the _Tintinnabula_, which
+had been somewhat injured in the race. "Certainly, May Margaret!" she
+said. "Do you want to know why my poor boatie did not win? I have just
+found out." Then, looking up, and seeing Margaret's disturbed face, she
+rose instantly.
+
+"Something is wrong?" she said, quickly. "Come this way, under the
+trees, where it is quiet. You have had no bad news, dear?"
+
+"Oh, no!" said Margaret. "But--Bell, I have something very disagreeable
+to tell you. It seems terrible to say anything that may make trouble,
+but nothing makes so much trouble as untruth, and I do think you ought
+to know this. I don't think the _Jollycumpop_ really won the race!"
+
+"My dear Margaret! she came in well ahead; didn't you see--"
+
+"Listen, Bell!" and Margaret told in a few words the story of the
+dropped oar.
+
+Bell listened with keen attention, and when Margaret had finished,
+whistled two bars of the Siegfried _motif_ very correctly before she
+spoke.
+
+"The little animal!" she said at last. "Well, Margaret, do you know, the
+best thing to do, in my opinion, is--to say nothing about it, at
+present."
+
+"But--Bell! Gerald really won!"
+
+"I know! but, even as it is, Jerry can hardly keep his hands off Claud.
+My one prayer is that we may be able to get the boy off to-morrow
+without an open quarrel breaking out. You see, Margaret, when they were
+little, it was all right for Jerry to thrash him. He did it punctually
+and thoroughly, every time they met, and it was very good for the boy;
+but now of course it is out of the question."
+
+"Why did he come here?" inquired Margaret. "Did ever any one manage to
+make so much trouble in so short a time? the very air seems changed."
+
+Bell shrugged her shoulders. "His mother made him come, probably," she
+said. "He is really devoted to his mother; when you see him with her,
+you forgive a great deal. She is very fond of my father, and is always
+hoping that he may be able to influence Claud, and to appreciate him.
+After all, the boy has no father, and he has been systematically spoiled
+ever since he was born. I wish to-morrow were over."
+
+"Then," said Margaret, slowly, "I am to say nothing about this matter."
+
+"Please not!" said her friend. "My dear, I see you are troubled, because
+you saw the horrid thing done; and you don't think it right to conceal
+the truth, even for a time. I am just as angry as you, but remember,
+there is 'a time to speak and a time to be silent.' This is a time to be
+silent, I am very sure; if we were to tell the boys now, it would be a
+match thrown into a powder-magazine. To-morrow, when Claud is safely off
+to his Dunderblincks, we will tell them; there will be an explosion
+then, but it will do no harm; and in a day or two the two boats can have
+a race by themselves, and that will decide the case. Are you convinced,
+Justitia?"
+
+"Entirely!" said Margaret. "You are very wise, Bell; I suppose I was too
+angry to see clearly; I have never been so angry in my life. As you say,
+I suppose it is because I saw it; and it _was_ a horrid thing to see. I
+too wish to-morrow were over."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morrow came, and the morning passed peacefully enough. The wagon was
+ordered which was to carry the visitor to the evening train. The elders
+began to breathe freely, and it was with a mind comparatively at rest
+that Mr. Merryweather strolled down to the float after dinner, to
+inspect a boat which had been hauled up for repairs. The other
+"menfolks" of the family followed him, and all stood round after the
+fashion of their kind, saying little, but enjoying themselves in their
+own way.
+
+"I'd caulk her a bit, Jerry," said the Chief; "and then give her a
+couple of coats of shellac. She'll do then for the rest of the season."
+
+"All right, Pater!" said Jerry.
+
+"And if it be possible," his father went on, "so far as in you lies, do
+not spill the shellac about. Shellac is an excellent thing in its place,
+but I don't like it on the seat of my chair, where I found it this
+morning, nor sprinkled over the new 'Century,' as it was last night. And
+it isn't as if there were any to spare; the can is very low."
+
+"I know!" said Gerald, penitently. "I am awfully sorry, Pater. I threw a
+cushion at Fergs, and it upset the can. I scraped up as much as I could;
+I think there is enough left for this job. If not, would that varnish
+do?"
+
+"Varnish--" said Mr. Merryweather; and he plunged into a dissertation
+upon the abominations of most varnishes and the iniquities of their
+makers. Gerald replied, defending certain kinds for certain purposes;
+the others chimed in, and a heated discussion was going on, when Claud
+Belleville joined the party. In spotless gray tweeds, with a white
+Manila hat and a lavender necktie, he made a singular contrast to the
+campers in their flannel shirts and dingy corduroys.
+
+At his appearance, Gerald rose from his squatting posture at the stern
+of the boat, while Phil and Jack amiably made way for the newcomer at
+the edge of the wharf, where, for some unexplained reason, men always
+like to stand. Claud, finding himself between Gerald and his father,
+turned toward the latter with an air of cheerful benevolence.
+
+"Cousin Miles," he said, "you must promise me, you really must, to come
+to us at Bar Harbor before the end of the summer. I gave my word to
+Mamma that I would induce you to come. She longs to see you."
+
+"I should like very much to see her," said Mr. Merryweather. "We were
+always very good friends, your mother and I. Give her my love, and tell
+her that some time when she is in New York I shall run on to see her;
+possibly this autumn, before you sail. It would not be possible for me
+to leave here now."
+
+"Oh, but yes!" cried Mr. Belleville, airily. "It could be possible,
+Cousin Miles. Here are the boys, absolutely _au fait_ in bog-trotting of
+every description; in fact, suited to the life--in all its aspects." He
+swept Gerald with a comprehensive glance, from his mop of red hair,
+tanned into rust-color, to his feet, clad in superannuated "sneakers."
+
+"They can do all the honors of the place as they should be done," he
+added. "But you, Cousin Miles, you must positively come to Bar Harbor.
+You live too much the life of the fields. Mamma is constantly deploring
+it. We will show you a little life, Mamma and I. I will put you up at my
+Club, and take you out in my new auto; in a week, you will not know
+yourself, I give you my word. Oh, very, very, very!"
+
+As the speaker stood beaming benevolence at Mr. Merryweather, and
+diffusing contempt among the rest of the party, two hands were laid on
+his shoulders; hands which gripped like steel, and propelled him forward
+with irresistible force. He staggered, struggled to save himself--and
+the next instant disappeared with a loud splash beneath the water.
+
+Gerald confronted his father with a face of white fire.
+
+"I told him, sir, plainly and distinctly, that if he patronized you I
+should duck him!" he said. "He has had fair warning: this has gone on
+long enough."
+
+"Gerald," said Mr. Merryweather, gravely, "you are behaving like a
+foolish and ill-tempered child. I am fully able to take care of myself.
+We will talk of this later. Meantime you will apologize to your cousin."
+
+"Oh, certainly, sir! I intended to, of course."
+
+While this brief colloquy had been going on, Phil and Jack, with
+sparkling eyes, waited at the edge of the wharf for the reappearance of
+Mr. Belleville. Up he came presently, splashing and sputtering, his eyes
+flashing angry sparks. Phil held out a hand; a vigorous pull, a
+scramble, and he stood once more on the wharf. Gerald walked up to him
+at once. "I beg your pardon, Claud!" he said. "I had no business to do
+it, and I apologize."
+
+Claud gave a spiteful laugh, and shook himself in his cousin's
+direction, spattering him with drops. "Don't mention it, dear fellow!"
+he said, through his chattering teeth. "It serves me right for expecting
+civilized manners in the backwoods. This no doubt appears to you an
+exquisite pleasantry, and its delicacy will be appreciated, no doubt, by
+others of your circle. _Enfin_, in the presence of your father, whom I
+respect, I can but accept your apology. Since you are sorry--"
+
+"I did not say I was sorry!" Gerald broke in. "I said I begged your
+pardon."
+
+"My son, will you go at once and attend to the fire?" said Mr.
+Merryweather.
+
+"Father--"
+
+"_At once!_" repeated Mr. Merryweather.
+
+Gerald went.
+
+"Phil, take your cousin in, and get him some dry clothes. His own will
+be dry before the wagon comes, if you hang them by the kitchen stove.
+Hurry now!"
+
+Phil and Claud went off in surly silence, and Mr. Merryweather turned to
+Jack Ferrers, who had remained an amused but somewhat embarrassed
+spectator of the scene.
+
+"Puppy play, Jack!" he said, quietly. "You have seen plenty of it in
+Germany. One puppy _is_ a puppy, more's the pity, and the other has red
+hair. Well! well! I did hope this could have been avoided; but we must
+not let it go any further. I wish Roger were here. I wonder if you can
+help me out, Jack."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir!" said Jack, heartily.
+
+"You see, I must go off; I ought to be at the village landing this
+moment, to see about that freight that is coming. Do you think you can
+keep the peace till I come back?"
+
+"I think I can," said Jack. "I'll make a good try for it, anyhow, Mr.
+Merryweather."
+
+"That's a good lad!" said the Chief. "You could knock both their heads
+together, if you put your mind--and your biceps--to it; but I hope that
+will not be necessary. In any case, don't let them fight! I promised his
+mother."
+
+He nodded, and, settling himself in a boat, departed with long, powerful
+strokes.
+
+Jack, left alone, shook his curly head, and felt of his arms.
+
+"Ah'm fit!" he said, quoting another and a bigger Jock than himself.
+"But it's a pity. That fellow is not only a puppy, he is a cur. I never
+saw anybody who needed a thrashing more." And he went and coiled himself
+in a hammock, and prepared to keep watch.
+
+An hour later Mr. Claud Belleville, once more dry, if somewhat shorn of
+his glory, reappeared upon the scene. As he came out of his tent, Gerald
+strolled carelessly out of the boat-house, his hands in his pockets.
+
+"Cousin Rowdy, a word with you, if you please!" said Claud.
+
+"Cousin Cad, two, if you like!" said Gerald.
+
+"In France, where I live," Mr. Belleville resumed, "when we are
+insulted, we fight."
+
+"No! do you really?" cried Gerald, his eyes sparkling as he began
+eagerly to turn back his cuffs. "Hooray! I say, shake hands, Claud. I
+didn't think you had it in you. There's a bully place up behind the
+woodshed. Come on!"
+
+Claud Belleville, who really was no coward, started forward readily: but
+at this moment Destiny intervened, in the shape of six foot four of John
+Ferrers. Uncoiling his length from the hammock, he took two strides
+forward, and lifting Gerald in his arms as if he were an infant, carried
+him off bodily. Gerald, who was strong and agile as a young panther,
+fought and struggled, pouring out a torrent of angry protest; but in
+vain. When Jack put forth his full strength, there was no possibility of
+resistance. He bore the furious lad to his tent, and throwing him on
+the cot, deliberately sat down on his feet, in calm and cheerful
+silence. Gerald twisted and writhed, exhausted himself in struggles,
+threats, prayers; all in vain! Jack sat like a statue. Finally the boy
+relapsed into sullen silence, and lay panting, his hand clenched, his
+blue eyes dark with anger and chagrin.
+
+By and by came the sound of wheels; a wagon stopped in front of the
+camp. There were sounds of leave-taking; "Good-by, Claud!" "Our love to
+your mother!" in various tones and modulations; then the sound of wheels
+once more, rattling up the hill and away in the distance. Then Jack
+Ferrers rose, and smiled down on his prostrate friend.
+
+"Awfully sorry, old man!" he said.
+
+Gerald was silent.
+
+"Jerry! you're not going to cut up rough?"
+
+"I have nothing to say," said Gerald, coldly.
+
+"You are my guest, and manners forbid. We will change the subject, if
+you please."
+
+"Manners didn't forbid your chucking the Charmer into the drink!" said
+Jack. "Ho! did you see him blink when he came up? It was worth while,
+Jerry, even if I have to fight you, but I don't believe I shall. You
+see, your father had to go off, and he asked me to keep the peace, and I
+said I would; and I didn't see any other way, wildcat that you are. A
+sweet condition the Charmer would have been in to go back to his Mamma,
+if I had not done as I did!"
+
+"I might have known the Pater was at the bottom of it!" said Gerald, his
+face lightening, and his voice taking on its own kindly ring. "Fine man;
+but the extent to which he won't let me thrash Claud is simply
+disgusting. When it comes to setting a Megatherium on a man--"
+
+"And to the Megatherium sitting on the man--" said Jack, laughing.
+
+"No more o' that, Jack, if thou love me! There's the horn! Come on, and
+let that flint-hearted parent see that we are all right."
+
+The pair strolled in to supper, arm in arm, singing, to the tune of
+"Home, Sweet Home!"
+
+        "Claud, Claud, sweet, sweet Claud!
+         There's no ass like Claud,
+         There is no ass like Claud!"
+
+and were promptly silenced by Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL
+
+
+MRS. MERRYWEATHER had had a busy day. There had been a picnic at Oak
+Island, which had taken all the morning and a good part of the
+afternoon; then there had been a dozen letters to write for the late
+mail; and finally she had taken Kitty's turn with Willy at getting
+supper, as Kitty had a headache. The sisters protested, each one
+claiming her right to take the extra duty; but Mrs. Merryweather had her
+own reasons for being glad of the hour of play-work with her little boy.
+Willy had been rather out of spirits, which meant that he, as well as
+his sister, had eaten too many huckleberries; this afternoon he had
+been decidedly cross, and required treatment.
+
+Coming into the kitchen at five o'clock, she found the fire lighted, and
+the kettle on, for Willy was a faithful soul; but he was frowning
+heavily over his chopping-tray.
+
+"I wish mince-meat had never been invented!" he said, gloomily.
+
+"Do you?" said his mother. "I don't! I am glad it was, even if I did not
+have three helps last night."
+
+"I was so hungry, I had to eat something," said Willy, in an injured
+tone. "When I grow up, I mean to have beefsteak every day, and never
+have anything made over at all."
+
+"I'll remember that, the next time we have brown-bread brewis!" said his
+mother smiling.
+
+"Oh! that's different!" said Willy.
+
+"Most things are different," said Mrs. Merryweather, "if you look at
+them in a different way. Is that ready, son?"
+
+"As ready as it is ever going to be. I've chopped till my arm is almost
+broken."
+
+"So I see! It looks as if you had cracked it. Well, now, it isn't time
+yet to make the rolls, so we can take breath a bit. Come out on the
+porch, and let us play something till the kettle boils."
+
+"I don't feel like playing!" said Willy, dolefully; "I don't feel like
+doing anything, Mammy."
+
+Mrs. Merryweather looked at him a moment; then taking his hands in hers,
+she said suddenly, "'For heaven's sake let us sit upon the ground, and
+tell sad stories of the death of kings!' That is a passage from Richard
+II., and it seems to fit the occasion. Sit down, Willy; right here on
+the floor by me; I'll begin. Two minutes for composition!"
+
+She was silent, looking out over the water, while Willy glanced sidewise
+at her, half-interested in spite of himself.
+
+"I have it!" she said, presently.
+
+        "King John put on such frightful airs,
+         He met his death by eating pears.
+
+"Your turn, Willy! two minutes!"
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I can't play!"
+
+"But you _are_ playing. Only one minute more."
+
+"Well, then--does it have to be the real way they died? because I don't
+know."
+
+"No! facts not required in this game."
+
+"Well, then--
+
+        "King Og
+         Was lost in a bog."
+
+"Your metre is faulty," said his mother, thoughtfully, "but the
+statement is interesting. My turn; you shall hold the watch for me."
+
+"Time's up!" cried Willy, beginning to kindle.
+
+"Oh! is it? What short minutes! Let me see!
+
+        "King Xerxes
+         Was killed by Turkses."
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MERRYWEATHER'S VIGIL.]
+
+"Oh! I wanted Xerxes. Wait, Mammy. I have one!
+
+        "King David
+         Could not be saved!"
+
+"Good!" cried his mother. "That is the best yet. But we might branch out
+a little, I think, Willy. This condensed couplet is forcible, but not
+very graceful. How do you like this?
+
+        "Tiglath-pileser, Tiglath-pileser,
+         He tried to buy a lemon-squeezer;
+         But no such thing had e'er been seen,
+         So in a melancholy green,
+         Oh, very green, and very yellow,
+         He pined away and died, poor fellow!"
+
+"That is splendid," said Willy, "but you took a little more than two
+minutes. My turn now!
+
+        "The great and mighty Alexander
+         Was bit to death by a salamander."
+
+"_Done_ to death is more poetic!" said his mother.
+
+"Yes, but 'bit' is more savage. I like 'bit.' Your time's up, Mammy!"
+
+"Oh! Willy, I am going to give you a subtle one this time; one in which
+something is left to the imagination.
+
+        "The Emperor Domitian
+         Consulted a physician!"
+
+"But you didn't kill him."
+
+"No, but the physician did."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"No, not really. What do you think of this game?"
+
+"I think it's bully. Did you really just make it up, Mammy?"
+
+"Just! Now the kettle is boiling, and we must come in; but as we go, let
+me inform you that--
+
+        "The Emperor Tiberius
+         He died of something serious;
+         But now we'll stop,
+         And make the pop-
+         Ov_ers_ before we weary us!"
+
+Willy's gloom was effectually banished, and he continued to slaughter
+kings till the supper-horn blew.
+
+The effect of this and other mental exercises, added to a cup of tea,
+was such that when bed-time came, Mrs. Merryweather found herself
+singularly wide awake. In vain she counted hundreds; in vain she
+ransacked her memory for saints, kings, and cities alphabetically
+arranged; in vain she made a list of Johns, beginning with the Baptist
+and ending with John O'Groats; the second hundred found her wider awake
+than ever, as she tossed on her narrow cot. Mr. Merryweather, in the
+opposite cot, was breathing deep and regularly; he was sound asleep, at
+least, and that was a good thing. Other than this, no sound broke the
+perfect stillness of the night. The full moon rode high, and lake and
+woodland were flooded with silver light. A glorious night! Mrs.
+Merryweather sighed; what was the use of staying in bed on such a night
+as this, when one could not sleep? If only there were some excuse for
+getting up!
+
+Suddenly she remembered that, the night being very warm, and the two
+children apparently entirely recovered from their slight indisposition,
+they had been allowed to sleep out on the Point, in accordance with a
+promise made some days ago by their father. She had not been quite
+willing, but had yielded to pressure, and they had gone out, very happy,
+with their blankets and the india-rubber floor-cloth.
+
+Mrs. Merryweather sat up in bed. "I ought to go and see if those chicks
+are all right!" she said. "After all, they certainly were not quite well
+this afternoon, whatever Miles may say." She glanced half-defiantly at
+the other cot, but Miles said nothing. She rose quietly, put on wrapper
+and slippers, and opening noiselessly the screen-door of the tent,
+slipped out into the open, and stood for a moment looking about her. How
+beautiful it was! what a wonderful silver world! Sleep was good, but
+surely, to be awake, on such a night as this, was better.
+
+She stole past the other tents, pausing an instant at the door of each
+to listen for the regular breathing which is the sweetest music a mother
+can hear; then she made her way out to the Point, through the sweet
+tangle of fern and berry-bushes, under the bending trees that dropped
+dew on her head as she passed.
+
+The Point lay like the prow of some great vessel in a silver sea. One
+tall pine stood for the mast; under this pine, rolled in scarlet
+blankets, their rosy faces turned toward the moon, lay the children,
+sound asleep. Willy had curled one arm under his head, and his other
+hand was locked in his sister's.
+
+"Dear little things!" murmured their mother. "That means that
+Kitty-my-pretty was a little bit frightened before she went to sleep.
+Dear little things!"
+
+She stood there for some time looking down at them.
+
+"The moon is full on their faces!" she said. "My old nurse would tell me
+that they would be moonstruck 'for sartain sure!' How terrified I used
+to be, lest a ray of moonlight should shine on my bed, and I should wake
+a lunatic!"
+
+She glanced up at the moon; looked again, and yet again. "That is very
+singular!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "Something seems to be happening to
+the moon."
+
+Something _was_ happening to the moon. It was as if a piece had been
+bitten out of the shining round. Was it a little cloud? no! no cloud
+could possibly look like that, so black, so thick, so--"Good gracious!"
+said Mrs. Merryweather; "it is an eclipse!"
+
+An eclipse it certainly was. Slowly, surely, the black shadow crept,
+crept, over the silver disk; now a quarter of its surface was hidden;
+now it went creeping, creeping on toward the half.
+
+"It is going to be a total eclipse!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "I suppose
+I ought to wake some of them."
+
+She stood a moment more, looking irresolutely at the sleeping children.
+"I cannot possibly wake them!" she said at last. "Little lambs! they are
+sleeping so beautifully, and they certainly were _not_ quite themselves
+this afternoon. Besides, there will be plenty more eclipses; I'll go and
+wake some of the others."
+
+The black shadow crept on. Hardly less silent, Mrs. Merryweather paused
+before the tent where her daughters slept. Bell and Gertrude scorned
+cots, and their mattresses were spread on the floor at night, and rolled
+up in the daytime. There the two girls lay, still and placid,
+statue-like, save for the gentle heaving of their quiet breasts. A fair
+picture for a mother to look on. Miranda Merryweather looked, and drew a
+happy breath; looked again, and shook her head. "I cannot wake them!"
+she murmured to herself. "They are both tired after that expedition;
+Bell paddled very hard on the way back; she was much more flushed than I
+like to see her, when she came in. And Gertrude sleeps so lightly, I
+fear she might not get to sleep again if I were to wake her now."
+
+The black shadow crept on; the mother crept into the boys' tent, and
+stood beside Gerald's cot. The lad lay with his arms flung wide apart;
+his curly hair was tossed over his broad open forehead; his clear-cut
+features were set as if in marble.
+
+"He has such a beautiful forehead!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He sleeps
+so very sound, that if I were to wake him he might not be able to sleep
+again. Dear Jerry!"
+
+She moved over to Phil's cot: Phil was uneasy, and as she stopped to
+straighten the bedclothes, he turned on his side, muttering something
+that sounded like "Bother breakfast!"
+
+"Poor laddie!" said Mrs. Merryweather. "He looks as if he might have a
+headache. I wish I had made him take a nice little cup of hot malted
+milk before he went to bed. It is out of the question to wake him, when
+he is sleeping so uneasily."
+
+She left the tent, with hardly a glance toward Jack Ferrers, who lay in
+the farthest cot. The idea of waking him, and having him disturb her own
+boys, was too preposterous to be entertained for an instant.
+
+The black shadow had crept entirely over the moon; no silver disk now,
+only a shield of dull bronze; "like some of the Pompeiian bronzes!" Mrs.
+Merryweather thought. "It is very extraordinary. I suppose I really
+_ought_ to wake Miles."
+
+She entered her own tent, and stood by her husband's cot. Miles
+Merryweather was sleeping quite as soundly as any of his children; in
+fact, he was a very statue of sleep; but his wife laid her hand gently
+on his shoulder. "Miles!" she said; it must be confessed that she did
+not speak very loud. "Miles, there is an eclipse!"
+
+Mr. Merryweather did not stir.
+
+"Miles! do you want to wake up?"
+
+No reply; no motion of the long, still form. Mrs. Merryweather breathed
+more freely. "Miles was more tired to-night than I have seen him all
+summer!" she said. "He cannot remember that we are not twenty-five any
+more. It is very bad for a man to get overtired when he is no longer
+young. Well, I certainly did try to wake him; but such a _very_ sound
+sleep as this shows how much he needed it. I am sure it is much more
+important for him to sleep than to see the eclipse; it isn't as if he
+had not seen plenty of eclipses in his life. Of course, if it had been
+the sun, it would have been different."
+
+She stood at the door of the tent, watching. Slowly, slowly, the black
+shadow passed; slowly, slowly, the silver crescent widened to a broad
+arc, and finally to the perfect argent round; once more the whole world
+lay bathed in silver light. Mrs. Merryweather gazed on peacefully, and
+murmured under her breath certain words that she loved:
+
+        "'Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,
+         Now the sun is gone to sleep,
+         Seated in thy silver chair,
+         State in wonted measure keep.
+         Hesperus entreats thy light,
+         Goddess excellently bright!'
+
+"But if Roger had been here," said Miranda Merryweather, "I should
+certainly have waked him, because he is a scientific man, and it would
+have been only right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"SHOULD AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT--"
+
+        "A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
+         A wind that follows fast--"
+
+
+PHIL MERRYWEATHER was singing as he brought his boat about. "Slacken
+your sheet, Peggy! easy--that's right! a half-hitch--look here, young
+lady! I believe you have been humbugging us all; don't tell me you never
+sailed a boat before!"
+
+"Never in all my life!" said Peggy, looking up joyously. "I have only
+dreamed of it and thought about it, ever since I can remember. And I
+have read the 'Seaman's Friend,' and 'Two Years Before the Mast,' so I
+do know a little bit about how things ought to go. I think every girl
+ought to learn how to sail a boat, if she possibly can; but out on the
+ranch, you see, there really wasn't any chance. We could only make
+believe, but we used to have great fun doing that."
+
+"How did you make your believe? I should like to hear about it. Ease her
+off a bit--so--as you are!"
+
+"Why, we made a boat out of the great swing in the barn. It is a huge
+barn, and the swing is big enough for three elephants to swing on at
+once; and Hugh fastened hammocks along it lengthwise, and then rigged
+ropes and pulleys for us, and an old canvas hammock with the ends cut
+off for a sail; so we swung, and called it sailing, and had storms and
+shipwrecks, and all kinds of adventures. It was great fun. Oh, I do wish
+some of you could come out to the ranch some day. If there was only
+water, it would be the best place in the world--except this and
+Fernley."
+
+"I'm coming some day!" said Phil. "See if I don't. It must be corking
+sport, riding about over those great plains."
+
+"Oh! it is!" cried Peggy. "When you come, Phil, you shall ride Monte. He
+is the most beautiful creature, a Spanish jennet. Jack Del Monte sent
+him to brother Jim, but he isn't up to Jim's weight, so he lets me ride
+him. He is like the horses in poetry, that is the only way I can
+describe him; white as milk, with great dark eyes, and graceful--oh, I
+_do_ want you to see him. No horse in poetry was ever half so beautiful;
+in fact, I think I take back what I said; I don't really think poets
+know much about horses; do you?"
+
+"'Zebra-footed, ostrich-thighed,'" quoted Phil, laughing.
+
+"I know!" said Peggy, indignantly. "Now, the idea, Phil! one thinks of a
+poor dear horse all over ostrich feathers behind, which is dreadful. But
+then, I don't understand poetry, except about battles, Macaulay and
+Scott. Don't you love 'Marmion'?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" said Phil, heartily. "Hi!"
+
+This last brief exclamation was made in a tone of some concern.
+
+"What is it?" asked Peggy. "Am I trimming wrong?"
+
+"Right as a trivet! but--have you ever heard of a williwaw, Peggy?"
+
+"It's a squall, isn't it? Captain Slocum tells about them in 'Sailing
+Alone Round the World.'"
+
+"That's it! Well, I think we are going to get one. If you will take the
+helm again for a moment, I'll take in a reef."
+
+Peggy took the tiller in her strong little brown hand, and looked on
+admiringly while Phil reefed the sail with creditable swiftness. Soon
+all was tight, and the two young people watched with cheerful interest
+the coming on of the squall.
+
+On it came, a line of white on the water, a gray curtain of driving
+rain above it. The wind began to sing in the rigging of the sailboat;
+next moment she heeled heavily over, and sped along with her lee rail
+under water.
+
+"I'd sit pretty well up to windward if I were you," shouted Phil.
+"You'll be dryest on the gunwale, if you don't mind!"
+
+As Peggy seated herself with alacrity on the gunwale, Phil looked at her
+with approval. Her eyes were shining, her whole rosy face alight with
+happy excitement.
+
+"Now, that's the kind of girl I like to see!" said this young gentleman,
+forgetting that he had been seeing three of the same kind ever since he
+could remember; but sisters are different!
+
+"Not so bad, eh?" he said, as he took another turn on the sheet.
+
+"Oh, Phil, it is perfectly splendid! why, we are simply flying! Oh, I
+wish it was like this all the time."
+
+"Hi!" said Phil again. "Everybody doesn't seem to be of your opinion,
+Peggy. That boat over there will be in trouble if she doesn't look out.
+Sapolio! there is something wrong. We'd better run over and see."
+
+At a little distance a small boat was tossing violently on the water;
+her sail was lowered, and a white handkerchief was fluttering from the
+stern like a signal of distress.
+
+"Ready about!" said Phil. Peggy crouched down on the seat, the boom
+swung over, and the gallant little _Petrel_ flew swiftly as her namesake
+to the rescue.
+
+"Anything wrong?" asked Phil, as he ran alongside the crippled boat.
+
+"Broke our rudder!" was the reply, from a pleasant-looking lad; "must
+have been cracked before we started. If you could lend us a pair of
+oars--I was very stupid to come out without a pair--"
+
+At this moment a clear, shrill voice was heard above the noise of wind
+and water, crying aloud, "My Veezy Vee! my Veezy Vee! It _is_ my Veezy
+Vee! Don't tell me it isn't, for it simply _is_!"
+
+"_Viola!_" cried Peggy. "Vanity! can it be you?"
+
+"Oh, my dear! I was once, perhaps, but with all my crimps out, how can
+you have the heart? If ever I get ashore alive,--"
+
+"Don't be ridiculous, Viola!" said the lad, in a tone of brotherly
+tolerance. "You are in no more danger--now--then if you were in bed.
+Though I admit it might have been rather fussy if we hadn't met you!" he
+added, with a meaning look at Phil.
+
+"How far have you to go?" asked Phil. "Buffum's Point? Well, now, look
+here! that will be a long, hard pull against this wind. You'd much
+better let us tow you down to our camp, and then you can ship a new
+rudder, and go home any old time when the wind sets right."
+
+The young man hesitated. "Why--you're awfully good," he said, "but I
+think we'd better get home--"
+
+"Oh, do, _do_ let us go, Tom!" cried the pretty girl who had waved the
+handkerchief, and who seemed still, somehow, to be waving everything
+about her. "No, I won't be quiet! It's my Veezy Vee, I tell you; it's
+Peggy Montfort, and I am simply expiring to talk to her. Besides, if I
+am going to be drowned, I want to be drowned with another girl. Oh,
+Peggy, isn't it dreadful? Do you think we shall ever get home alive?"
+
+Here the wind caught her hat, and in a frantic effort to retain it, she
+very nearly fell overboard. "There!" she cried. "I told you so, Tommy; I
+knew I should be drowned."
+
+"I never said you wouldn't," replied her brother, with some heat, "if
+you play such pranks as that. You simply _must_ sit still, Vi!"
+
+"Oh, it's all very well to say I must sit still, Tommy Vincent. If _you_
+had a hat that was the pride of your life, instead of a felt saucepan,
+perhaps you wouldn't want to have it carried off and drowned before your
+eyes. My precious hatty!"
+
+"Why, we are all right, Viola," said Peggy. "It is perfectly splendid, I
+think. Besides, the worst of it is past. Look! the sky is lightening
+already; the whole thing will be over soon."
+
+"But I am drenched to the skin!" cried poor Viola. "The rain has gone
+through and wet my poor bones, I know it has; I shall _never_ be dry
+again, I am convinced, never: there isn't a school-book in the world dry
+enough to dry me, Peggy, not even Hallam's 'Middle Ages.'"
+
+"Pooh! who cares for a wetting?" said Peggy, shaking herself like a
+Newfoundland dog. "It only adds to the fun."
+
+"Oh! that's all very well for you, Veezy Vee!" cried poor Viola. "But if
+_you_ had on a silk waist, you would feel differently, I know you
+would. And my hat simply _was_ the sweetest thing you ever saw; wasn't
+it, Tom? Sugar was salt beside it; wasn't it, Tom?"
+
+Tom, who had been holding a consultation with Phil over the broken
+rudder, answered by a brief, though not unfriendly growl, and paid no
+further attention to her. The painter of his boat was made fast to the
+_Petrel's_ stern, and the latter was soon winging her way toward the
+Camp, towing the disabled boat behind her.
+
+"Aren't you Vincent of 1903?" asked Phil, leaning over the stern, his
+hand on the tiller and one eye on the clouds. "Thought so! Used to see
+you about the yard. My name is Merryweather; 1902."
+
+"Glad to know you!" said Tom Vincent. "I thought it must be you; I used
+to see you rowing, of course. Your brother--"
+
+He was interrupted by excited squeaks from his sister, who was gazing at
+Phil with sparkling eyes.
+
+"No!" she cried. "It _can't_ be! It would be _too_ delicious! _not_
+Merryweather! Don't ask me to believe it, Peggy, for it simply is beyond
+my powers. _Not_ the Snowy's brother!"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said Peggy, laughing as she, too, leaned back over the
+stern. "Let me introduce you; Mr. Philip Merryweather, Miss Viola
+Vincent."
+
+"Awfully glad!" said Phil, making a motion toward where his hat should
+have been. "I've often heard my sister speak of you, Miss Vincent."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, I _adore_ the Snowy!" cried Viola. "She is simply
+the dearest creature on the face of the earth. I would give the wide
+world--I would give my very best frill to see her. Don't tell me she is
+near here, for I should expire with joy; simply expire!"
+
+"I certainly will not," said Phil, smiling, "if the consequences would
+really be so terrible, Miss Vincent. Otherwise, I might venture to
+predict that you would see her in about ten minutes. If you feel any
+untoward symptoms developing, please consider it unsaid!"
+
+"Oh! Tom, isn't it _too_ thrilling?" cried Viola. "Oh! Tom, aren't you
+perfectly _rigid_ with excitement? It makes Tom rigid, Mr. Merryweather,
+and it makes me flutter; we are so different. _Aren't_ you rigid,
+Tommy?"
+
+"Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother, good-naturedly. "I am not
+in the least rigid, though I shall be delighted to see Miss
+Merryweather, of course."
+
+"You can see the camp now, through the trees," said Phil. "There is the
+flag, just over that tall pine. Flag by day; lantern by night. That is
+'Merryweather.' Ready about, Peggy, for the last tack!"
+
+The squall had passed, and though the water was still rough, the waves
+were tossing merrily in blue and white under a brilliant sun. The
+_Petrel_ sped along, the silver foam bubbling up before her prow, and
+the _Seamew_, as the other boat was named, followed as swiftly.
+
+Peggy leaned back over the stern once more, and holding out her hand to
+her old schoolmate, gave her slender fingers a squeeze that made her cry
+out.
+
+"Dear old Vanity," said Peggy; "I forgot how soft your hands always
+were. But I am so glad to see you, even if I am not going to expire
+about it. Do tell me how you came here, and where you are staying, and
+all about it, now that we can hear ourselves speak."
+
+"How did I come here, my dear?" repeated Viola Vincent. "Witchcraft!"
+
+"What do you mean, you foolish thing?"
+
+"My dear, what I say; simply that and nothing more, just like the Raven.
+Witchcraft! The very minute I get home, I am going to get a pointed
+black hat and a red cloak, and a crutch-stick. I think they will be
+quite sweet, don't you? Don't you think pointed hats are quite sweet,
+Mr. Merryweather?"
+
+"Pointed hats," replied Phil, gravely, "have always seemed to me the
+acme of sweetness; that is why they call them sugar-loaf hats, I
+suppose."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Merryweather, you _are_ funny! Oh, I _hoped_ you were going to
+be funny," cried Viola; "you _look_ funny, and--"
+
+"Thank you!" said Phil; and "Viola, don't be a goose!" said her brother
+again.
+
+"I mean it as a compliment!" cried Viola. "Mr. Merryweather, I mean it
+as the very highest compliment I can pay, I truly do. With such a simply
+entrancing name as Merryweather, it would be such a dreadful pity to be
+sober as a judge, you know; though the only judge I know is too frisky
+for anything. Kittens, my dear, I--I mean, Mr. Merryweather--I _beg_
+your pardon! are actually _grim_ beside Judge Gay; aren't they, Tommy?
+Did you ever see a grim kitten, Mr. Merryweather? Wouldn't it be too
+horrid for anything? Well, but what I meant to say is, the only weeniest
+speck of a fault I ever had to find with the Snowy--darling thing!--was
+that she was a little bit--just the tiniest winiest scrap--too serious.
+If your name were Tombs, you know, or Graves, or Scull,--I knew a girl
+named Scull,--of course you would have to _be_ serious to live up to it;
+but when your name is Merryweather, you ought to live up to _that_, and
+so I always told the Snowy."
+
+"I am sure the Snowy was always jolly enough," said Peggy, bluntly,
+"except when you wanted to get into mischief, Vanity!"
+
+"Yes, but I _always_ wanted to get into mischief," replied Viola; "so
+that made it a little hard for me, Peggy, you must admit it did,
+especially when I adored the Snowy, and couldn't bear to have her look
+grave at me. Mr. Merryweather, when the Snowy looked _really_ grave at
+me, it froze my young blood, just like Hamlet's; didn't it, Peggy? I
+used to go and sit on the radiator to get thawed out, didn't I, Peggy?"
+
+"Oh, of course," said Peggy, laughing. "But all this time, Vanity, we
+have not heard about the witchcraft that brought you to this part of the
+world."
+
+"Oh! so you haven't. Well, now you shall. You see I am eighteen this
+summer, so Puppa said I should choose where we should go, whether to the
+mountains, or to Newport, or to this lake, where he knew of a camp he
+could have. So I thought I would say Newport, on account of my new
+frills; I had some perfectly heavenly new frills, and of course Newport
+is the best place to show them. But just as I was going to _say_
+'Newport,' _something_ made me turn right round and say to come here. I
+supposed it was partly because of course I knew Puppa hated Newport, and
+he is such a perfect duck about going there; but now I know that it was
+witchcraft, and something inside me, black cats or something, made me
+know, without knowing anything about it, that you and the Snowy were
+going to be here, Peggy. So now I am perfectly happy! Oh! Oh! Why, there
+_is_ the Snowy! Oh, Snowy, you darling! It's me! It's Vanity! How _do_
+you do? Isn't this _too_ perfectly entrancing for anything!"
+
+With a graceful turn, Phil brought his boat alongside the wharf, where a
+group of campers, Gertrude among them, were gathered to receive them.
+Gertrude had Viola in her arms in a moment, and was welcoming her with a
+warmth that made the emotional little creature sob with real pleasure
+and affection.
+
+"Oh, Snowy!" she cried, "I always liked you better than any one else,
+Snowy. I never thought I was going to see you again."
+
+"My dear, dear little Viola!" cried Gertrude. "Have you dropped from the
+clouds? Why, this is too good to be true. But you are wet through! Come
+in this moment with me, and get on dry things!"
+
+She hurried Viola away to the tents, and Mr. Merryweather took
+possession of her brother with the same hospitable intent, though Tom
+Vincent protested that he was "no wetter than was entirely comfortable."
+
+Phil, taking in his sail, turned an expressive eye on his twin, who had
+come aboard to help him.
+
+"Gee!" he said, thoughtfully. "A new variety, Obadiah! Pollybirdia
+singularis, as Edward Lear hath it."
+
+"She's mighty pretty!" said Gerald.
+
+"She is that!" said Phil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ABOUT VISITING
+
+
+"GOOD-BY, Tommy, dear. Be sure to tell Mamma that I thought she would
+not mind my staying, when Mrs. Merryweather was so perfectly heavenly as
+to ask me. Be sure to tell her that my skirt is _all_ cockled up, so
+that you could put it in your waistcoat pocket, Tom; and that the _only_
+way to save it is to press it _damp_, and let it _dry_ before I put it
+on. Tell her that I have got on a dress of the Snowy's that is simply
+_divine_,--more becoming than anything I ever had on; and that my silk
+waist has run--oh, tell her it has run _miles_, Tom, so that I can
+never--"
+
+"There, there, Vi!" cried Tom Vincent, pushing his boat off. "_I_ must
+run, before you swamp me entirely with messages. I'll come back for you
+to-morrow, and bring your toggery. Ever so many thanks, everybody.
+You've been awfully good. I've had a corking time. Good-by!"
+
+The sail filled, the boat swung round, and was soon speeding along the
+lake, while her owner still waved his cap and looked back to the wharf,
+where the campers stood, giving back his greeting with hearty good will.
+
+"Nice chap!" said Gerald to Phil.
+
+"Corker!" said Phil to Gerald.
+
+"Nor," added Gerald, turning to look after the girls as they walked back
+along the slip, "nor is the sororial adjunct totally devoid of
+attraction. What thinkest, Fergy?"
+
+He shot a quick glance at his brother, and seemed to await his reply
+with some eagerness.
+
+"I think she's as pretty as a picture," said Phil, soberly.
+
+"You have a nose on your face, if it comes to that," said Gerald. "At
+least it passes for one. _Weiter!_"
+
+"I think she's awfully jolly, and all that," said Phil. "Nice, jolly,
+good-natured girl."
+
+"Granted; she's great fun."
+
+"But," Phil went on, slowly,--"oh, well! you know what I mean. If our
+girls went on like that, we should be under the painful necessity of
+ducking them. Now, Peggy--"
+
+He paused and examined the mooring of the boat, critically.
+
+"Now, Peggy," Gerald repeated, jogging him with his elbow. "Always
+finish a sentence when you can, son. It argues poverty of invention to
+have to stop in the middle. You can always fall back on 'tooral looral
+lido,' if you can't think of anything else. What about Peggy?"
+
+"Oh, nothing. Only she is just like the rest of us, and that seems more
+natural; that's all."
+
+"And 'beyond a doubt we are the people; and wisdom will perish with
+us,'" quoted Gerald, his face brightening as he spoke. "'Tis well. Come
+on, thou antiquated ape, and let us pump out the float."
+
+Meantime the girls had sought their favorite pine parlor, and were deep
+in talk. _High_ would be a more descriptive adjective; for Viola Vincent
+was the principal talker, and her shrill, clear treble quivered up to
+the very tree-tops, startling the birds in their nests, and sending the
+squirrels scampering to and fro with excitement.
+
+"My dear, this is too delicious, simply _too_! I should expire, if I
+lived here, of pure joy. Oh, Snowy, what a darling you are! Your nose is
+just as straight as ever, isn't it? Rulers, my dear, are crooked beside
+it, aren't they? If I had a straight nose, I should pass away from sheer
+bliss. My nose turns up more every year; it's the only aspiring thing
+about me. Pothooks are straight by comparison. Isn't it a calamity?"
+
+"Tiptilted like the petal of a flower," said Gertrude, laughing. "I
+always thought your nose one of your prettinesses, Vanity, and I believe
+you think so, too."
+
+"Oh! my _dear_, how _can_ you?" cried Viola, caressing her little nose,
+which was certainly piquant and pretty enough to please any one. "You
+don't really mean it, do you? You just say it to comfort me, don't you?
+You _are_ such a comforting darling! Where did you get that heavenly
+shade of green, Snowy? I never saw anything so lovely in my life. It is
+just the color of jade. My dear, I saw some jade bracelets the other day
+that were simply _made_ for you. I wanted to tear them from the girl's
+arms, and say, 'What are you doing with the Snowy's bracelets?' She was
+a dump, with a complexion like Doctor Somebody or other's liniment. A
+person who can wear jade is simply the--"
+
+"Oh, come, Vanity!" said Peggy, good-naturedly. "Come out of the
+millinery business, and tell us about yourself, and about the other
+girls. What has become of Vex--of Vivia Varnham?"
+
+"My dear! haven't you heard?"
+
+"Not a word! You have never written, you know, since we left school, and
+she would not be likely to."
+
+"You didn't love each other quite to distraction, did you?" said Viola.
+"Poor V. V.! she really was the limit sometimes, wasn't she? I never
+minded her, of course, because I never listened to what she said.
+Besides, she was like pickles, you know; you just took her with the rest
+of your dinner, and she didn't make much difference. I used to tell her
+so. Well, poor V. V.! You never could guess: married, my dear!"
+
+"Married!" echoed Peggy and Gertrude.
+
+"Married! to a missionary; widower, with four children. Gone to China!
+You need not believe it unless you like; I don't believe it myself,
+though I saw them married."
+
+"It is hard to believe, Vi!" said Gertrude. "How did it happen?"
+
+"My dear, _the_ limit! positively, the boundary line, arctic circle, and
+that sort of thing. Love at first sight, on both sides. Spectacles,
+bald,--not the spectacles, but he,--snuffy to a degree! You really never
+_did_! I was the first person she told. I simply screamed. 'My dear!' I
+said, 'you _cannot_ mean it. You could _not_ live with that waistcoat!'
+
+"She told me I was frivolous--which I never attempted to deny--and said
+I did not understand, which was the truth. She looked really quite sweet
+in her wedding-dress, and when she went away she was quite softened, she
+truly was, and wept a little weep, and so did I. You see, Snowy, the
+very first thing I can remember in my life is V. V.'s breaking my doll
+over my head. I miss her dreadfully, I do indeed; nobody has been--well,
+acidulated, to me since she went, and I need the tonic. And speaking of
+tonics, where is Beef? where is the Fluffy? You know"--turning to
+Margaret--"I used to call the Snowy and the Fluffy and the Horny my
+triple tonic, Beef, Wine, and Iron; and the Fluffy was Beef. Steady and
+square, you know, and red and brown; exactly like beef; simply _no_
+difference except the clothes. How is she, Snowy?"
+
+"The Fluffy--Bertha Haughton, you know, Margaret--is teaching in
+Blankton High School; very busy, very happy, indeed, perfectly absorbed
+in her work. I have a letter from her in my pocket this minute, that
+came last night. Would you like to hear it?"
+
+And amid a clamor of eager assent, she drew out the letter and read as
+follows.
+
+"'Dear Snowy: It is good to hear about all the jolly times at Camp. I
+wish I could come, but see no way to it just now. Yes, I know school is
+over, but there are the rank lists to make out, and all kinds of odd
+end-of-the-year chores to be done; besides, two of my boys have
+conditions to work out,--going to college in the fall,--and I am
+tutoring them. They are two of the dearest boys that ever were, only not
+very bright, and I have promised to stand by them.' This is the way she
+behaves, after teaching all the year; she is incorrigible! 'All the
+others passed without conditions, and three of them got honors, so I am
+very proud and happy. This has been the best year of all; but then, I
+say that every year, don't I? I do feel more and more that I am doing
+the thing in the whole world that I like best to do.'
+
+"The rest is just messages, and so on; but you see how happy she is, and
+how utterly absorbed."
+
+"My dear, it is _too_ amazing!" cried Viola Vincent. "The very thought
+of teaching makes me simply dissolve with terror; little drops of water,
+my dear, would be all that would be left of poor Vanity; not a grain of
+sand to hold her together. Hush! let me tell you something! Last year I
+tried to teach a class in Sunday school,--great, terrible boys, taller
+than I was,--and I _almost_ expired, I assure you I did. They never knew
+their lessons, and two of them made eyes at me, and the rest made faces
+at each other; it was simply excruciating. Then the rector asked me if I
+didn't think I could dress more simply; said I set an example, and so
+on. I told him I was dressed like a broomstick then, as far as
+simplicity was concerned, and so I was, simply and positively like a
+broomstick; only my dress--it was a rose-colored foulard, _the_ most
+angelic shade you ever saw, girls; just like a sunset cloud, somebody
+said--happened to have ruffles to the waist, and ribbons fluttering
+about more or less. He _said_ I fluttered, and I told him I certainly
+did. 'I always flutter, Mr. Monk,' I said. 'When I don't flutter, I
+shall be dead.' Which was true. He was quite peevish, but I was firm;
+you know you _have_ to be firm about such things. Only, the next Sunday
+he happened to come by when one of those great dreadful boys asked me if
+Solomon's seal was tame, and I said I didn't think it was. Well, I
+_didn't_! But he wrote me a note next day, saying he thought teaching
+was not my _forte_, and perhaps I would like visiting better. I fully
+agreed with him, so now I visit, and it is simply dandy. I just love
+it!"
+
+"Tell us about your visiting, Vi!" said Gertrude. "I am going to take it
+up next winter, and I should like to know how you do it."
+
+"My dear! Such sport! There are some dear old ladies I go to see,
+perfect old ducks; in a Home, you know. I go once a week, and I put on
+_all_ my frills, and never wear the same dress twice if I can help it,
+and I tell them all about the parties I go to, and what I wear, and what
+my partners are like, and about the suppers, and take them my German
+favors, and they simply _love_ it! Mr. Monk thinks it's terrible that I
+don't read them tracts; my dear, they abominate tracts, and so do I; we
+found that out at once. So I read them the gayest, frilliest little
+stories I can find, that are really _nice_, and they _adore_ it. One
+day--my _dears_! will you promise never to breathe it if I tell you
+something? never even to _sneeze_ it?"
+
+"We promise! We promise!" cried all the girls.
+
+"Well--hush! It was simply fierce; and _the_ greatest sport I ever had
+in my life. There is one old lady in the Home who is too perfectly sweet
+for anything. Miss Bathsheba Barry; did you ever hear such a delicious
+name? She is just my height, and as pretty as a picture in her cap and
+kerchief. They all wear caps and kerchiefs, and little gray gowns, the
+most becoming costume you ever saw; I am going into the Home the very
+minute my looks begin to go, because I _do_ look quite--but wait! Hush!
+not a word! Well! I had been teasing Miss Barry for ever and ever so
+long to let me dress up in her things, because I knew they would suit
+me, and at last, one day, the dear old thing consented. It was the time
+for the matron's afternoon visit, and she is very jolly, and I wanted to
+surprise her. So I put on the little gray gown, and the delicious cap,
+just like Rembrandt's mother, and the white net kerchief--don't you
+adore white net, Snowy? it softens the face so!--and the apron; and then
+I went and sat down in Miss Barry's chair by the window, with her
+knitting, and put on her spectacles--oh! how she did laugh. Then we
+heard steps, and Miss Barry went into the closet and shut the door all
+but a crack to peep through, and I turned my head away from the door,
+and knitted away for dear life. Oh, girls! The door opened, and I heard
+Mrs. Poddle say, 'This way, gentlemen! This is Miss Barry's room.'
+_Gentlemen!_ My dears, I thought I should pass away! Then there came
+great, loud men's steps, and I heard Mr. Monk's voice--'This is one of
+our most interesting inmates, Bishop! Eighty-seven years old, and as
+sprightly as a girl. A most pious and exemplary person. Good morning,
+Miss Barry! How is your rheumatism to-day?'
+
+[Illustration: "'SIMPLY FIERCE, YOUR REVERENCE!' SAID I."]
+
+"'Simply fierce, your reverence!' said I, in a little squeaky voice, as
+like Miss Barry's as I could make it. I kept my face turned away, and
+pretended to be counting stitches very hard.
+
+"'Ahem!' said Mr. Monk. I could hear that he was surprised, for, of
+course, Miss Barry wouldn't say 'simply fierce,' but it slipped out
+before I knew it.
+
+"'Miss Barry,' he said, 'I have brought Bishop Ballantyne to see you. I
+am sure you will be glad to receive him.'
+
+"'Oh, I should perfectly _love_ to see the Bishop!' I said; because
+Bishop Ballantyne is simply a duck, an adorable duck; but still I did
+not turn round; and I could hear Miss Barry squeaking with laughter in
+the closet, and it was really getting quite awful. But now Mr. Monk
+began to suspect something. I believe he thought I had been drinking, or
+rather that Miss Barry had, poor old dear. He said, in a pretty awful
+voice: 'What does this mean? Miss Barry, I desire that, if you are
+unable to rise, you will at least turn round, and receive Bishop
+Ballantyne in a fitting manner. I cannot conceive--I must beg you to
+believe, Bishop, that this has never happened before. I am beyond
+measure distressed. Miss Barry,--'
+
+"And then he stopped, for I turned round. I had to, of course; there was
+nothing else to do.
+
+"'How do you do, Bishop Ballantyne?' I said. 'Can you tell me whether
+Solomon's seal was tame or not?'
+
+"For a minute they both stared as if they had seen a ghost; but then the
+Bishop went off into a great roar of laughter, and I thought he would
+laugh himself into fits, and me, too; and the more solemn Mr. Monk
+looked, the more we laughed; and Miss Barry was cackling like a hen in
+the closet--oh, it was great, girls, it truly was! At last Mr. Monk had
+to laugh too, he couldn't help it; it was simply too utter, you know. He
+said I was enough to break up an entire parish; and the Bishop said he
+would take me into his, cap and all. And then the matron came back, and
+Miss Barry came out, and we all stayed to tea, the Bishop and Mr. Monk
+and I, and had the time of our lives; at least, I did.
+
+"So you see, girls, visiting _can_ be the greatest sport in the world,
+if you only know how to do it. But we all had to promise Mr. Monk and
+Mrs. Poddle not to tell, because they said it was enough to break up the
+discipline of the Home, and I suppose it was."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MOONLIGHT AGAIN
+
+
+THE evening was showery, and indoor games were the order of it. The
+first half-hour after the dishes were washed (a task performed to music,
+all hands joining in the choruses of "John Peel," "Blow, ye winds of
+morning," etc.) was spent quietly enough, four of the party at
+parcheesi, the others busy over crokinole and jackstraws; but by and by
+there was a cry of "Boston!" and instantly boards and counters were put
+away on their shelf, and the decks cleared for action. The whole party
+drew their chairs into a circle, and the fun began. A pleasant sight it
+was to see Mr. Merryweather blindfold in the middle of the circle,
+calling out the numbers two by two, and trying to catch the flitting
+figures as they changed places. A pleasant sight it was to see the
+young people leaping, crouching, and gliding across the circle, avoiding
+his outstretched arms with surprising agility.
+
+"Two and Fourteen!" he would cry; and Gerald and Bell would slip from
+their places, like shadows. Gerald was across in two long, noiseless
+lopes, while Bell whisked under her father's very hand, which almost
+closed on her flying skirt; and a shout of "All over!" greeted the
+accomplishment of the exchange.
+
+"This will never do!" said Mr. Merryweather. "You all have quicksilver
+in your heels, I believe. Seven and Twelve! Come Seven, come Twelve!"
+
+Seven and Twelve were Jack Ferrers and Peggy, and they came. Jack,
+gathering his long legs under him, crept on all fours half-way round the
+circle, and then made a plunge for the chair which Peggy had just
+vacated. He landed on the edge, and over went chair and Jack into the
+fireplace with a resounding crash. This startled Peggy so that she ran
+directly into Mr. Merryweather's arms, and was caught and firmly held.
+
+"Let me see!" said Mr. Merryweather. "One pigtail! But I believe all you
+wretched girls dress your hair precisely alike for 'Boston.' Ha!
+peculiar sleeve-buttons! Now who has buttons like these? Peggy!"
+
+Then it was Peggy's turn to be blindfolded, and a vigorous "_Colin
+Maillard_" she made, flying hither and thither, and coming within an ace
+of catching Gerald himself, who was rarely caught. Finally she seized a
+flying pigtail belonging to Kitty; and so the merry game went on till
+all were out of breath with running and laughing.
+
+Phil went to the door to breathe the cool air, and came back with the
+announcement, "All clear overhead, perfectly corking moonlight. Why do
+we stay indoors?"
+
+"Canoes!" cried the younger Merryweathers; and there was a rush for the
+door; but the Chief stopped them with a gesture. "Too late!" he said.
+"It is nine o'clock now; time you were in bed, Kitty."
+
+"We might sit on the float and sing a little," suggested Mrs.
+Merryweather.
+
+"The float! The float!" shouted the boys and girls. There was a
+snatching up of pillows and wraps, and the whole family trooped down to
+the float, where they established themselves in a variety of picturesque
+attitudes. Again it was a wonderful night; the late moon was just rising
+above the dark trees, no longer the full round, but still brilliant
+enough to fill the world with light.
+
+"This has been a wonderful moon!" said some one.
+
+"Yes," said Gerald; "it is quite the last thing in moons, not the
+ordinary article at all. We don't have ordinary moons on this pond. Who
+made that highly intellectual remark?"
+
+"It was I," said Bell, laughing; "and I maintain, Jerry, that this moon
+_has_ been a very long, and a very--well, a very splendid one. Just
+think! not a single cloudy evening till this one; and now it clears off
+in time to give us our moonlight hour before bed-time."
+
+"The harvest moon is always long," said Mr. Merryweather. "Bell is
+perfectly right, Jerry."
+
+"Strike home!" said Gerald, baring his breast with a dramatic gesture.
+"Strike home!
+
+        "'There's no more moonlight for poor Uncle J.,
+          For he's gone whar de snubbed niggers go.'"
+
+"I was just going to propose singing," said his mother; "but before we
+begin, suppose we do honor to this good moon, that has treated us so
+well. Let every one give a quotation in her honor. I will begin:
+
+        "'That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
+            Whom mortals call the moon,
+          Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
+            By the midnight breezes strewn.'
+
+Shelley. I am a cloud, be it understood!"
+
+"I should hardly have guessed it," said Mr. Merryweather. "My turn? I'll
+go back to Milton:
+
+            "'Now glowed the firmament
+        With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led
+        The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
+        Rising in clouded majesty, at length
+        Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
+        And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.'"
+
+"Oh, I say!" murmured Gerald; "that is a peach!"
+
+"Jerry," said his mother, plaintively, "have you _no_ adjectives, my
+poor destitute child? I can imagine few things less peach-like than that
+glorious passage. But never mind! Jack, it is your turn."
+
+        "'The gray sea and the long black land,
+         And the yellow half-moon large and low--'"
+
+said Jack, half under his breath.
+
+"It isn't yellow, and it isn't half," said Gerald. "But never mind, as
+the Mater says. Margaret, you come next."
+
+Margaret looked up, her face full of tranquil happiness.
+
+"I was thinking," she said, "of some lines from 'Evangeline,' that I
+have always loved. I say them over to myself every night in this
+wonderful moon-time:
+
+  "'Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of the forest,
+    Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On the river
+    Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous gleam of
+        the moonlight,
+    Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and devious spirit.'"
+
+"Peggy, what have you for us?" asked Mrs. Merryweather.
+
+"Oh!" cried poor Peggy, "you know I never can remember poetry, Mrs.
+Merryweather. I shall have to take to 'Mother Goose.' I know I am
+terribly prosy--well, prosaic, then, Margaret; what's the difference?
+But I can't think of anything except:
+
+        "'The Man in the Moon
+          Came down too soon,'--
+
+and that doesn't go with all these lovely things you have all been
+saying."
+
+"It gives me mine, though!" said Phil. And he sang, merrily:
+
+        "'The Man in the Moon was looking down,
+          With winking and with blinking frown,
+          And stars beamed out bright
+          To look on the night;
+          The Man in the Moon was looking!'"
+
+"Phil!" cried Gertrude. "How can you? Comic opera is an insult to a moon
+like this."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said her brother. "Sorry I spoke. Next time I'll sing it
+to some other moon,--one of Jupiter's; or the brick one in Doctor Hale's
+story. Go on, Toots, since you are so superior. It's your turn."
+
+        "'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
+          That tips with silver all the fruit-tree tops,'"
+
+said Gertrude. "I can't remember the next line."
+
+"What I miss in this game," said Gerald, in a critical tone, "is
+accuracy. There isn't a fruit-tree on the Point."
+
+"And the moon, of course, limits herself strictly to the point!" said
+Gertrude, laughing.
+
+"It's more than you do!" retorted her brother. "But a truce to badinage!
+I go back to prose and 'Happy Thoughts.' 'I say "O moon!" rapturously,
+but nothing comes of it.'"
+
+"But something shall come of it this time, Jerry," said his mother.
+"Perhaps we have had enough quotations now. Give us the 'Gipsy Song.'"
+
+Nothing loth, Gerald sang the wild, beautiful song, his sisters humming
+the accompaniment. Then one song and another was called for, and the
+night rang with ballad and barcarole, glee and round. There never
+seemed to be any limit to the Merryweather repertoire.
+
+Presently Bell whispered to Gertrude; the latter passed the whisper on
+to Margaret and Peggy. Silently all four girls rose and slipped away,
+with a word breathed into Mrs. Merryweather's ear, begging her to keep
+up the singing.
+
+"Where are the girls going?" asked their father.
+
+"They will be back in a moment," said Mrs. Merryweather. "Give us 'Prinz
+Eugen,' boys; all of you together!"
+
+And out rolled, in booming bass and silvery tenor, the glorious old camp
+song of the German wars:
+
+        "Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter,
+          Woll't dem Kaiser wied'rum kriegen
+          Stadt und Festung Belgerad."
+
+This was a favorite song of the Merryweather boys, and they never knew
+which verse to leave out, so they generally sang all nine of them. They
+did so this time, and finally ended with a prolonged roar of:
+
+        "Liess ihm bringen recht zu Peterwardein."
+
+A moment of silence followed. Indeed, none of the singers had any breath
+left.
+
+        "'And silence like a poultice falls,
+          To heal the blows of sound!'"
+
+quoted Mr. Merryweather. "Hark! what is that?"
+
+Again the sound of singing was heard. This time it came from the
+direction of the tents. Girl's voices, thrilling clear and sweet on the
+stillness. The air was even more familiar than that of "Prinz Eugen,"
+one of the sweetest airs that ever echoed to moonlight and the night:
+
+        "Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten,
+           Dass ich so traurig bin;"--
+
+The girls came singing out into the moonlight, hand in hand. They were
+in bathing-dress; their long hair floated over their shoulders; their
+white arms shone in the white light. Instead of coming back to the
+float, they plunged into the water, and swam, still singing, to a rock
+that reared a great rounded back from the water. Up on this rock they
+climbed, and sat them down, shaking off the water in diamond spray; and
+still their voices rang out, clear and thrilling on the quiet air:
+
+        "Die schoenste Jungfrau sitzet
+           Dort oben wunderbar;
+         Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet,
+           Sie kaemmt ihr goldenes Haar."
+
+"Gee!" muttered Gerald to himself.
+
+"Pretty!" said Mr. Merryweather, taking his pipe from between his teeth.
+"Miranda, I don't know that I ever saw anything much prettier than
+that."
+
+His wife made no reply, but her eyes spoke for her. None of the lads
+could look more eagerly or more joyfully at that lovely picture. Were
+not two of the maidens her very own?
+
+Gertrude was facing them as she sang. Her red-gold hair fell like a
+mantle of glory about her, far below her waist; her arms, clasped behind
+her head, were like carved ivory; her face was lifted, and the moon
+shone full on its pure outlines and candid brow. Bell's rosy face was
+partly in shadow, but her noble voice floated out rich and strong,
+filling the air with melody. There was no possibility of doubt, to Mrs.
+Merryweather's mind, which two of the quartette were most attractive.
+Yet when she said softly to the son who happened to be next her: "Aren't
+they lovely, Jerry?" he answered, abstractedly, "Isn't she!" and his
+eyes were fixed, not on stately Gertrude, or stalwart Bell, but on a
+slender figure between them, that clung timidly to the rock, one hand
+clasped in Peggy's. Also, it is to be noted that, when the song was
+over, and Peggy made an exceptionally clean and graceful dive off the
+rock, Phil exclaimed, "Jove! that was a corker!" to which John Ferrers
+replied, "Yes; the sweetest contralto I ever heard."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I never heard you sing better than you did last night," said Jack to
+Bell. It was next morning, and he was stirring the porridge
+industriously, while she mixed the johnny-cake.
+
+[Illustration: "HE WAS STIRRING THE PORRIDGE INDUSTRIOUSLY, WHILE SHE
+MIXED THE JOHNNY-CAKE."]
+
+"So glad!" said Bell, simply. "I aim to please. I'd put in a little more
+water, Jack, if I were you; it's getting too stiff."
+
+Jack poured in the water, and stirred for some minutes in silence.
+Presently he said: "I heard from those people last night."
+
+"From the Conservatory? Oh, Jack! do tell me! I have been thinking so
+much about it. Is it all right?"
+
+"I think so," said Jack, slowly. "They offer me two thousand, and there
+is an excellent chance for private pupils besides; I have decided to
+accept it."
+
+"Oh, Jack, how splendid! Oh, I am so glad! I knew it would come--the
+chance--if you only had patience, and you surely have had it. How happy
+Hilda will be!"
+
+"Yes," said Jack, soberly. "I owe it to Hilda, every bit of it, as I owe
+several other things. This, for example."
+
+"This?" repeated Bell. "Meaning the porridge?"
+
+She spoke lightly, yet there was an undertone of feeling in her voice.
+
+"The porridge, and all the rest of it," said Jack. "The place, the life,
+the friends, the happiness, and--you--all!"
+
+It might have been noted that the "all" was added after a moment's
+pause, as if it were an afterthought.
+
+"Dear Hilda!" said Bell, softly. "We all owe her a very great deal."
+
+"If it had not been for Hildegarde Grahame," said Jack, "I should have
+grown up a savage."
+
+"Oh! no, you would not, Jack."
+
+"Yes, I should, Bell. When I first came to Roseholme, I was just at the
+critical time. I adored my father, who was an angel,--too much of one to
+understand a mere human boy. I came to please him, and at first I didn't
+get hold of Uncle Tom at all, nor he of me. He thought me an ass,--well,
+he was right enough there,--and I thought him a bear and a brute. I was
+on the point of running away and starting out on my own account, my
+fiddle and I against the world, when I met Hilda, and she changed life
+from an enemy into a friend."
+
+Bell was silent for a moment; then, "I have often wondered--" she said,
+and broke off short.
+
+"So have I!" said Jack. "I don't know now why I didn't. Yes, I do, too."
+
+"Why?" asked Bell, her eyes on her mixing-bowl.
+
+"It's hard to put it into words," said Jack, with a queer little laugh.
+"I suppose I felt that I never should have had a chance; but--but yet, I
+am not sure that I should not have tried my luck, even then, if--if
+something else had not happened to me."
+
+Bell asked no more questions: the johnny-cake seemed to be at a critical
+point; she stirred assiduously, and Jack, turning to look at her, could
+see only the tip of a very rosy little ear under the brown, clustering
+hair.
+
+There was another silence, broken only by the singing of the teakettle
+and the soft, thick "hub-bubble" of the boiling porridge.
+
+"Bell!" said Jack, presently.
+
+"Yes, Jack."
+
+"I had another letter last night, that I haven't told you about yet."
+
+"From Hilda?"
+
+"No. From the manager of the Arion Quartette. They want me to go on a
+tour with them in the autumn, before the Conservatory opens. It's a
+great chance, and they offer me twice what I am worth."
+
+"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, turning her face, shining with pleasure, full on
+him. "How glorious! how perfectly glorious! Oh! this is great news
+indeed."
+
+"There is only one difficulty," said Jack. "I have to provide my own
+accompanist."
+
+"But you can easily do that!" said Bell.
+
+"Can I?" cried Jack Ferrers, dropping the porridge spoon and coming
+forward, his two hands held out, his brown face in a glow. "Can I, Bell?
+There is only one accompanist in the world for me, and I want her for
+life. Can I have her, my dear?"
+
+"Oh, Jack!" cried Bell, and another spoon was dropped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Children, you are letting that porridge burn!" cried Mrs. Merryweather,
+as she hurried into the kitchen a few minutes later.
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I am so sorry!" said Bell, looking up,
+
+        "All kind o' smily round the lips,
+         And teary round the lashes."
+
+"Oh, Mammy, I am so glad!" cried Jack Ferrers; and without more ado he
+kissed Mrs. Merryweather. "I like burnt porridge!" said this young
+gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CONCERNING VARIOUS THINGS
+
+
+"WHERE are you going, Margaret?" asked Willy.
+
+"Up to the farm. Bell lost one of her knitting-needles, and thought she
+might have dropped it there; she is up there now, hunting for it, and
+here it was in my tent all the time. Would you like to come with me,
+Willy?"
+
+Willy twinkled with pleasure, and fell into step beside her, and the two
+walked along the pleasant grassy road through the fields, talking
+busily. They had become great friends, and Willy was never tired of
+hearing about Basil, who, he declared, "must certainly be a corker."
+
+"I suppose he is, Willy," said Margaret, with resignation. "There seems
+nothing else for any nice person to be. Did I tell you how brave he was
+when a great savage dog attacked our poor puppies? Oh, you must hear
+that."
+
+The recital of Basil's heroism lasted till they reached the farmhouse,
+both in a state of high enthusiasm, and Willy filled with ardent
+longings for attacks by savage dogs, that he might show qualities equal
+to those of the youthful hero. (N. B. Basil, honest, freckled, and
+practical, would have been much surprised to hear himself held up as a
+youthful embodiment of Bayard and the Cid in one.)
+
+"I'll wait for you out here, Margaret," he said, when they came to the
+door. "No, I don't want to come in; they will tell me how I've grown,
+and I do get so tired of it. I'll sit on the fence and think; I like to
+think."
+
+Margaret nodded sympathetically and went in. The door opened directly
+into a wide, sunny kitchen, as bright as sunshine and cleanliness could
+make it. An elderly woman was standing before a great wheel, spinning
+wool; beside her, Bell, Gertrude, and Peggy stood watching with absorbed
+attention. All looked up at Margaret's entrance, and the woman, who had
+a kind, strong face and sweet brown eyes, laid down her shuttle with a
+smile of welcome.
+
+"I want to know if this is you," she said. "You're quite a stranger,
+ain't you? I kind o' looked for you when the gals come in."
+
+"I meant to come, Mrs. Meadows, I truly did; but I was tidying up the
+tent, and I am so slow about it."
+
+"Mrs. Meadows," said Peggy, laughing, "she wipes every nail-head three
+times a day, and goes over the whole with a microscope when she has
+finished, to see if she can find a speck of dust."
+
+"Doos she so?" inquired Mrs. Meadows. "I don't hardly dare to ask her to
+set down in this room, then. What with the wool flyin' and all, it's a
+sight, most times."
+
+"Now, Mrs. Meadows!" exclaimed Gertrude. "When you know you are almost
+as particular as she is! But, Margaret, do you see what we are doing? We
+are having a spinning lesson. It is _so_ exciting! Come and watch."
+
+"I came to bring your knitting-needle," said Margaret. "Look! it was in
+my tent, just the end of it sticking out of a crack in the floor. If I
+had not tidied up, in the way you reprobate, Bell, you might never have
+got it again."
+
+"Oh! yes, somebody would have stepped on it," laughed Bell. "But I
+confess I am very grateful for this special attack of tidying. Now, Mrs.
+Meadows, I shall be all ready for that new yarn as soon as you have it
+spun."
+
+"My land! don't you want I should color it? I was callatin' to color all
+this lot."
+
+"No, I like this gray mixture so much; it is just the color for the
+boys' stockings. By the way, have you seen the boys, Mrs. Meadows? I was
+looking for them everywhere before I came up."
+
+"Let me see, where did I see them boys?" Mrs. Meadows pondered, drawing
+the yarn slowly through her fingers. "Gerild and Phillup, you mean? They
+passed through the yard right after dinner, I should say it was, on
+their velocipedies; going at a great rate, they was. Here's Jacob, mebbe
+he'll know."
+
+Jacob, massive and comely, in his customary blue overalls, entered,
+beaming shyly. "Good mornin', ladies!" he said. "Mother treatin' you
+well?"
+
+"Very well, Jacob!" said Bell. "We are having a spinning lesson, and
+find it very interesting."
+
+"I want to know. Well, I allers got on without that branch of edication
+myself," said Jacob. He was standing near the door, and the girls
+noticed that he kept his hands behind him.
+
+"Mother, ain't you give the girls no apples?" he said.
+
+"There!" cried Mrs. Meadows, apologetically. "I never thought on't."
+
+"Now, ain't that a sight!" said Jacob, reprovingly. "I thought I could
+trust you not to let 'em starve, mother, but yet someways I felt I ought
+to bring the apples myself. I dono's they're fit to eat, though."
+
+Still beaming shy benevolence, he brought from behind him a basket of
+beautiful rosy apples, every one of which had evidently been polished
+with care--and the sleeve of his coat.
+
+"Oh, what perfect beauties!" cried the girls. "Oh, thank you, Jacob!"
+
+"What kind are they?" asked Peggy. "They _are_ good!" Peggy never lost a
+moment in sampling an apple, and her teeth now met in the firm, crisp
+flesh with every sign of approval.
+
+"Benoni! about the best fall apple there is, round these parts; that is,
+for any one as likes 'em crips. Some prefer a sweet apple, but I like a
+fruit that's got some sperit in it, same as I do folks. Well, I wish you
+all good appetite; I must be goin' back to my hoein' lesson, I guess."
+
+"Oh! Jacob, have you seen Jerry and Phil, lately?" asked Gertrude.
+
+"No, I ain't. Yes I hev, too. They went rocketin' past me this noon, and
+give me some sarse as they went, and I give it 'em back. I ain't seen
+'em sence. They're up to mischief, wherever they be, you can count on
+that."
+
+Jacob diffused his smile again, and withdrew. The girls, still eating
+their apples, turned eagerly to Mrs. Meadows. "Now, Mrs. Meadows," they
+said, "we must go on with our lesson. Margaret, sit down and learn with
+us; you know you want to learn."
+
+"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret. "But I don't think I'd better now, girls.
+Willy came up with me, and he is waiting for me outside; I promised to
+look at a nest he has found, and I don't like to disappoint him. May I
+come some other day, please, Mrs. Meadows?"
+
+"Well, I guess you may!" said Mrs. Meadows. "Sorry to have ye go now,
+but glad to see ye next time, and so you'll find it nine days in the
+week, Miss Montfort. Good day to ye, if ye must go."
+
+Margaret shook the good woman's hand, nodded gaily to the girls, and
+went out, to find Willy sitting patiently on the fence.
+
+"Was I a very long time, Willy?" she asked. "I thought you might have
+got out of patience and gone home."
+
+"No!" said Willy, soberly. "You were a good while, but then, girls
+always are. When a fellow has sisters, you know, he gets used to
+waiting."
+
+"Oh! indeed!" said Margaret, much amused.
+
+"Yes," said Willy. "I don't think girls have much idea of time, do you?"
+
+"Why, Willy, I don't know that I have ever considered the question. You
+see, I have always been a girl myself, so perhaps I am not qualified to
+judge. But--do you think boys have so very much more idea? It seems to
+me I know some one who has been late for tea several times this week."
+
+Willy looked conscious. "Well," he said, "I know; but that is different.
+When you are late for tea,--I mean when a boy is,--he is generally doing
+something that he wants very much indeed to get through with, fishing,
+or splicing a bat, or something that really has to be done. Besides, he
+knows they won't wait tea for him, so it doesn't make any difference."
+
+"I see!" said Margaret. "And girls are never doing anything important.
+Aren't you rather severe on us, Willy?"
+
+Willy was about to reassure her kindly, for he was extremely fond of
+her; but at this moment a cheery "Hallo!" was heard, and the twins rode
+up on their bicycles, bright-eyed and flushed after a fine spurt.
+
+"Neck and neck!" said Gerald. "Margaret, I hope you don't object to
+being a winning-post. That was a great run."
+
+"Where have you been?" asked Margaret, as the two dismounted and walked
+along on either side of her.
+
+"Over to the Corners, to send a telegram for the Pater. And thereby
+hangs a tale."
+
+"May we hear it? We love a tale, don't we, Willy?"
+
+Willy did not look particularly enthusiastic, but he murmured something,
+which Gerald did not wait to hear.
+
+"Well, the Pater desired to send a telegram, even winged words, to that
+man who has been trying to send us shellac for the last three weeks, and
+who has, we fear, broken down from the strain. A neat despatch it was:
+'Send to-morrow, or not at all.--M. Merryweather.' Well, we had just
+sent it, when we heard some one behind us say, '_Oh_, gosh!' in a tone
+of such despair that we turned round to see if it was the shellac man in
+person. It was little Bean, the pitcher of the Corners team, all dressed
+up in his baseball togs, scarlet breeches and blue shirt, quite the bird
+of paradise, and reading a yellow telegram, and his face black as
+thunder. He was an impressionist study, wasn't he, Fergy? We asked what
+was up, or rather down, for elevation had no part in him. It appeared
+that a match was on for this afternoon, between the Baked Beans and the
+Sweet Peas, the Corners and the Spruce Point team. The Beans were all
+here except the pitcher and first-baseman, brothers, who were to come
+over by themselves, as they lived at some distance from the rest of the
+team; and this telegram conveyed the cheering information, that, instead
+of coming over, they had come down with mumps, and were, in point of
+fact, in their little beds."
+
+"Oh, what a shame!" said Margaret. "Poor lads! and mumps are such a
+distressing thing."
+
+"I rejoice to see that you also get your singular and plural mixed in
+regard to mumps," said Gerald. "You are human, after all. But to tell
+the truth, I don't know that sympathy with the mumpers was the
+prevailing sentiment at the Corners."
+
+"Gee! I should think not," said Phil. "This was the match of the season,
+you see, Margaret. The farmers had come from far and near, and brought
+their wives and babies; and the Corner fellows had got this gorgeous
+uniform made, and bought out all the red flannel in the county; and here
+were these two wretched chumps down with mumps."
+
+"Oh! but Phil," cried Margaret, "they didn't do it on purpose, poor
+things; and think how they were suffering! You are heartless, I think."
+
+"They would have suffered more if the Baked Beans had got hold of them,"
+said Phil, with a grin; "or the other fellows either, for that matter.
+But as it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened for
+the Beans. He wasn't much of a pitcher."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Willy, beginning to be interested. "Did they
+get another pitcher?"
+
+"Did they? Well, I should remark! I let on in a casual way that the
+former pitcher of a certain college team was not more than a hundred
+miles from the spot at that moment. You should have seen that fellow's
+face, Margaret. It really was a study. Perfect bewilderment for a
+minute, and then--well, I believe he would have gone down on all fours
+and carried Jerry to the field if he would not have gone in any other
+way."
+
+"Oh! please, Phil. I am bewildered, too. Is Gerald a--a pitcher?"
+
+"Is he? My child, he is the great original North American jug."
+
+"Oh, pooh!" said Gerald. "Don't be an ass, Ferguson! You are as good a
+first-baseman as I am pitcher, any day. Of course we were glad to help
+them out, though I drew the line at scarlet breeches. My mother's angry
+shade hovered above me and forbade.
+
+        "'Go fight in fortune's deepest ditches,
+          But oh, avoid the scarlet breeches!'
+
+I could hear her say it. So I told him that my hair and my temper were
+the only red I ever wore, and he submitted, though sadly. So we played;
+and it was a great game. And we smote them hip and thigh, even to the
+going down of the sun; or would have, if the day had been shorter. Phil
+made three runs, Will."
+
+"Jerry made three more Will," said Phil; "and pitched like one o'clock,
+I tell you. I never saw you play better, Obadiah. Those last balls were
+perfect peaches. I wish you had seen the game, Margaret."
+
+"So do I," said Margaret. "I have never seen a game of baseball."
+
+"Oh! I say!" cried Phil and Willy. "What a shame!"
+
+"Where do you live?" asked Willy, in such open wonder and commiseration
+that the others all laughed.
+
+"She lives in an enchanted castle, Willy," said Gerald; "with a magician
+who keeps her in chains--of roses and pearls. He has two attendant
+spirits who help to keep her in durance that is not precisely vile. How
+is Mrs. Cook, Margaret? Do you know, you have hardly told me anything
+about Fernley all this time? I want to know ever so many things. What
+became of the pretty lady whose house was burned? Do you remember that?
+I never shall forget it as long as I live."
+
+"Indeed, I do!" said Margaret, blushing. "She is still abroad, Gerald. I
+doubt if she ever returns, or at least not for a long time. She is well,
+and really happy, I think. Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+"You didn't see Miss Wolfe come down the ladder!" said Gerald. "That was
+the most wonderful thing I ever saw. Just as she stepped out on the
+window-sill, the fire caught the hem of her skirt. I thought she was
+gone that time. I was just going to drop you and run, when she stooped
+and squeezed the skirts together--woollen skirts, fortunately--and put
+it out; and then came swinging down that rope to the ladder, and down
+the ladder to the ground, as if she had been born in a circus. I tell
+you, that was something to see. Pity you missed it."
+
+"Why did she miss it?" asked Willy. "And what do you mean by dropping
+her, Jerry?"
+
+Gerald, whose eyes were shining with the excitement of recollection,
+turned and looked down at his small brother as if suddenly recalling his
+existence.
+
+"Margaret was--busy!" he said, briefly. "And, I say, Father William,
+don't you want to take my biky down and give him a feed of oats? he is
+hungry. See him paw the ground!" and he gave the bicycle a twirl.
+
+"I must go," said Phil, remounting his own. "Come along, Willy, and I'll
+race you to Camp."
+
+But for once Willy held back. "I was going to take Margaret to see a
+redwing's nest," he said. "I promised her I would."
+
+"Oh! Margaret will excuse you," said Phil. "Won't you, Margaret?
+Redwings' nests always look better in the morning, besides. Come on,
+boy, and I'll tell you all about the game."
+
+Willy still hesitated, looking at Margaret; and she in her turn
+hesitated, blushing rosy red. "Don't let me keep you, Willy dear," she
+said. "If you would like to hear about the game--"
+
+"_Go on_, young un!" said Gerald, in a tone of decision so unlike his
+usual bantering way, that Willy stared, then yielded; and slowly
+mounting the bicycle, started off with Phil along the road.
+
+They rode for some time in silence, Phil being apparently lost in
+thought.
+
+"Well!" said Willy at last, in an injured tone.
+
+"Well, what is it, Belted Will?"
+
+"I thought you were going to tell me about the game," said Willy,
+moodily. "I say, Phil! I think it was awfully rude of you and Jerry to
+yank me off that way, when I had promised Margaret to take her
+somewhere, and we were going straight there when you came along and
+broke in. I don't think that's any kind of way to do, and I am sure Ma
+would say so, too. What do you suppose Margaret thinks of me now?"
+
+"Ri tum ti tum ti tido!" carolled Phil. "What do I suppose she thinks of
+you, Belted One? Why, she thinks you are one of the nicest boys she ever
+saw; and so you are, when not in doleful dumps. See here, old chap!
+you'll be older before you are younger, and some day you will know a
+hawk from a handsaw, _or_ hernshaw, according to which reading of
+'Hamlet' you prefer. And now as to this game!"
+
+He plunged into a detailed account of the great match, and soon Willy's
+eyes were sparkling, and his cheeks glowing, and he had forgotten all
+about Margaret and the redwing's nest.
+
+But as they crested the hill, which on the other side dipped down to the
+camp, Phil glanced back along the road. Margaret and Gerald were
+walking slowly, deep in talk, and did not see the wave of his hand.
+"Heigh, ho!" said Phil; but he smiled even while he sighed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ON THE DOWN
+
+
+ONE afternoon, when most of the campers were off fishing, Margaret
+wandered alone up to the top of the great down behind the camp.
+Thoroughly in love with the camp life as she was, in most of its
+aspects, she could not learn to care for fishing. To sit three, four,
+five hours in a boat, on the chance of killing a harmless and beautiful
+creature, did not, she protested, appeal to her; and many a lively
+argument had she had on the subject with Bell and Gertrude, who were
+ardent fisher-maidens.
+
+"But, Margaret, it is the sport!" Bell would cry. "It isn't just
+killing, it is sport!"
+
+"But, Bell, if the sport does not amuse me!" Margaret would answer. "If
+I want to kill something, I would rather kill spiders, though I am
+trying not to be so afraid of them--or mosquitoes."
+
+Then the girls would cry out that she was hopeless, and would gather up
+their reels and rods and leave her to her own peaceful devices, having
+even the generosity not to twit her with inconsistency when she enjoyed
+her delicately-fried perch at supper.
+
+These solitary afternoons were sure to be pleasant ones for Margaret.
+She loved the merry companionship of the campers, but she loved, too, to
+wander through the woods, among the great straight-stemmed pines and
+dark feathery hemlocks, or to track the little clear brook through its
+windings, from the great bog to its outlet into the lake; or, as now, to
+stroll about over the great down, looking down on the blue water below.
+
+It was a perfect afternoon. Little white clouds drifted here and there
+over the tops of the wooded hills, but they only made the sky more
+deeply and intensely blue. There was just enough breeze to ripple the
+water so that it caught every sunbeam, and set it dancing on the
+tremulous surface. Below her a fish-hawk poised and dipped, seeking his
+dinner; far out, two black specks showed where her friends were at their
+"sport." Margaret drew a long breath of content.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" she said. "How glad I am that I am not in that
+boat. Oh, pleasant place!"
+
+She looked about her with happy eyes. Before her, the earth fell away in
+an abrupt descent to the lake, steep enough to be dignified by the name
+of precipice; but behind and on either hand it rolled away in billowy
+slopes of green, crowned here and there with patches of wood, and
+crossed by irregular lines of stone wall.
+
+"Oh, pleasant place!" said Margaret a third time. "How many beautiful
+places I know! What a wonderful world of beauty it is!"
+
+Her mind went back to Fernley House, the beloved home where she lived
+with her uncle John Montfort: to the rose-garden, where they loved to
+work together, the sunny lawns, the shady alleys of box and laurel, the
+arbors of honeysuckle and grape-vine. She could almost see the beloved
+uncle, pruning-knife in hand, bending over his roses; if only he did not
+cut back the Ramblers too far! She could almost see her little cousins,
+her children, as she called them, Basil and Susan D., running about with
+their butterfly-nets, shouting and calling to each other. Did they think
+of her, as she hourly thought of them? Did Uncle John miss her? She must
+always miss him, no matter how happy she might be with other friends. A
+wave of homesickness ran through her, and brought the quick tears to her
+eyes; but she brushed them away with an indignant little shake of her
+head.
+
+"Goose!" she said. "When will you learn that it is a physical
+impossibility to be in two places at once? You don't want to leave this
+beautiful place and these dear people yet? Of course, you don't! Well,
+then, don't behave so! But all the same, it would be good to hear Uncle
+John's voice!"
+
+At this moment she heard,--not the beloved voice for which she
+longed,--but certainly a sound, breaking the stillness of the afternoon;
+a sound made neither by wind nor water. It did not sound like a bird,
+either; nor--a beast?
+
+"Oh, to be sure!" thought Margaret. "It may be a sheep. I saw the flock
+up there this morning. Of course, it is a sheep."
+
+The sound came again, louder this time, and nearer; something between a
+snorting and a blowing; it must be a very large sheep to make such a
+loud noise.
+
+Margaret turned to look behind her; but it was not a sheep that she
+saw.
+
+Just behind the rock on which she was sitting the land rose in a high,
+green shoulder, on the farther side of which it sloped gradually down to
+a little valley. Over this shoulder now appeared--a head! A head five
+times as big as that of the biggest sheep that ever bore fleece; a head
+crowned by long, sharp, dangerous-looking horns. And now, as Margaret
+sat transfixed with terror, another head appeared, and another, and
+still another; till a whole herd of cattle stood on the ridge looking
+down at her.
+
+Jet black, of colossal size, with gleaming eyes and quivering nostrils,
+they were formidable creatures to any eyes; but to poor Margaret's they
+were monsters as terrible as griffin or dragon. All cattle, even the
+mildest old Brindle that ever stood to be milked, were objects of dire
+alarm to her, but she had never seen animals like these. Tales of the
+wild cattle of Chillingham, of the fierce herds that roam the Western
+prairies and the pampas of the South, rushed to her mind. She felt fear
+stealing over her, a wild, unreasoning panic which neither strength nor
+reason could resist. She dared not move; she dared not cry out for help;
+indeed, who was there to hear if she did cry? She sat still on her rock,
+her hands clasped together, her eyes, wide with terror, fixed on the
+enemy.
+
+The leader of the herd met her gaze with one which to her excited fancy
+seemed threatening and sinister. For a moment he stood motionless; then,
+tossing his head with its gleaming horns, and uttering another loud
+snort, he took a step toward her; the rest followed. Another step and
+another. Margaret glanced wildly around her. On one side was the
+precipice, on either hand a wide stretch of open meadow; no hope of
+escape. She must meet her death here, then, alone, with no human eye to
+see, no human hand to help her in her extremity. She crouched down on
+the rock, and covered her eyes with her hands. The cattle drew nearer.
+Snuffing the air, tossing their horns, with outstretched necks and eager
+eyes, step by step they advanced. Now they were close about her, their
+giant forms blocking the sunlight, their gleaming eyes fixed upon her.
+Margaret felt her senses deserting her; but suddenly--hark! another
+sound fell on her ear; a sound clear, resonant, jubilant; the sound of a
+human voice, singing:
+
+        "I'm an honest lad, though I be poor,
+         And I niver was in love afore--"
+
+"_Gerald!_" cried Margaret. "Gerald, help!" and she dropped quietly off
+the rock, under the very feet of the black cattle.
+
+When she came to herself, she was propped against the rock, and Gerald
+was fanning her with his cap and gazing at her with eyes of anxiety and
+tenderness, which yet had a twinkle in their depths.
+
+"Better?" he asked, as he had asked once before under somewhat similar
+circumstances. "Do say you are better, please! The house isn't on fire
+this time, and neither is the Thames."
+
+Margaret struggled into a sitting posture. "Oh! Gerald," she said, "I am
+so ashamed! You will think I am always fainting, and, indeed, I never
+have in all my life except these two times. But they were so
+terrible--ah! there they are still."
+
+Indeed, the herd of cattle was standing near, still gazing with gleaming
+eyes; but, somehow, the look of ferocity was gone. She could even
+see--with Gerald beside her--that they were noble-looking creatures.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Gerald. "Don't call them terrible; you will hurt their
+poor old feelings. I know them of old, Horatio; fellows of infinite
+jest."
+
+"Are they--are they tame?" asked Margaret, in amazement.
+
+"Tame? I should say so. Look at this fellow! I have known him from a
+calf. Did um want um's nosy rubbed?" he added, addressing the huge
+leader, who was snuffing nearer and nearer. "Come along, then, Popolorum
+Tibby, and tell um's prettiest aunt not to be afraid of um any more."
+
+"But--but they came all around me!" said poor Margaret.
+
+"Small blame to them! Showed their good sense, not to say their taste.
+But to be wholly candid, they came for salt."
+
+"For salt? Those great monsters?"
+
+"To be sure! Ellis, the farmer, makes regular pets of them, and I always
+put a lump of salt in my pocket when I am coming their way. I never saw
+them in this pasture before, though; the fence must be broken. I believe
+I have some grains of salt left now. See him take it like a lady!"
+
+He held out his hand, with a little heap of salt in it. The huge ox came
+forward, stepping daintily, with neck outstretched and nostrils spread;
+put out a tongue like a pink sickle, and neatly, with one comprehensive
+lick, swept off every particle of salt, and looked his appreciation.
+
+Gerald patted the great muzzle affectionately.
+
+"Good old Blunderbore!" he said. "I almost carried you when you were a
+day old, though you may not believe it. Come, Margaret, give him a pat,
+and say you bear no malice."
+
+Margaret put out a timid hand and patted the great black head.
+Blunderbore snuffed and blew, and expressed his friendliness in every
+way he could.
+
+"Why, he is a dear, gentle creature!" said the girl. "I shall never be
+afraid of him again. And yet--oh, Gerald, I am so glad you came!"
+
+"So am I!" said Gerald.
+
+"Because," Margaret went on, "of course, I see how silly and foolish I
+was; but all the same, I was terribly frightened, and I really don't
+know what would have become of me if you had not come, Gerald."
+
+"But I did come, Margaret! I will always come, whenever you want me, if
+it is across the world."
+
+"But--you must think me so _very_ silly, Gerald!"
+
+"Do you wish to know what I think of you?" asked Gerald.
+
+Margaret was silent.
+
+"Because, for the insignificant sum of two cents, I would tell you," he
+went on.
+
+"I haven't two cents with me," said Margaret. "I think it is time to go
+home now, Gerald."
+
+"Generosity is part of my nature," said Gerald; "I'll tell you for
+nothing. Margaret--sit down, please!"
+
+Margaret had risen to her feet. The words had the old merry ring, but a
+deep note quivered in his voice. The girl was afraid, she knew not of
+what; afraid, yet with a fear that was half joy. "I--I must go, Gerald,
+indeed!" she said, faintly.
+
+"You must not go," said Gerald, gravely. "It is not all play, Margaret,
+between you and me. My cap and bells are off now, and you must hear what
+I have to say."
+
+Margaret, still hesitating, looked up in his face, and saw something
+there that brought the sweet color flooding over her neck and brow, so
+swift and hot that instinctively she hid her face in her hands.
+
+But gently, tenderly, Gerald Merryweather drew the slender hands away,
+and held them close in his own.
+
+"My dearest girl," said the young man, "my dearest love, you are not
+afraid of me? Sit down by me; sit down, my Margaret, and let me tell you
+what my heart has been saying ever since the day I first saw you."
+
+So dear Margaret sat down, perhaps because she could hardly stand, and
+listened. And the black cattle listened, too, and so did the fish-hawk
+overhead, and the little birds peeping from their nest in the birch wood
+close at hand; but none of them ever told what Gerald said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE SNOWY OWL
+
+
+"I THINK it is a horrid bother, if you want to know!" said Willy.
+
+"Willy Merryweather! aren't you ashamed of yourself? I never heard
+anything so odious, when we are all so happy, and everything is so
+perfectly lovely. I don't see what you mean."
+
+"I don't care, it _is_ a bother. Nothing is the way it used to be; it's
+all nothing but spooning, all over the lot."
+
+"I should not think you would use vulgar expressions, anyhow, Willy."
+
+"'Spooning' isn't vulgar," said Willy, sulkily. "I've heard Pa say it,
+so there! And--look here, Kitty! Of course, it's all corking, and so on,
+and anyhow, girls like that kind of fuss; but it does spoil everything,
+I tell you. Why, Pa couldn't get a crew for the war canoe yesterday. He
+wanted to go to Pine Cove--at least I did, awfully, and he said all
+right, so we would; and then Jerry was off with Margaret in the
+_Keewaydin_, and Bell and Jack were out in the woods fiddling, and Peggy
+and Phil--I say, Kitty! You don't suppose _they_ are going to get
+spoony, do you?"
+
+Kitty looked very wise, and pursed her lips and nodded her head with an
+air of deep mystery.
+
+"You don't!" repeated Willy, looking aghast.
+
+"Hush, Willy!" said Kitty. "Don't say a word! don't breathe it to
+anybody! I hope--I _think_ they are!"
+
+"What a mean, horrid shame!" cried Willy, indignantly. "I do think it is
+disgusting."
+
+His sister turned on him with flashing eyes. "It is you that is the
+shame!" she cried. "It is you who ought to be ashamed, Willy. Do you
+want poor Phil to be all alone when Jerry is married? Do you know that
+twins sometimes pine away and _die_, Willy Merryweather, when the other
+of them dies?"
+
+"Jerry isn't going to die," said Willy, uncomfortably. "What nonsense
+you talk, Kitty."
+
+"Well, marries. I should think very likely they would, then, if they
+didn't get married themselves. I think you are perfectly heartless,
+Willy. And dear Peggy, too, so nice and jolly! and if she goes away back
+out West _without_ falling in love with Phil, we may never, never see
+her again; and she has promised me a puppy of the very next litter
+Simmerimmeris has. So there!"
+
+Willy was silent for a moment, kicking the pebbles thoughtfully.
+
+"Do you think she is--that?" he asked at length, shamefacedly.
+
+"Of course I don't _know_!" said Kitty, judicially. "Of course very
+likely nothing is positively decided yet; but I am sure she likes him
+very, very much, and he takes her out whenever he has a chance."
+
+"There's nobody else for him to take out," put in Willy; "the others are
+all spoon--"
+
+"Willy, don't be tiresome! and just think! if they should get married
+and go to live out West, then you and I could both go out to see them,
+and ride all the ponies, and punch the cows, and have real lassoes,
+and--and--"
+
+The children were coming home through the wood. Kitty's voice had
+gradually risen, till now it was a shrill squeak of excitement; but at
+this moment it broke off suddenly, for there was a rustling of branches,
+and the next moment Gertrude stood before them with grave looks.
+
+"My dear chicks," she said, "you must not talk so loud. I was in the
+pine parlor, and could not help hearing the last part of what you were
+saying. And anyhow, I would not talk about such things, if I were you.
+Suppose Peggy had been with me! How do you think she would have felt?
+Mammy would not like to have you gossiping in this foolish way."
+
+The children hung their heads.
+
+"Oh! Toots," said Kitty, "I am sorry! I didn't realize that we were
+getting anywhere near the house. We were only thinking--at least I
+was--how lovely it would be if Peggy and Phil should--"
+
+"Kitty dear, hush!" said Gertrude, decidedly. "You would better not
+think, and you certainly _must not_ talk, about anything of the kind.
+There are enough real love-affairs to interest you, you little
+match-maker, without your building castles in the air. Let Peggy and
+Phil alone!"
+
+"I should think there were!" said Willy. "That's just what I was saying,
+Toots; it's nothing but spooning, all over the place. There's no fun
+anywhere; this wretched love-making spoils everything. _I_ think it's
+perfectly childish."
+
+"Do you, Willy dear?" said his sister; and her smile was very sweet as
+she laid her hand on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Yes, I do. Here are the white perch rising like a house afire, and I
+can't get a soul to go with me. It was just the same yesterday, and it's
+like that almost every day now."
+
+"Oh, Willy! I'll go with you," cried Kitty, eagerly. "Why didn't you
+tell me the perch were rising? Let's come right along this minute. Toots
+will help us with the boat, won't you, Toots?"
+
+"Yes, I'll help!" said the Snowy Owl.
+
+Ten minutes later the white boat was speeding on her way to the
+fishing-ground, the little rowers bending to their oars, chattering
+merrily as they went.
+
+"That's one comfort!" Willy was saying. "We've got Toots. Nobody will
+get her away from us."
+
+"I should hope not," said Kitty. "There's nobody good enough, in the
+first place; and besides, of course somebody must stay with Papa and
+Mamma."
+
+"I suppose you will be grown up yourself some day!" said Willy, gruffly.
+
+"I shall be likely to marry very young," said Kitty, seriously. "I heard
+Aunt Anna say so."
+
+Gertrude stood on the wharf, looking after the retreating boat. "Poor
+Willy!" she said, with a smile; "it _is_ hard on him!"
+
+She looked around her. It was afternoon, a still, golden day. The lake
+was as she loved best to see it, a sheet of living crystal, here deep
+blue, here glittering in gold and diamonds, here giving back shades of
+crimson and russet from the autumn woods that crowded down to the
+water's edge. Far out, her eye caught a white flash, the gleam of a
+paddle; there was another, just at the bend of the shore; and was that
+dark spot the prow of a third canoe, moored in the fairy cove of Birch
+Island? Gertrude smiled again, and her smile said many things.
+
+Presently she raised her arms above her head, and brought them down
+slowly, with a powerful gesture. "How good it would be to fly!" she
+said, dreamily. "To fly away up to the iceberg country, where the snowy
+owls live!"
+
+She stood for a long time silent, gazing out over the shining water. At
+last she shook herself with a little laugh, and turned away. The white
+canoe, her own especial pet, was lying on the wharf. She launched it
+carefully, then taking her paddle, knelt down in the bow. A few long,
+swift strokes, and the canoe shot out over the lake, and rested like a
+great white bird with folded wings, then glided slowly on again. It was
+a pity there was none to see, for the picture was a fair one: the
+stately maiden kneeling, her golden hair sweeping about her, her white
+arms rising and falling slowly, rhythmically, in perfect grace.
+
+"Tu-whoo!" said the Snowy Owl.
+
+But only the loon answered her.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By Laura E. Richards
+
+
+_The_ MARGARET SERIES
+
+        Three Margarets
+            Margaret Montfort
+                Peggy
+                    Rita
+                        Fernley House
+
+
+_The_ HILDEGARDE SERIES
+
+        Queen Hildegarde
+          Hildegarde's Holiday
+            Hildegarde's Home
+              Hildegarde's Neighbors
+                Hildegarde's Harvest
+
+
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+Publishers
+
+Estes Press, Summer St., Boston
+
+
+
+
+The Captain January Series
+
+By LAURA E. RICHARDS
+
+Over 350,000 copies of these books have been sold
+
+        CAPTAIN JANUARY                     $ .50
+          Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition  1.25
+          Same. Centennial Edition Limited   2.50
+
+        MELODY                                .50
+          Same. Illustrated Holiday Edition  1.25
+
+        MARIE                                 .50
+
+        ROSIN THE BEAU                        .50
+
+        NARCISSA                              .50
+
+        SOME SAY                              .50
+
+        JIM OF HELLAS                         .50
+
+        SNOW WHITE                            .50
+
+Each volume attractively bound in cloth, with handsome new cover design.
+Frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill
+
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Estes Press, Summer Street, Boston
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 10, "Bellville" changed to "Belleville" (Mr. Claud Belleville)
+
+Page 11, "282" changed to "281" (See page 281)
+
+Page 45, "develope" changed to "develop" (symptoms develop which)
+
+Page 78, double word "and" removed (must go and tell) Original read
+(must go and and tell)
+
+Page 132, "Limavady" changed to "Limavaddy" (Peg of Limavaddy!")
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merryweathers, by Laura E. Richards
+
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