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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
+
+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: Three Little Cousins
+
+Author: Amy E. Blanchard
+
+Release Date: August 7, 2008 [EBook #26208]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE LITTLE COUSINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THREE LITTLE COUSINS
+
+
+BY
+
+AMY E. BLANCHARD
+
+
+_Author of "Playmate Polly," "A Little Tomboy," "A Sweet Little Maid,"
+"Dimple Dallas," etc._
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1907, by
+
+GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
+
+_Published July, 1907_
+
+
+
+
+_CONTENTS_
+
+
+    I.  MOLLY AND POLLY
+   II.  UNCLE DICK AT SCHOOL
+  III.  MARY
+   IV.  THE RHINESTONE PIN
+    V.  MARY AND THE BOY
+   VI.  DISCOVERIES
+  VII.  IN ELTON WOODS
+ VIII.  ELLIS AND THE BABY
+   IX.  NEW BURDENS FOR ELLIS
+    X.  ARABS
+   XI.  THE ROSEBERRY FAMILY
+  XII.  EAST AND WEST
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER I_
+
+_Molly and Polly_
+
+It had stopped raining; Molly made quite sure of it by looking into the
+little puddles upon the walk.  At first she thought there were drops
+still falling upon them, but it was only the wind which ruffled the
+surface.  The green grass was misty with rain and upon the bushes the
+shining drops hung from every twig.  Presently a sudden burst of
+sunshine broke through the clouds and changed the drops to sparkles of
+light.  "There!" exclaimed Molly, "I see a piece of blue sky.  Now I
+may go, mayn't I, mother?  It is clearing off."
+
+Mrs. Shelton came to the window and Molly with serious face watched her
+scan the sky.  "It really is brighter," Mrs. Shelton decided.  "Yes, I
+see a piece of blue big enough for a Dutchman's breeches so I think the
+rain is over, but you'd better put on your rubbers, Molly."
+
+Molly scarcely waited to hear but danced out of the room and down the
+steps.  "Don't forget your rubbers!" her mother called after her, and
+Molly scurried to the closet under the stairs, grabbed the rubbers,
+snatched up her hat and was out of the door in a twinkling.  Steadying
+herself on one foot, she drew on the overshoes, for there was no time
+to sit down; she could hear the whistle of the cars in the distance and
+knew there was barely time to reach the station before the train would
+stop.
+
+It was an important occasion, for would not the express bring Molly's
+Cousin Polly whom she had always longed to meet?  And not only Polly
+was coming but their Uncle Dick who was bringing Polly all the way from
+Colorado to the east.  Uncle Dick was not so much of a novelty as
+Polly, but he was quite as ardently expected, for he was the jolliest
+fellow in the world, Molly thought, and, though he teased her
+unmercifully, he was full of jokes and funny quips and amusing
+anecdotes, besides being generous in the extreme and always ready to
+put himself out to do a kind turn.  As for Polly, Molly had many
+conjectures concerning her.  What sort of girl would she be who had
+always lived on a ranch far away from the rest of the world; a girl who
+had never been to school and only a few times to church, who had never
+seen a big city, nor an automobile, nor even a trolley car?  Would she
+be very wild indeed, whooping like a savage Indian and eating with her
+knife like an untutored woodsman?  Would Molly be ashamed to have her
+friends meet her?  These questions, to which the answer was so near,
+Molly asked herself for the hundredth time as she walked toward the
+station.
+
+Already the train was slowing up and in a few moments Molly was
+standing tiptoe, looking eagerly along the line of cars.  Then she
+watched each person who descended the steps till at last she was
+rewarded by the sight of a tall young man who lifted down a little girl
+about Molly's age, a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked little girl, prettily
+dressed, and in no way suggesting a wild Indian.  The instant Molly saw
+her, she was seized with a fit of shyness and could not follow her
+first impulse to rush forward.  Instead she waited where she was till
+the two came up.
+
+"Hello!" cried Uncle Dick.  "I expected you would come at least to the
+next station to meet us, and here you are backing away instead."
+
+Feeling that Polly might think that she really did not show the
+eagerness to see her that she ought to expect, Molly put out her hand
+but was presently seized in Polly's fervent hug.  "Oh, but I am glad to
+see you," she said.  "I could scarcely wait to get here, could I, Uncle
+Dick?  It's such a long way and to-day was the longest one of all."
+
+"I've been just crazy to see you, too," returned Molly.  "I was so
+afraid it would rain hard and mother would not let me come to meet you.
+Where's Uncle Dick going?  Oh, I see; he is looking after your baggage.
+Don't you hate sleeping-cars, and didn't it seem funny to have no one
+but Uncle Dick all these days?"
+
+"No one but Uncle Dick; I like that," said that gentleman rejoining
+them.  "Are you going to have me called a nobody at the very outset,
+Polly?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean----" began Molly covered with confusion.
+
+"Oh, yes you did; you said it when you thought my back was turned,"
+interrupted her uncle.
+
+Polly began to pound him with her fist.  "Quit your nonsense, you great
+big, long-legged, old tease," she said.  "You know that wasn't what
+Molly meant.  You aren't a bit nice to her; you began to tease her the
+very minute you set eyes on her.  You'd better be pretty good to her or
+I won't let you take me home again; so there, sir."
+
+Uncle Dick gave her a playful shake.  "You'll be homesick enough in a
+week from now to go home by yourself," he warned her.
+
+"She'll do no such thing," cried Molly, gathering courage from Polly's
+example.  "She'll just love it here, I know.  Come along, Polly; we'll
+get home first."
+
+But, in spite of their trying to run ahead, Uncle Dick's long legs
+overtook them, and with a hand, which they could not shake off, on the
+shoulder of each, he rushed them along so fast that they were
+breathless when they reached the front gate.  Molly's mother was at the
+door to greet them.  She gathered travel-stained little Polly into her
+arms.  "Dear Polly, I am so glad we are to have you with us at last,"
+she said.  "Are you very tired, dearie?  Was it a tiresome journey?"
+
+"It was rather tiresome at the last," Polly acknowledged, "though at
+first I liked it for there were some very kind ladies who came as far
+as St. Louis, but the rest of the way I did get tired of sitting still
+all day.  I am dreadfully cindery and black, Aunt Betty, so I am afraid
+you can't see at all what I look like.  I did try to get off some of
+the worst about an hour ago, but I suppose I am still very black, as
+black as Manuel."
+
+"Who is Manuel?" asked Molly.
+
+"He's the blackest one of the Mexicans who work for father," Polly
+replied.
+
+"Take your cousin up-stairs and see to making her comfortable," Mrs.
+Shelton told Molly.  "Well, Dick, I believe you are actually taller
+than when I last saw you.  When are you going to stop growing?" she
+said to her brother.
+
+"When I come east to live," he returned.  "Everything is big out our
+way, you know.  Everything, including our hearts."
+
+"That's true enough in your case," responded his sister.  "Your old
+room is ready for you.  Run right up; I must speak to the maids."
+
+By this time, the two little girls were in the room they were to share
+together, and in a few minutes Polly had made herself more presentable
+by the use of soap and water, and with Molly's help in changing her
+dress.  Then the cousins faced each other and examined one another
+critically, and presently both burst out laughing.  "You don't look a
+bit as I thought you did," said Molly.
+
+"Neither do you," returned Polly.  "I thought you would be fair, like a
+doll I have named Molly."
+
+"And I thought you would be like a picture I have of Minnehaha,"
+returned Molly.  Then they laughed again.  "Isn't it funny that we are
+both named for our grandmother," continued Molly.  "Suppose you had
+been called Molly instead of Polly, wouldn't we get mixed up?"
+
+"Yes, almost as much as if we were both called Polly," said Polly,
+laughing again.
+
+"Are you very, very fond of Uncle Dick?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, dear, yes; I adore him.  We are just the best sort of friends.  He
+is the greatest tease, but I know ways to tease him, too."
+
+"Oh, do tell me," Molly begged, "for he teases me nearly to death,
+though I think he is perfectly splendid."
+
+"Wait till he is in a teasing mood, and you'll see," Polly answered.
+"Oh, Molly, I am perfectly wild to think I am to see the ocean.  I have
+lived among the mountains all my life, and I am wild to get to the sea."
+
+"You will love it," Molly assured her.  "Won't we have a fine time all
+summer together?"  She looked admiringly at Polly's curling locks, her
+dimples, and her pretty fresh white frock.  Here was a cousin of whom
+she need not be ashamed.  Why had Uncle Dick called her as wild as a
+March hare?  Why had he given Molly the impression that an Indian was a
+tame creature beside Polly Perrine?
+
+Polly was thinking much the same thing.  Why had Uncle Dick given her
+the idea that she would find her cousin a fair, doll-like creature?  To
+be sure she had seen a photograph of Molly, but she had worn a hat and
+coat when it was taken and one could easily get a wrong impression from
+it.
+
+"Let's go down," proposed Molly; "I have lots of things to show you;
+besides I want to see Uncle Dick."  She felt a little jealous of her
+cousin's claim to their uncle, and she felt sure her father would
+appropriate him if he happened to come in before she reached the porch
+where her mother was sitting with her brother.
+
+Her father had not arrived, having gone to some business meeting which
+was sure to keep him late.  Uncle Dick was lolling back in a porch
+chair.  "Hello, youngsters," he cried as he caught sight of his nieces.
+"How are you getting along?  What do you think of each other?"
+
+Polly ran to him, and perching herself upon the arm of the chair,
+turned up his nose with an impertinent finger.  "Badness," she said,
+"why did you tell me that Molly looked like a wax doll?"
+
+"Did I tell you that?  Well, if I were a maker of wax dolls, I could
+make one just like her, I think, if I had some of old Doc's tail for
+hair and two pieces of coal for eyes."
+
+"Her eyes aren't black; they're like two pieces of brown velvet,"
+objected Polly, "and her hair isn't a bit like Doc's tail; it is as
+soft as silk.  Your nose must go up higher for that, sir."  She gave
+his nose an extra tilt while he squirmed under the process.
+
+"There, there, Polly, that is high enough!" he exclaimed; "it will
+never come down again if you turn it up too high."
+
+"I hope it will not," said Polly; "I hope it will stay turned up like
+Dicky-pig's."
+
+"Who is Dicky-pig?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, he is a little pig I named after my beautiful uncle; he looks just
+like him," said Polly mirthfully.
+
+"Does your brother look like a pig?" Dick asked his sister.
+
+Mrs. Shelton smiled as she looked at the handsome youth.  "I don't
+detect a striking resemblance," she replied, rising to leave.
+
+"Well, he acts like one sometimes," declared Polly.  "I want to know,
+too," she went on, to her uncle, "if you have been telling Molly things
+about me that aren't so."
+
+"He said you were wild as a March hare and looked like an Apache
+Indian," announced Molly from the other side of the chair, giving her
+uncle's hair a tweak.
+
+"Two to one is not fair," cried Dick.  "I draw the line at having my
+hair pulled out by the roots; it is quite enough to have my nose mauled
+all out of shape.  Here, young woman, you must be kept in better order.
+Polly, you are setting a bad example to your cousin; never before has
+she pulled my hair."  He grabbed first one and then the other, stowed
+them away under his knees and held them tight.
+
+"You're spoiling my clean frock," complained Polly.  "Let me out and
+I'll not turn up your nose."  Dick loosed his hold, "till the next
+time," added Polly darting away.
+
+Dick made a grab for her and Molly, too, escaped.  "Come back, come
+back!" cried Dick.  "I have something for you, Molly, and you shall
+have it if you will answer me one question."
+
+The girls slowly returned, but kept at a safe distance.  "What is the
+question?" asked Molly.
+
+Uncle Dick dived down into one of his pockets and drew forth a box of
+candy which he laid on the chair by his side.  "I want to see how you
+are progressing with your studies," he remarked with gravity.  "By the
+way, is school over yet?"
+
+"No, it closes next week," Molly told him, eying the candy.
+
+"Ah, then I must visit it and inquire into your record," said her uncle
+with an air of dignity.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick!" Molly was on pins and needles lest he should really
+do something of the kind, and if he should hurt the feelings of her
+dear Miss Isabel whom she adored, Molly did not know what she should
+do.  Miss Isabel might not understand her uncle's joking ways and--oh,
+dear!  Her anxious look made her uncle chuckle with glee.
+
+"I'll go sure as a gun," he declared, seeing a chance to tease.
+
+"Oh, please don't," begged Molly.
+
+"Why not go?  Indeed I shall.  I am confident from your manner, Miss
+Shelton, that it really is necessary that I should make some inquiries
+for the credit of the family.  Tell me why I should not go, if you
+please."
+
+"Why--why--none of the girls' uncles ever do go," said Molly lamely.
+
+"Not a bit of reason why I should not start the custom.  What is your
+teacher like?  Old, with little bobbing curls each side her face?
+Wears a cap, does she? or false frizzes and her teeth click when she
+talks?"
+
+"She's nothing like that at all," returned Molly indignantly.  "She is
+perfectly lovely with blue eyes and long black lashes, and the
+beautifullest hair, and she has the prettiest, whitest teeth, like even
+corn on the cob."
+
+"My, oh, my!  All the more must I go," said Dick.  "Is she young, dear
+niece?  How old might she be, darling Molly?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; I think about twenty-one, for she has only been
+teaching a year.  She didn't leave college till last summer, and she
+told me she wasn't seventeen when she first went there."
+
+"Delightful," said Uncle Dick meditatively.  "Where is my sister?  I
+must interest her in this matter.  Now, Molly, sweet girl, answer my
+question and you shall have, not only this box of candy, but another to
+take to--what did I understand your teacher's name to be?"
+
+"It is Isabel Ainslee, and it is a beautiful name."
+
+"I quite agree with you.  Now, Molly, answer me.  How many cakes can
+you buy two for three cents apiece?"
+
+Molly looked at Polly.  This was a puzzler surely.  "Two," she ventured
+uncertainly.
+
+Uncle Dick looked at her penetratingly.  "That might be the answer
+under some circumstances," he said.
+
+This puzzled Molly more than ever and she looked at Polly for
+inspiration.
+
+Polly was laughing.  "You're an old fraud," she said to her uncle.
+"That is no question at all.  It is nonsense, Molly.  It depends
+entirely upon how much money you have.  If you have six cents you can
+buy two cakes."
+
+"So you can," returned Molly, seeing daylight.  "I have just six cents,
+so I could buy two cakes at three cents apiece."
+
+"But you didn't answer; it was Polly who did," said her uncle.
+
+"Then Polly takes the candy," said that person darting forward and
+snatching up the candy box which she thrust into Molly's hand.  "Here,
+Molly, run," she cried.  And run Molly did, holding fast to the box and
+giving one backward glance at her uncle which showed him laughing and
+shaking his fist at the two retreating figures.
+
+"Just wait till I see that Isabel Ainslee," he called after them.
+"I'll fix it for you, Molly Shelton."
+
+But Molly had no fears, for Polly whispered; "He's only trying to
+tease, Molly.  Don't mind him."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER II_
+
+_Uncle Dick at School_
+
+It wanted but a week of the time when the delightful season would begin
+which meant long days of freedom for the two little girls, for they
+were to spend the summer in a dear little cottage by the sea.  Ever
+since Aunt Ada Reid bought her cottage it had been Molly's happy
+experience to spend the summer there, and to enjoy the delight of
+running wild.  Polly was already enthusiastic but she became doubly so
+as the time approached and Molly dwelt upon the joys before them.
+
+"We can run anywhere we like and nobody cares," Molly told her, "and
+there is so much to do the days never seem half long enough.  Just this
+week of school, and then free! free!  Uncle Dick didn't do as he
+threatened after all; he has not been to the school once."
+
+"Oh, he has forgotten all about it," returned Polly.
+
+But Uncle Dick had not forgotten, as the day's proceedings proved.
+Polly was deeply interested in school matters, for she had been taught
+at home always, and knew nothing of routine and system, which, even in
+a small school, must be carried on.  She had gone as a visitor with
+Molly when the rules were not so strictly enforced, for in the last
+warm days of the term Miss Ainslee was lenient and Polly thought school
+life perfectly delightful with easy lessons and ever so many
+interesting things said and done by both teacher and pupils.
+
+The two little girls were sitting side by side, listening attentively
+to Miss Ainslee's account of the early Britons, when the door softly
+opened and a tall young man appeared.  He looked smilingly around.
+Molly gave the stifled exclamation: "Uncle Dick!"  Polly jumped to her
+feet but sat down again.
+
+It was a hot morning.  The breeze scarcely stirred the leaves of the
+wistaria vines over the windows.  Once in a while a robin gurgled out
+his cheerful song which Molly always declared reminded her of cherry
+juice; the little girls in thin frocks fanned themselves behind the
+rows of desks.  Miss Ainslee's back was toward the door and she kept on
+with the reading, not having heard the intruder who presently made a
+step forward and gave a roguish glance in Molly's direction, to that
+young person's confusion, for the color mounted to her cheeks.  What
+was he going to do she wondered.  He gave an apologetic little cough
+which caused Miss Ainslee to look up from her book with a surprised
+expression.
+
+"Isn't it most time for recess?" asked Uncle Dick gently.
+
+Miss Ainslee glanced at the clock.  "Why yes," she replied, her
+surprise more evident.
+
+"That's what my sister said, and as it is such a warm morning we
+thought--she thought some ice cream would be refreshing to you all, so
+she has sent over a freezer; I told the man to set it outside."
+
+Pleased giggles issued from the little girls behind the desks.
+
+"I never thought," continued Dick, "but perhaps I ought--we ought to
+have furnished dishes and spoons.  You couldn't eat it from the
+ink-wells, I suppose."  He turned to the children who again giggled
+delightedly.
+
+"Oh, I think we can manage in an emergency," said Miss Ainslee.  "We
+have a small cooking class here on Saturday mornings and there is quite
+a supply of dishes in the cupboard yonder.  I think we can make them go
+around."
+
+Dick's smile grew wistful as he said: "It was pretty hot coming over
+here, but I don't suppose you could ask me to have some of the cream
+with you; I'm not a little girl, you know, and I perceive you don't
+take boys."
+
+A tremulous little smile danced about the corners of Miss Ainslee's
+mouth as she moved toward the cupboard.
+
+"I could help to dish it out at least," Dick added hastily.  "I could
+do that beautifully, couldn't I, Polly?"  He turned to his niece.
+
+"Oh, you are Molly's uncle, aren't you?"  The puzzled expression with
+which Miss Ainslee was regarding him changed to one of understanding.
+"She has been talking of you for the past month.  Certainly stay.  I
+shall be very glad of your help."
+
+Dick cast a triumphant look at Molly.  "Then I'll go right out and take
+off the ice from the freezer," he said.  "Will you have the cream in
+here or out there?"
+
+"Out there, I think," returned Miss Ainslee.  "I like the children to
+take their recess out of doors whenever they can.  I will bring out the
+plates and spoons."
+
+"No, don't," said Dick.  "Just show me where they are.  Oh, I see:
+among the gallipots and things.  You please go and get the kids--I mean
+the little girls all settled and I will play butler."
+
+To this Miss Ainslee would not consent, but she dismissed the children
+who fled out with excited whispers, and presently, to their great
+satisfaction, they were served with heaping saucers of ice cream and
+delicious little cakes.  Once or twice Molly and Polly ventured near to
+where their uncle and Miss Ainslee were sitting under a great tree, but
+each time that they appeared Uncle Dick would say in a strong voice: "I
+want to inquire about Molly's marks, Miss Ainslee.  How is she getting
+on with her arithmetic?"  As this was Molly's bugbear, she would move
+off hastily whenever the study was mentioned while Uncle Dick looked
+after her with a twinkle in his eye.  He politely took his leave after
+recess was over, though some of Molly's friends clamored for him to
+stay and tell them stories of the great west, for they had heard of his
+powers in that direction.  He refused to stay, however, though he
+promised that he would come again, if Miss Ainslee would permit.
+
+The girls all gathered around their teacher when the visitor had gone,
+and were loud in their praises of Molly Shelton's uncle.  But Molly
+herself said never a word, though after school was dismissed she crept
+up to Miss Ainslee and whispered: "Did you tell him I never do get half
+my examples right?"
+
+Miss Ainslee put her arm around her and whispered back: "No, dear, I
+didn't, for it wouldn't have been true.  Sometimes you do get more than
+half of them right."
+
+"I do try," said Molly wistfully.
+
+"I know you do," returned Miss Ainslee, giving her a hug.  So Molly
+went home satisfied that after all her uncle's visit to the school
+meant only good will and not a desire to discover the weak spots in his
+niece's record.
+
+Uncle Dick made a second visit to the school at another recess hour
+when it threatened rain and he brought umbrellas for Molly and Polly,
+and rain it did, coming down in such torrents for a while that he
+accepted the shelter offered, and, while the thunder rolled and the
+lightning flashed, told the children such thrilling stories as
+completely absorbed the attention of the whole school, and no one
+thought of being afraid of the storm.
+
+Then came the last day of the term when Uncle Dick, as invited guest,
+came with Mrs. Shelton to see the pretty Garden of Verses which Miss
+Ainslee had arranged for the closing entertainment.  Even Polly took
+part in that and repeated the lines:
+
+  "A birdie with a yellow bill
+  Hopped upon the window sill,
+  Cocked his shining eye and said.
+  'Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!'"
+
+while Molly, wearing a long silken gown, swept in with rustling skirt
+to say:
+
+  "Whenever auntie moves around
+  Her dresses make a curious sound;
+  They trail behind her up the floor,
+  And trundle after through the door."
+
+
+She was called to the front of the little stage to receive the bunch of
+lovely roses her Uncle Dick sent her, and felt very grand when they
+were handed up to her.  Polly, too, came in for her share of flowers,
+though hers were sweet-peas because her name began with P.  However,
+that did not account fur the white bell-like blossoms which were
+presented to Miss Ainslee, though Polly explained it by saying, "She is
+a belle, you know," and did not see the whole joke till she remembered
+Miss Ainslee's first name.
+
+To Polly, Miss Ainslee was a paragon of perfection.  She had never
+before known so dainty and pretty a young lady.  The tutor which she
+and her brothers had was a young man who had gone to Colorado for his
+health, and when stranded in Denver was chanced upon by Dick Reid who
+befriended him and brought him home, where he was glad enough to teach
+the niece and nephews of his former college mate.  Miss Ainslee was a
+teacher of quite another stamp and ardent little Polly adored her.
+
+When the little girls had returned from the closing exercises of the
+school, their thoughts turned to the next excitement which was the
+journey northward with Uncle Dick.  They were to start the very next
+morning, and their trunks stood ready to go.
+
+As they entered the hall, Mrs. Shelton picked up a letter which the
+postman had just brought.  It had a foreign postmark, and Molly knew it
+must be from her Aunt Evelyn, her Uncle Arthur's wife, who lived in
+England.  Mrs. Shelton sat down in the library and opened the letter.
+She had read only a few lines when she exclaimed: "Well, I declare!"
+
+"What is it, mother?" asked Molly.  "What does Aunt Evelyn say?  How is
+Mary?"
+
+"She is better, and what do you think, Molly?  Uncle Arthur is coming
+over and is going to bring Mary with him.  They are on their way."
+
+"Oh, Polly!  Polly!" cried Molly, "what do you think?  Our Cousin Mary
+is coming.  Three Marys in one house and all named after the same
+grandmother.  Tell us more, mother.  When are they coming and how long
+are they going to stay, and all about it.  Are they going to Aunt Ada's
+with us?"
+
+"Wait a minute," said Mrs. Shelton, scanning the final page of her
+letter.  Molly watched her till she read the last word.  "It is this
+way," Mrs. Shelton told her; "your Uncle Arthur has to come to America
+on business and Mary, you know, has not been very well, so when the
+doctor advised a sea voyage, Uncle Arthur decided to bring Mary with
+him and leave her with some of us while he should travel about to look
+after his business matters.  It was all determined upon very hurriedly
+and Aunt Evelyn is much concerned lest she is giving us a charge we may
+not wish to undertake.  However, I shall hasten to let her know that we
+shall be delighted to welcome Mary.  My own little niece whom I have
+never seen!  It is a great happiness to have both my nieces here this
+summer."  She smiled at Polly.
+
+"But when is she coming?" asked Molly.
+
+"In about a week I should judge."
+
+"Oh, we will be gone then," said Molly, turning to Polly.  She hardly
+knew whether to be glad or sorry of the fact.
+
+"I am glad I determined to wait a little later before going away with
+your father," continued Mrs. Shelton, "for now I shall be here to
+receive Arthur and Mary, and can bring Mary up with me on the way to
+Rangeley.  Aunt Ada will be perfectly delighted to know she is to have
+a visit from Mary, for she has asked so many times that her parents
+would lend her for a summer."
+
+"It will be just lovely to expect her," said Molly hospitably.  "I do
+hope we shall like her, mother, and that she will be as easy to get
+acquainted with as Polly is.  I feel as if I had always known Polly;
+she is just like a sister."
+
+"I fancy you will find Mary somewhat different from Polly," said Mrs.
+Shelton, remembering her sister-in-law's exact little ways, and
+thinking of Polly's unfettered life on the ranch.  "However, I am sure
+she is a dear child and that we shall love her very dearly."
+
+"I wish she had been here to see the Garden of Verses and our
+costumes," said Polly, who was quite carried away by the morning's
+performance.
+
+"Oh, I suppose she sees much finer things in England," said Molly.  "I
+suppose she dresses much finer, too, than we do.  Why, there are kings
+and queens and princesses over there, and they wear ermine and crowns
+and tiaras."
+
+"I haven't the least idea what a tiara is," said Polly.
+
+"I don't know exactly myself," acknowledged Molly, "but I know it is
+something you wear on your head and it is studded with diamonds or some
+kind of precious stones."
+
+"Maybe it is some kind of hat," ventured Polly.
+
+Molly wasn't quite sure, but she wondered if Mary would have one.  "At
+least she can tell us what it is like," she remarked to Polly.
+
+Mrs. Shelton had hurried from the room to tell the news to her brother
+and the little girls were left in the library alone.  Molly was
+thinking very seriously.  Presently she said: "Polly Perrine, if you
+will never, never tell any one, I'll tell you something.  Cross your
+heart you won't tell."
+
+Polly promptly crossed her heart.  "I won't tell," she assured her
+cousin.
+
+"Then," said Molly looking furtively around, "I am not sure I am glad
+Mary is coming."
+
+"Oh, why not?" asked Polly, looking the least bit shocked.
+
+"Why, she may be prim and fusty and spoil our plays.  I notice often
+that two girls can play together beautifully, but when a third one
+comes she is sure to want to do something that one of the others
+doesn't like and either breaks up the play or gets mad and goes off
+making you feel sort of hurt and queer inside.  You know it is hard to
+please everybody and the more people you have to please the harder it
+is."
+
+Polly pondered upon this philosophy of her cousin's.  "Well," she said
+finally, "perhaps if she doesn't like to play our way, she can find
+some one else to play with."
+
+"Of course she can.  I never thought of that," said Molly in a relieved
+tone.  "I remember now before I knew you were coming mother told me
+that Mrs. Wharton was going to have her granddaughter with her this
+summer, and I was very glad because the Mowbrays have gone abroad, and
+I expected to have them to play with.  Now we can pair off; you and I
+can go together and Mary can go with Grace Wharton.  I don't suppose,"
+she added after a minute, "that it would be quite polite always to have
+it that way, for Mary is our own cousin and we can't shove her off on a
+stranger."
+
+"Maybe we shall not want to," said Polly.  "If she is real nice, Molly,
+we won't mind taking turns, or we can all three play together when the
+Wharton girl isn't there."
+
+"But don't you ever, ever tell that I said I wasn't sure of wanting
+Mary," said Molly impressively.
+
+Polly promised, and just then they were called to luncheon and went
+down-stairs with their arms around each other.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER III_
+
+_Mary_
+
+A week later the family was settled for the summer in Miss Ada Reid's
+cottage by the sea.  In front of them was a stretch of green; beyond
+were the jagged rocks, and then came the ocean.  The landing was some
+distance from the cottage and was upon the bay side of the peninsula,
+so, although Polly had caught glimpses of the sea during her journey,
+she did not have a clear view of the wide expanse until they had nearly
+reached the house and the great blue ocean spread out before her.  Then
+she danced up and down with sheer joy.
+
+"It is just as big and just as blue as I thought," she cried.  "Oh, I
+am so happy!  I am so happy!"
+
+Molly was delighted at Polly's enthusiasm, for she, too, loved the sea
+and the rocks and the wide stretches of grassy hummocks.  "There is the
+cottage," she told her cousin; "the one peeping over that little hill.
+It looks just like a brownie, doesn't it, with its surprised
+window-eyes?  I always call the cottage 'The Brownie,' and Aunt Ada
+says it is a very good name for it, because it is a sort of brown."
+
+"I should call it gray," said Polly.
+
+"It is really gray, but it is a sort of brownish gray, and anyhow I
+like the name of Brownie for it.  There is Aunt Ada on the porch
+watching for us."
+
+Miss Reid came running out to meet them.  She gave Molly a hug and a
+kiss and then turned to her other niece.  "And this is our Polly, isn't
+it?" she said.  "Bless the dear; I am so glad to see her.  Come along
+in all of you; I know you are as hungry as hunters and I have dinner
+all waiting."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Ada, is there to be baked mackerel?" asked Molly.
+
+"Yes, and lobster salad, too."
+
+"Are the wild roses in bloom yet, and are the wild strawberries ripe?"
+queried Molly.
+
+"The strawberries are trying to get ripe, but I haven't seen a single
+wild rose yet.  Come right in; I know by Dick's eager look that he is
+ready for my baked mackerel.  I have Luella Barnes to help me this
+year," she whispered, "and she has a big white satin bow in her hair
+because we have a young man as guest."  She laughed mirthfully and
+Polly thought the way her eyes squeezed up was perfectly fascinating.
+Her Aunt Ada had visited Colorado when Polly was a baby, but, of
+course, Polly did not remember it, nor would her aunt have recognized
+her baby niece in the little rosy-cheeked girl before her.
+
+"This is something like our house," said Polly, looking around with a
+pleased expression at the unplastered room with its simple furnishings.
+
+"Then you will feel at home," said her aunt.  "Take off your hats,
+girlies, while I see to dinner, for you know the necessity, Molly, of
+looking after things yourself up this way."
+
+Just here Luella appeared.  She was a tall, angular young woman with a
+mass of fair hair, very blue eyes and a tiny waist.  The white satin
+bow was conspicuous, and as she caught sight of Dick Reid she simpered
+and giggled in what the little girls thought a very silly way since it
+displayed Luella's bad teeth to which she evidently never gave the
+least attention.  However, they all soon forgot everything but
+satisfying their appetites with the baked mackerel, deliciously fresh,
+the roasted potatoes, young peas and lobster salad.
+
+"These taste so different from canned things," said Polly, passing up
+her plate for a second helping of lobster.
+
+Luella reached out a bony arm and took the plate.  "I'm glad to see you
+can eat hearty," she remarked.  "Give her a real good help, Mr. Reid."
+
+Molly giggled, though she knew the ways of the "hired help" her aunt
+employed in the summer.  Aunt Ada gave her a warning look, for the
+natives were quick to take offense and Miss Ada had no wish to be left
+with no one in the kitchen.  "And when is Mary coming?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, we don't know exactly," Molly told her.  "Mother will bring her up
+when she and papa go to Rangeley.  Mother thought it would be in about
+a week.  What will you do with three little girls to look after, Aunt
+Ada?"
+
+"Oh, I expect them to look after me," returned Miss Ada.
+
+"And if they don't do that properly, or if they get obstreperous," put
+in Uncle Dick, "it is the easiest thing in the world to throw them
+overboard.  I'll do it for you, Ada; the rocks are very handy, and it
+will not be much of a job."
+
+Polly made a face at him.  "I know how much you'll throw us over," she
+said.  "You'd better not try it with me, you sinful evil-doer."
+
+"You see what is before you, Ada," said Dick.  "You'll rue the day you
+consented to have three nieces with you for a whole summer; yet," he
+shook his head and said darkly, "I know what can be done if worse comes
+to worst."
+
+"What then, Mr. Dicky-Picky?" said Polly.
+
+"That's for me to know and for you to find out," he replied.
+
+"My, ain't she sassy?" said Luella in a loud whisper to Miss Ada, "but
+then he ain't no more'n a boy the way he talks."
+
+This was too much for Dick who could not keep his face straight as he
+rose from the table quickly.  "Who's for the rocks, the cove or the
+woods?" he asked.
+
+"The rocks, the rocks, first," cried both little girls.
+
+"I want to show Polly the dear little pools where the star-fish are,
+and the cave under the rocks where we found the sea-urchins and where
+those queer bluey, diamondy shining things are," said Molly.
+
+Polly squeezed her hand.  "Oh, I'm so excited," she said.  "I have been
+just wild to see all those things."
+
+"You shall see them in short order," her uncle told her.  "We keep our
+aquarium in the front garden."
+
+"Where is the garden?" asked Polly innocently.
+
+Her uncle laughed as he led the way over the hummocks down the rugged
+path to the rocks.  Here they clambered over crags and barnacled
+boulders till they came to a quiet pool reflecting the blue of the sky.
+Its sides were fringed with floating sea-weeds and it was peopled by
+many sorts of strange creatures which thrived upon the supplies brought
+in by the ocean with its tides.  A green crab scuttled out of sight
+under some pebbles; a purple star-fish crept softly from behind a bunch
+of waving crimson weeds; a sea-anemone opened and shut its living
+petals; by peering under the shelving rock one could see the dainty
+shell of a sea-urchin.
+
+Polly gazed astonished at the pool's wonders.  "It is like fairy-land,"
+she whispered.  "I never saw anything so beautiful.  Can we come here
+every day and will the little pools with these queer creatures always
+be just this way?"
+
+"We can always come at low tide," Molly told her.
+
+"Then I'll always come down here at this time every day."
+
+"But it will not be low tide always at this time," said Molly.
+
+"Oh, won't it?" returned inland little Polly, quite taken aback.  "Why
+won't it?"
+
+Then her uncle told her how the coming in of the tide changes just as
+the rising of the moon does, and that one must know the difference in
+time to be sure.  Then he went on to explain something about the small
+creatures which inhabited the pools, the barnacles which covered the
+rocks up to a certain point.
+
+"Why don't the barnacles go any higher?" asked Polly.  "I should think
+they would grow and grow just like grass does over bare places in the
+ground.
+
+"They extend only to high water-mark," her uncle told her, "for you see
+they are fed by the ocean.  If you will watch closely, you can see them
+open and close as the waves come and go."
+
+"Isn't it wonderful?" said Polly in an awe-struck voice.
+
+"I like it best when the tide is up," remarked Molly, "for I don't
+think all that dark sea-weed that covers the rocks is very pretty."
+
+Polly looked down at the long ropes of seaweed which clung to the
+craggy places beneath them.  "It makes the rocks look just like
+buffaloes or some strange kind of animals," she said.  "I shall call
+that Buffalo Rock, and that other the Lion's Den, for it looks like a
+lion lying down."
+
+"There is a dear place further down," said Molly.  "It is sheltered
+from the wind and we have tea there sometimes.  There is a cunning
+fireplace that Uncle Dick built there last year.  I wonder if it is
+still standing.  Let's go and see."
+
+They followed the shore a little further and found a flat rock not far
+below the top of the bluff.  The fireplace was nearly as they had left
+it, and only required a few stones to make it as good as new.  Molly
+viewed it with a satisfied air as her uncle topped it with a final
+stone.  "There," she exclaimed, "it is ready for our first afternoon
+tea!  We'll toast marshmallows, too, as soon as we can get some at the
+store."
+
+"Why can't we get them to-day?" asked Polly who did not want to put off
+such a pleasure.
+
+"Because Mr. Hobbs never has any before the Fourth of July.  He always
+gets in his good things then, but never a day sooner or later.  I know
+him of old," said Dick.
+
+"By that time Mary will be here," said Molly thoughtfully, "and we can
+have our first tea-party in her honor."
+
+"Yes, and she can help us make our Fourth," said Uncle Dick, laughing.
+"She has never known our great and glorious Fourth over there in
+England."
+
+"Of course not," said Polly.  "I forgot she was a wicked Britisher."
+
+"Not very wicked," said Uncle Dick.
+
+"But we must never let her think we have any grudge against her because
+we were the ones that won the Revolution," said Molly.  "It wouldn't be
+polite to pick at her because she isn't an American.  Do you suppose
+she will be very snippy, Polly? and will be disagreeable and run down
+America?"
+
+"Oh, my, I hope not; I'd hate her to be that way," returned Polly
+alarmed at such a prospect.  "It would be dreadful for us to be
+quarreling all the time and of course we couldn't keep still if she
+runs down our country.  What shall we do if she does?"
+
+"Send her to me," said Uncle Dick.
+
+This settled the matter and was a relief to both little girls, who
+considered that what Uncle Dick didn't know was not worth knowing,
+besides he had a smiling way of putting down persons who bragged too
+much, as the cousins well knew.
+
+"I am just crazy to see her, and yet somehow I dread it," Polly told
+Molly.
+
+Molly confessed to much the same feeling and declared that she would be
+glad when the first meeting was over and they were all acquainted.
+Then she undertook to show Polly more of her favorite haunts and it was
+suppertime before they had begun to see all they wished to.
+
+The next week Mary arrived with Mrs. Shelton who remained but a short
+time before she resumed her journey.  Mary was a slim, pale,
+plainly-dressed little girl who looked not at all as her cousins
+imagined.  She did not seem shy but she had little to say at first,
+sitting by herself in a corner of the porch as soon as dinner was over
+and answering only such questions as were put to her.
+
+"Did you have a pleasant trip?" asked Molly by way of beginning the
+acquaintance.
+
+"No," returned Mary.  "Fancy being seasick nearly all the way."
+
+"Oh, were you?  Wasn't that disagreeable?"
+
+"Most disagreeable," returned Mary.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes and then Mary put her first
+question: "Do you always eat your meals with your parents, or only when
+you are at a curious place like this?"
+
+"Why, we always do," Polly answered.  "Where would you expect us to eat
+them?  In the kitchen?"
+
+"No," returned Mary; "in the nursery."
+
+"There is no nursery here, you know," Molly informed her.
+
+"Yes, I know; that is why I asked.  But in the city, or in your own
+home you have a nursery?"
+
+"Yes, we have," Polly told her, "but we don't eat there."
+
+"Really?" Mary looked much surprised.  "And do you come to the table
+with the grown persons?"
+
+"Why, certainly."
+
+"How curious!"
+
+Polly looked at Molly.  "Don't you ever go to the table with your
+parents?" asked Polly.
+
+"Sometimes we go for dessert."
+
+"Well," returned Polly, "if I couldn't stay all the time, I must say
+I'd like better to come in for dessert than just for soup."
+
+Mary looked serious, but Molly laughed.  "Don't you want to go down on
+the rocks with us?" asked the latter.
+
+"I think I would prefer to sit here," said Mary.
+
+"All by yourself?" said Molly, surprised.
+
+"Oh, yes, I like to be alone."
+
+This was too decided a hint for the others not to take, so they marched
+off together.  "Well," said Polly when they were out of hearing, "I
+don't think much of her manners, and I don't think I shall trouble her
+much with my company.  She likes to be alone; well, she will be, as far
+as I am concerned."
+
+"Oh, she feels strange at first," said Molly by way of excusing her
+English cousin.  "After while she will be more 'folksy,' as Luella
+says."
+
+"Well then, when she wants to come with us she can say so.  I shall not
+ask her, I know.  She is just like what I was afraid she would be
+stand-offish and airish.  She reminds me of 'the cat that walks by
+herself.'  I was always afraid the girls I might meet would be that
+way."
+
+At this Molly looked quite hurt.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean you," Polly went on, putting her arm around her
+cousin to reassure her.  "You are just dear, Molly.  I loved you right
+away."
+
+Molly's hurt feelings disappeared at this.  "I am sure," she remarked,
+"Mary needn't be so high and mighty; she hasn't half as pretty clothes
+as we have."
+
+"And she doesn't look nice in those she does have," returned Polly.
+
+From this the two went on from one criticism to another till finally
+they worked themselves up into quite hard feelings against Mary, and
+resolved to let her quite alone and not invite her to join their plays.
+This plan they began to carry out the next day to such a marked extent
+that their Aunt Ada noticed it.
+
+"I did suppose Molly and Polly would want to show more hospitality to
+their little English cousin," she said to her brother.
+
+Dick smiled.  "They will in time," he said.  "A dose of their own
+medicine might do them good."
+
+"Perhaps Mary has really said something to offend them," said Miss Ada
+thoughtfully, "or possibly they misunderstand each other's ways.  I
+will watch them for a day or two and try to discover what is wrong."
+She kept Mary at her side after this, and when she was not doing
+something to entertain her, Dick was, till both Molly and Polly began
+to add jealous pangs to their other grievances, yet they would only
+sidle up to their aunt and uncle or would sit near enough to hear what
+was said without joining in the conversation.
+
+"They are jealous; that's what it is, poor dears," said their aunt to
+herself.  "I must gather them all together in some way."  So the next
+evening when she and Mary were established in a cozy corner by the open
+fire, she called the other two little girls, "come here, lassies.  Mary
+has been telling me some very interesting things about England.  Don't
+you want to hear them, too?"
+
+Molly and Polly came nearer and sat on the edge of the wood-box
+together.
+
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "I think it would be a good way to pass the time
+if each were to tell her most exciting experience.  Mary can tell of
+something that happened to her in England; Polly can give us some
+experience of hers in Colorado, and Molly can choose her own locality.
+Molly, you are the eldest by a month or two, you can begin."
+
+Molly was silent for a few minutes and then she began.  "My most
+exciting time was last fall when we were going home from here.  We took
+the early boat, you remember, Aunt Ada, and the sea was very rough.  We
+were about half way to the city when a tremendous wave rushed toward us
+and we were all thrown down on deck.  I went banging against the rail,
+but Uncle Dick caught me, though he said if the rail hadn't been strong
+we all might have been washed off into the sea.  It was two or three
+minutes before we could get to our feet and I was awfully scared; so
+was everybody."
+
+"It was not rough at all when we came down here from the city,"
+remarked Mary.
+
+"It is usually very smooth," said Miss Ada, "but the time of which
+Molly speaks it was unusually rough and we all had reason to be
+terrified.  Now your tale, Polly."
+
+Polly sat looking into the fire for a moment before she said, "I think
+the time I was most scared was once when Uncle Dick and I were riding
+home on our ponies.  It was most dark and the sun was dropping behind
+the mountains; it always seems lonely and solemn then anyhow.  I wasn't
+riding my own pony that day for he had hurt his foot, so I had Buster,
+Ted's broncho: I'd often been on him before and I wasn't a bit afraid
+to ride him.  Well, we were coming along pretty fast because it was
+getting so late and we were a good distance from home.  Of course there
+were no houses nearer than ours, and that was three miles away.  I was
+a little ahead when a jack-rabbit jumped up right before Buster's nose
+and he lit out and ran for all he was worth.  I held on tight, but he
+kept running and pretty soon I saw we were making toward a bunch of
+cattle.  Buster used to be a cattle pony and I thought: suppose that
+bunch should stampede and I should get into the thick of them.  I was
+always more scared of a stampede than anything else.  Well, the cattle
+did begin to run but I jerked at Buster's bridle and managed to work
+him little by little away from the cattle, but he never stopped running
+till we got home and then I just tumbled off on the ground, somehow,
+and sat there crying till Uncle Dick came up.  He had no idea that
+Buster was doing anything I didn't want him to, but just thought I was
+going fast for a joke and because I wanted to get home."
+
+"I think that was tremendously exciting," commented Molly, "and I think
+you were very brave, for it lasted so long.  It is easy to be brave for
+a minute, but not for so long."
+
+"Fancy living in such a wild country," remarked Mary.
+
+"Oh, but it is beautiful," said Polly enthusiastically.  "The mountains
+are bigger than anything you can imagine, and it is so fine and free.
+Oh, you don't know till you see it."
+
+"I am quite sure I should like England better," declared Mary
+positively.  "London is much finer than New York, which is very ugly, I
+think, and our dear little villages are so pretty.  I never saw such
+queer tumble-down places as you have here in the country.  I think our
+hedge-rows and lanes are much prettier."
+
+"Never mind, now," said Miss Ada gently.  "Tell us about your most
+exciting time."
+
+"Really, I never did anything very exciting, you know," returned Mary.
+"Once I was in Kensington Gardens and got lost from nurse.  I was
+frightfully scared for a little while.  However, I sat quite still and
+she came up after a bit."
+
+Molly gave Polly a little nudge; it seemed a very tame experience after
+Polly's wild ride.
+
+"I am afraid Mary is something of a little prig," said Miss Ada to her
+brother when the little girls had gone to bed.
+
+"Polly will broaden her views if any one can," aid Uncle Dick.  "Don't
+let her flock by herself too much, Ada; it isn't good for her, and she
+needs a little Americanizing."
+
+"I don't think Polly will be harmed by Mary's gentleness.  She has such
+a charming voice and Polly might well subdue hers."
+
+"They'll do one another good," repeated Uncle Dick.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IV_
+
+_The Rhinestone Pin_
+
+In spite of Miss Ada's efforts to bring the three little cousins nearer
+together, it was some time before they actually did become real
+friends: Mary, seeing that anything she could say against America
+aroused a fierce contradiction from Polly, slyly teased her whenever
+she could, and Polly, who was loyal to the backbone, grew more and more
+indignant, often on the verge of tears, rushing to her aunt or uncle
+with a tale of Mary's abuse of her beloved country.
+
+"And her father is an American, too.  I don't see how she can do it,"
+she complained one morning.  "She is half American herself, and I told
+her so."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Aunt Ada.
+
+"She said she was born in England and so was her mother, so of course
+she was English, and besides, although her father was once American,
+that now he lives in England so he must be English, too.  She makes fun
+of everything, or at least she sniffs at us and our ways all the time.
+Now, is that polite, Aunt Ada?  I live in the west, but I'd be ashamed
+to make fun of the east."
+
+"I think Mary will learn better after awhile, when she has been here
+longer."
+
+"I wish I could show her what my mother wrote to me in the letter that
+I had from her this morning," said Polly.  Then, with a sudden thought.
+"Aunt Ada, won't you read it aloud to all three of us?"
+
+"Bring it to me," said Miss Ada, "and I will see."
+
+Polly ran off and came back with the letter which her aunt read over
+carefully, nodding approvingly from time to time.  "Where are the
+others?" she asked presently.
+
+"Out on the porch," Polly told her.
+
+Miss Ada picked up her knitting bag and Polly followed her to a
+sheltered corner where Molly and Mary were playing with a store of
+pebbles they had picked up on the shore.
+
+"Polly has had such a nice letter from her mother," said Miss Ada.
+"Don't you all want to hear it?  She gives such interesting accounts of
+things out there, and Mary will get quite an idea of ranch life from
+it."  She sat down and read the pages which were full of a pleasant
+recital of every-day doings, interesting to those unaccustomed to the
+great west, and more interesting to Polly.  At the last came these
+words:
+
+"There is one thing I want my little girl to remember: the essence of
+good breeding comes from a good heart.  It is both unkind and ill-bred
+to give offense in a house where hospitality is shown you, to find
+fault or criticise what is set before you, to draw comparisons between
+the locality where you live and that which you are visiting so that the
+latter will appear in a bad light.  Persons who have not been
+accustomed to the society of well-bred people think it is very smart to
+find fault with things which are different from those with which they
+have been familiar.  Now, I don't want my Polly to be that way, and I
+must ask her not to be so rude as to abuse hospitality by belittling
+the customs of a house or the town, state or locality in which it is.
+I want my Polly to be considered a true lady, even if she is from the
+wild and woolly west."
+
+Mary looked a little startled while this reading was going on and when
+Polly stole a glance at her she became very red in the face and turned
+away her head, but to Polly's great satisfaction, from that time she
+was less ready to criticise things American.  In consequence
+warm-hearted little Polly tried to be magnanimous and because Aunt Ada
+asked her to help her to show a generous hospitality, she overlooked
+Mary's praise of England, and would answer her remarks by saying:
+"Well, we have some nice things, too."  Her clear loud voice, moreover,
+she tried to tone down when Aunt Ada told her to notice the difference
+between her way of speaking and Mary's.  As to Mary the benefits of her
+visit were only beginning to tell.  Later they showed more plainly, but
+it was not till there was much heart-burning and many tears were shed.
+
+It all began in this way: Molly rushed in one morning, her face all
+aglow with the importance of the news she had to tell.  "Oh, Aunt Ada,"
+she cried, "they are going to have a dress-up party at Green Island
+hall, fancy costumes, you know, and we are all invited, you and Uncle
+Dick and we children.  The Ludlows have come and it is Miss Kitty's
+birthday.  Will you go? and what can we wear?"
+
+"Oh, mayn't I be a grown-up lady and wear a long skirt?" asked Mary.
+"I have always longed to do that."
+
+"Why, I am sure I don't object," replied Miss Ada.  "Tell me more about
+it, Molly.  Where did you find out all this?"
+
+"I met Edgar Ludlow just now, and he gave me this note," and Molly
+thrust an envelope into her aunt's hand.  "He told me all about the
+party."
+
+Miss Ada opened the note and read:
+
+
+"DEAR ADA:
+
+"Come over to the hall to-morrow night, you and your brother, and bring
+the youngsters.  We are going to celebrate my birthday by dressing up
+in any old thing we can find around the house.  Come in any character
+you choose, from the Queen of Sheba to a beggar maid, only don't fail
+to come and bring the girlies.
+
+"Lovingly,
+  "KITTY."
+
+
+The three cousins watched their aunt's face anxiously.  "You will go,
+won't you, Aunt Ada?" asked Polly.
+
+"I most certainly will.  The first thing to do is to see what odds and
+ends I have in the attic."
+
+From this time on for the next two days there was great excitement
+everywhere in the house, for with five costumes to devise out of
+scraps, Miss Ada had her hands full.  But when the moment came for them
+all to start forth, each one had been provided with something suitable.
+Miss Ada herself wore a Puritan cap and kerchief which distinguished
+her as Priscilla, the Puritan maiden; Uncle Dick looked stunning, his
+nieces agreed, as a Venetian gondolier; Mary was perfectly happy with a
+long trained skirt, short waist and powdered hair, her crowning glory
+being a pin which her aunt had lent her; it was set with rhinestones,
+which in her innocence she mistook for real diamonds, but she was so
+delighted with the shining brilliants that Miss Ada did not have the
+heart to undeceive her.  Polly insisted upon going as the wild Indian
+her uncle had suggested to Molly that she looked like, and though her
+costume did not accord very well with her fair hair, she was painted up
+skilfully and with blanket, beads and moccasins was quite content.
+Molly made a pretty butterfly with yellow paper wings, and as they all
+set out across the hummocks to the little landing every one was
+entirely satisfied.  Green Island was not far away, and, as it was
+bright moonlight these nights, no one minded the trip across the narrow
+channel between the point and the island.  The little hall was gay with
+decorations of Japanese lanterns and wild flowers, and looked so
+festive that even Mary declared it was perfectly lovely.
+
+There were not very many children present, and the cousins felt quite
+like grown-ups when they danced with Uncle Dick and other young men of
+his age, the music being furnished by whoever would volunteer to play
+two-steps and waltzes.  Mary felt the necessity of crossing the room a
+great many times that she might have the pleasant consciousness of the
+train sweeping behind her.  Polly as a dancer did not excel except in
+funny whirls and figures and in a Spanish dance which she had learned
+from her father's Mexican servants, and which won her great applause.
+Molly had danced often enough in this very hall to which she had gone
+every summer since she could dance at all.
+
+It was Mary's first experience of such an affair where young and old
+shared the entertainment.  Never before had she been to any such
+assemblage which was not intended for children alone, and while for
+some time her friends had been slowly converting her to a more
+flattering view of American ways, this completely won her heart, and at
+once all her childish home festivities paled before it.  In her
+enthusiasm she turned to Polly and said: "Oh, I do love America!" and
+Polly, unmindful of her painted face, threw her arms about her and
+kissed her.
+
+At ten o'clock the guests departed, and after their water trip in a
+small motor boat, they went stumbling home by the light of the moon.
+
+Luella was there to welcome them, eager to hear all the account of the
+evening's doings.  "You summer folks beat me out!" she exclaimed.
+"Land! to see you rig up in all this trash and dance them funny dances
+is as good as a circus.  I was watching you through the windows, me and
+some of the other girls."
+
+"Was Granville there?" asked Polly.
+
+"You go 'long," returned Luella, coyly.  "I won't tell you whether he
+was or not."  The girls were much interested in the young fisherman who
+saw Luella home every night, and thought his high-sounding name
+beautiful.  Luella had confided to Polly that they were going to get
+married some day and that she had already begun to piece her quilts.
+
+It was something of a task to get off their toggery and to rid
+themselves of paint and powder, but finally the butterfly wings were
+unfastened, the powder shaken from Mary's locks and the red paint
+washed from Polly's face and hands.  It was during the process of
+undressing, however, that Mary made a discovery which took away all the
+joy of her evening.  The beautiful shining pin was gone!  She clutched
+the front of her frock where it had been pinned; she examined the fall
+of lace; she shook out the folds of the skirt.  In her distress and
+fear she commenced to search eagerly around on the floor with her
+candle.
+
+"What are you looking for?" called Polly from the next room.
+
+"I have dropped a pin," said Mary, in agitation.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't fuss about it; the mice won't eat it up," said Polly,
+sleepily, "and nothing will carry it off in the night.  Wait till
+morning and it will be just where you dropped it, just the same."
+
+This Mary felt to be the truth, and she finally crept into bed, still
+miserable, but hopeful and determined to waken early to make a search
+for the precious pin.
+
+As soon as the sun showed its golden disc over the edge of the ocean
+she was up, creeping softly around the room on her hands and knees, and
+trying not to waken her sleeping cousins in the next room.  At last,
+after she had searched in every possible nook and cranny, she concluded
+that she must have lost it on the stairs or on her way home, so, after
+dressing herself, she stole downstairs, looking upon each step as she
+went, then through the living-room and out on the porch.
+
+The air was soft and sweet.  The song-sparrows were singing from the
+house-tops; across the ocean the sun shone gloriously, and pouring its
+beams upon the dew-sprinkled grass, turned their blades into sparkling
+sheaths which mocked poor Mary, searching for false diamonds.  No one
+was in sight but a lobsterman out in his dory.  From one or two
+chimneys the smoke was beginning to curl, showing that there were other
+early risers.  Mary stepped along anxiously, looking this side and
+that, and with her hands pushing the grass aside in places.  Little by
+little she made her way toward the landing.  She would search so far
+and if it were not to be found this side the separating channel of
+water she would trust to luck to take her to the island later.
+
+But no pin was to be found that morning, hunt faithfully though she
+did, and the child returned to the cottage in great distress of mind.
+She was afraid to confess the loss to her aunt, and she could not make
+up her mind to tell one of her cousins.  "I must find it!  I must!" she
+exclaimed, clasping her hands as she left the last turnstile behind
+her.  "I hope, I do hope Aunt Ada will not ask for it first thing this
+morning."
+
+This Aunt Ada did not do, thinking, indeed, no more of the little
+trinket after having pinned it into Mary's frock.  No one noticed that
+the little girl was very quiet at the breakfast table, for all were
+talking merrily over the fun of the evening before, and no one observed
+Mary's troubled little face nor the fact that she scarcely tasted her
+breakfast.  Her Uncle Dick, however, at last did remark that Mary had
+not much to say.  "I am afraid grown-up parties are too much for Mary,"
+he said, after breakfast, drawing her to his side in the hammock and
+cuddling her to him.  "Are you sleepy, Mary, or don't you feel well?"
+
+Mary leaned her head against his shoulder.  "I don't feel sleepy," she
+told him, "and I am only a bit tired.  Uncle Dick, are diamonds the
+preciousest things in the world?"
+
+"Those glittering out there on the grass, do you mean?  They are fairy
+diamonds, you know, and they disappear as soon as the sun gets high up."
+
+"I know.  I didn't mean those; I meant the kind human people wear."
+
+"They are sold at rather a respectable price.  Are you thinking of
+investing or are you considering the display Miss Millikin made last
+night?  I think I counted thirteen on one hand.  All are not diamonds
+that glitter, Marybud.  Miss Millikin isn't a bit more precious because
+of her diamonds, so don't you go thinking I'll love you any better if
+you have six diamond rings on one hand."
+
+"But they are most costly, aren't they?"
+
+"They cost like fury.  That's why I can't be engaged to a girl; I can't
+afford to buy a ring."
+
+Mary took this perfectly seriously.  "I suppose six little diamonds
+would cost as much as twenty pounds," she said.
+
+"Yes, one might get six, not too big, for that price.  The little ones
+cost much less than the big one in proportion.  A large solitaire costs
+much more than a number of small ones taking up as much space.  But why
+this sudden interest in diamonds?  Have you twenty pounds to spend and
+are you thinking of spending it all in diamonds to take home as a gift
+to your mother?"
+
+"Oh, no, I have only one pound to spend, and mamma wouldn't wish me to
+spend all that upon her."
+
+"Then let's talk of something else; song-sparrows or sand-peeps or
+sea-gulls, or something not so sordid as gold and diamonds.  Look at
+that yacht out there, isn't it a corker?  Now, when I have money to
+spend I shall not buy diamonds, I shall buy a yacht.  By the way, did
+you know we were all going out sailing this afternoon, to Rocky Point?"
+
+"Are we?" said Mary listlessly.
+
+"Why I thought you would enjoy it.  We have been talking of this sail
+for two or three days, and you little kitties were wild about it, I
+thought."
+
+"I am delighted; of course I am," returned Mary with more show of
+interest.  "Shall we take supper there?  I heard Aunt Ada and Luella
+talking about sandwiches."
+
+"Yes, that is the intention.  We shall not try sailing by the outside
+route but will go around by Middle Bay where it is not rough.  Polly
+has not tried sailing yet, and we must be sure of smooth waters.  If it
+gets too much for her we can set her ashore somewhere and she can come
+back by the next steamboat.  She is calling you now."
+
+Mary slipped away to join Polly and Molly.  "We are going to look for
+wild strawberries," they said; "Aunt Ada said we might."
+
+"I'm going barefoot," Polly informed her, "but Molly won't; she is
+afraid of taking cold; you aren't, are you, Mary?"
+
+Mary was most decided in her refusal to take off her shoes and
+stockings, declaring that her mother would certainly disapprove, but
+her heart leaped within her when told that they were to look for
+strawberries.  She would then have an excuse to continue her search for
+the lost pin, and therefore she set for herself the bounds which
+included the path to the landing.  But it must be confessed that she
+found few strawberries and was crowed over by the others.
+
+"You might have known you couldn't find near so many there along the
+path," Polly told her.  "Why, they are as thick as can be over there
+where nobody walks."
+
+Mary made no excuse for her choice, and indeed made no reply.
+
+"You aren't mad, are you?" asked Polly after looking at her for a
+moment.
+
+Mary shook her head.
+
+"Tell me, are you homesick, Mary?  I won't tell any one if that is what
+is the matter."
+
+Again only a shake of the head in reply.
+
+"Well, you needn't tell if you don't want to," said Polly, walking off.
+She was a quick-tempered little soul, easily offended, and when Mary
+decided that she would rather stay at home with Luella that afternoon,
+than run the risk of being seasick, Polly made up her mind that either
+Mary really was homesick, or that she did not care for the society of
+her American cousins.
+
+"I'm not going to insist on playing with her.  She needn't think I'm so
+crazy about it that I can't keep away from her," she confided to Molly
+after they had set sail.
+
+"Oh, but maybe she really is homesick," said Molly, "and maybe we ought
+not to have gone away and left her."
+
+"But Uncle Dick and Aunt Ada said we should."
+
+"That was because Mary was so determined not to go.  She was seasick
+nearly all the way coming from England, and Aunt Ada thinks that is why
+she was afraid to go to-day."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!  Nobody could be seasick on this smooth water," said
+Polly, looking over the side of the boat at the blue waves.  "Isn't it
+jolly, Molly?"
+
+"Jolly Molly sounds funny," laughed Molly.
+
+"So does jolly Polly," returned Polly.  Then, fumbling in her uncle's
+pocket, she found a bit of paper and a pencil; in a moment she handed
+to Molly the following brilliant production:
+
+  "Golly, Molly,
+  It's jolly,
+  Polly
+
+
+This sent them both into shrieks of merriment, for it took very little
+to start the two laughing, and they soon forgot Mary.
+
+"Look here," called Uncle Dick, "I shall have to make you two laugh the
+other side of the mouth, for you're tipping the boat all to one aide.
+Shift them a little bit further, Ada.  We're going to run into the cove
+for supper."
+
+The beautiful little cove made a quiet and safe harbor.  Here they
+anchored and made ready to make coffee, roast potatoes and toast
+marshmallows.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER V_
+
+_Mary and the Boy_
+
+Meanwhile Mary at the cottage was disconsolate enough.  To be sure
+Luella was rather a cheerful companion, and even Miss Ada's Maltese
+kitten, Cosey, was not to be despised as giving a comforting presence.
+Yet the weight of her loss lay heavily upon Mary, and she soon escaped
+from Luella to begin again the weary search.  She was on her knees
+before a large rock when she heard a voice above her say: "What you
+looking for?  A sparrow's nest?  I know where there is one."
+
+Mary looked up to see a barefooted boy peering down at her.  He had a
+pleasant face and appeared much as other boys, though she saw at once
+that he was a fisherman's son, and not one of the summer visitors.
+"No, I'm not looking for a bird's nest," she said slowly; "I've lost
+something.  Did--did--do you know if any one has found a piece of
+jewelry?"  It flashed across her that she might do well to confide in
+the little lad.
+
+"Why, no, I don't," he replied, "but I'll help you look for it.  I'd
+just as lief as not.  What was it like?"
+
+Mary glanced around her.  "I'll tell you," she said, "but I don't want
+any one else to know.  I am so afraid my aunt will be vexed.  It is a
+brooch, a diamond brooch in the shape of a star, that I wore to the
+party the other night.  I lost it coming home, I think."
+
+"It will be pretty hard to find, I'm afraid," said the boy.  "Why don't
+you tack up a notice in the post-office?"
+
+"Oh, because I don't want my aunt to know.  I thought if I could only
+find it, I'd so much rather not tell."
+
+"But, say, you don't stand near so good a chance of finding it if
+nobody knows."
+
+Mary pondered over this, her desire to find the pin battling with her
+desire to keep the loss a secret.  "I'll look a little longer," she
+said at last, "and then if I don't find it I will have to tell."
+
+"I guess you do feel pretty bad about it," said the boy.  "Diamonds are
+valuable and if anybody found the pin it might be a temptation to keep
+it, especially if it wasn't known who it belonged to.  We're pretty
+honest about here and I guess the Green Island people are, too, so, if
+it's found, I guess you'll get it again as soon as it's known who lost
+it."
+
+"I've looked and looked all the way from here to the landing," said
+Mary disconsolately, "and I don't believe it is here.  I do wish I
+could get over to Green Island somehow."
+
+"Why, it's easy enough to get there," said the boy.  "Us boys go over
+often to pick berries, or sell lobsters to the hotel.  I'll row you
+over in my brother Parker's boat; I know he'll let me have it."
+
+"Oh, how very kind!  I would be so relieved.  It is most kind of you to
+offer to take me.  Could we go now, before the others get back?"
+
+"Why, I guess so.  You come on with me and I'll see.  Park's down to
+the fish-house, and I know he won't be using the boat to-day.  You know
+who I am, don't you?  I live in that yellow house just this side
+Hobbs's store, and I'm Park Dixon's brother Ellis.  I'm going
+lobstering next year; I'm big enough."
+
+Mary looked him over.  He was not very big, she thought, but she did
+not know just what was the necessary size for one to reach in order to
+go lobstering, yet it seemed rather to place him in a position to be a
+safe guide, and she was glad he had told her.  "I'm sure," she said
+following out her thought, "that you're quite big enough to take me."
+
+"Of course I am," he said.  "I've sot over quite a lot of people to
+Green's Island.  I sot over a man last week."
+
+Mary hesitated before she asked, "If you please, what is sot over?"
+
+"Why, row 'em over.  If you don't take the steamboat there ain't no
+other way than to be sot over, you see."
+
+"Oh, I see.  Thank you.  Shall we go to the fish-house now?"
+
+"Why, yes, or you can wait here if you'd rather."
+
+Upon considering, Mary concluded it would be more satisfactory to go,
+for perhaps Ellis might give her the slip, or, if the big brother
+objected, she might add her persuasions to Ellis's and so clinch the
+matter.  Yet while she stood waiting for Ellis to make his request for
+the boat, she had many compunctions of conscience.  She had never
+before done so bold and desperate a thing.  She had scarcely ever
+appeared on the street without her governess, and indeed it was the
+strict measures of this same governess which made the child timid about
+confessing the loss of the pin.  As she thought about the trip to Green
+Island with a strange little boy to whom she had never even spoken
+before that day, it seemed a monstrous undertaking, and for a moment
+she quailed before the prospect.  Yet what joy if she should return
+with the precious pin and be able to restore it without a word of
+censure from any one.  This thought decided her to follow when Ellis
+beckoned to her.  Big Parker Dixon smiled and nodded from where he was
+unloading shining mackerel and big gaping cod, and Mary knew his
+consent had been given.
+
+"It is a very smelly place," she remarked as she picked her way along
+the wet fish-house floor.
+
+Ellis laughed.  "That's what you summer folks think; we like it."
+
+"Fancy liking it," said Mary, then feeling that perhaps that did not
+show a proper attitude toward one so kind as Ellis, she hastened to
+say, "No doubt it is a lovely smell, you know, and if I were an
+American perhaps I should prefer it, but I am English, you see."
+
+"That's what makes you talk so funny," said Ellis bluntly.
+
+"Oh, really, do I talk funny?  I can't help it, can I, if I am English?"
+
+"Oh, some of the folks that live other places not so far away think we
+talk funny," Ellis went on to say.
+
+"Do they?  Then there is as much difference in liking ways of talking
+as in the kind of smells you like.  Now, I never could bear the smell
+of onions cooking, and yet nurse says they smell so 'earty and
+happetizing; she drops her h's, you know."
+
+Ellis stared.  He had never heard of dropping h's, but he was too wise
+to say so.  "I'll go get the _Leona_," he said by way of changing the
+subject.  "That's the name of my brother's boat; he named it after his
+wife.  You'd better come on down to Cap'n Dave's wharf; it is easier
+getting aboard there."
+
+Mary followed down a winding path to the shore of the cove and waited
+on the pebbly sands till the boat was shoved up and then she waveringly
+stepped in, fearfully sat down where Ellis directed, and in a moment
+his sturdy young arms were pulling at the oars.  The deed was done and
+Mary felt as if she had cast away every shred of home influence.  What
+would Miss Sharp say to see her?  Polly wouldn't hesitate to do such a
+thing, she reflected, and after all she was in America which was a
+perfectly free country, so Molly and Polly were always telling her,
+then why not do as she chose?  So she settled herself more comfortably
+and really began to enjoy the expedition.
+
+It was but a short distance to Green Island, and the water of the
+dividing sound was too smooth to produce any uncomfortable qualms so
+that Mary felt only a pleasant excitement as she stepped ashore and was
+piloted by Ellis to the little hall where the fancy dress party had
+been given.  All the way along they looked carefully to see if by
+chance anything could be discovered of the missing pin, but there was
+no sign of it.  Ellis started inquiries, putting the question to each
+one he met: "You hain't heerd of anybody's findin' a breastpin, hev ye?
+I'll ask at the post-office," he told Mary.  "They won't know who you
+are and if anybody finds it, I'll leave word it's to be returned to me."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure you're very kind," said Mary gratefully.  "I can give a
+reward.  Isn't that what persons do?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure.  Nobody about here wants any reward.  I guess
+any of us is ready to return property when we know where it belongs."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary felt properly rebuked.  Really Ellis was a very superior
+sort of person if he did murder the king's English.  It was quite
+evident that his morals were above question.  She pattered by his side
+till they reached the hall.  The door was open and the place
+unoccupied.  It no longer seemed enchanted ground.  The Japanese
+lanterns looked out of place in the glare of daylight, and the flowers
+still remaining, were faded and drooping.  Instead of being bright and
+festive, it appeared bare and desolate to Mary.
+
+She and Ellis walked slowly around, looking in every corner, but their
+search was not rewarded, and they returned to the boat, stopping at the
+post-office on their way.  The postmaster and his entire family were
+greatly interested in Ellis's tale of the lost trinket.
+
+"A diamond breaspin, did you say?" asked Jim Taylor.  "Wal now, ain't
+that a loss?  I'll put up a notice right away.  Marthy, you ain't heerd
+of nobody's findin' a diamond breaspin, hev ye?" he questioned a girl
+who came in to mail a letter.  "Some of the P'int folks has lost one.
+If you hear of its bein' found, tell 'em to fetch it here."  He
+carefully wrote out a notice which he pinned up alongside an
+advertisement of a boat for sale, a cottage to let, and a moonlight
+excursion.  "That'll fetch it," he said.  "If it's been found on this
+island, you'll get it.  You tell 'em over to the P'int we're on the
+lookout.  How is it you're undertakin' to look it up, Ellis?  Who's the
+lady?"
+
+Ellis glanced furtively at Mary, squirming his bare toes on the dusty
+floor.  "Wal, I cal'lated I could find it," he replied.  "I undertook
+it on my own hook, and I guess I'll see it through.  I'd like the fun
+of restorin' it, if I can, Jim."
+
+The postmaster laughed.  "You're right cute, Ellis," he said.  "Parker
+gone a-fishin' yet?"
+
+"No," Ellis told him; "he's goin' on Cap'n Abe Larkins' boat.  They're
+loadin' up now.  They cal'late to get off in a day or two."
+
+Jim Taylor nodded, and, having despatched the business with Ellis, he
+turned to wait upon a customer, for this was store and post-office as
+well.
+
+Mary was surprised to find that every one, young and old was called by
+the first name; it seemed to her a queer custom.  She would have said
+Mr. Taylor, but Ellis called even the old men Joshua and Abner and all
+that.  She did not criticise, however, for she was very grateful to
+Ellis for not disclosing her secret.  Really he was a boy of very fine
+feelings, she decided, and she spoke her thought by saying: "You are
+very good to do all this for me, Ellis."
+
+Ellis looked confused.  He had not been brought up to receive praise.
+"Oh, it ain't nothin'," he said awkwardly.  Then changing the subject
+suddenly, he exclaimed: "There's Luella Barnes!"
+
+"Where?" cried Mary in alarm.
+
+"Comin' out of the ice-cream saloon with Granville.  I guess he fetched
+her over."
+
+"I wonder if she's come after me," said Mary looking scared.
+
+"Did she know you were comin'?"
+
+"No, but I said I would go over to the Whartons'.  I meant to go when I
+told her, so maybe she thinks I am there and thought there was no need
+for her to stay in.  She goes somewhere every afternoon anyhow, so I
+fancy she hasn't come for me, after all, though I'd rather not see her."
+
+However this was not to be avoided, for Luella had caught sight of Mary
+and was about to bear down upon her when her attention was distracted
+by a friend who hailed her and in the meantime Mary slipped out of
+sight.  "That was Mary Reid as sure as shootin'," said Luella to
+Granville.
+
+"I guess not," he replied.  "What would she be doing over here?"
+
+"I cal'lated she'd gone to Whartons'," said Luella, pinching her under
+lip thoughtfully as she looked down the road.
+
+"Maybe she did go and they've fetched her over in their launch."
+
+Luella "cal'lated" that was just the way of it, and gave herself no
+further uneasiness, so Mary escaped by plunging down the bank and
+skirting the shore till she reached the spot where the boat lay.
+
+"I'll row you over to Jones's Island, if you'd like to go.  'Tain't but
+a little way.  There's lots of strawberries there," the boy said.
+
+This was a temptation Mary considered.  The afternoon was but half
+gone; the evenings were long, and the sailing party would not return
+before sunset.  They enjoyed most of all the coming home when sea and
+sky were a glory of color and light.  It would be a delightful way to
+pass the remainder of the afternoon, and to carry home a lot of berries
+for supper would be an excuse to Luella for her long absence.  "What
+will we get the berries in?" she asked Ellis, when her thoughts had
+traveled thus far.
+
+"I'll run up to the store and get some of those little empty fruit
+boxes; Jim'll give 'em to me.  I saw a pile of 'em lying outside.  You
+wait here."  So Mary waited.  If it should be discovered that she had
+gone off with Ellis in the _Leona_, she would at least have the berries
+as an evidence of what they had gone for.  Mary was getting more and
+more crafty.
+
+The end of it all was that they did row over to Jones's Island.  A
+barren looking, uninhabited spot it seemed from a distance.  Barren of
+trees it was, but when one once reached it there were great patches of
+strawberries, clumps of wild roses and bayberry bushes, pinky-white
+clover, deliciously sweet, tiny wild white violets and many other
+lovely things.  Then, too, it was the haunt of birds which,
+undisturbed, had built their nests there year after year.
+
+It did not take long to pick as many berries as they could eat and as
+many as they wanted to carry away, and then when the sky was shining
+gold and pink and blue above and the water shining blue and pink and
+gold beneath, they started home, reaching there just as Luella,
+standing on the porch, was watching earnestly for the little girl's
+return.  Ellis had parted from his companion at the point where their
+roads separated.  His supper hour was over long ago, though he did not
+say so, his parting words being: "I'll let you know first thing if I
+hear anything of the breastpin."
+
+"Thank you so much," said Mary.  "I cannot tell you how much I have
+enjoyed the afternoon."
+
+"I thought maybe you'd stayed at the Whartons' for supper," said
+Luella, as Mary came up.  "Land's sake, where did you get all them
+berries?  I know you didn't get 'em about here.  There, now, I said I
+seen you to Green's.  That's just what I said.  Did you have a good
+time?  Whartons' is real good about their la'nch, ain't they?  Now
+there's Roops hardly ever takes anybody out but their own folks.  I
+call that mean.  Come on in and get your supper.  Them berries is so
+fresh I guess they'll keep till tomorrow, and you'll want the others to
+have some.  I cal'late you've eat your fill of 'em anyway."
+
+Glad that Luella's flow of talk did not demand answers, Mary followed
+her into the house and when the young woman drew up her chair sociably
+to eat supper with her, Mary did not feel any resentment, so happy was
+she that no explanations were expected.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VI_
+
+_Discoveries_
+
+But the end was not yet for Mary.  To be sure her strawberries were
+much appreciated, and every one was good enough to say she had been
+missed, and that it was too bad she had decided to stay at home.
+"Though after all you weren't lonely," said Molly, "and I'm glad you
+went over to the Whartons'; they are such nice, friendly people."
+
+"I think they are, too," said Polly.  "Luella told us they took you to
+Green Island on their launch."
+
+"I am delighted that you had that pleasure," said Aunt Ada.
+
+"And I am pleased that you were so industrious as to pick all those
+berries," Uncle Dick put in his word.
+
+Poor Mary felt very uncomfortable.  "I am a wretchedly deceitful girl,"
+she told herself.  "Why can't I tell them the truth?  But, oh, dear, it
+is harder to now than it was at first." So she summoned voice to say
+only, "Yes, I did have a real nice time.  Green Island is almost as
+pretty as the Point, isn't it?"
+
+"We don't think it is near so pretty," said Molly, loyally.
+
+"But it is lovely," admitted Miss Ada.  "I wish you could have seen
+Rocky Point, Mary; that is the wildest spot imaginable.  Perhaps after
+a while you will get over your fear of being seasick and can go with us
+on another trip there."
+
+"Oh, it is such a fine place to have supper," put in Polly.  "We had a
+dear little fireplace, and it was so still you could imagine you were
+hundreds of miles away from a house, and there was nothing to disturb
+us----"
+
+"Except ants and grasshoppers and mosquitoes," interrupted Uncle Dick.
+
+"I'm sure there were very few of them," protested Molly.  "Anyhow it
+was just fine, Mary, and you must be sure to go next time.  We had the
+loveliest sail home through the sunset."
+
+"Through the sunset," said Uncle Dick scornfully.  "One would suppose
+we were in a balloon."
+
+"Well, but it was sunset on the water, too," persisted Molly.  "The sea
+was just as colorful as the sky."
+
+"When anybody coins words like that I'm ready for bed," said Uncle
+Dick.  And Mary, feeling that the subject of the afternoon's doings was
+exhausted, drew a breath of relief.
+
+The three cousins played together most amicably all the next morning.
+In Mary's breast hope was high, for might not Ellis appear at any time
+with the pin?  She counted much on that notice in the Green Island
+post-office.  She was brighter than she had been for days so that Molly
+confided to Polly: "She seems more like us."
+
+"I'm beginning to like her real well," admitted Polly.  "She isn't so
+stiff as she was at first."
+
+"I suppose her Englishism is wearing off," returned Molly.
+
+But that afternoon when she returned from the post-office, whither she
+had gone for her Aunt Ada, she beckoned to Polly who was playing jacks
+with Mary.  They had a set of jackstones which they had collected
+themselves from the pebbles on the beach, and the place was much more
+interesting because of them.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Polly following Molly into the house.  "Are
+there any letters for me?"
+
+"No," said Molly, "but just wait a minute and I'll tell you.  I must
+take Aunt Ada her mail first."  Her manner was mysterious and Polly
+wondered what mighty secret she had to disclose.
+
+"Let's go down to the rocks, to the lion's den," proposed Molly when
+she came back into the room.  "We'd better go around by the back way."
+
+Polly looked surprised.  "Why?  What for?"
+
+"I've something to tell you and I don't want any one to bear.  You will
+scarcely believe it, Polly, and I'm sure I don't know what to do about
+it."
+
+"Oh, dear, what can it be?" said Polly.  "Is it anything about Luella?
+Is she going to leave?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no.  It is about some one much nearer than Luella."
+
+They avoided being seen from the front of the house till they were well
+away, and then they ran down to the rocks and settled themselves out of
+sight below one of the great ledges.
+
+"Now tell," said Polly, all curiosity.
+
+"You must promise not to breathe a word."
+
+"I promise on my sacred word and honor."
+
+"Well then; it is about Mary."
+
+"Mary!  Oh, Molly!"
+
+"Yes, what do you think?  She wasn't at the Whartons' at all yesterday
+afternoon."
+
+Polly looked as astonished as Molly expected, though she said, after a
+pause: "Well she never said she was."
+
+"She let us think so.  She didn't deny it."
+
+"But did she go to Green Island?  Now I think of it, all she said was
+that she thought it was a pretty place.  She knew that because she saw
+it when she went over there to the party."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but it wasn't at Green Island that she got the
+strawberries, Polly, and she didn't go anywhere with the Whartons."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I saw Grace at the post-office.  I said to her: 'It was real nice of
+you all to take Mary out in the launch yesterday,' and she looked so
+surprised when she said: 'Why, we didn't take Mary.  We didn't go out
+at all yesterday, for Uncle Will had some of his friends up from town
+and they were using the launch all day.'"
+
+"What _did_ you say?"
+
+"I didn't know what to say.  'Did Mary tell you she was with us?' Grace
+asked, and I had to crawl out by saying: 'No, Luella thought so.'  Then
+Grace said--now what do you think of this, Polly--she said: 'Why, I saw
+Mary going out with Ellis Dixon in his brother's boat.  I watched them
+rowing off.  I am sure it was Mary.  I couldn't be mistaken for no one
+around here has a hat like hers.'"
+
+Polly was silent with amazement and Molly went on: "I had to say, 'Oh,
+very likely Aunt Ada knows all about it,' and then I came away as fast
+as I could."
+
+"Why Molly Shelton!" exclaimed Polly finding her voice, "do you suppose
+she sneaked off that way with a strange little boy when she says her
+mother is so particular that she doesn't even let her go on the street
+alone?  I can't believe it.  I think Grace must have been mistaken."
+
+"No, she wasn't.  I know that."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I saw Parker Dixon and he said, 'Did the little girl get home all
+right?  She was pretty safe with El, but I didn't know as your aunt
+mightn't hev been oneasy, seeing they was just two children.  You tell
+her she needn't hev no fear of El; he can handle a boat as good as I
+kin.'"  Molly unconsciously imitated Parker's manner of speaking.
+
+"Then it is true; of course it is," decided Polly.  "Are you going to
+tell Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I don't know what to do.  I feel as if I ought, and yet I feel sort of
+sorry for Mary.  She is 'way off from all her people and we've been
+picking at her for being so particular and not doing this and not doing
+that, so maybe she thought she was doing no more than we would have
+done if we had been in her place."
+
+"I know, and maybe we would have done the same, but she needn't have
+been deceitful," returned Polly.  "She could have asked if she might
+go."
+
+"She didn't have a chance, for we had gone sailing, you know."
+
+"Then she ought to have told the first thing, as soon as she saw Aunt
+Ada.  No, she is a sneaky, horrid girl and I am not going to have
+anything more to do with her, if she is my cousin.  I was beginning to
+like her, too."  Polly spoke regretfully.
+
+"So was I," agreed Molly.  "But now the main thing is, shall we tell or
+shall we not?  I hate to be a tattle-tale."
+
+"Then don't let's tell, but don't let's be more than polite to her and
+she'll see that something is wrong and maybe she will tell of her own
+accord.  I wish she'd go.  I don't like sneaky girls; I'd rather they'd
+be out and out naughty."
+
+"Why do you suppose she didn't tell?" said Molly thoughtfully.  "She
+might have known that Aunt Ada wouldn't punish her or even scold.  She
+would only have said: 'I'd rather you'd always tell me, Mary, before
+you undertake such trips again.'"  Again Molly imitated the person she
+quoted.  "It doesn't seem to me she could be scared of Aunt Ada when
+she's always so gentle and kind."
+
+"Well, I don't care whether she was scared or not, she wasn't honest,
+and I think anyhow it was very queer for her to sneak off with a boy
+she didn't know."
+
+"But I know him; I used to play with him when I was only four years
+old," said Molly.  "He is a very nice boy.  Aunt Ada says that he has
+been very well raised and that any mother could be proud of him.  He is
+real bright, too: why, he can manage a sail boat as well as a man, and
+he's always so ready and willing to do anything he can for any of us.
+He is very different from some of the others who just can't bear the
+summer people."
+
+"Never mind about him; I suppose he is all right; it is Mary I am
+bothered over."
+
+"Well, the only thing we can do is to wait and see if she will tell of
+her own accord; maybe she hasn't had a good chance yet to see Aunt Ada
+alone; we are giving her the chance now, so we will wait and see what
+happens."
+
+This Polly agreed was best, but they returned to the house to turn a
+cold shoulder to Mary, and to ignore her in every way they could
+without being directly rude.  So directly opposite was this course of
+conduct from that of the morning, when her cousins had been all smiles
+and sweetness, that Mary's fears again arose and she was so miserable
+that at bedtime when Molly went in to her English cousin's room to get
+a bottle of cold cream with which to anoint her sunburned face, she
+heard a soft little sob from Mary's bed.
+
+Immediately her sympathies were aroused.  Mary was far from home and
+mother.  What if she had done wrong?  She was alone among comparative
+strangers and who knew the exact truth of yesterday's proceedings?  She
+crept softly to Mary's bedside.  Her cousin's face was buried in the
+pillow, and she was shaking with sobs.  Molly leaned over her.  "Are
+you sick, Mary?" she whispered, "Do you want me to call Aunt Ada?"
+
+"No," came feebly from Mary.
+
+"Is anything the matter?  Please tell me.  I'll get into bed with you."
+And suiting the action to the word she slipped in beside Mary, putting
+a sympathetic arm around her.  "What is it?" she repeated.
+
+Only sobs from Mary.
+
+"Please tell," persisted Molly.
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," said Mary, her tears flowing fast.
+
+"I won't tell a soul.  I cross my heart I won't."
+
+Mary checked her sobs a little as she gave heed to the earnest promise.
+It was a relief to have Molly's comforting presence near by there in
+the dark.  But in a moment her tears gushed forth again.  "I want my
+mother, oh, I want my mother," she wailed.
+
+"Are you so homesick?  Is that it?" asked Molly with concern.  "Never
+mind, Mary, you'll see your father soon, and--and--I'm sorry," she
+whispered, "I'm sorry we were horrid to you.  Is that why you are
+homesick, because Polly and I weren't nice to you?"
+
+"Oh, n-no, it isn't that," replied Mary.  "I deserved it, Molly, but
+oh, you won't tell, you won't tell, will you?"
+
+"Tell what?"
+
+"Oh, Molly, I've lost Aunt Ada's diamond pin, and I can't find it.
+I've looked and looked and Ellis Dixon helped me, too.  I thought if it
+had been found we would know by this time.  That is why we went over to
+Green Island."
+
+"Then you did go with Ellis."
+
+"Yes, he came along while I was looking for the brooch, after you had
+all gone sailing, and he offered to take me to Green Island in his
+brother's boat, and when we got there the postmaster put up a notice in
+the post-office and we looked all over the hall everywhere, and all
+along the road and asked every one we met, but it was no use, and now I
+am afraid to tell Aunt Ada, and diamonds cost so much I could never buy
+another like it."  It was a relief to Mary to thus unburden herself.
+
+"I don't seem to remember exactly about the pin," said Molly.  "Aunt
+Ada is always getting some pretty new thing, but I don't believe she
+showed me any diamond pin; it must be quite new.  I was so excited
+about my own costume that night, I forget about any ornaments you wore.
+Perhaps you could buy another one some time.  I have some money, five
+dollars, and I'll give it to you; I'll take it out of my bank when we
+go home; that would help."
+
+"Oh, Molly, how good you are!"  Mary turned over to put her arm around
+her cousin.  "I have a pound, too, and that might be half enough, or
+nearly half, but I am afraid it would be a long time before we could
+get the rest."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't be scared of Aunt Ada, Mary," Molly said.  "She is a
+dear, and she'll be very sorry, but she will know it was not your fault
+that you lost it."
+
+"Miss Sharp would say it was my carelessness, and she would be so very
+vexed."
+
+"Then she's a mean old thing, and not a bit like dear Aunt Ada.  Do
+tell her, Mary."
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," persisted Mary, terror again seizing her, "I am
+so afraid she will be vexed."
+
+"Then let me tell."
+
+"Oh, no, please.  Wait a little longer.  Perhaps the broach can be
+found.  Oh, I am so miserable; Aunt Ada will think I am so careless and
+deceitful, and everything bad."
+
+Molly now felt only a deep pity for the poor little sinner, and she
+began to kiss away the tears on Mary's cheeks.  "Please don't be
+miserable," she begged.  "I think maybe you ought to have told at
+first, but I see how you felt, and I'll not be horrid to you any more,
+Mary.  I'll stand up for you straight along, and when you want Aunt Ada
+to know I will go with you to tell her."
+
+Mary really began to feel comforted.  "I think you are a perfect duck,
+Molly," she said.  "Fancy after all I have been doing, for you to be so
+kind.  But please don't tell Polly; I know she doesn't like me."
+
+"She did like you," said Molly truthfully, "until--until we heard that
+you had not been where Aunt Ada thought you were."
+
+"And she thinks I am deceitful; so I have been, and I hate myself for
+it."
+
+"But Polly doesn't know why you did it."
+
+"Then don't tell her; I'd rather anything than that."
+
+"Don't you want Polly to like you?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't want her to know I lost the brooch."
+
+It was useless to try to rid poor Mary's mind of the one idea, and at
+last Molly gave up trying, but she did not leave her forlorn little
+cousin, and Polly, in the next room while she wondered what could be
+keeping Molly, fell asleep in the midst of her wondering.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VII_
+
+_In Elton Woods_
+
+Polly was all curiosity the next morning.  "Why in the world didn't you
+sleep with me?" she asked, sitting up in bed as Molly came in from the
+next room.
+
+"Because Mary needed me.  She was in awful trouble," replied Molly
+soberly.
+
+"What was it?" asked Polly eagerly.
+
+"I can't tell you."
+
+"I think that's real mean," returned Polly indignantly.  "You're just a
+turncoat, Molly Shelton; first you're friends with me, and then you're
+thick as can be with Mary."
+
+"I'm not a turncoat," retorted Molly, angry at being called names.
+"She's as much my cousin as you are, and I reckon if you were way off
+from your mother and had a dreadful thing happen that you couldn't talk
+to her about, you'd want some one to be a little sorry for you."
+
+"I think a dreadful thing is happening to me when you talk that way to
+me," said Polly, melting into tears.  "I just wish I had never come
+here, I do so, and I reckon I want my mother as much as Mary does hers.
+I am going to tell Uncle Dick how you act, so I am."
+
+"Oh, please don't tell him!" exclaimed Molly, alarmed.  "We don't want
+any one to know."
+
+This but whetted Polly's curiosity.  "I think you might tell me," she
+pouted.
+
+"I can't.  I promised I wouldn't.  You shall know as soon as Mary says
+I may tell."
+
+"Oh, I don't care then.  Keep your old secrets if you want to," and
+Polly flounced out of bed and began vigorously to prepare for her bath.
+For the rest of the time before breakfast she did not speak a word to
+Molly who felt that she was indeed between two fires.  She had promised
+not to tell Aunt Ada and if Polly were to tell Uncle Dick that morning
+that something was wrong, it might add to Mary's troubles.  She
+pondered the matter well while she was dressing, and by the time she
+had tied on her hair ribbon she had concluded to forestall Polly by
+telling her Uncle Dick something of what was the matter.  She decided
+that she could do so without betraying Mary's confidence.  So she
+stepped down-stairs ahead of Polly and joined her Uncle Dick who was
+energetically walking up and down the porch.
+
+"Hello, Mollykins!" he cried.  "I'm getting up an appetite for
+breakfast.  Come and join me."
+
+"As if you ever had to do anything to get up an appetite," retorted
+Molly, slipping her hand under his arm.  "Oh, you take such long steps
+I have to take two to keep up with you."
+
+"So much the better, then you work twice as hard and can have twice as
+much.  I peeped into the kitchen, but Luella looked as fierce as a
+sitting hen, and I didn't dare to stay; however, I know we are to have
+hot rolls for breakfast; I saw them."
+
+"The pocketbook kind, with the lovely brown crust all around?  Good!  I
+certainly want a double appetite for those.  Uncle Dick, you oughtn't
+to tell other people's secrets, ought you?"
+
+"No-o, not usually.  Whose secret is burning in your breast?"
+
+"Why--promise not to tell a soul."
+
+"Is it a murder?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"Is it grand larceny?"
+
+"I don't know what that is."
+
+"It is stealing something worth while, not like a loaf of bread nor a
+pin, nor anything of that kind.  You know the copy-book says: 'It is a
+sin to steal a pin.'"
+
+"Is it a sin to lose a pin?"
+
+"Why, no, not unless it is a breastpin or a scarf-pin and you wilfully
+throw it to the fishes."
+
+Molly drew a sigh of relief.  "Suppose you lose something that belongs
+to some one else; is that a sin?"
+
+"Why no, it is a misfortune, not a crime.  You don't do it on purpose,
+you see, and in fact I think the loser generally feels worse than the
+one the thing belongs to.  What have you lost?  Not my favorite
+scarf-pin, I hope.  Have you been using it to pin rags around your
+doll?"
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, of course I haven't.  I was only asking, just because
+I wanted to know."
+
+"As a seeker after ethical truths.  It does you credit, Miss Shelton.
+You will probably join a college settlement when you are older, or at
+least write a paper on moral responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you do use such silly long words."
+
+"I forget, when you tackle these abstruse subjects.  I will come down
+from my lofty perch, Molly.  What more can your wise uncle tell you?"
+
+"If a person loses something very costly, something that has been lent
+to her, ought she to pay it back?"
+
+"It is generally supposed to be the proper thing to replace it, but
+half the world doesn't do it; sometimes because they can't and
+sometimes because they don't want to.  Then, sometimes the one to whom
+the thing belonged, insists upon not having it replaced, and would feel
+very uncomfortable if it were, though, from the standpoint of strict
+honesty, one should always make good any borrowed article whether lost,
+strayed or stolen."
+
+"Would you insist upon its not being made good?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if I were that kind of gander."
+
+"Would Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I think she's probably that kind of goose."
+
+"Oh, I am so glad she is a goose."
+
+"Glad who is a goose?" said Aunt Ada from the doorway.
+
+"We were talking about you," said her brother laughing.  "Molly was
+calling you a goose."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you began it."
+
+"Did I?  Well, never mind.  I smell those rolls, Molly, and I feel that
+I can demolish at least six.  Come on, let's get at them."
+
+Although she had not really carried the subject as far as she wanted,
+Molly felt that matters were not so bad for Mary as they had at first
+appeared, therefore, she took the first opportunity to reassure her on
+that point.  Polly walked off to the Whartons' immediately after
+breakfast, announcing with quite an air of wishing it generally known
+that she would probably spend the day with Grace in the woods, and that
+Luella had given her a lunch to take.
+
+Miss Ada smiled when this announcement was made.  She realized that
+there had been some childish squabble and she never paid much attention
+to such.  Mary saw at once that Polly was jealous of Molly's attentions
+to her small self, and Molly felt so grieved at Polly's desertion that
+she could hardly keep back the tears.  It was very hard to do right in
+this world, she thought.  If she were loyal to Mary she must lose
+Polly's companionship, and she did love to be with Polly more than any
+one she had ever known.  If she clung to Polly, she must give up Mary
+at a time when Mary most needed her.
+
+She looked after Polly skipping over the hummocks to Grace Wharton's
+and wished she were going, too.  It was so lovely in the woods.  As if
+reading her thought, her Aunt Ada came up and put a hand on her
+shoulder.  "Suppose we all take our luncheon in the woods to-day," she
+said.  "It is too lovely to stay indoors a minute.  Should you kitties
+like to go?  Dick is to be off sailing with Will Wharton and we three
+could have a nice quiet time.  I'll take some books; you can have your
+dolls, and we'll go to Willow Cove."
+
+"That's where Polly is going," said Molly quickly.
+
+Aunt Ada smiled.  "Suppose we go to Elton woods instead, then."
+
+"I like it better anyhow," said Molly truthfully.  "I'd like nothing
+better than to spend the day there, you dearest auntie."
+
+"Then there we will go.  Luella wants the day off, anyhow.  She says
+she must go to town to have a tooth out, for 'the tooth aches something
+awful.'  That is the third since we came.  If she keeps on at this
+rate, she will not have a tooth left in her head by fall.  It will be
+much easier to have a nice little lunch in the woods than to cook a
+dinner at home, don't you think?  Suppose you and Mary run over to Mrs.
+Fowler's and see if she can let us have a boiled lobster; she generally
+is ready to put them on about this time of day, and you might stop at
+Skelton's on your way back and get some of those good little
+ginger-snaps."
+
+"Aunt Ada is such a dear," said Molly, as the two started off.  "I
+don't believe she would ever, ever want you to get another pin, Mary,
+and if I were you I would tell her all about it to-day; it will be such
+a good chance."
+
+"I'll see about it," said Mary evasively.
+
+There was no lovelier spot on the Point than Elton woods.  Here the
+great trees grew to the very edge of the cliffs, and the way to them
+was through paths bordered by ferns, wild roses, and woodland flowers.
+In some places the trees wore long gray beards of swaying moss and
+stood so close together that only scant rays of daylight crept under
+them; in others they shot up high and straight above their carpet of
+pine-needles, which made a soft dry bed for those who lingered beneath
+them to gaze at the white-capped waves chasing each other in shore, or
+who, lying down, watched the fleecy clouds drifting across the sky.
+Near by was a pebbly beach where one could gather driftwood for a fire,
+or could pick up smooth water-washed stones to build walks and walls
+for tiny imaginary people.  There was no end of the material the place
+afforded for amusement, and when they reached there, Molly eagerly fell
+to devising plays.
+
+Yet, alas!  She missed Polly's fertile brain and imaginative
+suggestions.  Polly was always able to discover fairy dells and
+gnome-frequented caves.  It was she who invented the plays which were
+the most delightful.  Mary was rather tiresome when it came to anything
+more than sober facts.  She would play very nicely with the dolls, but,
+when it came to make-believe creatures, she was sadly wanting, and the
+best response Molly could expect to get when she built a fairy dwelling
+was: "Oh, I say, that is a proper little house, isn't it?" or "What a
+duck of a tree that is you are planting; it is quite tiny, isn't it?"
+
+"We always take some of these little bits of trees home with us," Molly
+told her, "and they live ever so long."
+
+"I wonder could I take one to England," said Mary.
+
+"Why, yes, I should think you could easily.  We will get some the very
+last thing, and I am sure they'll live quite a while."
+
+"It would be jolly nice to have one, wouldn't it?" said Mary as she
+watched Molly patting the ground smooth around the one she had just
+planted in the fairy garden.  "I'd like to take some pebbles and some
+starfish, too.  Reggie would be so pleased with them; he would be quite
+vexed if I brought him none after telling him about them."
+
+"How often you say vexed, don't you?" remarked Molly.  "We hardly ever
+say vexed."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; we say mad and angry and provoked."
+
+"But then I really mean vexed," returned Mary after a moment's thought.
+"I don't mean anything else," and Molly had nothing more to say.
+
+It was after they had finished the lobster, the egg sandwiches, the
+buttered rolls and gingersnaps and were delicately eating some wild
+strawberries the children had gathered, that Molly made a sudden
+resolution to plunge Mary into a confession.
+
+"If you lent some one a diamond pin and she were to lose it would you
+be very--very vexed, Aunt Ada?" she asked, after a hasty glance at Mary.
+
+"If I possessed a diamond pin I might be, but as I haven't such a thing
+I couldn't be vexed," her aunt said.
+
+Mary jumped to her feet, startled out of her usual reserve.
+
+"But, Aunt Ada, you did have one!"
+
+"When, please?  You must nave dreamed it, Mary, dear."
+
+"But you did have.  Oh, do you mean you know it is lost?"
+
+It was Miss Ada's turn to look surprised.  "What do you mean, child?"
+she said knitting her brows.  "I never had a diamond pin to my
+knowledge.  I always liked diamond rings, and I have two or three of
+those, but a pin I never possessed.  What are you talking about?"
+
+Mary laced and unlaced her fingers nervously.  "I mean the one you lent
+me to wear the night we dressed up for the party at Green Island.  Was
+it some other person's, then?  Oh, Aunt Ada, had some one lent it to
+you, for if they did"--she faltered, "I lost it coming home."  She sank
+down at Miss Ada's feet on the mossy ground and buried her face in her
+aunt's lap.
+
+Miss Ada put a kind hand on her head.  "And all this time you have been
+distressing yourself about it, you poor little kitten?  I ought to have
+told you, but you were so pleased in thinking it was real I thought I
+would let it go, and I have not thought of it since.  Why, dear, it was
+of no value at all, a mere trumpery little rhinestone that cost only a
+couple of dollars."
+
+Mary lifted her tearful eyes.  "Oh, I am so relieved," she said.  "I've
+searched and searched for it ever since."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Ada, and she has been nearly sick over it," put in Molly.
+"She cried herself to sleep last night, and the reason she wouldn't go
+sailing with us the other day was because she wanted to hunt for the
+pin."
+
+"You poor little darling, how can I make up to you for all this
+trouble?" said Miss Ada compassionately.  "I am so sorry; it is all my
+fault for not telling you in the first place."
+
+On the strength of this there seemed no better time to confess her
+doings of the afternoon when she had gone to Green Island in the
+_Leona_, and so Mary faltered out her tale, Molly once in a while
+coming in with excuses and comments so that in the end Miss Ada was not
+"vexed" at all but only said, "If it had been any one but Ellis, I
+might feel inclined to warn you against going out in a row-boat, but he
+is a good, careful little lad, and if you will call it quits, Mary, I
+will, for I am conscience-stricken my own self; but next time, dearie,
+ask me when you want to go on the water."
+
+"Oh, I will, I will," said Mary fervently.  "It was because I felt so
+dreadful at losing the brooch that I didn't tell this time."
+
+"It is a perfect shame," said her Aunt Ada, cuddling her close.  "I
+hope now you will never find the old pin.  I never want to see it
+again, for it would remind me of how my dear little niece suffered."
+
+"But I was bad.  I deceived you."  Mary's head went down again in her
+aunt's lap.  "I was afraid to tell you," she murmured.
+
+"Afraid of what, dear child?  Not of your Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I don't know, oh, I don't know why I was so scared.  Miss Sharp is
+always so terribly severe when we are careless or try to get out of any
+thing we have done wrong."
+
+"But I'm not Miss Sharp, honey.  Just forget all about this, if you
+love me.  Of course you weren't quite frank, but you were scared and it
+is as much my fault as yours; mine and Miss Sharp's," she added half to
+herself.
+
+Yet they were destined to see the pin again, for that very afternoon,
+as they were coming home, whom should they meet but Polly and Grace.
+"Guess what we've found!" cried Grace.
+
+"See, Miss Ada, we were looking for birds' nests between your cottage
+and ours, and we found this caught in the grass just near where a
+sparrow had built.  Polly says she thinks it is yours, that it looks
+like one you lent to Mary to wear to the party."  And she held out the
+little shining star in the palm of her hand.
+
+Miss Ada took it and gave a whimsical look at Mary.  "Yes, I believe it
+is mine," she said.  She tossed it back and forth from one hand to the
+other as she stood thinking.
+
+"Ellis Dixon came along just after we found it, and he seemed awfully
+pleased," Grace went on.
+
+Miss Ada laughed softly.  "Thank you very much, Grace, dear," she said.
+"It was good of you to bring it right to me."  Then changing the
+subject she asked, "How is your grandmother to-day?"
+
+"Not so very well," Grace replied.  Then with sudden remembrance, "I
+must go right back, for she worries if I am not in time for supper."
+And she sped away.
+
+Miss Ada stood still smiling and looking from one of her nieces to the
+other.  She continued to toss the little star from one hand to the
+other.  "I know what I am going to do with it," she said looking at
+Mary.  "I'm going to give it to Luella for a wedding present."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VIII_
+
+_Ellis and the Baby_
+
+That evening Polly was told the whole story and was properly contrite.
+She felt a little aggrieved that she had not been one of the party to
+go to Elton woods, but she realized that it was her own fault, and
+offered at once to "make up" with Molly and Mary.  So all was serene
+again, and the three children sat side by side all evening before the
+open fire, listening to a fascinating story Uncle Dick read aloud to
+them, and at last the three fell asleep all in a heap, Molly's head in
+Polly's lap, and the other two resting against Miss Ada's knees.  When
+they all stumbled upstairs to bed, they were not too sleepy, however,
+to kiss one another good-night, and indeed were so bent upon showing no
+partiality that they all tumbled into the same bed, which happened to
+be Mary's, where they went to sleep, hugging each other tight.
+
+The brightness of the restored pin seemed to be reflected upon them all
+after this.  Uncle Dick was so tremendously funny at breakfast that
+Polly fell from her chair with laughter, and Luella giggled so that she
+held a plate of griddle cakes at such an angle that the whole pile slid
+off on the floor; then every one laughed more than ever and Molly said
+that her jaws fairly ached and that she would have to spend the day
+with Cap'n Dave's old white horse, for he had such a solemn face it
+made you want to sigh all the time.  Of course this started the
+children off again and they left the table in high spirits.
+
+Yet before the day was over they had occasion to look serious without
+the society of old Bill horse, for about ten o'clock Ellis appeared,
+trouble puckering his pleasant face into worried lines.  He had
+forgotten all about the finding of the pin in a more personal interest,
+for the cares of life had been suddenly thrust upon him.  His brother
+Parker the day before had sailed away to the Grand Banks for
+sword-fishing.  He had left his young wife and little baby in Ellis's
+charge.  Now Leona had fallen ill, "and," said Ellis, "it's up to me to
+take care of the baby."
+
+"Is there no one else?" asked Miss Ada, as Ellis told his doleful tale.
+
+"Ora Hart is taking care of Leona," Ellis answered; "but she has as
+much as she can do to look after her own children.  She's Leona's
+cousin and she's awful good to come in at all.  You see most
+everybody's got folks of their own to see to, and they can't spare much
+time, although they're all willin' enough to do what they can.  I ain't
+much used to babies myself.  I got Nellie Brown to look after her while
+I come up here.  I knew you'd wonder why I didn't bring them clams I
+promised, and so I come to tell you why.  I hope it won't put you out,
+Miss Ada."
+
+"We can have something else just as well," she told him.  "We are
+rather used to not getting just what we plan for," she went on,
+smiling, for be it known one could never tell, at the Point, just how
+an order might turn out.  If one expected lamb chops like as not "Hen
+Roberts hadn't fetched over no lamb," or if mackerel had been ordered
+like as not the fish delivered would be cod, and the excuse would be
+that some one came along and carried off the entire supply of mackerel
+before the last orders were filled; therefore it was no new experience
+for Miss Ada to have to alter her bill of fare.
+
+"I'm awful sorry about havin' to stay home just now," said Ellis
+disconsolately, "for this is when I expected to get in some time with
+the boat.  I promised two or three parties to take 'em out, and now
+I'll have to get some one else to take my place, but I'll have to let
+'em go shares.  Park's let me have the _Leona_ whilst he's away, but,
+if I could run her myself, I could make twice as much."
+
+The three little girls listened attentively, and presently Polly
+twitched her Aunt Ada's sleeve.  "Couldn't we take care of the baby?"
+she whispered.
+
+Miss Ada looked down at her with a smile, but shook her head.
+
+"Oh, why not?" said Polly in ft louder whisper.  "I'd love to."
+
+"So would I," came from Molly on the other side.
+
+Miss Ada beholding the eager faces said: "Wait a moment, Ellis.  I want
+to talk over something with these girls of mine."  She led the way
+indoors, leaving Ellis on the porch.  "Now, lassies," she said when
+they were all in the living-room, "what is it you want to do?"
+
+"We want to take care of Ellis's baby," chanted the two, and Mary
+coming in as a third repeated the words.
+
+"But do you realize what it would mean?  You would have to give up much
+of your playtime, and could not go off sailing or rowing or picnicking."
+
+"We could go picnicking," insisted Polly, "because we could take the
+baby with us."
+
+"Very well, we will leave out the picnic.  I might get Luella to stay
+afternoons sometimes, but you know she goes home to help her mother,
+for Mrs. Barnes has more laundry work than she can do, and Luella has
+to help her when she can; those were the only terms upon which she
+would consent to come to me; so you see we can't count on Luella."
+
+"It may not be for very long," said Polly, hopefully.  "Leona may soon
+get well."
+
+"If it is typhoid, as they suspect, she is likely to be ill a long
+time."
+
+"Well, I don't care; I'll give up my afternoons," decided Polly.
+
+"And I'll give up my mornings," said Molly, not to be outdone.  "And
+then the baby does sleep some, so we can play while she is asleep.  Oh,
+Polly, we could have lovely times playing with something alive like
+that."
+
+"Wouldn't it be jolly to have a real live baby for a doll," put in Mary.
+
+"I see you are not to be put off," said Miss Ada, laughing, "so I will
+allow you to undertake the charge for a week, and at the end of that
+time if I think it is too much for you, I shall have to insist that you
+give it up."
+
+"Oh, we'll never think it is too much," declared Polly with conviction,
+and the others echoed her.
+
+So they all trooped out to Ellis.  "We have the loveliest plan," Molly
+began eagerly.
+
+"You can have all your time," put in Polly.
+
+"I am so very pleased to be able to do something for you when you were
+so kind to me," said Mary earnestly.
+
+Ellis looked bewildered.
+
+"The girls propose to take care of your brother's little baby for a
+week, Ellis," Miss Ada explained.
+
+"Oh, I can't let 'em do that," said Ellis bashfully.
+
+"Oh, but we are just wild to," Polly assured him.
+
+"Yes, we truly are," Molly insisted.  "We adore babies.  When can you
+bring her over, Ellis?  Shall we keep her day and night, Aunt Ada, and
+may she sleep with me?"
+
+"Oh, Ora's sister says she can take her at night," Ellis hastened to
+say.  "She can't leave home very well, and she is too busy during the
+day to look out for her, for she has a lot of children, but none of
+them are little small babies; the youngest is three, and she says she
+doesn't mind having the baby at night."
+
+"Then we'll arrange for the day only," said Miss Ada with decision;
+"that is when she would require your time, Ellis, and we are glad to
+help you out so you can take out the boat when you have the
+opportunity."
+
+"I'm sure I'm much obliged," said Ellis awkwardly.  Like most of the
+"Pointers" he was unused to showing his gratitude.  To his mind any
+display of appreciation was poor-spirited.  He was too proud to let any
+one see that he felt under obligations and to say even as much as he
+did was an effort.  Nevertheless, he trotted off feeling a great weight
+removed, and in half an hour was back again with the little
+four-months-old baby.
+
+For that day, at least, the small Miss Myrtle Dixon was overwhelmed
+with attentions.  Polly sat by when she slept, ready to pounce upon her
+and take her up at the slightest movement.  Molly was on hand to urge a
+bottle of milk upon her if she so much as whimpered.  Mary dangled
+be-ribboned trinkets before her the minute she opened her eyes, and
+they were all in danger of hurting her with overkindness.
+
+The second day she was less of a novelty, though sufficiently
+entertaining for each of her three nurses to clamor for her.
+
+"She is too dear for anything," said Molly ecstatically.  "See her
+laugh, Mary, and flutter her little hands.  She is to be my baby this
+morning.  Let's go around the side of the house, where it is shady, and
+play.  You can have the place under the porch for your house, Polly,
+and Mary can have the wood-shed.  I'll take the cellar."
+
+"Oh, but that will be too cold and damp for the baby," said Mary.  "You
+take the wood-shed and I'll take the cellar," she added generously.
+
+Molly agreed and presently baby was established in a crib made of the
+clothes-basket where she lay contentedly sucking her thumb.  Mary,
+hugely enjoying herself, kept house in the cellar.  She sat at the door
+in a rocking-chair which she rocked back and forth with a blissful
+expression on her face.  If there was any American comfort which Mary
+did appreciate it was a rocking-chair.  She had never seen one till she
+came to the United States, neither had she ever before made the
+acquaintance of chewing-gum.  This was a luxury seldom allowed the
+little girls.  "It is a disgusting habit," Miss Ada declared, "and I
+don't want you children to acquire it.  Your mother, Mary, would be
+shocked if she saw you use it."  But once in a while Uncle Dick slyly
+furnished each with a package and Miss Ada allowed them to have it,
+though protesting all the time to her brother.  This special morning
+Uncle Dick had hidden a package under each of their breakfast plates,
+and it is needless to say that three pairs of jaws were working
+vigorously as they played house.
+
+"I'm agoing to ask Aunt Ada if we may go barefoot," announced Molly;
+"it is plenty warm enough to-day."
+
+Mary jumped up, tipping over her rocking-chair as she did so.  "Oh,
+does she allow you to do that?" she cried.  "I've always secretly
+longed to, but Miss Sharp is perfectly horrified when we ask her."
+
+The other two looked at each other with a little smile, for it was not
+such a great while before this that Mary herself had been horrified at
+the suggestion.
+
+"Aunt Ada doesn't care, if it is warm enough," Molly informed her.  "I
+always go barefoot up here, if I feel like it and it isn't too cold.
+I'll go ask her now.  Watch the baby for me, girls."
+
+They promised to be faithful nurses while Molly went on her errand.
+She was gone some time and when she returned she was carefully bearing
+a plate of fresh doughnuts.  "Which would you rather have, Polly," she
+cried, "doughnuts or chewing-gum? you can't have both, Aunt Ada says."
+
+"Doughnuts," decided Polly without hesitation taking the chewing-gum
+from her mouth and slapping it securely against a stone in the
+foundation of the porch.  "Don't they look good?  So brown and sugary.
+I do think Luella makes the best doughnuts," and she helped herself to
+a specially fat, appetizing one.
+
+"Which do you choose, Mary?" asked Molly.
+
+Mary continued her rocking and chewing.  "I'll keep the gum, thank you."
+
+Molly laughed.  "That is what Aunt Ada said you would do.  And girls,
+we may take off our shoes and stockings.  How's the baby, Polly?"
+
+"Sound asleep."
+
+"Good!  Then I reckon we can leave her for a while, I do want to get my
+bare toes on the grass, don't you?  Come on, Polly, and let's hunt for
+snakes."
+
+"Snakes!"  Mary jumped to her feet in horror.  "Are there snakes here?
+Fancy!"  She gathered her skirts about her and looked ready to fly.
+
+"Why, yes.  Do you mind them?" returned Molly calmly.  "Polly and I
+love the little green grass snakes; they are perfectly harmless and are
+so pretty."
+
+"Pretty?  I could never imagine anything pretty about a snake," replied
+Mary, recoiling.
+
+"My word! Molly, just fancy your talking so of a horrid snake."
+
+Molly laughed at her horror.  "They aren't poisonous, Mary."
+
+"But the very idea of them is so loathsome."
+
+"It isn't unless you make it so," put in Polly.  "I like all kinds of
+little creatures so long as they don't bite or sting, and some of
+those, like bees, for example, I like, though I don't want them to get
+too near me.  Of course when it comes to rattlesnakes or copperheads,
+or such, I am afraid of them, but these little grass snakes are
+different."
+
+But Mary could not be persuaded to give up her prejudices and would
+none of the snakes, so they decided to gather buttercups, and wandered
+off among the soft grasses on the hilltop.  But it was only when they
+saw Luella wildly waving the dish-cloth to attract their attention that
+they remembered the baby.  Then they started toward the cottage
+post-haste, arriving there to find Miss Ada walking the floor with the
+baby and trying to still its cries.
+
+"What is the matter with her?" cried Molly rushing in.  "We thought she
+was sound asleep."
+
+"Babies don't sleep forever," remarked Luella sarcastically.  "Here,
+Miss Ada, I'm used to 'em.  Let me see if there's a pin stickin' her
+anywhere; there's no knowin' what foolin' with her clothes these
+children have been doin'."
+
+The children dared not protest against this charge while Miss Ada said:
+"Oh, I have looked and she seems all right," but she relinquished the
+baby into Luella's capable hands.
+
+That young woman turned the screaming infant over, felt for an
+offending pin, turned her back again, and finally laid her across her
+knees and began to pat her on the back.  "I guess she's got colic," she
+decided.  "Molly, you just step up to Mis' Chris Fisher's and see if
+she's got a handful of catnip.  She mostly does keep it, seein' she
+always has got a baby on hand.  There, there, there," she tried to
+soothe the child on her knees.  "Miss Ada, you'll either have to take
+her or see to them pies in the oven; I can't do both."
+
+"Oh, I'll see to the pies," responded Miss Ada escaping to the kitchen.
+
+Molly was already on her way to Mrs. Chris Fisher's.  Polly vainly
+tried to attract the baby's attention by every means within her power.
+Mary stood by suggesting alternately mustard poultices and ginger tea,
+which suggestions Luella contemptuously put aside.
+
+"I don't see what's the matter with her unless it is colic," she
+remarked.  "She may be subject to it; I ain't heard say.  I'll ask Ora
+next time I go out.  When was she fed last?"
+
+"Why, I don't know."  The two little girls looked at each other.  "Did
+you give her the bottle, Mary?" asked Polly.
+
+"No," was the reply.
+
+"Maybe Molly did.  I reckon it was Molly; she was playing she was
+mother this morning, you know."  Luella said nothing but continued the
+rocking movement of her knees till Molly came in, breathless, with the
+bunch of dried catnip.
+
+"I suppose she's been fed regular," said Luella addressing Molly, "and
+you've took care to give her the milk warm."
+
+"Oh, dear!"  Molly stood still.  "I forgot she had to be fed oftener
+than we are, and oh, Luella, I am afraid the last milk she took wasn't
+real warm."
+
+"Then no wonder she's yellin' like mad," said Luella disgustedly.
+"You're a nice set to take care of a young un.  Here, some of you hold
+her whilst I get her milk and give it to her right.  If she ain't got
+colic from cold milk she's starvin'."
+
+Molly meekly took charge of the screaming child who did not cease its
+crying till Luella, returning with the bottle of milk, thrust the
+rubber nipple into its mouth; then suddenly all was quiet.  "Just what
+I thought; half starved," said Luella.  "It looks as if I'd got to see
+to the youngster, if she stays here.  Miss Ada's not much better than
+the rest of you.  What does she know about babies?  I guess Ellis can
+beat the best of you, after all, when it comes to 'tendin' babies."
+
+The little girls felt properly abashed.  Only the second day of the
+baby's stay and she had gone hungry for an hour, while the day before
+she had been overfed.  It did not look as if their benevolent plan
+worked very well, and indeed, by the end of the week, Miss Ada decided
+that Miss Myrtle must return to her own.  This was made easier by her
+grandmother's arrival upon the scene, and there were helpers enough to
+relieve Ellis for at least half the day.  However the interest in
+Parker Dixon's family did not end at once.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IX_
+
+_New Burdens for Ellis_
+
+The three cousins were having a tea on the rocks with their friend
+Grace Wharton.  Luella had baked them some tiny biscuits and some wee
+ginger-snaps; they had made the fudge themselves, and as for the tea,
+the amount Miss Ada allowed them would not affect the nerves of any one
+of the four.  There was plenty of hot water in the little brass
+tea-kettle, and an unlimited supply of milk and sugar.  A big flat rock
+served as a table, and smaller ones gave them excellent seats.
+
+They had just finished eating the last of the cakes and were nibbling
+the fudge when Polly, perched highest on the rocks, exclaimed: "There's
+Granville talking to Luella!  I wonder what he is doing up here this
+time of day.  They look real excited.  There, Luella is going into the
+house.  Now Aunt Ada has come out with her and they are all talking
+together.  I believe I'll go up and see what it is all about.  Don't
+eat up all the fudge."
+
+"Hurry back then," Molly called after her.  "Let's hide it, girls, and
+pretend when she comes back that we've eaten it all up."
+
+"I'll hide it," said Grace.  She ran down a little way below them and
+poked the remaining pieces of fudge into a crevice in the rock, and
+then returned to await Polly's return, who in a few minutes came
+running back.  "Oh," she said, "I have something to tell you.  Our poor
+little baby hasn't any father.  He has been drowned."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!"  Three pairs of startled eyes showed how this news
+affected the little tea-drinkers.
+
+"Do tell us about it," said Molly setting down the cup from which she
+was draining the last sugary drop.
+
+"I didn't hear all about it," Polly told them, "but I know he tried to
+save one of his shipmates and couldn't, and they were both drowned.
+Luella is going down to stay with Ora's children this afternoon.  They
+haven't told Leona yet, and poor Ellis is perfectly distracted,
+Granville says.  Isn't it sad, when Leona has been so ill and now this
+dreadful thing has happened?"
+
+"I feel so very sorry for Ellis," remarked Mary.
+
+"So do I," said Polly, "for the baby isn't big enough to know, and
+maybe Leona can get another husband, but Ellis can't get another
+brother."
+
+They all agreed that this was a plain fact and sat quite solemnly
+looking off at the blue sea which had so cruelly swallowed up Parker.
+
+At last Polly gave a long sigh, and she broke the silence by
+exclaiming, "There, you mean piggies, you ate up all the fudge!"
+
+"You were gone so long," said Molly giving Grace a nudge.
+
+"I don't care; you ought to have saved an extra piece for my bringing
+you such exciting news."
+
+"But it was such sad news," said Grace turning away her head so Polly
+could not see her smile.
+
+"If it is sad you needn't laugh about it," said Polly severely.  "I
+believe you hid it!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+
+"If you think so, look for it," said Molly.  And Polly immediately set
+to work to search each one of the party, but could not find a crumb of
+fudge.
+
+Then she seized Molly, playfully shaking her.  "Tell me truly, did you
+eat it all?"
+
+Amid her struggles to free herself, Molly confessed that they had not.
+"But, I can't find it," Polly persisted.  "Do you know where it is,
+Molly?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Oh, Molly!"  This from Grace.
+
+"I don't exactly know.  You hid it," said Molly.
+
+"Then Grace Wharton, tell me."  Polly loosed her hold upon Molly, and
+turned to Grace.
+
+"No, the first that finds it can divide it and can have an extra piece."
+
+In vain the three searched up and down the cliff.  "Grace said she hid
+it between two rocks," announced Molly at last.
+
+"Then she's just got to find it," said Polly.  "Grace!  Grace!" she
+called.  And Grace responded by appearing on the rocks above them.
+
+"You'll have to show us where you hid it."
+
+On Grace's face was an expression of concern as she came swiftly
+clambering down to them.  "Why, girls," she cried as she reached the
+spot where they stood, "I'm awfully afraid that----  Oh, dear, why
+didn't I remember about the tide; I'm afraid they're spoiled."  She ran
+to a rock a little lower down.
+
+"Look out or you'll get splashed," warned Molly.  "There's a big wave
+coming in."
+
+Grace sprang back to avoid the swash of water which poured over the
+rock at her feet; then she exclaimed ruefully: "If I wasn't sure
+before, I am now!  The fudge is just under that rock, between those two
+small ones."
+
+"Then it's simply all salty, if it isn't gone entirely," declared
+Molly.  True enough when they examined the spot, during a lull in the
+inpour of waves, they discovered only a couple of water-soaked bits of
+fudge, fast melting away.
+
+"Our joke didn't turn out very well," said Molly turning to Polly.
+
+"Oh, never mind," returned Polly cheerfully, "it would all be eaten up
+and forgotten anyhow if I had not gone up to the house, so what's the
+difference?"
+
+"I'll make some very soon," Grace assured her.  "I'll do it to-night."
+
+"Oh, no, don't mind," said Polly.  "We've had enough for to-day.  See,
+there is Aunt Ada coming down to us.  She will tell us more about the
+Dixons."
+
+Miss Ada came with a scheme to unfold.  "I'm going over to Green
+Island," she told them, "and if I am not back in time for supper you
+children hunt around and get something for yourselves.  Luella has gone
+to stay with Ora's family so Ora can be with Leona.  She will need all
+the comfort she can get.  We must try to help the poor girl, for her
+illness and all this will take everything they may have saved.  Ellis
+is pitifully sad, but he says he means to support the family.  Poor
+little chap, as if he could!  I am going to try to arrange a bazaar or
+cake sale or something to help them; you children may help if you like."
+
+"Oh, may we?  How lovely!" cried Molly.
+
+"I've helped at fairs," said Grace.
+
+"And once I helped my aunt at a tea she gave the village children,"
+said Mary.
+
+"I'll do everything I can, though I never saw a fair or a bazaar," said
+Polly.  "Tell us more about it, Aunt Ada."
+
+"Tell her all you know, girls," said Aunt Ada.  "I must go now.  You
+will not be afraid to stay alone till I get back, will you?"
+
+Her nieces assured her that they would not, and she left them in quite
+a state of excitement, for, sad as the occasion was, they could not
+help anticipating the pleasure of the bazaar.  "We will have such a
+lovely time getting ready for the sale," said Molly.  "We have had them
+here before, and they are lots of fun.  I know what I am going to do.
+I'm going to the wood-pile and strip off a whole lot of birch bark to
+make things of."
+
+"What kind of things?" asked Mary.
+
+"Oh, all sorts of things; napkin rings and picture frames and boxes."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary was interested.  She had never seen such things except
+those that the Indian peddlers brought around to the cottages, and
+never did one appear over the brow of the hill, bowed under the burden
+of his baskets, that she did not run for her purse, and by now had
+quite an array of gifts for her English friends.  To add to these a
+supply of birch-bark souvenirs which she could make herself was a
+prospect truly delightful.  "It is very convenient that a quarter is
+about the same as a shilling," she remarked, "but I can never remember
+that a penny is two cents; it seems as if an American penny should be
+the same as an English one."
+
+"I should think you would be glad it isn't," said Polly, "for when you
+are counting at the rate of our pennies you have twice as many as you
+would have English ones."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Mary thoughtfully.  "I had a whole pound
+when I reached here, and Uncle Dick had it changed into American money.
+I thought I had such a number of pennies and I found they were only
+cents, but then one can buy a great many things here for a cent that
+one would have to pay a penny for at home, especially sweets."
+
+That evening she sat fingering her little hoard while Molly was busy
+preparing her birch bark.  "I think I can do very nicely," announced
+Mary.  "I shall have a dollar to spend at the bazaar.  Oh, is that the
+way you do the napkin rings, Molly?  Could I do some, do you think?"
+
+"Of course you could," said Molly, encouragingly.
+
+"I know what I am going to do," said Polly, jumping up; "I'm going to
+get some tiny pine trees to put into little birch-bark boxes; they will
+look so pretty.  Come on, Molly, it isn't dark yet."
+
+"Oh, but we mustn't get them now," replied Molly.  "We must wait till
+the very last thing, so they will look as fresh as possible."
+
+Polly stopped short.  In her impetuous way she had forgotten this
+important point.  "Oh, I never thought of that," she said.  "Well,
+anyhow, we can make the boxes."
+
+"I don't believe we can do those either," returned Molly, further
+dampening Polly's ardor.  "We ought to have some small wooden boxes to
+tack or glue the bark on.  We can try some little baskets with handles,
+and we can fill those with fudge or some kind of home-made candy."
+
+"Oh, very well, we'll begin on those, then."  And Polly sat down
+contentedly with the others to try her ingenuity.  They became so
+absorbed in their work that they forgot all about supper, the more so
+that their afternoon tea had taken the edge from their appetites, and
+it was not till the maid from the Whartons came over for Grace, saying
+that her grandmother was wondering how much longer they must save her
+supper for her that they realized how late it was.  Then Grace having
+scurried home, the three cousins searched about to see what was in the
+larder for themselves.  They found plenty of bread and butter,
+ginger-snaps and stewed gooseberries, but not much else, so they sat
+down contentedly to this fare while the sunset turned from rose to
+purple and then to gray.  It was late enough in the season for the
+evenings to become chilly after sundown, and Polly proposed that they
+should have an open fire.  "We can sit around and tell stories," she
+said, "and we can go on with our work at the same time, so the time
+will pass very quickly till Aunt Ada comes back."
+
+"I'll love that," declared Molly.  "I think telling stories is the very
+nicest way of passing away the time."
+
+"So do I," said Mary, "when I don't have to tell the stories.  I never
+know anything interesting."
+
+"Oh, but you do," protested Polly.  "We like to hear about England, of
+how you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers in the
+schoolroom, of how you can't walk out without your governess or some
+one older and all about not having sweet potatoes nor corn, and of how
+tomatoes are grown under glass and all those ways that are so different
+from ours."
+
+"But that isn't a real tale," objected Mary.
+
+"Never mind, we like to hear it," said Molly.  "What are you doing,
+Polly?"
+
+"I am building the fire; there must be a whole lot of light stuff to
+set it going."
+
+"That looks like a good deal," said Molly doubtfully regarding the pile
+of bark, shaving and light wood that Polly was stowing in the fireplace.
+
+"It will kindle all the quicker," returned Polly in a satisfied voice,
+touching the kindling with a lighted match.  In an instant not only was
+the light stuff all ablaze, but the flames, leaping out, caught the
+white apron which Polly had put on, half in sport, when they were
+getting their supper.  It was one of her Aunt Ada's and reached to
+Polly's ankles, so that she seemed enveloped in flames.  She shrieked,
+but stood still.  Quick as a flash Mary caught up the pitcher of water
+standing on the table and dashed it over her cousin, then she grabbed
+her and threw her on the floor, snatching up the rug from the floor
+before doing so, thus protecting herself, and at the same time
+providing a means of putting out the fire which she did by rolling
+Polly in the rug.
+
+Molly was perfectly helpless with fright and all she could do was to
+wring her hands and cry, "Oh, what shall we do?  What shall we do?  Oh,
+Polly, Polly!"
+
+Just as the fire was all crushed out, the door opened and in walked
+their Uncle Dick.  Molly rushed to him.  Throwing herself in his arms,
+she cried: "Oh, Polly is burning up!  Save her!  Save her!"
+
+"What is all this?" said Dick springing forward.
+
+Mary arose from where she was kneeling over Polly.  "I think it is all
+out now," she said.
+
+Polly unwound herself from her mummy-like case.  "Are you badly hurt?"
+her uncle asked anxiously.
+
+"No," she said with a sobbing breath; "only my legs hurt me."
+
+"How did it all happen?" said her uncle, picking her up and setting her
+in a chair.
+
+"We were kindling the fire," explained Mary, "and Polly's apron caught."
+
+"And Mary saved her life," sobbed Molly completely unnerved.  "She
+threw water on her, and rolled her in the rug."
+
+"That is what my governess said we should do in such cases," said Mary
+quietly, though her face was twitching.  "I never loved Miss Sharp
+before," she added with a little laugh.
+
+"You certainly did save Polly's life," said her uncle as he examined
+Polly's clothing.  "Fortunately she has on a woolen frock and has been
+only slightly scorched about the legs.  The fire evidently did not
+reach her bare flesh.  You didn't breathe the flames, did you, Polly,
+for I see the fire did not go above your waist."
+
+"I am sure I didn't breathe any flames," Polly assured him.  "Mary was
+so quick.  She saw at once that I had caught fire and she threw the
+water over me right away, but oh, Uncle Dick, I may not be burned
+badly, but it does hurt."  And she buried her face on her uncle's
+shoulder to hide her tears.
+
+"Poor little girl, I know it hurts," he said.  "Get some salad oil,
+Molly, and some baking soda; then see if you can find an old
+handkerchief or two and some raw cotton.  We must try to ease this
+wounded soldier.  How did you children happen to be here alone?"
+
+Mary explained, her uncle listening attentively.  "I wish I had known
+it," he said; "I would not have stayed to supper with the boys.  We
+came in on the Gawthrops' yacht about supper-time and they persuaded me
+to stay, but somehow I felt that I ought to get home soon after.  You
+children must not be left alone again."
+
+"I'll never try to kindle another fire," said Polly woefully.  "Molly
+said I was putting on too much light stuff and it just leaped out like
+a tiger to bite me."
+
+Molly had returned with the oil and other things by this time, and soon
+Polly was made as comfortable as her hurts would allow, but it was some
+days before she could run about, and if there was anything lacking in
+her affection for her English cousin before this, now it was that she
+could not bear her out of sight, for Mary, by her coolness and capable
+help, had proved herself a heroine to be loved and admired.
+
+Although this scare was the important topic with the family for some
+time, the scheme for helping the distressed Dixon family went forward
+rapidly and the next week when Polly's burns gave her no more
+uneasiness, the bazaar was held.  There was no prettier table the
+length of the room than that at which Miss Ada presided, assisted by
+her three little nieces.  Their Uncle Dick had cleverly helped them
+with the decorations as well as with their birch bark boxes in which
+were planted the little pine trees.  These were so much admired that
+not one was left after the sale, and Mary had to bespeak some to be
+made for her to carry home.  Some little packages of fudge and
+home-made candies went off rapidly, and of Luella's famous doughnuts
+not one was left.
+
+It was at the end of the sale when the biggest, finest cake was yet
+waiting a buyer that Polly had a whispered talk with her Uncle Dick and
+afterward stood in front of the cake table holding fast to her purse.
+The cake in all the deliciousness of nut-spotted icing and rich
+interior, was delivered to her when she paid over the amount asked for
+it.  Taking the treasure in her hands she bore it over to where Mary
+was helping her aunt count up the money they had taken in.  Polly set
+the cake on the table before Mary.  "There," she said, "it is all
+yours."
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mary.  "Who said so?"
+
+"I say so.  I bought it for you because you said it looked so perfectly
+delicious."
+
+Mary was quite overcome by Polly's generosity, but she understood the
+motive, and accepted the cake graciously, promising to divide it with
+the family.  It certainly was a delicious cake, and Polly really
+enjoyed her share of it, feeling that in this instance she could have
+her cake and eat it.
+
+"Over a hundred dollars!  I can scarcely believe it," said Miss Ada
+when all the receipts were in.  But so it was, and so did little Ellis
+Dixon have his burdens lifted, for a hundred dollars will go a long way
+when fish can be had for the catching, and when one has his own potato
+patch.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER X_
+
+_Arabs_
+
+Of all the things which most amused the three little girls and their
+friend, Grace, they enjoyed dressing up at dusk, and, in their queer
+costumes, going around from cottage to cottage to call.  Uncle Dick was
+very clever in painting their faces so that they appeared as birds with
+owl-like eyes and beaks or as cats, rabbits or some other animal.  At
+other times they were Indians in war paint and feathers; again they
+were Egyptians or Chinese and dressed to suit the character.
+
+"What shall we do this evening?" said Polly one day when the question
+of the evening's fun was being talked over.  "We want to go to Mrs.
+Phillips's this time because she gives us such good cakes."
+
+"It's pretty far," said Molly doubtfully.  "It is almost to the
+village, and there are some rough boys down that way.  I don't mind
+going to Mrs. Phillips's in the morning, but if we should happen to get
+caught there after the sun goes down I shouldn't like it."
+
+"We needn't get caught late," Polly protested, "besides, it is so much
+more mysterious to go around when it is a little bit duskish.  It isn't
+as if any one of us would be alone; there will be four and nobody
+around here would do anything to hurt us, anyhow."
+
+"No, I don't suppose any one really would," Molly returned weakly, her
+objections over-ruled.  And therefore when the cottages began to loom
+darkly against the evening sky, the four little girls sallied forth,
+draped in white sheets, and made their way over the hilltop to the road
+beyond.  They had usually confined their visits to their acquaintances
+in the immediate neighborhood, so their aunt did not trouble herself to
+inquire where they were going that evening, otherwise she might have
+forbidden the walk they had in mind.
+
+"Don't they look like four dear little Arabs?" said Miss Ada to her
+brother.  "They make a perfect picture as they go over the hill in the
+evening light.  How much they enjoy these little frolics."  She turned
+from watching the white-sheeted four who soon disappeared down the road.
+
+It was great fun, thought the girls, to call upon their various friends
+and pretend they were foreigners who did not understand the language of
+those whom they were visiting; yet they understood enough to accept
+refreshments offered them, and managed to say, "thank you" and
+"good-bye."
+
+It was after they had been regaled upon cakes and lemonade at Mrs.
+Phillips's that the moment came which Molly had been dreading.  The
+shadows had deepened and the stars were trying to come out, while a
+little light still lingered in the western sky.  "We'd better not take
+the short cut," said Molly.  "It is so rough that way, and it is muddy
+in places; we'll go around by the road."  The lights were twinkling out
+from the fishermen's homes and from the vessels anchored in the cove.
+There were not many persons on the road, and the four little girls
+hastened their steps.
+
+Presently a shout, then the bark of a dog arose from behind them, and
+in another minute they were surrounded by a crowd of jeering boys and
+barking dogs.  "Yaw!  Yaw!  Yaw!" shouted the boys.  "Sic 'em, Sailor!
+Sick 'em, Towser!"  The dogs nipped at the retreating heels and the
+boys twitched the flowing robes of the four Arabs.
+
+"Oh, let us alone!  Let us alone!" shrieked Molly.
+
+"Who be ye?" cried one of the boys peering into their faces.
+
+"What ye doin' dressed up this here way?" said another.  The paint upon
+their faces so disguised them that they were not recognized by any of
+the boys, if, indeed, any knew them.
+
+"They ain't none o' our folks," said another boy, trying to jerk off
+Polly's head covering.
+
+She turned on him fiercely.  "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,"
+she cried.  "How would you like any one to treat your sisters so?"
+
+"How'd you like any one to treat your sisters so?" mimicked the boy in
+a piping voice.  "I ain't got no sister, and if I had she wouldn't be
+traipsin' 'round the P'int in circus clothes."
+
+Wrenching herself from the boy's grasp, Polly started to run, the other
+girls following.  One boy thrust out his foot tripping Grace who fell
+sprawling in the dusty road.  Her companions stopped in their flight to
+come to her rescue.  "Oh, you bad, bad boys," cried Molly indignantly.
+"If I don't tell Cap'n Dave on you."
+
+"We ain't feared o' Cap'n Dave," was the scoffing reply.
+
+The girls picked up the weeping Grace.  "Are you hurt?" they whispered.
+
+"I don't know," whimpered Grace.  "Oh, how can we get home?  I want to
+go home."
+
+Her weeping caused cessation in hostilities for a moment, but as soon
+as the four figures started forward they were again surrounded and the
+teasing recommenced.
+
+But just as the girls were in despair of ever escaping from their
+tormentors, another boy came up.  "What's up?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, nawthin'," replied one of the boys laughing.  "We cal'late to keep
+furriners away from the P'int, and these here ain't dressed like
+Amur'cans."
+
+"Who are they?"  The boy bent over to peer into Molly's face.  She gave
+a joyful cry.  "Oh, Ellis, Ellis, save us from them.  They won't let us
+go home."
+
+The newcomer turned.  "Say, you fellows," he said.  "You'd ought to be
+ashamed.  These here is friends of mine.  If any of you fellows touches
+one of 'em, I'll pitch into him like sin.  Don't you know who they are?
+They're the little gals up to the Reid cottage, that's been so good to
+us, nursing the baby and gettin' up that fair and all that."
+
+The boys slunk away.  "We didn't know it was them," the largest one
+said.  "Why didn't they say so?  We thought it was that crowd of sassy
+youngsters over by Back Landing; they're always so fresh.  One of 'em
+sneaked off with Dan's boat yesterday and we wanted to pay 'em back."
+
+"I'm awful sorry we scared you," said another boy, coming up.  "Was you
+hurt, sissy, when you fell down?"
+
+"Oh, no, not so very much," replied Grace, ceasing her sobbing.
+
+"We'll see you home safe," said one of the boys.  "Come on, fellers.
+Lem, go get a lantern; we're nearest your house."
+
+Lem ran obediently and in a few minutes returned with the big lantern
+in his hand.  He stalked on ahead, the others trooping after, the dogs
+at the heels of their masters.  All the way they escorted the little
+girls, Ellis not ceasing to voice his indignation, nor the boys to
+explain and excuse themselves, and it is needless to say that it was a
+relief to all concerned when the wandering Arabs were safe within their
+own dwellings.
+
+In spite of the outcome of their adventure, the girls did not care to
+repeat it and never again wanted to go beyond the cottages in their own
+immediate vicinity.  Yet, unpleasant as the experience was, it resulted
+in more than one effort on the part of the gang of boys to make up for
+their ill behavior.  The very next morning after the affair, Polly, who
+was the first down-stairs, saw a tall boy coming toward the cottage and
+went out on the porch to meet him.
+
+"You one of the little gals that was down the road last night?" he
+asked as he came up.  "One of them that was dressed up?"
+
+Polly nodded.  "Yes, I was there."
+
+"Us boys didn't know you lived here.  We wouldn't have hurt a hair of
+your head if we had knowed who you was."  Then he added somewhat
+shamefacedly, "I fetched ye a salmon.  Maybe ye ain't never see a
+salmon jest out of the water.  They're pretty-colored, ain't they?"
+And he held up to view the glistening pink fish.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful it is.  It seems too pretty to catch, doesn't it?"
+said Polly bending over to examine the fish the boy laid on the grass.
+
+He stared at her, not quite comprehending how any one could think any
+fish too pretty to be caught.  "They're awful good eatin'," he went on
+to say, "but they don't often come in here."
+
+"How did you happen to get this one?" asked Polly.
+
+"It was in my father's pound this morning, and I begged him for it.
+Shall I take it into the kitchen for you?" he added hastily.
+
+"Oh, do you mean to give it to us?  How very good you are," said Polly
+appreciatively.
+
+The boy gave a short laugh.  "I wasn't very good last night, was I?" he
+said, and Polly understood that this was a peace-offering.
+
+That afternoon two younger lads were seen hanging around the house
+bearing a mysterious something done up in a newspaper.  "What in
+conscience do them boys want?" said Luella, looking out of the kitchen
+window.  "It's Billy Laws and Horeb Potter.  What are they peekin'
+around here for I want to know."  One of the boys now advanced toward
+the house, but at the appearance of Miss Ada on the porch, he took to
+his heels, and lurked in the distance where his companion was uneasily
+waiting.
+
+Luella went out to Miss Ada.  "Them boys has got some errant here," she
+said, "but they won't come in whilst they see you on the piazza."  Miss
+Ada reëntered the house.  The three little girls peeped from the
+windows, looking out from behind the blinds.  In a few minutes the boys
+came stealthily forth, tiptoed toward the house, halted fearfully, took
+a few steps back, came on more quickly.  He who bore the newspaper
+package was suddenly pushed violently forward by the other and came on
+with a trot, bolted into the kitchen, laid the package on the table
+before Luella and exclaimed hastily: "It's for the little gals!" then
+he took to his heels, not stopping till he was clear out of sight.
+
+Luella came laughing into the living-room.  "Here's another present,"
+she announced.  "You open it, Miss Ada."
+
+"What can it be?" exclaimed the children, gathering around their aunt
+who untied the string of the damp parcel, unwrapped it and disclosed to
+view a huge lobster, fiery red, and still warm from recent boiling.
+
+"Isn't he a monster?" exclaimed Miss Ada.  "I don't believe I ever saw
+a larger.  We'll have him for supper, Luella.  I hope you took half the
+salmon to Mrs. Wharton, for we couldn't eat that and this, too.
+Children, you will have to invite Grace over to have her share.  I
+suppose some of it is due to her anyhow."
+
+"She ought to have it all," said Polly, "for she was the only one who
+was hurt."
+
+"I'm afraid she'd suffer more still if she attempted to devour this
+entire lobster," laughed Miss Ada.  "We'd better spare her little turn,
+Polly, and help her eat this."
+
+It was after such of the lobster as they could eat had been disposed
+of, and the children with no desire for long wanderings, were safely
+gathered around the fire, that a tap was heard at the door.  Uncle Dick
+arose to open it and received into his hands a large cold jar, while a
+small lad piped out: "Jerry sent this to the little gals.  They'll
+keep."  And then the figure vanished into the darkness.
+
+"I don't know who Jerry is, nor what 'this' is," said Uncle Dick,
+bearing in the glass jar and setting it on the table.  "It's for the
+'little gals' I was told.  Great Caesar!  It's clams, carefully
+shelled.  See here, Ada, we won't have to buy any more provender this
+season at this rate.  When we get short of provisions we can send out
+our Arabs on the road, for behold the result of their evening's
+migrations."
+
+Every one laughed at this latest gift, and it was set away for the next
+day's use.  But the end was not yet.  On the door sill the next morning
+was discovered a splint basket.  To the handle was tied a scrap of
+paper on which was awkwardly written: "To the little gals."  Molly was
+the finder of this.  "Hurry down all of you!" she called to the others.
+"There is a present."
+
+"Another one?" said Polly over the baluster.  "What is it?"
+
+"I haven't looked," was the reply.
+
+The other children, joined by Miss Ada, came down as soon as possible,
+their curiosity excited.  Molly lifted the wet seaweed covering the
+contents of the basket and they saw a pile of shining little mackerel.
+
+"Tinkers!" cried Miss Ada.  "What a nice lot of them!  Oh, and there
+are some butter-fish, too.  They are all cleaned beautifully, and we
+must have some for breakfast; it will take only a few minutes to cook
+them.  Yon children can run over to Grace with her share."
+
+This the little girls were glad to do, but returned with their platter
+full explaining that smaller lot had been left at the Whartons'.
+
+But two more conscience offerings were received after this.  Four thick
+braids of sweet grass were found hanging on the door-knob, and, during
+the day a man delivered a mysterious box slatted across one end.  This
+was found to contain a beautiful kitten of the variety called "Coon."
+The children were wild over this last gift, the only drawback to their
+delight being the difficulty of deciding which one should take it home.
+Their Aunt Ada came to the rescue by telling them not to bother about
+it till the time came and then to let circumstances settle it.  Her own
+little cat, Cosey, was not inclined to favor the intruder at first, but
+in a few days she began to mother it and they soon became good friends.
+
+"Are you glad that the boys scared us that night?" asked Polly one day
+not long after the "day of gifts" as the children called it.
+
+Molly weighed the subject.  "When I think of the dear kitten and the
+salmon and the tinkers."
+
+"And the lobster."
+
+"Yes, and the sweet grass, then I am, but when I think of how
+dreadfully frightened we were, I'm not."
+
+"I don't intend to remember the scare," said Polly philosophically.
+
+"Neither do I," added Mary.  "I'd be an Arab again for the sake of
+finding out how really good-hearted those boys are," which showed that
+Mary had a good heart, too.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XI_
+
+_The Roseberry Family_
+
+The green grass of June had turned to russet; the bay berry bushes
+began to look dingy, and the waxy cranberries in the bog were turning
+to a delicate pink.  It had been a dry season and the children could
+safely traverse the bog from end to end without danger of getting their
+feet wet.  Ellis was their pilot to this fascinating spot, and the day
+of their introduction to it was one long to be remembered.
+
+It was one morning when Ellis came around to the back door to deliver
+clams that they first heard of the bog.  He added to the weekly order a
+little bag of pinky-white cranberries.  "I thought maybe you'd like
+'em," he said.  "Miss Alice Harvey says they're much better when
+they're not quite ripe.  Ora tried some and they were fine, but they
+took a lot of sugar."
+
+"Thank you for remembering us," said Miss Ada as she received the
+offering.  "How much, Ellis?"
+
+"Nawthin'.  They're easy to pick and there's plenty of 'em," he made
+reply.
+
+Miss Ada accepted the gift in the spirit in which it was intended.
+"I'm sure we shall enjoy them," she declared.  "Where is the bog,
+Ellis?  Is it very wet there?"
+
+"'Tain't wet at all this year.  This has been such a dry season.  It's
+down back of Cap'n Orrin's barn."
+
+"Oh, is that the place?"  Molly was peeping over her aunt's shoulder.
+"I've always longed to go there but I was afraid it was all sloppy and
+marshy; some one said it was."
+
+"Would you like me to go there with you?" said Ellis bashfully.  "I
+know where the cranberries grow, and there's lots of other things down
+there, the kind you city people like to get, weeds, we call 'em."
+
+"Oh, may we go?" Molly appealed to her aunt.
+
+"Why yes, I have no objection.  It is perfectly safe if it's not wet.
+I suppose you may encounter a garter snake or two, but you don't mind
+them, Molly."
+
+"Wait for us, Ellis," said the little girl speeding away for her
+cousins with whom she returned in a moment.  All three were
+breathlessly eager to start on the voyage of discovery, for with Ellis
+as leader, into what regions of the unknown might they not penetrate.
+
+Over the hill they went, leaving Cap'n Orrin's mild-eyed cows gazing
+after them ruminatively as they crept under the fence which separated
+the pasture from the wild bottom land at the foot of the hill.  On the
+other side arose the ridge along which were ranged cottages looking
+both coveward and seaward.  A winding path led past runty little apple
+trees and huge boulders, and finally was lost in the tangle of growth
+overspreading the marsh.
+
+"It is dry enough now," said Mary exultantly, setting her foot on a
+tuft of dry grass.  "Where are the cranberries, Ellis?  I want to see
+those first."
+
+"You are standing right over some," he said smiling.
+
+Mary looked down, but only a mass of weeds and grass greeted her eyes.
+"I don't see them," she declared.
+
+Ellis laughed, bent over and parted the grass to disclose the delicate
+wreaths of green, and the pretty smooth cranberries, tucked away in the
+dry grass.
+
+"As if they were afraid of being picked," remarked Mary.  "You will not
+escape me that way."  And down on her knees she went in search of the
+pink fruit.
+
+Molly meanwhile had gone further afield, and was gathering flowers
+strange to her, and grasses as lovely as the blossoms.  Earlier in the
+season, she had delighted in the rosy plumes of the hard-hack, the
+sweet pinky-white clover, the wild partridge peas, but here were new
+acquaintances which were not to be found outside the marsh, and upon
+them she pounced eagerly.
+
+It was Polly, however, who discovered the Roseberry family, for Polly,
+who had spent her life far from cities, had developed her imagination,
+and could fashion from unpromising material the most fascinating
+things, and though she, too, picked her share of cranberries, she also
+gathered a lot of roseberries which she declared were the biggest she
+had ever seen.  These she bore away in triumph, while Molly carried her
+bouquet with a satisfied air and Mary was quite content with having the
+largest showing of cranberries.  So they returned, well pleased, to the
+cottage.
+
+"We had the splendidest morning," said Molly, setting her flowers in a
+large vase.  "I never knew that bogs could be so perfectly fine.  What
+are you doing, Polly?"
+
+Polly was seated on the floor industriously picking off her roseberries
+from the twigs.  "Wait and you will see," was her answer.  "Do get me
+some pins, Molly, a whole lot.  Aunt Ada will give you some."
+
+Molly's curiosity being aroused, she rushed off to her aunt, returning
+with a paper of pins.  She squatted down on the floor by Polly's side.
+Mary, meanwhile, had gone to the kitchen to superintend Luella's
+cooking of the cranberries.  Polly stuck a pin in one side of the
+biggest, fattest roseberry, then another in the other side.  "This is
+Mr. Roseberry," she said, "and these are his two arms.  Now his head
+goes on, and then his legs.  I use the pins, you see, because you can
+bend them so as to make the people sit down."  She held up the
+completed mannikin.  "Now I must pick out some berries for Mrs.
+Roseberry, and then I'll make the children."
+
+"Polly, you are so ridiculous," said Molly in a tone of admiration,
+"but do you know, they are awfully funny with their little round heads
+and bodies."  Polly worked away industriously till she had completed
+her entire family.  "Now what?" said Molly.  "What in the world is
+that?"
+
+"It is a lamp," returned Polly, deftly fitting a base to her red globe.
+"Now, if I had some pasteboard I could make some furniture, and we'd
+play with the Roseberry family this afternoon."
+
+"Dinner is nearly ready now," said Molly, "but it will be fun to play
+with them this afternoon.  We could have two or three families.  What
+can I name mine?"  She watched Polly interestedly as she put the last
+touch to a vase in which she stuck a bit of green.
+
+"You might call them Pod," said Polly.  "These are really the seed pods
+of the wild roses, you know.  They are like little apples, aren't they?"
+
+"Oh, I'll call them Appleby," said Molly.
+
+"We know some people named that.  Save that tiny one for the baby,
+Polly."
+
+"The cranberries are perfectly delicious," said Mary, coming in from
+the kitchen, "but they have to cool before we can eat them.  Luella
+says they take so much sugar that they will keep perfectly for me to
+take some home.  Oh, what curious little figures."
+
+"This is the Roseberry family," Polly told her, indicating the dolls on
+the right, "and these," she pointed to those on her left, "these are
+the Applebys."
+
+"You must have some, too, Mary," said Molly.  "What shall you call
+yours?"
+
+Mary had picked up one of the little figures.  "Why, they are made of
+hips, aren't they?"
+
+"What are hips?" asked Molly.
+
+"That is what we call the berries of the briar-rose, and in England the
+hawthorn berries are haws."
+
+"Hips and haws," sang Molly.  "Don't they go nicely together?  Shall
+you call your people Mr. and Mrs. Hips?"
+
+"Why, yes, I can.  I think that would be a very good name.  Are we
+going to play with them?"
+
+"After dinner we are, if Polly can find anything to make furniture of."
+
+Polly's ingenuity did not fail her here, for, by the use of some match
+ends, birch bark and a needle and thread she contrived all sorts of
+things and then each girl hunted up a box for a house, so that these
+new playthings proved to be very fascinating.
+
+But at last the every-day commonplaces grew too dull for Polly, and she
+suddenly exclaimed: "I'm tired of just visiting and talking about
+measles and nurses and mustard plasters!  I'm going to take the
+Roseberry family down to the shore.  They're going to have an
+adventure."
+
+"Oh, Polly, what?  Can ours go, too?" cried Molly.  "I would like to
+have the Applebys meet an adventure, too."
+
+"And I'd like Mr. and Mrs. Hips to have one," echoed Mary.
+
+"Are they very wicked, black-hearted people?" asked Polly, darkly.
+
+"Why--why----"  Mary hesitated and looked to Molly for her cue.
+
+"Do they have to be wicked to have an adventure?" asked Molly.
+
+"If they join the Roseberries, they'll have to be, for the Roseberries
+are wreckers and smugglers."  Polly spoke impressively, and at this
+flight of fancy Molly and Mary gazed at her admiringly.  Yet they were
+not quite willing that their families should give up their morals to
+too great an extent.
+
+"What do they have to do?" asked Mary, determined to find out the worst.
+
+"Mine have a cave," said Polly, mysteriously.  "It is on an island--I
+know what island I am going to have--and there they hide their
+treasures.  They are counterfeiters, too," she added to their list of
+crimes, "and they have chests of counterfeit money--sand dollars."
+
+Molly laughed and Polly looked at her reproachfully.  "It is as good as
+any other counterfeit money," she remarked.
+
+"Never mind the money.  Go on, Polly."  Molly was enjoying her cousin's
+inventions.
+
+"Well, they go out in a boat on stormy nights and when a vessel is in
+distress, instead of helping, they don't do anything but just wait till
+the vessel is wrecked and then they help themselves, to what they can
+get.  They have, oh, such a store of diamonds and rubies and precious
+stones in their cave, and they have their own vessel that flies a black
+flag."
+
+"Then they're pirates," said Mary recoiling.  "I don't want the Hips to
+be pirates."
+
+"They don't have to be," Polly calmly assured her.  "They can be as
+good as they want to, and can be on one of the vessels that gets
+wrecked."
+
+"Then they'll all get drowned."
+
+"No, they needn't; they can cling to a raft and go ashore on some
+desert island."
+
+Having saved the lives as well as the reputations of the Hips family,
+although they would probably lose everything else, Mary was satisfied,
+but Molly was ready to compromise.  A little spice of wickedness seemed
+necessary to make her Applebys interesting.  "My family can be
+smugglers," she announced, "but I don't want them to be pirates and I
+don't want them wrecked either.  Smugglers aren't so wicked as pirates;
+they only bring in things that you ought to pay duty on, Uncle Dick
+told me, and Mary's father told her that in England almost everything
+comes in free, and that the United States is as mean as can be about
+making people pay for what is brought into the country.  A lady, Molly
+saw on the steamer when they came over, had an awful time about a
+shabby old sealskin coat she'd had for years, and just because she wore
+it ashore from the steamer, they made an awful fuss about it."
+
+"Well, I don't understand about it, but if the United States said it
+was wrong, of course it must have been; they are always right," said
+Polly loyally.  "I don't exactly know about smuggling," she confessed,
+"however, the Roseberries are going to be smugglers."
+
+"Uncle Dick was telling us about smugglers the other night."
+
+"Yes, I know, that is what made me think of it.  He showed me the
+island where there used to be a smuggler's cave."
+
+"I remember it; we saw it when we were out sailing one day."
+
+"We must build a birch bark ship for the Hips family," said Polly,
+changing the subject.  "Your Applebys can live on my island and if they
+don't want to associate with the Roseberries they can have a cave to
+themselves."
+
+"Roseberry is such a nice pleasant name for wicked people," remarked
+Mary.  "Why don't you call them something else?"
+
+"Nobody ever does call them that," returned Polly readily.  "The father
+is the leader of the gang, and he is Bold Ben.  His three sons are
+One-eyed Peter, Crooked Tom, and Sly Sam.  They call his wife Old Mag,
+and then there are two cousins, twins; they are Smiling Steve and
+Grinning Jim."
+
+"Oh, Polly, how do you think of such names?" said Molly delightedly.
+"What does Old Mag do?"
+
+"She pulls in things from the wreck and she cooks the meals.  Then,
+when the men are all away smuggling, she sits in the cave and spends
+her time looking at the jewels and letting them drip through her
+fingers."
+
+"Jewels can't drip," observed Mary in a matter-of-fact way.
+
+"Well, they look as if they could," returned Polly.  "The diamonds are
+like drops of water, the pearls like milk and the rubies like blood."
+
+"I know where you found that," said Molly; "in the fairy tale we were
+reading the other day."
+
+Polly admitted the fact and the ship being now ready to launch, they
+proceeded to the shore where Polly pointed out the island.  This was a
+large rock, nearly covered at high tide, but now showing quite a
+surface above the water.  Its rugged sides held caves quite large
+enough for persons of such size as the Roseberry family, and they were
+presently hidden behind their barnacled barriers.  In a little pool the
+Hips family were set afloat while the Applebys contented themselves
+with gathering stores of supposed precious stones from the little beach.
+
+The Hips family had hardly set sail before Polly invoked a storm and
+stirred to monster waves the waters in their pool, so they were in
+great danger.  "Oh, dear, the youngest Hips is floating away and I
+can't save him," cried Mary.
+
+"Never mind, let him go; there are plenty more of them," returned Polly
+heartlessly banging her stick up and down in the water so the ship
+would rock more violently.  "They've got to be wrecked, you know," she
+added.  "I'll drive them on that rock, then you can grab them before
+they sink and get them on the raft."
+
+Mary managed to rescue all but one more of the family, and these were
+set adrift on a piece of birch bark to which Polly tied a string that
+they might not go beyond return.  She also allowed the storm to cease,
+but this was because the gang of wreckers had to haul up the ship and
+gather in their plunder.  She kept up so lively an account of their
+doings that Molly left the Applebys to their own devices and Mary drew
+the Hipses to shore that she might listen to Polly's blood-curdling
+account of Bold Ben and the rest.  Polly did not have to draw
+altogether from her imagination, for her brothers had been too often
+her playmates for her not to be ready with tales of plunder and
+adventure.
+
+Time passed very quickly and the children became so absorbed in the
+manoeuvres of the gang that they did not notice the stealthy rise of
+the tide till Mary exclaimed, "Oh, the Hipses have floated off and they
+were quite high on the beach!"
+
+Polly looked around her.  "No wonder," she said; "the tide is rising.
+We'd better start back."  Leaving Bold Ben and his comrades to their
+fate, she ran to the further side of the rock, but here she hesitated.
+The sea was steadily making in, sending little cascades over the
+weed-covered ledges each time it retreated.
+
+"Can't you get across?" asked Molly, as she came up with her Applebys,
+and saw Polly standing still.
+
+"I'm almost afraid to jump," said Polly, "for if a big wave should come
+in suddenly it might wash in over my feet and the sea-weed is so
+slippery I'm afraid to trust to it, where it is shallower." Molly
+looked up at the rocky shelf jutting out above her.  "If we could only
+get up there," she said.
+
+"But we can't; it is too far to climb to that first jutty-out place,
+and we can't crawl under and then up, like flies."
+
+Mary bearing the sole survivor of the unfortunate Hips family now came
+up.  "I had to let the rest go," she said.  "They were beyond reach.  I
+fished this one out of the water just in time.  What is the matter?
+Why don't you go on, Polly?"
+
+For answer Polly pointed silently to the creeping waves at her feet.
+
+"What are we going to do?" asked Mary in alarm.
+
+"Stay here till the tide goes down, I suppose.  This rock is never
+covered," said Molly.
+
+"But we may get dreadfully splashed," returned Mary.
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Polly dubiously.  She looked at the
+rock above her, and then at her two cousins.  "Which of you two could
+stand on my shoulders and get hold of that rock so as to draw herself
+up and go for help?"
+
+"Oh, I never could do it in the world," said Mary, shrinking back.
+
+Polly turned to Molly.  "Could you?"
+
+"I'm afraid I couldn't pull myself up so far, but I could stand and let
+you get on my shoulders, if you could do the pulling up part."
+
+"I could do that easily enough," Polly told her.  "I've often practiced
+it with the boys, and we have swung ourselves up the rocks in the
+mountains out home.  Are you sure you can bear my weight, Molly?"
+
+"I can try."
+
+"We'll both do it," Mary offered.  "You can put one foot on my shoulder
+and one on Molly's, then you won't be so heavy for either one."
+
+"All right.  Steady yourselves.  Here goes."  And in a moment Polly had
+clambered to the supporting shoulders, had caught hold of the jutting
+rock and had drawn herself up.  As she gained her feet and sped away
+crying: "I'll be right back," Molly breathed a sigh of relief.  "I was
+so afraid a piece of the rock would split off and she'd fall," she
+confessed to Mary.
+
+It took but a little time to bring Uncle Dick and one of his friends
+who swung themselves down easily and set the two stranded children upon
+a safe spot, none too soon, for a big wave almost immediately sent a
+shower of salt spray over the rock where they had been standing.
+
+"You would have been drenched to the skin," said Uncle Dick as he led
+the way to the house, while, left to their fate, the wicked Roseberries
+perished miserably.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XII_
+
+_East and West_
+
+By the middle of September the cottages on the Point were nearly all
+deserted, though the Reids lingered on, to the children's satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, dear, I don't want to go back to school, to horrid old examples
+and things, although I do want to see my dear Miss Isabel," said Molly,
+one morning just before the close of their stay.
+
+"I don't want to see Miss Sharp, I can tell you that, but I do want to
+see mother and Reggie and Gwen," said Mary.
+
+"I hate to leave you all," Polly put in, "though I shall be glad to see
+mamma and papa and the boys.  I'll like to see the ponies too, and the
+mountains and everything, but I do wish you girls were going with me."
+She really had fewer regrets than her cousins for Polly loved the
+freedom of the west, and the miles between seemed very long to the
+little girl who had seen neither father, mother nor brothers for three
+months.  To Mary the delights of unlimited supplies of sweet potatoes
+and corn, bountiful plates of ice-cream, freedom from the vigilance of
+a strict governess, and the range of fields and woods, where one need
+not fear of trespassing, and which were not enclosed by high walls, all
+these compensated much for her separation from her family.
+
+The time for her leave-taking of America was drawing near, however, for
+her father wrote that they would probably sail about the first of
+October, and Uncle Dick would take Polly home about the same time.
+Aunt Ada, too, had promised to go to Colorado for a visit so Polly felt
+that she had anticipations the others did not have.
+
+"I wish we could all go to Polly's; that's what I wish," declared
+Molly.  "I wish my father and mother and Mary and Miss Ainslee were all
+going."
+
+"I speak for Miss Ainslee to sit with me," said Uncle Dick coming up
+with an open letter in his hand.  He handed a second letter to Molly.
+"Can you read it?" he asked.
+
+"Of course I can," returned Molly indignantly.  Then she added, "Mamma
+always writes to me on papa's typewriter."
+
+Her uncle laughed, though Molly could not see why.
+
+"You'd better read every word in it," he remarked, "for there is big
+news there for a young woman of your size."
+
+Molly hastily tore open the envelope and began to read.  She had not
+finished the page, however, before she cried out: "News!  News!  I
+should think it was news.  What do you think, Mary?  What do you think,
+Polly?"
+
+"Can't imagine," said Polly.  Then as a second thought occurred to her,
+"Oh, is your mother going to let you go home with me?  I know my mother
+has asked to have you, for I wrote to her to beg that you could come."
+
+Molly shook her head.  "No, it's east instead of west, Polly.  Mother
+and I are going to England with Mary and Uncle Arthur."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary jumped to her feet and clasped her hand ecstatically.  "Oh,
+Molly, I am so glad.  Aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, I am except for one thing; I know I shall be scared to death of
+Miss Sharp.  Is she really so very, very strict?"
+
+"My word! but you'd think so.  Fancy never being allowed to run, nor to
+climb nor to do anything one really likes to do, and, oh, Molly, I
+wonder will you eat your meals in the nursery with us children.
+There's nasty rice pudding twice a week, you know, and there are never
+hot rolls nor biscuits for breakfast as you have here, then we do have
+horribly cold houses in winter."
+
+"Oh!"  Molly looked quite disturbed by this report.  But presently her
+face again broke into smiles.  "But then, to see England and to be with
+you, Mary.  We shall go up to London in the spring and we shall spend
+the winter in Cornwall or Devon, where it is not so very cold, mother
+says."
+
+"Oh, we are to be in the country, then," said Mary.  "I'm glad of that.
+Papa thought we should take our country home again this winter; we were
+not there last year."
+
+"It's so funny to go to the country for winter and the city for
+summer," remarked Polly.  "We do just the opposite."
+
+"Oh, but we like the country in winter," Mary explained.  "It's jolly
+good sport to be there then.  We have a proper little pony of our own,
+you know, and we really have quite good times." Polly laughed.  "It is
+so funny to hear Mary say a 'proper' pony.  We would say a real pony,
+wouldn't we?"
+
+"I shall be corrected a great many times for the American things I have
+learned to say," said Mary.  "I've no doubt but that Miss Sharp will be
+continually coming down on me for saying them.  She is a sharp one,
+true enough.  I'll have to watch myself."
+
+"She needn't try to correct me," Molly put in.
+
+"Oh, but you are an American," Mary hastened to reassure her, "and
+you'll do just as your mother bids you, of course."
+
+This relieved the situation for Molly.  The prospect of frequent drives
+behind the "proper little pony," and the pleasure of a real English
+Christmas, which Mary had described in glowing colors, cheered her up,
+and she stated that she thought she could stand Miss Sharp as long as
+her own mother would always be on hand to refer to.
+
+As the three were talking it all over, Uncle Dick appeared at the door.
+"Well, Mollykins," he said, "how do you like your news?"
+
+"Oh, do you know it, too?" she said, running up to him.  "I like it
+very much, but I wish you and Aunt Ada and Polly were going, too."
+
+"That would be too many at once," he returned.  "Go in and see your
+Aunt Ada; she has something to tell you."
+
+"Who is it about?" asked Molly.
+
+Uncle Dick walked down the porch steps.  "It concerns me very much," he
+said over his shoulder.
+
+"Concerns him?  Do you suppose he is going to England, too?" said Mary.
+
+"Let's go and find out," returned Molly.  And the three ran indoors to
+where Miss Ada sat.
+
+"Well, kitties," she said as they came in, "there is a lot of news
+to-day, isn't there?"
+
+"Yes, isn't it fine that mother and I are going to England?  That is
+what you meant, isn't it?"
+
+"Not all."
+
+"Uncle Dick said you had something to tell us," said Polly.
+
+"So I have.  It concerns Polly more than any of you, though it might
+concern Molly if she were not going abroad."
+
+"That sounds like a puzzle," laughed Polly.  "But Uncle Dick said it
+concerned him."
+
+"The silly boy!"  Miss Ada drew down the corners of her mouth.  "No
+doubt he'll make it his concern.  Why Polly, it is this: Mr. Perkins,
+your tutor, has had a good offer in Denver and as he is so well and
+strong now he thinks he must accept it, and as Walter is old enough to
+go away to school, your father and mother thought a man was not needed
+to teach you and the others, so you are to have a new teacher.  Guess
+who it is to be?"
+
+"Oh, I can't.  Tell me."  Polly was all eagerness.
+
+"Miss Ainslee."
+
+"Not my Miss Ainslee?" cried Molly in surprise.
+
+"Your Miss Ainslee."
+
+"Oh, I'm jealous," said Molly.  "Oh, Polly, to think you will have her
+all to yourself.  Oh, dear!"
+
+"But you will not be here, honey," said her aunt, "and besides it is
+better for Miss Ainslee that she should go, for the doctor thinks she
+cannot get along in the east, and that she must either stop teaching or
+go to another climate.  She isn't ill exactly, but it is better that
+she should not wait till she is.  So you see----"
+
+"Oh, I see, but I am sorry all the same," said Molly dolefully.
+
+"And I am tremendously glad," said Polly.  "I liked Mr. Perkins very
+well, but Miss Ainslee is such an improvement on him.  Is she to go out
+with us, Aunt Ada?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then that is what Uncle Dick meant when he said it concerned him.  He
+was thinking how nice it would be to travel all that way with her."
+
+"He's looking further than that," remarked Miss Ada with a smile.  "If
+things keep on this way I don't believe she will ever come east again
+to live, Polly."
+
+"She won't if I can help it," said Uncle Dick from the doorway.  "What
+do you think of our scheme, Pollywog?" he asked as he caught Polly and
+tousled her.
+
+"I think it is grandiferous," replied Polly, squirming out of his
+grasp.  "But you'd better behave yourself, Mr. Dicky-Pig, or I'll tell
+on you."
+
+"Just see how she gets me in her power," said Uncle Dick to his sister.
+"I'll not be safe a moment from that wicked child's malicious tales."
+
+"Don't you call me a wicked child," said Polly darting at him.  "Now
+for your nose."
+
+"Spare me!  Spare me!" cried her uncle, putting up both hands.  "I'll
+be good, Polly; I will indeed, but if you spoil my features, how can
+you expect Miss Ainslee ever to like me?  If you'll promise to be good
+and say nice things about your dear uncle, I'll let you be bridesmaid."
+
+"Oh, Dick, you silly boy!" expostulated his sister.  "Don't fill the
+child's head with such notions.  He hardly knows Miss Ainslee, Polly,
+and it will make her so uncomfortable that she will leave, in a month,
+if your Uncle Dick keeps up this sort of nonsense."
+
+This hushed up Master Dick and he began to ask Polly such silly
+questions as: "What is the result of half a dozen ears of corn and a
+pint of Lima beans?"
+
+"You can't add ears and pints," protested Polly stoutly.
+
+"Oh, yes, you can," returned her uncle jauntily.  "Luella does it often
+and the result is succotash."
+
+Polly made a contemptuous mouth at him.
+
+He laughed and went on.  "Here's another.  When apples are ten cents a
+quart how much are blueberries?"
+
+"Why, why--they're just the same.  Aren't they?" Polly appealed to her
+Aunt Ada.
+
+"The blueberries are less; they're always less; they're smaller, you
+see," her uncle answered.
+
+"That's no answer at all," said Polly in a disgusted tone.  "I won't
+play," and she stalked off to join her cousins.
+
+Yet, as the poet Burns says: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang
+aft agley," and, after all, things did not turn out exactly as was at
+first expected; for when the children had made their rounds to say good
+bye to Ellis and Myrtle, Leona, Ora and the rest, and when they were
+actually on the boat with Cooney safe in a big basket, Uncle Dick
+pulled some letters out of his pocket and began to look them over.  "I
+found these in our box this morning when I went into the post-office,"
+he said.  "There's one for you, Ada, and here's one for me from
+Arthur."  He glanced down the page.  "Well, well, well," he exclaimed,
+"this settles your hash, Miss Molly."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Molly, leaving her seat and coming over to
+him.
+
+"Why, listen.  This is from Mary's father.  'A turn in the business
+which brought me over, compels me to remain at least three months
+longer, so I am accepting John Perrine's kind offer to keep my little
+girl till I am ready to go back home.  I am sure the dry climate of
+Colorado will complete the good work of the summer and that I shall be
+able to take Mary home with her health entirely established.'"
+
+Polly rushed tumultuously at Mary and gave her a hearty squeeze.  "I'm
+going to have you!  I'm going to have you!" she cried.  "Won't we have
+good times?"
+
+Molly sat with a very grave face looking on.  Her uncle smiled down at
+her.  "Looks as if you were out of it, doesn't it, Mollykins?" he said.
+
+Molly turned a mournful countenance upon him and gave a long sigh.  "I
+s'pose mother and I will not be going to England at all," she said.
+
+"I' s'pose' not," said her aunt.  "In fact I am quite sure of it."  She
+put down the letter which she was reading.  "There is a change of plans
+all around, Molly dear, and you're not left out, as you will see.  You
+know, my dearie, that your mother was taking the opportunity of
+visiting England because your father expected to make a business trip
+which would keep him away from home all winter, and your parents had
+concluded to rent their house to some friends.  Now that the house is
+actually rented and you are not going to England your mother will go
+with your father, and you, Molly, my kitten, will go to Colorado that
+you may still have your lessons and be in good hands.  Your father and
+mother will stop for you on their way home.  As for me----"
+
+Molly did not wait for the last words, but rushed over to where Mary
+and Polly with heads together were excitedly talking over the plans for
+the coming winter.  Molly precipitated herself upon them in a tumult of
+excitement.  "I'm going, too!  I'm going, too!" she cried.
+
+"Where?  Where?" exclaimed Polly.
+
+"To Colorado! to Colorado, with you and Mary!" chanted Molly.
+
+A squeal of delight from Polly was followed by one scarcely less joyful
+from Mary, and then the three took hold of hands and danced around the
+steamboat cabin till they dropped in a heap at the feet of their aunt
+and uncle.
+
+"Just think," said Molly when she had recovered her breath.  "We'll all
+be together just as we were this summer, you, Polly, and Mary and Uncle
+Dick and Aunt Ada."
+
+"You must count me out, Molly," said her Aunt Ada.  "I shall do no more
+than see you all safely at the ranch, and then I am going to spend the
+winter further south with my dear friend Janey Moffatt who has been
+married a whole year and whom I have never yet visited.  I have just
+had this letter setting the time for me to come.  I think Miss Ainslee
+and your Aunt Jennie can keep you three in order."
+
+"If not, there am I," put in Uncle Dick scowling savagely.
+
+"As if you----" began Polly.  But he made a dive at her and she
+disappeared behind a pillar of the cabin.
+
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "it is just as I said: there will be no
+difficulty in deciding where Cooney is to go, and to tell you the
+truth, my dears, I think he will thrive better in a cool climate than
+anywhere else, for with their fluffy coats, these little coon cats are
+liable to fall ill and die where it is too warm for them.  The ranch
+will be just the place for him."  So Cooney's future was assured and in
+time he reached his new home safely, none the worse for the long
+journey, during which he was tenderly cared for.  Luella had gladly
+taken charge of Cosey, promising to return to Miss Ada the next summer
+and to bring the little cat with her.
+
+"Even if I'm married," she said, "Granville says I may live with you
+summers, Miss Ada, whilst he's off fishing."
+
+When Molly had spent two weeks with her parents and Mary had seen her
+father, the three little girls were ready to set out upon their longer
+journey, though it must be confessed that at the last Molly found it
+hard to say good-bye, and Mary looked rather grave.  Polly, however,
+reminded Mary that there would be no Miss Sharp at the ranch, and Uncle
+Dick whispered to Molly that he didn't see how any one could be other
+than happy at the prospect of spending part of each day in Miss
+Ainslee's company, and from that began to make such delightful plans
+that in a short time they were happy in thinking of the good times
+ahead of them.  Uncle Dick promised to provide each with a safe little
+broncho to ride.  Aunt Ada told them that their Aunt Jennie had put
+three small beds in her biggest room, so that the little girls could
+room together.  Miss Ainslee told Molly confidentially that it made all
+the difference in the world to her that she was to have one of her own
+little pupils with her, and Polly, who really loved Cooney more than
+either of the others, was so delighted at not having to give him up
+that she was ready to share him generously with her cousins, and always
+lifted him over into Mary's or Molly's lap whenever one of them said:
+"Now, Polly, you have had him long enough."
+
+Altogether the long journey was not unpleasant, and when the travelers
+at last arrived, though they were weary, they were very happy, and that
+night cuddled down in their little white beds while around their
+dwelling place towered up the great mountains, steadfast as the
+friendship which was born that summer in the hearts of the three little
+cousins and which lasted their lifetime.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
+
+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: Three Little Cousins
+
+Author: Amy E. Blanchard
+
+Release Date: August 7, 2008 [EBook #26208]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE LITTLE COUSINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<CENTER>
+<IMG SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="" WIDTH="467" HEIGHT="747">
+<H4>
+Cover art
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+THREE LITTLE COUSINS
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BY
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+AMY E. BLANCHARD
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Author of "Playmate Polly," "A Little Tomboy," <BR>
+"A Sweet Little Maid,"<BR>
+"Dimple Dallas," etc.</I>
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+NEW YORK
+<BR>
+HURST &amp; COMPANY
+<BR>
+PUBLISHERS
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+Copyright, 1907, by
+<BR>
+GEORGE W. JACOBS &amp; COMPANY
+<BR>
+<I>Published July, 1907</I>
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CONTENTS</I>
+</H2>
+
+<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">MOLLY AND POLLY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">UNCLE DICK AT SCHOOL</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">MARY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">THE RHINESTONE PIN</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">MARY AND THE BOY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">DISCOVERIES</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">IN ELTON WOODS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">ELLIS AND THE BABY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">NEW BURDENS FOR ELLIS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">ARABS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">THE ROSEBERRY FAMILY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">EAST AND WEST</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER I</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Molly and Polly</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It had stopped raining; Molly made quite sure of it by looking into the
+little puddles upon the walk.  At first she thought there were drops
+still falling upon them, but it was only the wind which ruffled the
+surface.  The green grass was misty with rain and upon the bushes the
+shining drops hung from every twig.  Presently a sudden burst of
+sunshine broke through the clouds and changed the drops to sparkles of
+light.  "There!" exclaimed Molly, "I see a piece of blue sky.  Now I
+may go, mayn't I, mother?  It is clearing off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Shelton came to the window and Molly with serious face watched her
+scan the sky.  "It really is brighter," Mrs. Shelton decided.  "Yes, I
+see a piece of blue big enough for a Dutchman's breeches so I think the
+rain is over, but you'd better put on your rubbers, Molly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly scarcely waited to hear but danced out of the room and down the
+steps.  "Don't forget your rubbers!" her mother called after her, and
+Molly scurried to the closet under the stairs, grabbed the rubbers,
+snatched up her hat and was out of the door in a twinkling.  Steadying
+herself on one foot, she drew on the overshoes, for there was no time
+to sit down; she could hear the whistle of the cars in the distance and
+knew there was barely time to reach the station before the train would
+stop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was an important occasion, for would not the express bring Molly's
+Cousin Polly whom she had always longed to meet?  And not only Polly
+was coming but their Uncle Dick who was bringing Polly all the way from
+Colorado to the east.  Uncle Dick was not so much of a novelty as
+Polly, but he was quite as ardently expected, for he was the jolliest
+fellow in the world, Molly thought, and, though he teased her
+unmercifully, he was full of jokes and funny quips and amusing
+anecdotes, besides being generous in the extreme and always ready to
+put himself out to do a kind turn.  As for Polly, Molly had many
+conjectures concerning her.  What sort of girl would she be who had
+always lived on a ranch far away from the rest of the world; a girl who
+had never been to school and only a few times to church, who had never
+seen a big city, nor an automobile, nor even a trolley car?  Would she
+be very wild indeed, whooping like a savage Indian and eating with her
+knife like an untutored woodsman?  Would Molly be ashamed to have her
+friends meet her?  These questions, to which the answer was so near,
+Molly asked herself for the hundredth time as she walked toward the
+station.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Already the train was slowing up and in a few moments Molly was
+standing tiptoe, looking eagerly along the line of cars.  Then she
+watched each person who descended the steps till at last she was
+rewarded by the sight of a tall young man who lifted down a little girl
+about Molly's age, a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked little girl, prettily
+dressed, and in no way suggesting a wild Indian.  The instant Molly saw
+her, she was seized with a fit of shyness and could not follow her
+first impulse to rush forward.  Instead she waited where she was till
+the two came up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hello!" cried Uncle Dick.  "I expected you would come at least to the
+next station to meet us, and here you are backing away instead."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Feeling that Polly might think that she really did not show the
+eagerness to see her that she ought to expect, Molly put out her hand
+but was presently seized in Polly's fervent hug.  "Oh, but I am glad to
+see you," she said.  "I could scarcely wait to get here, could I, Uncle
+Dick?  It's such a long way and to-day was the longest one of all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've been just crazy to see you, too," returned Molly.  "I was so
+afraid it would rain hard and mother would not let me come to meet you.
+Where's Uncle Dick going?  Oh, I see; he is looking after your baggage.
+Don't you hate sleeping-cars, and didn't it seem funny to have no one
+but Uncle Dick all these days?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No one but Uncle Dick; I like that," said that gentleman rejoining
+them.  "Are you going to have me called a nobody at the very outset,
+Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I didn't mean&mdash;&mdash;" began Molly covered with confusion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes you did; you said it when you thought my back was turned,"
+interrupted her uncle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly began to pound him with her fist.  "Quit your nonsense, you great
+big, long-legged, old tease," she said.  "You know that wasn't what
+Molly meant.  You aren't a bit nice to her; you began to tease her the
+very minute you set eyes on her.  You'd better be pretty good to her or
+I won't let you take me home again; so there, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Uncle Dick gave her a playful shake.  "You'll be homesick enough in a
+week from now to go home by yourself," he warned her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She'll do no such thing," cried Molly, gathering courage from Polly's
+example.  "She'll just love it here, I know.  Come along, Polly; we'll
+get home first."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, in spite of their trying to run ahead, Uncle Dick's long legs
+overtook them, and with a hand, which they could not shake off, on the
+shoulder of each, he rushed them along so fast that they were
+breathless when they reached the front gate.  Molly's mother was at the
+door to greet them.  She gathered travel-stained little Polly into her
+arms.  "Dear Polly, I am so glad we are to have you with us at last,"
+she said.  "Are you very tired, dearie?  Was it a tiresome journey?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was rather tiresome at the last," Polly acknowledged, "though at
+first I liked it for there were some very kind ladies who came as far
+as St. Louis, but the rest of the way I did get tired of sitting still
+all day.  I am dreadfully cindery and black, Aunt Betty, so I am afraid
+you can't see at all what I look like.  I did try to get off some of
+the worst about an hour ago, but I suppose I am still very black, as
+black as Manuel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is Manuel?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's the blackest one of the Mexicans who work for father," Polly
+replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Take your cousin up-stairs and see to making her comfortable," Mrs.
+Shelton told Molly.  "Well, Dick, I believe you are actually taller
+than when I last saw you.  When are you going to stop growing?" she
+said to her brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When I come east to live," he returned.  "Everything is big out our
+way, you know.  Everything, including our hearts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's true enough in your case," responded his sister.  "Your old
+room is ready for you.  Run right up; I must speak to the maids."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By this time, the two little girls were in the room they were to share
+together, and in a few minutes Polly had made herself more presentable
+by the use of soap and water, and with Molly's help in changing her
+dress.  Then the cousins faced each other and examined one another
+critically, and presently both burst out laughing.  "You don't look a
+bit as I thought you did," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Neither do you," returned Polly.  "I thought you would be fair, like a
+doll I have named Molly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I thought you would be like a picture I have of Minnehaha,"
+returned Molly.  Then they laughed again.  "Isn't it funny that we are
+both named for our grandmother," continued Molly.  "Suppose you had
+been called Molly instead of Polly, wouldn't we get mixed up?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, almost as much as if we were both called Polly," said Polly,
+laughing again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you very, very fond of Uncle Dick?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, yes; I adore him.  We are just the best sort of friends.  He
+is the greatest tease, but I know ways to tease him, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, do tell me," Molly begged, "for he teases me nearly to death,
+though I think he is perfectly splendid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait till he is in a teasing mood, and you'll see," Polly answered.
+"Oh, Molly, I am perfectly wild to think I am to see the ocean.  I have
+lived among the mountains all my life, and I am wild to get to the sea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will love it," Molly assured her.  "Won't we have a fine time all
+summer together?"  She looked admiringly at Polly's curling locks, her
+dimples, and her pretty fresh white frock.  Here was a cousin of whom
+she need not be ashamed.  Why had Uncle Dick called her as wild as a
+March hare?  Why had he given Molly the impression that an Indian was a
+tame creature beside Polly Perrine?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was thinking much the same thing.  Why had Uncle Dick given her
+the idea that she would find her cousin a fair, doll-like creature?  To
+be sure she had seen a photograph of Molly, but she had worn a hat and
+coat when it was taken and one could easily get a wrong impression from
+it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go down," proposed Molly; "I have lots of things to show you;
+besides I want to see Uncle Dick."  She felt a little jealous of her
+cousin's claim to their uncle, and she felt sure her father would
+appropriate him if he happened to come in before she reached the porch
+where her mother was sitting with her brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her father had not arrived, having gone to some business meeting which
+was sure to keep him late.  Uncle Dick was lolling back in a porch
+chair.  "Hello, youngsters," he cried as he caught sight of his nieces.
+"How are you getting along?  What do you think of each other?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly ran to him, and perching herself upon the arm of the chair,
+turned up his nose with an impertinent finger.  "Badness," she said,
+"why did you tell me that Molly looked like a wax doll?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did I tell you that?  Well, if I were a maker of wax dolls, I could
+make one just like her, I think, if I had some of old Doc's tail for
+hair and two pieces of coal for eyes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Her eyes aren't black; they're like two pieces of brown velvet,"
+objected Polly, "and her hair isn't a bit like Doc's tail; it is as
+soft as silk.  Your nose must go up higher for that, sir."  She gave
+his nose an extra tilt while he squirmed under the process.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, there, Polly, that is high enough!" he exclaimed; "it will
+never come down again if you turn it up too high."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope it will not," said Polly; "I hope it will stay turned up like
+Dicky-pig's."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is Dicky-pig?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, he is a little pig I named after my beautiful uncle; he looks just
+like him," said Polly mirthfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Does your brother look like a pig?" Dick asked his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Shelton smiled as she looked at the handsome youth.  "I don't
+detect a striking resemblance," she replied, rising to leave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he acts like one sometimes," declared Polly.  "I want to know,
+too," she went on, to her uncle, "if you have been telling Molly things
+about me that aren't so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He said you were wild as a March hare and looked like an Apache
+Indian," announced Molly from the other side of the chair, giving her
+uncle's hair a tweak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two to one is not fair," cried Dick.  "I draw the line at having my
+hair pulled out by the roots; it is quite enough to have my nose mauled
+all out of shape.  Here, young woman, you must be kept in better order.
+Polly, you are setting a bad example to your cousin; never before has
+she pulled my hair."  He grabbed first one and then the other, stowed
+them away under his knees and held them tight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're spoiling my clean frock," complained Polly.  "Let me out and
+I'll not turn up your nose."  Dick loosed his hold, "till the next
+time," added Polly darting away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dick made a grab for her and Molly, too, escaped.  "Come back, come
+back!" cried Dick.  "I have something for you, Molly, and you shall
+have it if you will answer me one question."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls slowly returned, but kept at a safe distance.  "What is the
+question?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Uncle Dick dived down into one of his pockets and drew forth a box of
+candy which he laid on the chair by his side.  "I want to see how you
+are progressing with your studies," he remarked with gravity.  "By the
+way, is school over yet?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, it closes next week," Molly told him, eying the candy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, then I must visit it and inquire into your record," said her uncle
+with an air of dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle Dick!" Molly was on pins and needles lest he should really
+do something of the kind, and if he should hurt the feelings of her
+dear Miss Isabel whom she adored, Molly did not know what she should
+do.  Miss Isabel might not understand her uncle's joking ways and&mdash;oh,
+dear!  Her anxious look made her uncle chuckle with glee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll go sure as a gun," he declared, seeing a chance to tease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, please don't," begged Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why not go?  Indeed I shall.  I am confident from your manner, Miss
+Shelton, that it really is necessary that I should make some inquiries
+for the credit of the family.  Tell me why I should not go, if you
+please."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why&mdash;why&mdash;none of the girls' uncles ever do go," said Molly lamely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not a bit of reason why I should not start the custom.  What is your
+teacher like?  Old, with little bobbing curls each side her face?
+Wears a cap, does she? or false frizzes and her teeth click when she
+talks?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's nothing like that at all," returned Molly indignantly.  "She is
+perfectly lovely with blue eyes and long black lashes, and the
+beautifullest hair, and she has the prettiest, whitest teeth, like even
+corn on the cob."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My, oh, my!  All the more must I go," said Dick.  "Is she young, dear
+niece?  How old might she be, darling Molly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know; I think about twenty-one, for she has only been
+teaching a year.  She didn't leave college till last summer, and she
+told me she wasn't seventeen when she first went there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Delightful," said Uncle Dick meditatively.  "Where is my sister?  I
+must interest her in this matter.  Now, Molly, sweet girl, answer my
+question and you shall have, not only this box of candy, but another to
+take to&mdash;what did I understand your teacher's name to be?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is Isabel Ainslee, and it is a beautiful name."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I quite agree with you.  Now, Molly, answer me.  How many cakes can
+you buy two for three cents apiece?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly looked at Polly.  This was a puzzler surely.  "Two," she ventured
+uncertainly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Uncle Dick looked at her penetratingly.  "That might be the answer
+under some circumstances," he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This puzzled Molly more than ever and she looked at Polly for
+inspiration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was laughing.  "You're an old fraud," she said to her uncle.
+"That is no question at all.  It is nonsense, Molly.  It depends
+entirely upon how much money you have.  If you have six cents you can
+buy two cakes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you can," returned Molly, seeing daylight.  "I have just six cents,
+so I could buy two cakes at three cents apiece."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you didn't answer; it was Polly who did," said her uncle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then Polly takes the candy," said that person darting forward and
+snatching up the candy box which she thrust into Molly's hand.  "Here,
+Molly, run," she cried.  And run Molly did, holding fast to the box and
+giving one backward glance at her uncle which showed him laughing and
+shaking his fist at the two retreating figures.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just wait till I see that Isabel Ainslee," he called after them.
+"I'll fix it for you, Molly Shelton."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Molly had no fears, for Polly whispered; "He's only trying to
+tease, Molly.  Don't mind him."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER II</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Uncle Dick at School</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It wanted but a week of the time when the delightful season would begin
+which meant long days of freedom for the two little girls, for they
+were to spend the summer in a dear little cottage by the sea.  Ever
+since Aunt Ada Reid bought her cottage it had been Molly's happy
+experience to spend the summer there, and to enjoy the delight of
+running wild.  Polly was already enthusiastic but she became doubly so
+as the time approached and Molly dwelt upon the joys before them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can run anywhere we like and nobody cares," Molly told her, "and
+there is so much to do the days never seem half long enough.  Just this
+week of school, and then free! free!  Uncle Dick didn't do as he
+threatened after all; he has not been to the school once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, he has forgotten all about it," returned Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Uncle Dick had not forgotten, as the day's proceedings proved.
+Polly was deeply interested in school matters, for she had been taught
+at home always, and knew nothing of routine and system, which, even in
+a small school, must be carried on.  She had gone as a visitor with
+Molly when the rules were not so strictly enforced, for in the last
+warm days of the term Miss Ainslee was lenient and Polly thought school
+life perfectly delightful with easy lessons and ever so many
+interesting things said and done by both teacher and pupils.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two little girls were sitting side by side, listening attentively
+to Miss Ainslee's account of the early Britons, when the door softly
+opened and a tall young man appeared.  He looked smilingly around.
+Molly gave the stifled exclamation: "Uncle Dick!"  Polly jumped to her
+feet but sat down again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a hot morning.  The breeze scarcely stirred the leaves of the
+wistaria vines over the windows.  Once in a while a robin gurgled out
+his cheerful song which Molly always declared reminded her of cherry
+juice; the little girls in thin frocks fanned themselves behind the
+rows of desks.  Miss Ainslee's back was toward the door and she kept on
+with the reading, not having heard the intruder who presently made a
+step forward and gave a roguish glance in Molly's direction, to that
+young person's confusion, for the color mounted to her cheeks.  What
+was he going to do she wondered.  He gave an apologetic little cough
+which caused Miss Ainslee to look up from her book with a surprised
+expression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Isn't it most time for recess?" asked Uncle Dick gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ainslee glanced at the clock.  "Why yes," she replied, her
+surprise more evident.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what my sister said, and as it is such a warm morning we
+thought&mdash;she thought some ice cream would be refreshing to you all, so
+she has sent over a freezer; I told the man to set it outside."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pleased giggles issued from the little girls behind the desks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never thought," continued Dick, "but perhaps I ought&mdash;we ought to
+have furnished dishes and spoons.  You couldn't eat it from the
+ink-wells, I suppose."  He turned to the children who again giggled
+delightedly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I think we can manage in an emergency," said Miss Ainslee.  "We
+have a small cooking class here on Saturday mornings and there is quite
+a supply of dishes in the cupboard yonder.  I think we can make them go
+around."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dick's smile grew wistful as he said: "It was pretty hot coming over
+here, but I don't suppose you could ask me to have some of the cream
+with you; I'm not a little girl, you know, and I perceive you don't
+take boys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A tremulous little smile danced about the corners of Miss Ainslee's
+mouth as she moved toward the cupboard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I could help to dish it out at least," Dick added hastily.  "I could
+do that beautifully, couldn't I, Polly?"  He turned to his niece.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you are Molly's uncle, aren't you?"  The puzzled expression with
+which Miss Ainslee was regarding him changed to one of understanding.
+"She has been talking of you for the past month.  Certainly stay.  I
+shall be very glad of your help."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dick cast a triumphant look at Molly.  "Then I'll go right out and take
+off the ice from the freezer," he said.  "Will you have the cream in
+here or out there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Out there, I think," returned Miss Ainslee.  "I like the children to
+take their recess out of doors whenever they can.  I will bring out the
+plates and spoons."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, don't," said Dick.  "Just show me where they are.  Oh, I see:
+among the gallipots and things.  You please go and get the kids&mdash;I mean
+the little girls all settled and I will play butler."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To this Miss Ainslee would not consent, but she dismissed the children
+who fled out with excited whispers, and presently, to their great
+satisfaction, they were served with heaping saucers of ice cream and
+delicious little cakes.  Once or twice Molly and Polly ventured near to
+where their uncle and Miss Ainslee were sitting under a great tree, but
+each time that they appeared Uncle Dick would say in a strong voice: "I
+want to inquire about Molly's marks, Miss Ainslee.  How is she getting
+on with her arithmetic?"  As this was Molly's bugbear, she would move
+off hastily whenever the study was mentioned while Uncle Dick looked
+after her with a twinkle in his eye.  He politely took his leave after
+recess was over, though some of Molly's friends clamored for him to
+stay and tell them stories of the great west, for they had heard of his
+powers in that direction.  He refused to stay, however, though he
+promised that he would come again, if Miss Ainslee would permit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls all gathered around their teacher when the visitor had gone,
+and were loud in their praises of Molly Shelton's uncle.  But Molly
+herself said never a word, though after school was dismissed she crept
+up to Miss Ainslee and whispered: "Did you tell him I never do get half
+my examples right?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ainslee put her arm around her and whispered back: "No, dear, I
+didn't, for it wouldn't have been true.  Sometimes you do get more than
+half of them right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do try," said Molly wistfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know you do," returned Miss Ainslee, giving her a hug.  So Molly
+went home satisfied that after all her uncle's visit to the school
+meant only good will and not a desire to discover the weak spots in his
+niece's record.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Uncle Dick made a second visit to the school at another recess hour
+when it threatened rain and he brought umbrellas for Molly and Polly,
+and rain it did, coming down in such torrents for a while that he
+accepted the shelter offered, and, while the thunder rolled and the
+lightning flashed, told the children such thrilling stories as
+completely absorbed the attention of the whole school, and no one
+thought of being afraid of the storm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then came the last day of the term when Uncle Dick, as invited guest,
+came with Mrs. Shelton to see the pretty Garden of Verses which Miss
+Ainslee had arranged for the closing entertainment.  Even Polly took
+part in that and repeated the lines:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"A birdie with a yellow bill<BR>
+Hopped upon the window sill,<BR>
+Cocked his shining eye and said.<BR>
+'Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!'"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+while Molly, wearing a long silken gown, swept in with rustling skirt
+to say:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Whenever auntie moves around<BR>
+Her dresses make a curious sound;<BR>
+They trail behind her up the floor,<BR>
+And trundle after through the door."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+She was called to the front of the little stage to receive the bunch of
+lovely roses her Uncle Dick sent her, and felt very grand when they
+were handed up to her.  Polly, too, came in for her share of flowers,
+though hers were sweet-peas because her name began with P.  However,
+that did not account fur the white bell-like blossoms which were
+presented to Miss Ainslee, though Polly explained it by saying, "She is
+a belle, you know," and did not see the whole joke till she remembered
+Miss Ainslee's first name.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Polly, Miss Ainslee was a paragon of perfection.  She had never
+before known so dainty and pretty a young lady.  The tutor which she
+and her brothers had was a young man who had gone to Colorado for his
+health, and when stranded in Denver was chanced upon by Dick Reid who
+befriended him and brought him home, where he was glad enough to teach
+the niece and nephews of his former college mate.  Miss Ainslee was a
+teacher of quite another stamp and ardent little Polly adored her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the little girls had returned from the closing exercises of the
+school, their thoughts turned to the next excitement which was the
+journey northward with Uncle Dick.  They were to start the very next
+morning, and their trunks stood ready to go.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they entered the hall, Mrs. Shelton picked up a letter which the
+postman had just brought.  It had a foreign postmark, and Molly knew it
+must be from her Aunt Evelyn, her Uncle Arthur's wife, who lived in
+England.  Mrs. Shelton sat down in the library and opened the letter.
+She had read only a few lines when she exclaimed: "Well, I declare!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is it, mother?" asked Molly.  "What does Aunt Evelyn say?  How is
+Mary?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is better, and what do you think, Molly?  Uncle Arthur is coming
+over and is going to bring Mary with him.  They are on their way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Polly!  Polly!" cried Molly, "what do you think?  Our Cousin Mary
+is coming.  Three Marys in one house and all named after the same
+grandmother.  Tell us more, mother.  When are they coming and how long
+are they going to stay, and all about it.  Are they going to Aunt Ada's
+with us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait a minute," said Mrs. Shelton, scanning the final page of her
+letter.  Molly watched her till she read the last word.  "It is this
+way," Mrs. Shelton told her; "your Uncle Arthur has to come to America
+on business and Mary, you know, has not been very well, so when the
+doctor advised a sea voyage, Uncle Arthur decided to bring Mary with
+him and leave her with some of us while he should travel about to look
+after his business matters.  It was all determined upon very hurriedly
+and Aunt Evelyn is much concerned lest she is giving us a charge we may
+not wish to undertake.  However, I shall hasten to let her know that we
+shall be delighted to welcome Mary.  My own little niece whom I have
+never seen!  It is a great happiness to have both my nieces here this
+summer."  She smiled at Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But when is she coming?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In about a week I should judge."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we will be gone then," said Molly, turning to Polly.  She hardly
+knew whether to be glad or sorry of the fact.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am glad I determined to wait a little later before going away with
+your father," continued Mrs. Shelton, "for now I shall be here to
+receive Arthur and Mary, and can bring Mary up with me on the way to
+Rangeley.  Aunt Ada will be perfectly delighted to know she is to have
+a visit from Mary, for she has asked so many times that her parents
+would lend her for a summer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will be just lovely to expect her," said Molly hospitably.  "I do
+hope we shall like her, mother, and that she will be as easy to get
+acquainted with as Polly is.  I feel as if I had always known Polly;
+she is just like a sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I fancy you will find Mary somewhat different from Polly," said Mrs.
+Shelton, remembering her sister-in-law's exact little ways, and
+thinking of Polly's unfettered life on the ranch.  "However, I am sure
+she is a dear child and that we shall love her very dearly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish she had been here to see the Garden of Verses and our
+costumes," said Polly, who was quite carried away by the morning's
+performance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I suppose she sees much finer things in England," said Molly.  "I
+suppose she dresses much finer, too, than we do.  Why, there are kings
+and queens and princesses over there, and they wear ermine and crowns
+and tiaras."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't the least idea what a tiara is," said Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know exactly myself," acknowledged Molly, "but I know it is
+something you wear on your head and it is studded with diamonds or some
+kind of precious stones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe it is some kind of hat," ventured Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly wasn't quite sure, but she wondered if Mary would have one.  "At
+least she can tell us what it is like," she remarked to Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Shelton had hurried from the room to tell the news to her brother
+and the little girls were left in the library alone.  Molly was
+thinking very seriously.  Presently she said: "Polly Perrine, if you
+will never, never tell any one, I'll tell you something.  Cross your
+heart you won't tell."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly promptly crossed her heart.  "I won't tell," she assured her
+cousin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then," said Molly looking furtively around, "I am not sure I am glad
+Mary is coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, why not?" asked Polly, looking the least bit shocked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, she may be prim and fusty and spoil our plays.  I notice often
+that two girls can play together beautifully, but when a third one
+comes she is sure to want to do something that one of the others
+doesn't like and either breaks up the play or gets mad and goes off
+making you feel sort of hurt and queer inside.  You know it is hard to
+please everybody and the more people you have to please the harder it
+is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly pondered upon this philosophy of her cousin's.  "Well," she said
+finally, "perhaps if she doesn't like to play our way, she can find
+some one else to play with."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course she can.  I never thought of that," said Molly in a relieved
+tone.  "I remember now before I knew you were coming mother told me
+that Mrs. Wharton was going to have her granddaughter with her this
+summer, and I was very glad because the Mowbrays have gone abroad, and
+I expected to have them to play with.  Now we can pair off; you and I
+can go together and Mary can go with Grace Wharton.  I don't suppose,"
+she added after a minute, "that it would be quite polite always to have
+it that way, for Mary is our own cousin and we can't shove her off on a
+stranger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe we shall not want to," said Polly.  "If she is real nice, Molly,
+we won't mind taking turns, or we can all three play together when the
+Wharton girl isn't there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But don't you ever, ever tell that I said I wasn't sure of wanting
+Mary," said Molly impressively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly promised, and just then they were called to luncheon and went
+down-stairs with their arms around each other.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER III</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Mary</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+A week later the family was settled for the summer in Miss Ada Reid's
+cottage by the sea.  In front of them was a stretch of green; beyond
+were the jagged rocks, and then came the ocean.  The landing was some
+distance from the cottage and was upon the bay side of the peninsula,
+so, although Polly had caught glimpses of the sea during her journey,
+she did not have a clear view of the wide expanse until they had nearly
+reached the house and the great blue ocean spread out before her.  Then
+she danced up and down with sheer joy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is just as big and just as blue as I thought," she cried.  "Oh, I
+am so happy!  I am so happy!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly was delighted at Polly's enthusiasm, for she, too, loved the sea
+and the rocks and the wide stretches of grassy hummocks.  "There is the
+cottage," she told her cousin; "the one peeping over that little hill.
+It looks just like a brownie, doesn't it, with its surprised
+window-eyes?  I always call the cottage 'The Brownie,' and Aunt Ada
+says it is a very good name for it, because it is a sort of brown."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should call it gray," said Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is really gray, but it is a sort of brownish gray, and anyhow I
+like the name of Brownie for it.  There is Aunt Ada on the porch
+watching for us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Reid came running out to meet them.  She gave Molly a hug and a
+kiss and then turned to her other niece.  "And this is our Polly, isn't
+it?" she said.  "Bless the dear; I am so glad to see her.  Come along
+in all of you; I know you are as hungry as hunters and I have dinner
+all waiting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Aunt Ada, is there to be baked mackerel?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, and lobster salad, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are the wild roses in bloom yet, and are the wild strawberries ripe?"
+queried Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The strawberries are trying to get ripe, but I haven't seen a single
+wild rose yet.  Come right in; I know by Dick's eager look that he is
+ready for my baked mackerel.  I have Luella Barnes to help me this
+year," she whispered, "and she has a big white satin bow in her hair
+because we have a young man as guest."  She laughed mirthfully and
+Polly thought the way her eyes squeezed up was perfectly fascinating.
+Her Aunt Ada had visited Colorado when Polly was a baby, but, of
+course, Polly did not remember it, nor would her aunt have recognized
+her baby niece in the little rosy-cheeked girl before her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is something like our house," said Polly, looking around with a
+pleased expression at the unplastered room with its simple furnishings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you will feel at home," said her aunt.  "Take off your hats,
+girlies, while I see to dinner, for you know the necessity, Molly, of
+looking after things yourself up this way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just here Luella appeared.  She was a tall, angular young woman with a
+mass of fair hair, very blue eyes and a tiny waist.  The white satin
+bow was conspicuous, and as she caught sight of Dick Reid she simpered
+and giggled in what the little girls thought a very silly way since it
+displayed Luella's bad teeth to which she evidently never gave the
+least attention.  However, they all soon forgot everything but
+satisfying their appetites with the baked mackerel, deliciously fresh,
+the roasted potatoes, young peas and lobster salad.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These taste so different from canned things," said Polly, passing up
+her plate for a second helping of lobster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luella reached out a bony arm and took the plate.  "I'm glad to see you
+can eat hearty," she remarked.  "Give her a real good help, Mr. Reid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly giggled, though she knew the ways of the "hired help" her aunt
+employed in the summer.  Aunt Ada gave her a warning look, for the
+natives were quick to take offense and Miss Ada had no wish to be left
+with no one in the kitchen.  "And when is Mary coming?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we don't know exactly," Molly told her.  "Mother will bring her up
+when she and papa go to Rangeley.  Mother thought it would be in about
+a week.  What will you do with three little girls to look after, Aunt
+Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I expect them to look after me," returned Miss Ada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if they don't do that properly, or if they get obstreperous," put
+in Uncle Dick, "it is the easiest thing in the world to throw them
+overboard.  I'll do it for you, Ada; the rocks are very handy, and it
+will not be much of a job."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly made a face at him.  "I know how much you'll throw us over," she
+said.  "You'd better not try it with me, you sinful evil-doer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see what is before you, Ada," said Dick.  "You'll rue the day you
+consented to have three nieces with you for a whole summer; yet," he
+shook his head and said darkly, "I know what can be done if worse comes
+to worst."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What then, Mr. Dicky-Picky?" said Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's for me to know and for you to find out," he replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My, ain't she sassy?" said Luella in a loud whisper to Miss Ada, "but
+then he ain't no more'n a boy the way he talks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was too much for Dick who could not keep his face straight as he
+rose from the table quickly.  "Who's for the rocks, the cove or the
+woods?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The rocks, the rocks, first," cried both little girls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want to show Polly the dear little pools where the star-fish are,
+and the cave under the rocks where we found the sea-urchins and where
+those queer bluey, diamondy shining things are," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly squeezed her hand.  "Oh, I'm so excited," she said.  "I have been
+just wild to see all those things."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You shall see them in short order," her uncle told her.  "We keep our
+aquarium in the front garden."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where is the garden?" asked Polly innocently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her uncle laughed as he led the way over the hummocks down the rugged
+path to the rocks.  Here they clambered over crags and barnacled
+boulders till they came to a quiet pool reflecting the blue of the sky.
+Its sides were fringed with floating sea-weeds and it was peopled by
+many sorts of strange creatures which thrived upon the supplies brought
+in by the ocean with its tides.  A green crab scuttled out of sight
+under some pebbles; a purple star-fish crept softly from behind a bunch
+of waving crimson weeds; a sea-anemone opened and shut its living
+petals; by peering under the shelving rock one could see the dainty
+shell of a sea-urchin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly gazed astonished at the pool's wonders.  "It is like fairy-land,"
+she whispered.  "I never saw anything so beautiful.  Can we come here
+every day and will the little pools with these queer creatures always
+be just this way?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can always come at low tide," Molly told her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I'll always come down here at this time every day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it will not be low tide always at this time," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, won't it?" returned inland little Polly, quite taken aback.  "Why
+won't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then her uncle told her how the coming in of the tide changes just as
+the rising of the moon does, and that one must know the difference in
+time to be sure.  Then he went on to explain something about the small
+creatures which inhabited the pools, the barnacles which covered the
+rocks up to a certain point.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why don't the barnacles go any higher?" asked Polly.  "I should think
+they would grow and grow just like grass does over bare places in the
+ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They extend only to high water-mark," her uncle told her, "for you see
+they are fed by the ocean.  If you will watch closely, you can see them
+open and close as the waves come and go."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Isn't it wonderful?" said Polly in an awe-struck voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I like it best when the tide is up," remarked Molly, "for I don't
+think all that dark sea-weed that covers the rocks is very pretty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked down at the long ropes of seaweed which clung to the
+craggy places beneath them.  "It makes the rocks look just like
+buffaloes or some strange kind of animals," she said.  "I shall call
+that Buffalo Rock, and that other the Lion's Den, for it looks like a
+lion lying down."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is a dear place further down," said Molly.  "It is sheltered
+from the wind and we have tea there sometimes.  There is a cunning
+fireplace that Uncle Dick built there last year.  I wonder if it is
+still standing.  Let's go and see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They followed the shore a little further and found a flat rock not far
+below the top of the bluff.  The fireplace was nearly as they had left
+it, and only required a few stones to make it as good as new.  Molly
+viewed it with a satisfied air as her uncle topped it with a final
+stone.  "There," she exclaimed, "it is ready for our first afternoon
+tea!  We'll toast marshmallows, too, as soon as we can get some at the
+store."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why can't we get them to-day?" asked Polly who did not want to put off
+such a pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because Mr. Hobbs never has any before the Fourth of July.  He always
+gets in his good things then, but never a day sooner or later.  I know
+him of old," said Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By that time Mary will be here," said Molly thoughtfully, "and we can
+have our first tea-party in her honor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, and she can help us make our Fourth," said Uncle Dick, laughing.
+"She has never known our great and glorious Fourth over there in
+England."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course not," said Polly.  "I forgot she was a wicked Britisher."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not very wicked," said Uncle Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we must never let her think we have any grudge against her because
+we were the ones that won the Revolution," said Molly.  "It wouldn't be
+polite to pick at her because she isn't an American.  Do you suppose
+she will be very snippy, Polly? and will be disagreeable and run down
+America?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, my, I hope not; I'd hate her to be that way," returned Polly
+alarmed at such a prospect.  "It would be dreadful for us to be
+quarreling all the time and of course we couldn't keep still if she
+runs down our country.  What shall we do if she does?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Send her to me," said Uncle Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This settled the matter and was a relief to both little girls, who
+considered that what Uncle Dick didn't know was not worth knowing,
+besides he had a smiling way of putting down persons who bragged too
+much, as the cousins well knew.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am just crazy to see her, and yet somehow I dread it," Polly told
+Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly confessed to much the same feeling and declared that she would be
+glad when the first meeting was over and they were all acquainted.
+Then she undertook to show Polly more of her favorite haunts and it was
+suppertime before they had begun to see all they wished to.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next week Mary arrived with Mrs. Shelton who remained but a short
+time before she resumed her journey.  Mary was a slim, pale,
+plainly-dressed little girl who looked not at all as her cousins
+imagined.  She did not seem shy but she had little to say at first,
+sitting by herself in a corner of the porch as soon as dinner was over
+and answering only such questions as were put to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did you have a pleasant trip?" asked Molly by way of beginning the
+acquaintance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," returned Mary.  "Fancy being seasick nearly all the way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, were you?  Wasn't that disagreeable?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Most disagreeable," returned Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was silence for a few minutes and then Mary put her first
+question: "Do you always eat your meals with your parents, or only when
+you are at a curious place like this?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, we always do," Polly answered.  "Where would you expect us to eat
+them?  In the kitchen?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," returned Mary; "in the nursery."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is no nursery here, you know," Molly informed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know; that is why I asked.  But in the city, or in your own
+home you have a nursery?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, we have," Polly told her, "but we don't eat there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Really?" Mary looked much surprised.  "And do you come to the table
+with the grown persons?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, certainly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How curious!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked at Molly.  "Don't you ever go to the table with your
+parents?" asked Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sometimes we go for dessert."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," returned Polly, "if I couldn't stay all the time, I must say
+I'd like better to come in for dessert than just for soup."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary looked serious, but Molly laughed.  "Don't you want to go down on
+the rocks with us?" asked the latter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think I would prefer to sit here," said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All by yourself?" said Molly, surprised.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, I like to be alone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was too decided a hint for the others not to take, so they marched
+off together.  "Well," said Polly when they were out of hearing, "I
+don't think much of her manners, and I don't think I shall trouble her
+much with my company.  She likes to be alone; well, she will be, as far
+as I am concerned."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, she feels strange at first," said Molly by way of excusing her
+English cousin.  "After while she will be more 'folksy,' as Luella
+says."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well then, when she wants to come with us she can say so.  I shall not
+ask her, I know.  She is just like what I was afraid she would be
+stand-offish and airish.  She reminds me of 'the cat that walks by
+herself.'  I was always afraid the girls I might meet would be that
+way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this Molly looked quite hurt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't mean you," Polly went on, putting her arm around her
+cousin to reassure her.  "You are just dear, Molly.  I loved you right
+away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly's hurt feelings disappeared at this.  "I am sure," she remarked,
+"Mary needn't be so high and mighty; she hasn't half as pretty clothes
+as we have."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And she doesn't look nice in those she does have," returned Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From this the two went on from one criticism to another till finally
+they worked themselves up into quite hard feelings against Mary, and
+resolved to let her quite alone and not invite her to join their plays.
+This plan they began to carry out the next day to such a marked extent
+that their Aunt Ada noticed it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I did suppose Molly and Polly would want to show more hospitality to
+their little English cousin," she said to her brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dick smiled.  "They will in time," he said.  "A dose of their own
+medicine might do them good."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps Mary has really said something to offend them," said Miss Ada
+thoughtfully, "or possibly they misunderstand each other's ways.  I
+will watch them for a day or two and try to discover what is wrong."
+She kept Mary at her side after this, and when she was not doing
+something to entertain her, Dick was, till both Molly and Polly began
+to add jealous pangs to their other grievances, yet they would only
+sidle up to their aunt and uncle or would sit near enough to hear what
+was said without joining in the conversation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are jealous; that's what it is, poor dears," said their aunt to
+herself.  "I must gather them all together in some way."  So the next
+evening when she and Mary were established in a cozy corner by the open
+fire, she called the other two little girls, "come here, lassies.  Mary
+has been telling me some very interesting things about England.  Don't
+you want to hear them, too?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly and Polly came nearer and sat on the edge of the wood-box
+together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "I think it would be a good way to pass the time
+if each were to tell her most exciting experience.  Mary can tell of
+something that happened to her in England; Polly can give us some
+experience of hers in Colorado, and Molly can choose her own locality.
+Molly, you are the eldest by a month or two, you can begin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly was silent for a few minutes and then she began.  "My most
+exciting time was last fall when we were going home from here.  We took
+the early boat, you remember, Aunt Ada, and the sea was very rough.  We
+were about half way to the city when a tremendous wave rushed toward us
+and we were all thrown down on deck.  I went banging against the rail,
+but Uncle Dick caught me, though he said if the rail hadn't been strong
+we all might have been washed off into the sea.  It was two or three
+minutes before we could get to our feet and I was awfully scared; so
+was everybody."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was not rough at all when we came down here from the city,"
+remarked Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is usually very smooth," said Miss Ada, "but the time of which
+Molly speaks it was unusually rough and we all had reason to be
+terrified.  Now your tale, Polly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly sat looking into the fire for a moment before she said, "I think
+the time I was most scared was once when Uncle Dick and I were riding
+home on our ponies.  It was most dark and the sun was dropping behind
+the mountains; it always seems lonely and solemn then anyhow.  I wasn't
+riding my own pony that day for he had hurt his foot, so I had Buster,
+Ted's broncho: I'd often been on him before and I wasn't a bit afraid
+to ride him.  Well, we were coming along pretty fast because it was
+getting so late and we were a good distance from home.  Of course there
+were no houses nearer than ours, and that was three miles away.  I was
+a little ahead when a jack-rabbit jumped up right before Buster's nose
+and he lit out and ran for all he was worth.  I held on tight, but he
+kept running and pretty soon I saw we were making toward a bunch of
+cattle.  Buster used to be a cattle pony and I thought: suppose that
+bunch should stampede and I should get into the thick of them.  I was
+always more scared of a stampede than anything else.  Well, the cattle
+did begin to run but I jerked at Buster's bridle and managed to work
+him little by little away from the cattle, but he never stopped running
+till we got home and then I just tumbled off on the ground, somehow,
+and sat there crying till Uncle Dick came up.  He had no idea that
+Buster was doing anything I didn't want him to, but just thought I was
+going fast for a joke and because I wanted to get home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think that was tremendously exciting," commented Molly, "and I think
+you were very brave, for it lasted so long.  It is easy to be brave for
+a minute, but not for so long."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fancy living in such a wild country," remarked Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but it is beautiful," said Polly enthusiastically.  "The mountains
+are bigger than anything you can imagine, and it is so fine and free.
+Oh, you don't know till you see it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am quite sure I should like England better," declared Mary
+positively.  "London is much finer than New York, which is very ugly, I
+think, and our dear little villages are so pretty.  I never saw such
+queer tumble-down places as you have here in the country.  I think our
+hedge-rows and lanes are much prettier."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind, now," said Miss Ada gently.  "Tell us about your most
+exciting time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Really, I never did anything very exciting, you know," returned Mary.
+"Once I was in Kensington Gardens and got lost from nurse.  I was
+frightfully scared for a little while.  However, I sat quite still and
+she came up after a bit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly gave Polly a little nudge; it seemed a very tame experience after
+Polly's wild ride.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am afraid Mary is something of a little prig," said Miss Ada to her
+brother when the little girls had gone to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Polly will broaden her views if any one can," aid Uncle Dick.  "Don't
+let her flock by herself too much, Ada; it isn't good for her, and she
+needs a little Americanizing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think Polly will be harmed by Mary's gentleness.  She has such
+a charming voice and Polly might well subdue hers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They'll do one another good," repeated Uncle Dick.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER IV</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>The Rhinestone Pin</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+In spite of Miss Ada's efforts to bring the three little cousins nearer
+together, it was some time before they actually did become real
+friends: Mary, seeing that anything she could say against America
+aroused a fierce contradiction from Polly, slyly teased her whenever
+she could, and Polly, who was loyal to the backbone, grew more and more
+indignant, often on the verge of tears, rushing to her aunt or uncle
+with a tale of Mary's abuse of her beloved country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And her father is an American, too.  I don't see how she can do it,"
+she complained one morning.  "She is half American herself, and I told
+her so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What did she say?" asked Aunt Ada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She said she was born in England and so was her mother, so of course
+she was English, and besides, although her father was once American,
+that now he lives in England so he must be English, too.  She makes fun
+of everything, or at least she sniffs at us and our ways all the time.
+Now, is that polite, Aunt Ada?  I live in the west, but I'd be ashamed
+to make fun of the east."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think Mary will learn better after awhile, when she has been here
+longer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish I could show her what my mother wrote to me in the letter that
+I had from her this morning," said Polly.  Then, with a sudden thought.
+"Aunt Ada, won't you read it aloud to all three of us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bring it to me," said Miss Ada, "and I will see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly ran off and came back with the letter which her aunt read over
+carefully, nodding approvingly from time to time.  "Where are the
+others?" she asked presently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Out on the porch," Polly told her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada picked up her knitting bag and Polly followed her to a
+sheltered corner where Molly and Mary were playing with a store of
+pebbles they had picked up on the shore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Polly has had such a nice letter from her mother," said Miss Ada.
+"Don't you all want to hear it?  She gives such interesting accounts of
+things out there, and Mary will get quite an idea of ranch life from
+it."  She sat down and read the pages which were full of a pleasant
+recital of every-day doings, interesting to those unaccustomed to the
+great west, and more interesting to Polly.  At the last came these
+words:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is one thing I want my little girl to remember: the essence of
+good breeding comes from a good heart.  It is both unkind and ill-bred
+to give offense in a house where hospitality is shown you, to find
+fault or criticise what is set before you, to draw comparisons between
+the locality where you live and that which you are visiting so that the
+latter will appear in a bad light.  Persons who have not been
+accustomed to the society of well-bred people think it is very smart to
+find fault with things which are different from those with which they
+have been familiar.  Now, I don't want my Polly to be that way, and I
+must ask her not to be so rude as to abuse hospitality by belittling
+the customs of a house or the town, state or locality in which it is.
+I want my Polly to be considered a true lady, even if she is from the
+wild and woolly west."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary looked a little startled while this reading was going on and when
+Polly stole a glance at her she became very red in the face and turned
+away her head, but to Polly's great satisfaction, from that time she
+was less ready to criticise things American.  In consequence
+warm-hearted little Polly tried to be magnanimous and because Aunt Ada
+asked her to help her to show a generous hospitality, she overlooked
+Mary's praise of England, and would answer her remarks by saying:
+"Well, we have some nice things, too."  Her clear loud voice, moreover,
+she tried to tone down when Aunt Ada told her to notice the difference
+between her way of speaking and Mary's.  As to Mary the benefits of her
+visit were only beginning to tell.  Later they showed more plainly, but
+it was not till there was much heart-burning and many tears were shed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It all began in this way: Molly rushed in one morning, her face all
+aglow with the importance of the news she had to tell.  "Oh, Aunt Ada,"
+she cried, "they are going to have a dress-up party at Green Island
+hall, fancy costumes, you know, and we are all invited, you and Uncle
+Dick and we children.  The Ludlows have come and it is Miss Kitty's
+birthday.  Will you go? and what can we wear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, mayn't I be a grown-up lady and wear a long skirt?" asked Mary.
+"I have always longed to do that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, I am sure I don't object," replied Miss Ada.  "Tell me more about
+it, Molly.  Where did you find out all this?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I met Edgar Ludlow just now, and he gave me this note," and Molly
+thrust an envelope into her aunt's hand.  "He told me all about the
+party."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada opened the note and read:
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"DEAR ADA:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come over to the hall to-morrow night, you and your brother, and bring
+the youngsters.  We are going to celebrate my birthday by dressing up
+in any old thing we can find around the house.  Come in any character
+you choose, from the Queen of Sheba to a beggar maid, only don't fail
+to come and bring the girlies.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Lovingly,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"KITTY."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The three cousins watched their aunt's face anxiously.  "You will go,
+won't you, Aunt Ada?" asked Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I most certainly will.  The first thing to do is to see what odds and
+ends I have in the attic."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From this time on for the next two days there was great excitement
+everywhere in the house, for with five costumes to devise out of
+scraps, Miss Ada had her hands full.  But when the moment came for them
+all to start forth, each one had been provided with something suitable.
+Miss Ada herself wore a Puritan cap and kerchief which distinguished
+her as Priscilla, the Puritan maiden; Uncle Dick looked stunning, his
+nieces agreed, as a Venetian gondolier; Mary was perfectly happy with a
+long trained skirt, short waist and powdered hair, her crowning glory
+being a pin which her aunt had lent her; it was set with rhinestones,
+which in her innocence she mistook for real diamonds, but she was so
+delighted with the shining brilliants that Miss Ada did not have the
+heart to undeceive her.  Polly insisted upon going as the wild Indian
+her uncle had suggested to Molly that she looked like, and though her
+costume did not accord very well with her fair hair, she was painted up
+skilfully and with blanket, beads and moccasins was quite content.
+Molly made a pretty butterfly with yellow paper wings, and as they all
+set out across the hummocks to the little landing every one was
+entirely satisfied.  Green Island was not far away, and, as it was
+bright moonlight these nights, no one minded the trip across the narrow
+channel between the point and the island.  The little hall was gay with
+decorations of Japanese lanterns and wild flowers, and looked so
+festive that even Mary declared it was perfectly lovely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were not very many children present, and the cousins felt quite
+like grown-ups when they danced with Uncle Dick and other young men of
+his age, the music being furnished by whoever would volunteer to play
+two-steps and waltzes.  Mary felt the necessity of crossing the room a
+great many times that she might have the pleasant consciousness of the
+train sweeping behind her.  Polly as a dancer did not excel except in
+funny whirls and figures and in a Spanish dance which she had learned
+from her father's Mexican servants, and which won her great applause.
+Molly had danced often enough in this very hall to which she had gone
+every summer since she could dance at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Mary's first experience of such an affair where young and old
+shared the entertainment.  Never before had she been to any such
+assemblage which was not intended for children alone, and while for
+some time her friends had been slowly converting her to a more
+flattering view of American ways, this completely won her heart, and at
+once all her childish home festivities paled before it.  In her
+enthusiasm she turned to Polly and said: "Oh, I do love America!" and
+Polly, unmindful of her painted face, threw her arms about her and
+kissed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At ten o'clock the guests departed, and after their water trip in a
+small motor boat, they went stumbling home by the light of the moon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luella was there to welcome them, eager to hear all the account of the
+evening's doings.  "You summer folks beat me out!" she exclaimed.
+"Land! to see you rig up in all this trash and dance them funny dances
+is as good as a circus.  I was watching you through the windows, me and
+some of the other girls."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Was Granville there?" asked Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You go 'long," returned Luella, coyly.  "I won't tell you whether he
+was or not."  The girls were much interested in the young fisherman who
+saw Luella home every night, and thought his high-sounding name
+beautiful.  Luella had confided to Polly that they were going to get
+married some day and that she had already begun to piece her quilts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was something of a task to get off their toggery and to rid
+themselves of paint and powder, but finally the butterfly wings were
+unfastened, the powder shaken from Mary's locks and the red paint
+washed from Polly's face and hands.  It was during the process of
+undressing, however, that Mary made a discovery which took away all the
+joy of her evening.  The beautiful shining pin was gone!  She clutched
+the front of her frock where it had been pinned; she examined the fall
+of lace; she shook out the folds of the skirt.  In her distress and
+fear she commenced to search eagerly around on the floor with her
+candle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you looking for?" called Polly from the next room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have dropped a pin," said Mary, in agitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I wouldn't fuss about it; the mice won't eat it up," said Polly,
+sleepily, "and nothing will carry it off in the night.  Wait till
+morning and it will be just where you dropped it, just the same."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This Mary felt to be the truth, and she finally crept into bed, still
+miserable, but hopeful and determined to waken early to make a search
+for the precious pin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon as the sun showed its golden disc over the edge of the ocean
+she was up, creeping softly around the room on her hands and knees, and
+trying not to waken her sleeping cousins in the next room.  At last,
+after she had searched in every possible nook and cranny, she concluded
+that she must have lost it on the stairs or on her way home, so, after
+dressing herself, she stole downstairs, looking upon each step as she
+went, then through the living-room and out on the porch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The air was soft and sweet.  The song-sparrows were singing from the
+house-tops; across the ocean the sun shone gloriously, and pouring its
+beams upon the dew-sprinkled grass, turned their blades into sparkling
+sheaths which mocked poor Mary, searching for false diamonds.  No one
+was in sight but a lobsterman out in his dory.  From one or two
+chimneys the smoke was beginning to curl, showing that there were other
+early risers.  Mary stepped along anxiously, looking this side and
+that, and with her hands pushing the grass aside in places.  Little by
+little she made her way toward the landing.  She would search so far
+and if it were not to be found this side the separating channel of
+water she would trust to luck to take her to the island later.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But no pin was to be found that morning, hunt faithfully though she
+did, and the child returned to the cottage in great distress of mind.
+She was afraid to confess the loss to her aunt, and she could not make
+up her mind to tell one of her cousins.  "I must find it!  I must!" she
+exclaimed, clasping her hands as she left the last turnstile behind
+her.  "I hope, I do hope Aunt Ada will not ask for it first thing this
+morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This Aunt Ada did not do, thinking, indeed, no more of the little
+trinket after having pinned it into Mary's frock.  No one noticed that
+the little girl was very quiet at the breakfast table, for all were
+talking merrily over the fun of the evening before, and no one observed
+Mary's troubled little face nor the fact that she scarcely tasted her
+breakfast.  Her Uncle Dick, however, at last did remark that Mary had
+not much to say.  "I am afraid grown-up parties are too much for Mary,"
+he said, after breakfast, drawing her to his side in the hammock and
+cuddling her to him.  "Are you sleepy, Mary, or don't you feel well?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary leaned her head against his shoulder.  "I don't feel sleepy," she
+told him, "and I am only a bit tired.  Uncle Dick, are diamonds the
+preciousest things in the world?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those glittering out there on the grass, do you mean?  They are fairy
+diamonds, you know, and they disappear as soon as the sun gets high up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know.  I didn't mean those; I meant the kind human people wear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are sold at rather a respectable price.  Are you thinking of
+investing or are you considering the display Miss Millikin made last
+night?  I think I counted thirteen on one hand.  All are not diamonds
+that glitter, Marybud.  Miss Millikin isn't a bit more precious because
+of her diamonds, so don't you go thinking I'll love you any better if
+you have six diamond rings on one hand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But they are most costly, aren't they?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They cost like fury.  That's why I can't be engaged to a girl; I can't
+afford to buy a ring."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary took this perfectly seriously.  "I suppose six little diamonds
+would cost as much as twenty pounds," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, one might get six, not too big, for that price.  The little ones
+cost much less than the big one in proportion.  A large solitaire costs
+much more than a number of small ones taking up as much space.  But why
+this sudden interest in diamonds?  Have you twenty pounds to spend and
+are you thinking of spending it all in diamonds to take home as a gift
+to your mother?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, I have only one pound to spend, and mamma wouldn't wish me to
+spend all that upon her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then let's talk of something else; song-sparrows or sand-peeps or
+sea-gulls, or something not so sordid as gold and diamonds.  Look at
+that yacht out there, isn't it a corker?  Now, when I have money to
+spend I shall not buy diamonds, I shall buy a yacht.  By the way, did
+you know we were all going out sailing this afternoon, to Rocky Point?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are we?" said Mary listlessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why I thought you would enjoy it.  We have been talking of this sail
+for two or three days, and you little kitties were wild about it, I
+thought."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am delighted; of course I am," returned Mary with more show of
+interest.  "Shall we take supper there?  I heard Aunt Ada and Luella
+talking about sandwiches."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, that is the intention.  We shall not try sailing by the outside
+route but will go around by Middle Bay where it is not rough.  Polly
+has not tried sailing yet, and we must be sure of smooth waters.  If it
+gets too much for her we can set her ashore somewhere and she can come
+back by the next steamboat.  She is calling you now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary slipped away to join Polly and Molly.  "We are going to look for
+wild strawberries," they said; "Aunt Ada said we might."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm going barefoot," Polly informed her, "but Molly won't; she is
+afraid of taking cold; you aren't, are you, Mary?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary was most decided in her refusal to take off her shoes and
+stockings, declaring that her mother would certainly disapprove, but
+her heart leaped within her when told that they were to look for
+strawberries.  She would then have an excuse to continue her search for
+the lost pin, and therefore she set for herself the bounds which
+included the path to the landing.  But it must be confessed that she
+found few strawberries and was crowed over by the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You might have known you couldn't find near so many there along the
+path," Polly told her.  "Why, they are as thick as can be over there
+where nobody walks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary made no excuse for her choice, and indeed made no reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You aren't mad, are you?" asked Polly after looking at her for a
+moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary shook her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tell me, are you homesick, Mary?  I won't tell any one if that is what
+is the matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again only a shake of the head in reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you needn't tell if you don't want to," said Polly, walking off.
+She was a quick-tempered little soul, easily offended, and when Mary
+decided that she would rather stay at home with Luella that afternoon,
+than run the risk of being seasick, Polly made up her mind that either
+Mary really was homesick, or that she did not care for the society of
+her American cousins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not going to insist on playing with her.  She needn't think I'm so
+crazy about it that I can't keep away from her," she confided to Molly
+after they had set sail.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but maybe she really is homesick," said Molly, "and maybe we ought
+not to have gone away and left her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Uncle Dick and Aunt Ada said we should."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was because Mary was so determined not to go.  She was seasick
+nearly all the way coming from England, and Aunt Ada thinks that is why
+she was afraid to go to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nonsense!  Nobody could be seasick on this smooth water," said
+Polly, looking over the side of the boat at the blue waves.  "Isn't it
+jolly, Molly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jolly Molly sounds funny," laughed Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So does jolly Polly," returned Polly.  Then, fumbling in her uncle's
+pocket, she found a bit of paper and a pencil; in a moment she handed
+to Molly the following brilliant production:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Golly, Molly,<BR>
+It's jolly,<BR>
+Polly<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+This sent them both into shrieks of merriment, for it took very little
+to start the two laughing, and they soon forgot Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here," called Uncle Dick, "I shall have to make you two laugh the
+other side of the mouth, for you're tipping the boat all to one aide.
+Shift them a little bit further, Ada.  We're going to run into the cove
+for supper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The beautiful little cove made a quiet and safe harbor.  Here they
+anchored and made ready to make coffee, roast potatoes and toast
+marshmallows.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER V</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Mary and the Boy</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile Mary at the cottage was disconsolate enough.  To be sure
+Luella was rather a cheerful companion, and even Miss Ada's Maltese
+kitten, Cosey, was not to be despised as giving a comforting presence.
+Yet the weight of her loss lay heavily upon Mary, and she soon escaped
+from Luella to begin again the weary search.  She was on her knees
+before a large rock when she heard a voice above her say: "What you
+looking for?  A sparrow's nest?  I know where there is one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary looked up to see a barefooted boy peering down at her.  He had a
+pleasant face and appeared much as other boys, though she saw at once
+that he was a fisherman's son, and not one of the summer visitors.
+"No, I'm not looking for a bird's nest," she said slowly; "I've lost
+something.  Did&mdash;did&mdash;do you know if any one has found a piece of
+jewelry?"  It flashed across her that she might do well to confide in
+the little lad.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, no, I don't," he replied, "but I'll help you look for it.  I'd
+just as lief as not.  What was it like?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary glanced around her.  "I'll tell you," she said, "but I don't want
+any one else to know.  I am so afraid my aunt will be vexed.  It is a
+brooch, a diamond brooch in the shape of a star, that I wore to the
+party the other night.  I lost it coming home, I think."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will be pretty hard to find, I'm afraid," said the boy.  "Why don't
+you tack up a notice in the post-office?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, because I don't want my aunt to know.  I thought if I could only
+find it, I'd so much rather not tell."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, say, you don't stand near so good a chance of finding it if
+nobody knows."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary pondered over this, her desire to find the pin battling with her
+desire to keep the loss a secret.  "I'll look a little longer," she
+said at last, "and then if I don't find it I will have to tell."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess you do feel pretty bad about it," said the boy.  "Diamonds are
+valuable and if anybody found the pin it might be a temptation to keep
+it, especially if it wasn't known who it belonged to.  We're pretty
+honest about here and I guess the Green Island people are, too, so, if
+it's found, I guess you'll get it again as soon as it's known who lost
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've looked and looked all the way from here to the landing," said
+Mary disconsolately, "and I don't believe it is here.  I do wish I
+could get over to Green Island somehow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, it's easy enough to get there," said the boy.  "Us boys go over
+often to pick berries, or sell lobsters to the hotel.  I'll row you
+over in my brother Parker's boat; I know he'll let me have it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how very kind!  I would be so relieved.  It is most kind of you to
+offer to take me.  Could we go now, before the others get back?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, I guess so.  You come on with me and I'll see.  Park's down to
+the fish-house, and I know he won't be using the boat to-day.  You know
+who I am, don't you?  I live in that yellow house just this side
+Hobbs's store, and I'm Park Dixon's brother Ellis.  I'm going
+lobstering next year; I'm big enough."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary looked him over.  He was not very big, she thought, but she did
+not know just what was the necessary size for one to reach in order to
+go lobstering, yet it seemed rather to place him in a position to be a
+safe guide, and she was glad he had told her.  "I'm sure," she said
+following out her thought, "that you're quite big enough to take me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course I am," he said.  "I've sot over quite a lot of people to
+Green's Island.  I sot over a man last week."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary hesitated before she asked, "If you please, what is sot over?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, row 'em over.  If you don't take the steamboat there ain't no
+other way than to be sot over, you see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I see.  Thank you.  Shall we go to the fish-house now?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes, or you can wait here if you'd rather."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Upon considering, Mary concluded it would be more satisfactory to go,
+for perhaps Ellis might give her the slip, or, if the big brother
+objected, she might add her persuasions to Ellis's and so clinch the
+matter.  Yet while she stood waiting for Ellis to make his request for
+the boat, she had many compunctions of conscience.  She had never
+before done so bold and desperate a thing.  She had scarcely ever
+appeared on the street without her governess, and indeed it was the
+strict measures of this same governess which made the child timid about
+confessing the loss of the pin.  As she thought about the trip to Green
+Island with a strange little boy to whom she had never even spoken
+before that day, it seemed a monstrous undertaking, and for a moment
+she quailed before the prospect.  Yet what joy if she should return
+with the precious pin and be able to restore it without a word of
+censure from any one.  This thought decided her to follow when Ellis
+beckoned to her.  Big Parker Dixon smiled and nodded from where he was
+unloading shining mackerel and big gaping cod, and Mary knew his
+consent had been given.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a very smelly place," she remarked as she picked her way along
+the wet fish-house floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis laughed.  "That's what you summer folks think; we like it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fancy liking it," said Mary, then feeling that perhaps that did not
+show a proper attitude toward one so kind as Ellis, she hastened to
+say, "No doubt it is a lovely smell, you know, and if I were an
+American perhaps I should prefer it, but I am English, you see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's what makes you talk so funny," said Ellis bluntly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, really, do I talk funny?  I can't help it, can I, if I am English?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, some of the folks that live other places not so far away think we
+talk funny," Ellis went on to say.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do they?  Then there is as much difference in liking ways of talking
+as in the kind of smells you like.  Now, I never could bear the smell
+of onions cooking, and yet nurse says they smell so 'earty and
+happetizing; she drops her h's, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis stared.  He had never heard of dropping h's, but he was too wise
+to say so.  "I'll go get the <I>Leona</I>," he said by way of changing the
+subject.  "That's the name of my brother's boat; he named it after his
+wife.  You'd better come on down to Cap'n Dave's wharf; it is easier
+getting aboard there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary followed down a winding path to the shore of the cove and waited
+on the pebbly sands till the boat was shoved up and then she waveringly
+stepped in, fearfully sat down where Ellis directed, and in a moment
+his sturdy young arms were pulling at the oars.  The deed was done and
+Mary felt as if she had cast away every shred of home influence.  What
+would Miss Sharp say to see her?  Polly wouldn't hesitate to do such a
+thing, she reflected, and after all she was in America which was a
+perfectly free country, so Molly and Polly were always telling her,
+then why not do as she chose?  So she settled herself more comfortably
+and really began to enjoy the expedition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was but a short distance to Green Island, and the water of the
+dividing sound was too smooth to produce any uncomfortable qualms so
+that Mary felt only a pleasant excitement as she stepped ashore and was
+piloted by Ellis to the little hall where the fancy dress party had
+been given.  All the way along they looked carefully to see if by
+chance anything could be discovered of the missing pin, but there was
+no sign of it.  Ellis started inquiries, putting the question to each
+one he met: "You hain't heerd of anybody's findin' a breastpin, hev ye?
+I'll ask at the post-office," he told Mary.  "They won't know who you
+are and if anybody finds it, I'll leave word it's to be returned to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm sure you're very kind," said Mary gratefully.  "I can give a
+reward.  Isn't that what persons do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know, I'm sure.  Nobody about here wants any reward.  I guess
+any of us is ready to return property when we know where it belongs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!"  Mary felt properly rebuked.  Really Ellis was a very superior
+sort of person if he did murder the king's English.  It was quite
+evident that his morals were above question.  She pattered by his side
+till they reached the hall.  The door was open and the place
+unoccupied.  It no longer seemed enchanted ground.  The Japanese
+lanterns looked out of place in the glare of daylight, and the flowers
+still remaining, were faded and drooping.  Instead of being bright and
+festive, it appeared bare and desolate to Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She and Ellis walked slowly around, looking in every corner, but their
+search was not rewarded, and they returned to the boat, stopping at the
+post-office on their way.  The postmaster and his entire family were
+greatly interested in Ellis's tale of the lost trinket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A diamond breaspin, did you say?" asked Jim Taylor.  "Wal now, ain't
+that a loss?  I'll put up a notice right away.  Marthy, you ain't heerd
+of nobody's findin' a diamond breaspin, hev ye?" he questioned a girl
+who came in to mail a letter.  "Some of the P'int folks has lost one.
+If you hear of its bein' found, tell 'em to fetch it here."  He
+carefully wrote out a notice which he pinned up alongside an
+advertisement of a boat for sale, a cottage to let, and a moonlight
+excursion.  "That'll fetch it," he said.  "If it's been found on this
+island, you'll get it.  You tell 'em over to the P'int we're on the
+lookout.  How is it you're undertakin' to look it up, Ellis?  Who's the
+lady?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis glanced furtively at Mary, squirming his bare toes on the dusty
+floor.  "Wal, I cal'lated I could find it," he replied.  "I undertook
+it on my own hook, and I guess I'll see it through.  I'd like the fun
+of restorin' it, if I can, Jim."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The postmaster laughed.  "You're right cute, Ellis," he said.  "Parker
+gone a-fishin' yet?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," Ellis told him; "he's goin' on Cap'n Abe Larkins' boat.  They're
+loadin' up now.  They cal'late to get off in a day or two."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jim Taylor nodded, and, having despatched the business with Ellis, he
+turned to wait upon a customer, for this was store and post-office as
+well.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary was surprised to find that every one, young and old was called by
+the first name; it seemed to her a queer custom.  She would have said
+Mr. Taylor, but Ellis called even the old men Joshua and Abner and all
+that.  She did not criticise, however, for she was very grateful to
+Ellis for not disclosing her secret.  Really he was a boy of very fine
+feelings, she decided, and she spoke her thought by saying: "You are
+very good to do all this for me, Ellis."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis looked confused.  He had not been brought up to receive praise.
+"Oh, it ain't nothin'," he said awkwardly.  Then changing the subject
+suddenly, he exclaimed: "There's Luella Barnes!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where?" cried Mary in alarm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Comin' out of the ice-cream saloon with Granville.  I guess he fetched
+her over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if she's come after me," said Mary looking scared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did she know you were comin'?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, but I said I would go over to the Whartons'.  I meant to go when I
+told her, so maybe she thinks I am there and thought there was no need
+for her to stay in.  She goes somewhere every afternoon anyhow, so I
+fancy she hasn't come for me, after all, though I'd rather not see her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However this was not to be avoided, for Luella had caught sight of Mary
+and was about to bear down upon her when her attention was distracted
+by a friend who hailed her and in the meantime Mary slipped out of
+sight.  "That was Mary Reid as sure as shootin'," said Luella to
+Granville.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess not," he replied.  "What would she be doing over here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I cal'lated she'd gone to Whartons'," said Luella, pinching her under
+lip thoughtfully as she looked down the road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe she did go and they've fetched her over in their launch."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luella "cal'lated" that was just the way of it, and gave herself no
+further uneasiness, so Mary escaped by plunging down the bank and
+skirting the shore till she reached the spot where the boat lay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll row you over to Jones's Island, if you'd like to go.  'Tain't but
+a little way.  There's lots of strawberries there," the boy said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was a temptation Mary considered.  The afternoon was but half
+gone; the evenings were long, and the sailing party would not return
+before sunset.  They enjoyed most of all the coming home when sea and
+sky were a glory of color and light.  It would be a delightful way to
+pass the remainder of the afternoon, and to carry home a lot of berries
+for supper would be an excuse to Luella for her long absence.  "What
+will we get the berries in?" she asked Ellis, when her thoughts had
+traveled thus far.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll run up to the store and get some of those little empty fruit
+boxes; Jim'll give 'em to me.  I saw a pile of 'em lying outside.  You
+wait here."  So Mary waited.  If it should be discovered that she had
+gone off with Ellis in the <I>Leona</I>, she would at least have the berries
+as an evidence of what they had gone for.  Mary was getting more and
+more crafty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The end of it all was that they did row over to Jones's Island.  A
+barren looking, uninhabited spot it seemed from a distance.  Barren of
+trees it was, but when one once reached it there were great patches of
+strawberries, clumps of wild roses and bayberry bushes, pinky-white
+clover, deliciously sweet, tiny wild white violets and many other
+lovely things.  Then, too, it was the haunt of birds which,
+undisturbed, had built their nests there year after year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It did not take long to pick as many berries as they could eat and as
+many as they wanted to carry away, and then when the sky was shining
+gold and pink and blue above and the water shining blue and pink and
+gold beneath, they started home, reaching there just as Luella,
+standing on the porch, was watching earnestly for the little girl's
+return.  Ellis had parted from his companion at the point where their
+roads separated.  His supper hour was over long ago, though he did not
+say so, his parting words being: "I'll let you know first thing if I
+hear anything of the breastpin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you so much," said Mary.  "I cannot tell you how much I have
+enjoyed the afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought maybe you'd stayed at the Whartons' for supper," said
+Luella, as Mary came up.  "Land's sake, where did you get all them
+berries?  I know you didn't get 'em about here.  There, now, I said I
+seen you to Green's.  That's just what I said.  Did you have a good
+time?  Whartons' is real good about their la'nch, ain't they?  Now
+there's Roops hardly ever takes anybody out but their own folks.  I
+call that mean.  Come on in and get your supper.  Them berries is so
+fresh I guess they'll keep till tomorrow, and you'll want the others to
+have some.  I cal'late you've eat your fill of 'em anyway."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Glad that Luella's flow of talk did not demand answers, Mary followed
+her into the house and when the young woman drew up her chair sociably
+to eat supper with her, Mary did not feel any resentment, so happy was
+she that no explanations were expected.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER VI</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Discoveries</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+But the end was not yet for Mary.  To be sure her strawberries were
+much appreciated, and every one was good enough to say she had been
+missed, and that it was too bad she had decided to stay at home.
+"Though after all you weren't lonely," said Molly, "and I'm glad you
+went over to the Whartons'; they are such nice, friendly people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think they are, too," said Polly.  "Luella told us they took you to
+Green Island on their launch."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am delighted that you had that pleasure," said Aunt Ada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I am pleased that you were so industrious as to pick all those
+berries," Uncle Dick put in his word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Mary felt very uncomfortable.  "I am a wretchedly deceitful girl,"
+she told herself.  "Why can't I tell them the truth?  But, oh, dear, it
+is harder to now than it was at first." So she summoned voice to say
+only, "Yes, I did have a real nice time.  Green Island is almost as
+pretty as the Point, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We don't think it is near so pretty," said Molly, loyally.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it is lovely," admitted Miss Ada.  "I wish you could have seen
+Rocky Point, Mary; that is the wildest spot imaginable.  Perhaps after
+a while you will get over your fear of being seasick and can go with us
+on another trip there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it is such a fine place to have supper," put in Polly.  "We had a
+dear little fireplace, and it was so still you could imagine you were
+hundreds of miles away from a house, and there was nothing to disturb
+us&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Except ants and grasshoppers and mosquitoes," interrupted Uncle Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure there were very few of them," protested Molly.  "Anyhow it
+was just fine, Mary, and you must be sure to go next time.  We had the
+loveliest sail home through the sunset."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Through the sunset," said Uncle Dick scornfully.  "One would suppose
+we were in a balloon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, but it was sunset on the water, too," persisted Molly.  "The sea
+was just as colorful as the sky."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When anybody coins words like that I'm ready for bed," said Uncle
+Dick.  And Mary, feeling that the subject of the afternoon's doings was
+exhausted, drew a breath of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three cousins played together most amicably all the next morning.
+In Mary's breast hope was high, for might not Ellis appear at any time
+with the pin?  She counted much on that notice in the Green Island
+post-office.  She was brighter than she had been for days so that Molly
+confided to Polly: "She seems more like us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm beginning to like her real well," admitted Polly.  "She isn't so
+stiff as she was at first."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose her Englishism is wearing off," returned Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But that afternoon when she returned from the post-office, whither she
+had gone for her Aunt Ada, she beckoned to Polly who was playing jacks
+with Mary.  They had a set of jackstones which they had collected
+themselves from the pebbles on the beach, and the place was much more
+interesting because of them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you want?" asked Polly following Molly into the house.  "Are
+there any letters for me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said Molly, "but just wait a minute and I'll tell you.  I must
+take Aunt Ada her mail first."  Her manner was mysterious and Polly
+wondered what mighty secret she had to disclose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go down to the rocks, to the lion's den," proposed Molly when
+she came back into the room.  "We'd better go around by the back way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked surprised.  "Why?  What for?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've something to tell you and I don't want any one to bear.  You will
+scarcely believe it, Polly, and I'm sure I don't know what to do about
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, what can it be?" said Polly.  "Is it anything about Luella?
+Is she going to leave?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, no.  It is about some one much nearer than Luella."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They avoided being seen from the front of the house till they were well
+away, and then they ran down to the rocks and settled themselves out of
+sight below one of the great ledges.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now tell," said Polly, all curiosity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must promise not to breathe a word."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I promise on my sacred word and honor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well then; it is about Mary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mary!  Oh, Molly!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, what do you think?  She wasn't at the Whartons' at all yesterday
+afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked as astonished as Molly expected, though she said, after a
+pause: "Well she never said she was."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She let us think so.  She didn't deny it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But did she go to Green Island?  Now I think of it, all she said was
+that she thought it was a pretty place.  She knew that because she saw
+it when she went over there to the party."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know that, but it wasn't at Green Island that she got the
+strawberries, Polly, and she didn't go anywhere with the Whartons."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you know?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw Grace at the post-office.  I said to her: 'It was real nice of
+you all to take Mary out in the launch yesterday,' and she looked so
+surprised when she said: 'Why, we didn't take Mary.  We didn't go out
+at all yesterday, for Uncle Will had some of his friends up from town
+and they were using the launch all day.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What <I>did</I> you say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I didn't know what to say.  'Did Mary tell you she was with us?' Grace
+asked, and I had to crawl out by saying: 'No, Luella thought so.'  Then
+Grace said&mdash;now what do you think of this, Polly&mdash;she said: 'Why, I saw
+Mary going out with Ellis Dixon in his brother's boat.  I watched them
+rowing off.  I am sure it was Mary.  I couldn't be mistaken for no one
+around here has a hat like hers.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was silent with amazement and Molly went on: "I had to say, 'Oh,
+very likely Aunt Ada knows all about it,' and then I came away as fast
+as I could."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why Molly Shelton!" exclaimed Polly finding her voice, "do you suppose
+she sneaked off that way with a strange little boy when she says her
+mother is so particular that she doesn't even let her go on the street
+alone?  I can't believe it.  I think Grace must have been mistaken."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, she wasn't.  I know that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you know?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw Parker Dixon and he said, 'Did the little girl get home all
+right?  She was pretty safe with El, but I didn't know as your aunt
+mightn't hev been oneasy, seeing they was just two children.  You tell
+her she needn't hev no fear of El; he can handle a boat as good as I
+kin.'"  Molly unconsciously imitated Parker's manner of speaking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then it is true; of course it is," decided Polly.  "Are you going to
+tell Aunt Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know what to do.  I feel as if I ought, and yet I feel sort of
+sorry for Mary.  She is 'way off from all her people and we've been
+picking at her for being so particular and not doing this and not doing
+that, so maybe she thought she was doing no more than we would have
+done if we had been in her place."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know, and maybe we would have done the same, but she needn't have
+been deceitful," returned Polly.  "She could have asked if she might
+go."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She didn't have a chance, for we had gone sailing, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then she ought to have told the first thing, as soon as she saw Aunt
+Ada.  No, she is a sneaky, horrid girl and I am not going to have
+anything more to do with her, if she is my cousin.  I was beginning to
+like her, too."  Polly spoke regretfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So was I," agreed Molly.  "But now the main thing is, shall we tell or
+shall we not?  I hate to be a tattle-tale."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then don't let's tell, but don't let's be more than polite to her and
+she'll see that something is wrong and maybe she will tell of her own
+accord.  I wish she'd go.  I don't like sneaky girls; I'd rather they'd
+be out and out naughty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why do you suppose she didn't tell?" said Molly thoughtfully.  "She
+might have known that Aunt Ada wouldn't punish her or even scold.  She
+would only have said: 'I'd rather you'd always tell me, Mary, before
+you undertake such trips again.'"  Again Molly imitated the person she
+quoted.  "It doesn't seem to me she could be scared of Aunt Ada when
+she's always so gentle and kind."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't care whether she was scared or not, she wasn't honest,
+and I think anyhow it was very queer for her to sneak off with a boy
+she didn't know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I know him; I used to play with him when I was only four years
+old," said Molly.  "He is a very nice boy.  Aunt Ada says that he has
+been very well raised and that any mother could be proud of him.  He is
+real bright, too: why, he can manage a sail boat as well as a man, and
+he's always so ready and willing to do anything he can for any of us.
+He is very different from some of the others who just can't bear the
+summer people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind about him; I suppose he is all right; it is Mary I am
+bothered over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, the only thing we can do is to wait and see if she will tell of
+her own accord; maybe she hasn't had a good chance yet to see Aunt Ada
+alone; we are giving her the chance now, so we will wait and see what
+happens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This Polly agreed was best, but they returned to the house to turn a
+cold shoulder to Mary, and to ignore her in every way they could
+without being directly rude.  So directly opposite was this course of
+conduct from that of the morning, when her cousins had been all smiles
+and sweetness, that Mary's fears again arose and she was so miserable
+that at bedtime when Molly went in to her English cousin's room to get
+a bottle of cold cream with which to anoint her sunburned face, she
+heard a soft little sob from Mary's bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately her sympathies were aroused.  Mary was far from home and
+mother.  What if she had done wrong?  She was alone among comparative
+strangers and who knew the exact truth of yesterday's proceedings?  She
+crept softly to Mary's bedside.  Her cousin's face was buried in the
+pillow, and she was shaking with sobs.  Molly leaned over her.  "Are
+you sick, Mary?" she whispered, "Do you want me to call Aunt Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," came feebly from Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is anything the matter?  Please tell me.  I'll get into bed with you."
+And suiting the action to the word she slipped in beside Mary, putting
+a sympathetic arm around her.  "What is it?" she repeated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Only sobs from Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please tell," persisted Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," said Mary, her tears flowing fast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I won't tell a soul.  I cross my heart I won't."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary checked her sobs a little as she gave heed to the earnest promise.
+It was a relief to have Molly's comforting presence near by there in
+the dark.  But in a moment her tears gushed forth again.  "I want my
+mother, oh, I want my mother," she wailed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you so homesick?  Is that it?" asked Molly with concern.  "Never
+mind, Mary, you'll see your father soon, and&mdash;and&mdash;I'm sorry," she
+whispered, "I'm sorry we were horrid to you.  Is that why you are
+homesick, because Polly and I weren't nice to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, n-no, it isn't that," replied Mary.  "I deserved it, Molly, but
+oh, you won't tell, you won't tell, will you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tell what?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Molly, I've lost Aunt Ada's diamond pin, and I can't find it.
+I've looked and looked and Ellis Dixon helped me, too.  I thought if it
+had been found we would know by this time.  That is why we went over to
+Green Island."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you did go with Ellis."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, he came along while I was looking for the brooch, after you had
+all gone sailing, and he offered to take me to Green Island in his
+brother's boat, and when we got there the postmaster put up a notice in
+the post-office and we looked all over the hall everywhere, and all
+along the road and asked every one we met, but it was no use, and now I
+am afraid to tell Aunt Ada, and diamonds cost so much I could never buy
+another like it."  It was a relief to Mary to thus unburden herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't seem to remember exactly about the pin," said Molly.  "Aunt
+Ada is always getting some pretty new thing, but I don't believe she
+showed me any diamond pin; it must be quite new.  I was so excited
+about my own costume that night, I forget about any ornaments you wore.
+Perhaps you could buy another one some time.  I have some money, five
+dollars, and I'll give it to you; I'll take it out of my bank when we
+go home; that would help."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Molly, how good you are!"  Mary turned over to put her arm around
+her cousin.  "I have a pound, too, and that might be half enough, or
+nearly half, but I am afraid it would be a long time before we could
+get the rest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I wouldn't be scared of Aunt Ada, Mary," Molly said.  "She is a
+dear, and she'll be very sorry, but she will know it was not your fault
+that you lost it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Sharp would say it was my carelessness, and she would be so very
+vexed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then she's a mean old thing, and not a bit like dear Aunt Ada.  Do
+tell her, Mary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," persisted Mary, terror again seizing her, "I am
+so afraid she will be vexed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then let me tell."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, please.  Wait a little longer.  Perhaps the broach can be
+found.  Oh, I am so miserable; Aunt Ada will think I am so careless and
+deceitful, and everything bad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly now felt only a deep pity for the poor little sinner, and she
+began to kiss away the tears on Mary's cheeks.  "Please don't be
+miserable," she begged.  "I think maybe you ought to have told at
+first, but I see how you felt, and I'll not be horrid to you any more,
+Mary.  I'll stand up for you straight along, and when you want Aunt Ada
+to know I will go with you to tell her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary really began to feel comforted.  "I think you are a perfect duck,
+Molly," she said.  "Fancy after all I have been doing, for you to be so
+kind.  But please don't tell Polly; I know she doesn't like me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She did like you," said Molly truthfully, "until&mdash;until we heard that
+you had not been where Aunt Ada thought you were."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And she thinks I am deceitful; so I have been, and I hate myself for
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Polly doesn't know why you did it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then don't tell her; I'd rather anything than that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you want Polly to like you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, but I don't want her to know I lost the brooch."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was useless to try to rid poor Mary's mind of the one idea, and at
+last Molly gave up trying, but she did not leave her forlorn little
+cousin, and Polly, in the next room while she wondered what could be
+keeping Molly, fell asleep in the midst of her wondering.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER VII</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>In Elton Woods</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Polly was all curiosity the next morning.  "Why in the world didn't you
+sleep with me?" she asked, sitting up in bed as Molly came in from the
+next room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because Mary needed me.  She was in awful trouble," replied Molly
+soberly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What was it?" asked Polly eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't tell you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think that's real mean," returned Polly indignantly.  "You're just a
+turncoat, Molly Shelton; first you're friends with me, and then you're
+thick as can be with Mary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm not a turncoat," retorted Molly, angry at being called names.
+"She's as much my cousin as you are, and I reckon if you were way off
+from your mother and had a dreadful thing happen that you couldn't talk
+to her about, you'd want some one to be a little sorry for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think a dreadful thing is happening to me when you talk that way to
+me," said Polly, melting into tears.  "I just wish I had never come
+here, I do so, and I reckon I want my mother as much as Mary does hers.
+I am going to tell Uncle Dick how you act, so I am."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, please don't tell him!" exclaimed Molly, alarmed.  "We don't want
+any one to know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This but whetted Polly's curiosity.  "I think you might tell me," she
+pouted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't.  I promised I wouldn't.  You shall know as soon as Mary says
+I may tell."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't care then.  Keep your old secrets if you want to," and
+Polly flounced out of bed and began vigorously to prepare for her bath.
+For the rest of the time before breakfast she did not speak a word to
+Molly who felt that she was indeed between two fires.  She had promised
+not to tell Aunt Ada and if Polly were to tell Uncle Dick that morning
+that something was wrong, it might add to Mary's troubles.  She
+pondered the matter well while she was dressing, and by the time she
+had tied on her hair ribbon she had concluded to forestall Polly by
+telling her Uncle Dick something of what was the matter.  She decided
+that she could do so without betraying Mary's confidence.  So she
+stepped down-stairs ahead of Polly and joined her Uncle Dick who was
+energetically walking up and down the porch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hello, Mollykins!" he cried.  "I'm getting up an appetite for
+breakfast.  Come and join me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As if you ever had to do anything to get up an appetite," retorted
+Molly, slipping her hand under his arm.  "Oh, you take such long steps
+I have to take two to keep up with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So much the better, then you work twice as hard and can have twice as
+much.  I peeped into the kitchen, but Luella looked as fierce as a
+sitting hen, and I didn't dare to stay; however, I know we are to have
+hot rolls for breakfast; I saw them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The pocketbook kind, with the lovely brown crust all around?  Good!  I
+certainly want a double appetite for those.  Uncle Dick, you oughtn't
+to tell other people's secrets, ought you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No-o, not usually.  Whose secret is burning in your breast?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why&mdash;promise not to tell a soul."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it a murder?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, of course not."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it grand larceny?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know what that is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is stealing something worth while, not like a loaf of bread nor a
+pin, nor anything of that kind.  You know the copy-book says: 'It is a
+sin to steal a pin.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it a sin to lose a pin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, no, not unless it is a breastpin or a scarf-pin and you wilfully
+throw it to the fishes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly drew a sigh of relief.  "Suppose you lose something that belongs
+to some one else; is that a sin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why no, it is a misfortune, not a crime.  You don't do it on purpose,
+you see, and in fact I think the loser generally feels worse than the
+one the thing belongs to.  What have you lost?  Not my favorite
+scarf-pin, I hope.  Have you been using it to pin rags around your
+doll?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, of course I haven't.  I was only asking, just because
+I wanted to know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As a seeker after ethical truths.  It does you credit, Miss Shelton.
+You will probably join a college settlement when you are older, or at
+least write a paper on moral responsibilities."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you do use such silly long words."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I forget, when you tackle these abstruse subjects.  I will come down
+from my lofty perch, Molly.  What more can your wise uncle tell you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a person loses something very costly, something that has been lent
+to her, ought she to pay it back?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is generally supposed to be the proper thing to replace it, but
+half the world doesn't do it; sometimes because they can't and
+sometimes because they don't want to.  Then, sometimes the one to whom
+the thing belonged, insists upon not having it replaced, and would feel
+very uncomfortable if it were, though, from the standpoint of strict
+honesty, one should always make good any borrowed article whether lost,
+strayed or stolen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would you insist upon its not being made good?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shouldn't wonder if I were that kind of gander."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would Aunt Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think she's probably that kind of goose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I am so glad she is a goose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Glad who is a goose?" said Aunt Ada from the doorway.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We were talking about you," said her brother laughing.  "Molly was
+calling you a goose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you began it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did I?  Well, never mind.  I smell those rolls, Molly, and I feel that
+I can demolish at least six.  Come on, let's get at them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although she had not really carried the subject as far as she wanted,
+Molly felt that matters were not so bad for Mary as they had at first
+appeared, therefore, she took the first opportunity to reassure her on
+that point.  Polly walked off to the Whartons' immediately after
+breakfast, announcing with quite an air of wishing it generally known
+that she would probably spend the day with Grace in the woods, and that
+Luella had given her a lunch to take.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada smiled when this announcement was made.  She realized that
+there had been some childish squabble and she never paid much attention
+to such.  Mary saw at once that Polly was jealous of Molly's attentions
+to her small self, and Molly felt so grieved at Polly's desertion that
+she could hardly keep back the tears.  It was very hard to do right in
+this world, she thought.  If she were loyal to Mary she must lose
+Polly's companionship, and she did love to be with Polly more than any
+one she had ever known.  If she clung to Polly, she must give up Mary
+at a time when Mary most needed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She looked after Polly skipping over the hummocks to Grace Wharton's
+and wished she were going, too.  It was so lovely in the woods.  As if
+reading her thought, her Aunt Ada came up and put a hand on her
+shoulder.  "Suppose we all take our luncheon in the woods to-day," she
+said.  "It is too lovely to stay indoors a minute.  Should you kitties
+like to go?  Dick is to be off sailing with Will Wharton and we three
+could have a nice quiet time.  I'll take some books; you can have your
+dolls, and we'll go to Willow Cove."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's where Polly is going," said Molly quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Aunt Ada smiled.  "Suppose we go to Elton woods instead, then."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I like it better anyhow," said Molly truthfully.  "I'd like nothing
+better than to spend the day there, you dearest auntie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then there we will go.  Luella wants the day off, anyhow.  She says
+she must go to town to have a tooth out, for 'the tooth aches something
+awful.'  That is the third since we came.  If she keeps on at this
+rate, she will not have a tooth left in her head by fall.  It will be
+much easier to have a nice little lunch in the woods than to cook a
+dinner at home, don't you think?  Suppose you and Mary run over to Mrs.
+Fowler's and see if she can let us have a boiled lobster; she generally
+is ready to put them on about this time of day, and you might stop at
+Skelton's on your way back and get some of those good little
+ginger-snaps."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Ada is such a dear," said Molly, as the two started off.  "I
+don't believe she would ever, ever want you to get another pin, Mary,
+and if I were you I would tell her all about it to-day; it will be such
+a good chance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll see about it," said Mary evasively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no lovelier spot on the Point than Elton woods.  Here the
+great trees grew to the very edge of the cliffs, and the way to them
+was through paths bordered by ferns, wild roses, and woodland flowers.
+In some places the trees wore long gray beards of swaying moss and
+stood so close together that only scant rays of daylight crept under
+them; in others they shot up high and straight above their carpet of
+pine-needles, which made a soft dry bed for those who lingered beneath
+them to gaze at the white-capped waves chasing each other in shore, or
+who, lying down, watched the fleecy clouds drifting across the sky.
+Near by was a pebbly beach where one could gather driftwood for a fire,
+or could pick up smooth water-washed stones to build walks and walls
+for tiny imaginary people.  There was no end of the material the place
+afforded for amusement, and when they reached there, Molly eagerly fell
+to devising plays.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet, alas!  She missed Polly's fertile brain and imaginative
+suggestions.  Polly was always able to discover fairy dells and
+gnome-frequented caves.  It was she who invented the plays which were
+the most delightful.  Mary was rather tiresome when it came to anything
+more than sober facts.  She would play very nicely with the dolls, but,
+when it came to make-believe creatures, she was sadly wanting, and the
+best response Molly could expect to get when she built a fairy dwelling
+was: "Oh, I say, that is a proper little house, isn't it?" or "What a
+duck of a tree that is you are planting; it is quite tiny, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We always take some of these little bits of trees home with us," Molly
+told her, "and they live ever so long."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder could I take one to England," said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes, I should think you could easily.  We will get some the very
+last thing, and I am sure they'll live quite a while."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would be jolly nice to have one, wouldn't it?" said Mary as she
+watched Molly patting the ground smooth around the one she had just
+planted in the fairy garden.  "I'd like to take some pebbles and some
+starfish, too.  Reggie would be so pleased with them; he would be quite
+vexed if I brought him none after telling him about them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How often you say vexed, don't you?" remarked Molly.  "We hardly ever
+say vexed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know; we say mad and angry and provoked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But then I really mean vexed," returned Mary after a moment's thought.
+"I don't mean anything else," and Molly had nothing more to say.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was after they had finished the lobster, the egg sandwiches, the
+buttered rolls and gingersnaps and were delicately eating some wild
+strawberries the children had gathered, that Molly made a sudden
+resolution to plunge Mary into a confession.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you lent some one a diamond pin and she were to lose it would you
+be very&mdash;very vexed, Aunt Ada?" she asked, after a hasty glance at Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If I possessed a diamond pin I might be, but as I haven't such a thing
+I couldn't be vexed," her aunt said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary jumped to her feet, startled out of her usual reserve.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, Aunt Ada, you did have one!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When, please?  You must nave dreamed it, Mary, dear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you did have.  Oh, do you mean you know it is lost?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Miss Ada's turn to look surprised.  "What do you mean, child?"
+she said knitting her brows.  "I never had a diamond pin to my
+knowledge.  I always liked diamond rings, and I have two or three of
+those, but a pin I never possessed.  What are you talking about?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary laced and unlaced her fingers nervously.  "I mean the one you lent
+me to wear the night we dressed up for the party at Green Island.  Was
+it some other person's, then?  Oh, Aunt Ada, had some one lent it to
+you, for if they did"&mdash;she faltered, "I lost it coming home."  She sank
+down at Miss Ada's feet on the mossy ground and buried her face in her
+aunt's lap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada put a kind hand on her head.  "And all this time you have been
+distressing yourself about it, you poor little kitten?  I ought to have
+told you, but you were so pleased in thinking it was real I thought I
+would let it go, and I have not thought of it since.  Why, dear, it was
+of no value at all, a mere trumpery little rhinestone that cost only a
+couple of dollars."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary lifted her tearful eyes.  "Oh, I am so relieved," she said.  "I've
+searched and searched for it ever since."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Aunt Ada, and she has been nearly sick over it," put in Molly.
+"She cried herself to sleep last night, and the reason she wouldn't go
+sailing with us the other day was because she wanted to hunt for the
+pin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You poor little darling, how can I make up to you for all this
+trouble?" said Miss Ada compassionately.  "I am so sorry; it is all my
+fault for not telling you in the first place."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the strength of this there seemed no better time to confess her
+doings of the afternoon when she had gone to Green Island in the
+<I>Leona</I>, and so Mary faltered out her tale, Molly once in a while
+coming in with excuses and comments so that in the end Miss Ada was not
+"vexed" at all but only said, "If it had been any one but Ellis, I
+might feel inclined to warn you against going out in a row-boat, but he
+is a good, careful little lad, and if you will call it quits, Mary, I
+will, for I am conscience-stricken my own self; but next time, dearie,
+ask me when you want to go on the water."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I will, I will," said Mary fervently.  "It was because I felt so
+dreadful at losing the brooch that I didn't tell this time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a perfect shame," said her Aunt Ada, cuddling her close.  "I
+hope now you will never find the old pin.  I never want to see it
+again, for it would remind me of how my dear little niece suffered."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I was bad.  I deceived you."  Mary's head went down again in her
+aunt's lap.  "I was afraid to tell you," she murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Afraid of what, dear child?  Not of your Aunt Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know, oh, I don't know why I was so scared.  Miss Sharp is
+always so terribly severe when we are careless or try to get out of any
+thing we have done wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I'm not Miss Sharp, honey.  Just forget all about this, if you
+love me.  Of course you weren't quite frank, but you were scared and it
+is as much my fault as yours; mine and Miss Sharp's," she added half to
+herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet they were destined to see the pin again, for that very afternoon,
+as they were coming home, whom should they meet but Polly and Grace.
+"Guess what we've found!" cried Grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"See, Miss Ada, we were looking for birds' nests between your cottage
+and ours, and we found this caught in the grass just near where a
+sparrow had built.  Polly says she thinks it is yours, that it looks
+like one you lent to Mary to wear to the party."  And she held out the
+little shining star in the palm of her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada took it and gave a whimsical look at Mary.  "Yes, I believe it
+is mine," she said.  She tossed it back and forth from one hand to the
+other as she stood thinking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ellis Dixon came along just after we found it, and he seemed awfully
+pleased," Grace went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada laughed softly.  "Thank you very much, Grace, dear," she said.
+"It was good of you to bring it right to me."  Then changing the
+subject she asked, "How is your grandmother to-day?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not so very well," Grace replied.  Then with sudden remembrance, "I
+must go right back, for she worries if I am not in time for supper."
+And she sped away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada stood still smiling and looking from one of her nieces to the
+other.  She continued to toss the little star from one hand to the
+other.  "I know what I am going to do with it," she said looking at
+Mary.  "I'm going to give it to Luella for a wedding present."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER VIII</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Ellis and the Baby</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+That evening Polly was told the whole story and was properly contrite.
+She felt a little aggrieved that she had not been one of the party to
+go to Elton woods, but she realized that it was her own fault, and
+offered at once to "make up" with Molly and Mary.  So all was serene
+again, and the three children sat side by side all evening before the
+open fire, listening to a fascinating story Uncle Dick read aloud to
+them, and at last the three fell asleep all in a heap, Molly's head in
+Polly's lap, and the other two resting against Miss Ada's knees.  When
+they all stumbled upstairs to bed, they were not too sleepy, however,
+to kiss one another good-night, and indeed were so bent upon showing no
+partiality that they all tumbled into the same bed, which happened to
+be Mary's, where they went to sleep, hugging each other tight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The brightness of the restored pin seemed to be reflected upon them all
+after this.  Uncle Dick was so tremendously funny at breakfast that
+Polly fell from her chair with laughter, and Luella giggled so that she
+held a plate of griddle cakes at such an angle that the whole pile slid
+off on the floor; then every one laughed more than ever and Molly said
+that her jaws fairly ached and that she would have to spend the day
+with Cap'n Dave's old white horse, for he had such a solemn face it
+made you want to sigh all the time.  Of course this started the
+children off again and they left the table in high spirits.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet before the day was over they had occasion to look serious without
+the society of old Bill horse, for about ten o'clock Ellis appeared,
+trouble puckering his pleasant face into worried lines.  He had
+forgotten all about the finding of the pin in a more personal interest,
+for the cares of life had been suddenly thrust upon him.  His brother
+Parker the day before had sailed away to the Grand Banks for
+sword-fishing.  He had left his young wife and little baby in Ellis's
+charge.  Now Leona had fallen ill, "and," said Ellis, "it's up to me to
+take care of the baby."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is there no one else?" asked Miss Ada, as Ellis told his doleful tale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ora Hart is taking care of Leona," Ellis answered; "but she has as
+much as she can do to look after her own children.  She's Leona's
+cousin and she's awful good to come in at all.  You see most
+everybody's got folks of their own to see to, and they can't spare much
+time, although they're all willin' enough to do what they can.  I ain't
+much used to babies myself.  I got Nellie Brown to look after her while
+I come up here.  I knew you'd wonder why I didn't bring them clams I
+promised, and so I come to tell you why.  I hope it won't put you out,
+Miss Ada."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We can have something else just as well," she told him.  "We are
+rather used to not getting just what we plan for," she went on,
+smiling, for be it known one could never tell, at the Point, just how
+an order might turn out.  If one expected lamb chops like as not "Hen
+Roberts hadn't fetched over no lamb," or if mackerel had been ordered
+like as not the fish delivered would be cod, and the excuse would be
+that some one came along and carried off the entire supply of mackerel
+before the last orders were filled; therefore it was no new experience
+for Miss Ada to have to alter her bill of fare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm awful sorry about havin' to stay home just now," said Ellis
+disconsolately, "for this is when I expected to get in some time with
+the boat.  I promised two or three parties to take 'em out, and now
+I'll have to get some one else to take my place, but I'll have to let
+'em go shares.  Park's let me have the <I>Leona</I> whilst he's away, but,
+if I could run her myself, I could make twice as much."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three little girls listened attentively, and presently Polly
+twitched her Aunt Ada's sleeve.  "Couldn't we take care of the baby?"
+she whispered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada looked down at her with a smile, but shook her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, why not?" said Polly in ft louder whisper.  "I'd love to."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So would I," came from Molly on the other side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada beholding the eager faces said: "Wait a moment, Ellis.  I want
+to talk over something with these girls of mine."  She led the way
+indoors, leaving Ellis on the porch.  "Now, lassies," she said when
+they were all in the living-room, "what is it you want to do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We want to take care of Ellis's baby," chanted the two, and Mary
+coming in as a third repeated the words.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But do you realize what it would mean?  You would have to give up much
+of your playtime, and could not go off sailing or rowing or picnicking."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We could go picnicking," insisted Polly, "because we could take the
+baby with us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very well, we will leave out the picnic.  I might get Luella to stay
+afternoons sometimes, but you know she goes home to help her mother,
+for Mrs. Barnes has more laundry work than she can do, and Luella has
+to help her when she can; those were the only terms upon which she
+would consent to come to me; so you see we can't count on Luella."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It may not be for very long," said Polly, hopefully.  "Leona may soon
+get well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it is typhoid, as they suspect, she is likely to be ill a long
+time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't care; I'll give up my afternoons," decided Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I'll give up my mornings," said Molly, not to be outdone.  "And
+then the baby does sleep some, so we can play while she is asleep.  Oh,
+Polly, we could have lovely times playing with something alive like
+that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wouldn't it be jolly to have a real live baby for a doll," put in Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see you are not to be put off," said Miss Ada, laughing, "so I will
+allow you to undertake the charge for a week, and at the end of that
+time if I think it is too much for you, I shall have to insist that you
+give it up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we'll never think it is too much," declared Polly with conviction,
+and the others echoed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So they all trooped out to Ellis.  "We have the loveliest plan," Molly
+began eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can have all your time," put in Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am so very pleased to be able to do something for you when you were
+so kind to me," said Mary earnestly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis looked bewildered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The girls propose to take care of your brother's little baby for a
+week, Ellis," Miss Ada explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I can't let 'em do that," said Ellis bashfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but we are just wild to," Polly assured him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, we truly are," Molly insisted.  "We adore babies.  When can you
+bring her over, Ellis?  Shall we keep her day and night, Aunt Ada, and
+may she sleep with me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Ora's sister says she can take her at night," Ellis hastened to
+say.  "She can't leave home very well, and she is too busy during the
+day to look out for her, for she has a lot of children, but none of
+them are little small babies; the youngest is three, and she says she
+doesn't mind having the baby at night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then we'll arrange for the day only," said Miss Ada with decision;
+"that is when she would require your time, Ellis, and we are glad to
+help you out so you can take out the boat when you have the
+opportunity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure I'm much obliged," said Ellis awkwardly.  Like most of the
+"Pointers" he was unused to showing his gratitude.  To his mind any
+display of appreciation was poor-spirited.  He was too proud to let any
+one see that he felt under obligations and to say even as much as he
+did was an effort.  Nevertheless, he trotted off feeling a great weight
+removed, and in half an hour was back again with the little
+four-months-old baby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For that day, at least, the small Miss Myrtle Dixon was overwhelmed
+with attentions.  Polly sat by when she slept, ready to pounce upon her
+and take her up at the slightest movement.  Molly was on hand to urge a
+bottle of milk upon her if she so much as whimpered.  Mary dangled
+be-ribboned trinkets before her the minute she opened her eyes, and
+they were all in danger of hurting her with overkindness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The second day she was less of a novelty, though sufficiently
+entertaining for each of her three nurses to clamor for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is too dear for anything," said Molly ecstatically.  "See her
+laugh, Mary, and flutter her little hands.  She is to be my baby this
+morning.  Let's go around the side of the house, where it is shady, and
+play.  You can have the place under the porch for your house, Polly,
+and Mary can have the wood-shed.  I'll take the cellar."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but that will be too cold and damp for the baby," said Mary.  "You
+take the wood-shed and I'll take the cellar," she added generously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly agreed and presently baby was established in a crib made of the
+clothes-basket where she lay contentedly sucking her thumb.  Mary,
+hugely enjoying herself, kept house in the cellar.  She sat at the door
+in a rocking-chair which she rocked back and forth with a blissful
+expression on her face.  If there was any American comfort which Mary
+did appreciate it was a rocking-chair.  She had never seen one till she
+came to the United States, neither had she ever before made the
+acquaintance of chewing-gum.  This was a luxury seldom allowed the
+little girls.  "It is a disgusting habit," Miss Ada declared, "and I
+don't want you children to acquire it.  Your mother, Mary, would be
+shocked if she saw you use it."  But once in a while Uncle Dick slyly
+furnished each with a package and Miss Ada allowed them to have it,
+though protesting all the time to her brother.  This special morning
+Uncle Dick had hidden a package under each of their breakfast plates,
+and it is needless to say that three pairs of jaws were working
+vigorously as they played house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm agoing to ask Aunt Ada if we may go barefoot," announced Molly;
+"it is plenty warm enough to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary jumped up, tipping over her rocking-chair as she did so.  "Oh,
+does she allow you to do that?" she cried.  "I've always secretly
+longed to, but Miss Sharp is perfectly horrified when we ask her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other two looked at each other with a little smile, for it was not
+such a great while before this that Mary herself had been horrified at
+the suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Ada doesn't care, if it is warm enough," Molly informed her.  "I
+always go barefoot up here, if I feel like it and it isn't too cold.
+I'll go ask her now.  Watch the baby for me, girls."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They promised to be faithful nurses while Molly went on her errand.
+She was gone some time and when she returned she was carefully bearing
+a plate of fresh doughnuts.  "Which would you rather have, Polly," she
+cried, "doughnuts or chewing-gum? you can't have both, Aunt Ada says."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Doughnuts," decided Polly without hesitation taking the chewing-gum
+from her mouth and slapping it securely against a stone in the
+foundation of the porch.  "Don't they look good?  So brown and sugary.
+I do think Luella makes the best doughnuts," and she helped herself to
+a specially fat, appetizing one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Which do you choose, Mary?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary continued her rocking and chewing.  "I'll keep the gum, thank you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly laughed.  "That is what Aunt Ada said you would do.  And girls,
+we may take off our shoes and stockings.  How's the baby, Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sound asleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good!  Then I reckon we can leave her for a while, I do want to get my
+bare toes on the grass, don't you?  Come on, Polly, and let's hunt for
+snakes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Snakes!"  Mary jumped to her feet in horror.  "Are there snakes here?
+Fancy!"  She gathered her skirts about her and looked ready to fly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes.  Do you mind them?" returned Molly calmly.  "Polly and I
+love the little green grass snakes; they are perfectly harmless and are
+so pretty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pretty?  I could never imagine anything pretty about a snake," replied
+Mary, recoiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My word! Molly, just fancy your talking so of a horrid snake."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly laughed at her horror.  "They aren't poisonous, Mary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the very idea of them is so loathsome."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't unless you make it so," put in Polly.  "I like all kinds of
+little creatures so long as they don't bite or sting, and some of
+those, like bees, for example, I like, though I don't want them to get
+too near me.  Of course when it comes to rattlesnakes or copperheads,
+or such, I am afraid of them, but these little grass snakes are
+different."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Mary could not be persuaded to give up her prejudices and would
+none of the snakes, so they decided to gather buttercups, and wandered
+off among the soft grasses on the hilltop.  But it was only when they
+saw Luella wildly waving the dish-cloth to attract their attention that
+they remembered the baby.  Then they started toward the cottage
+post-haste, arriving there to find Miss Ada walking the floor with the
+baby and trying to still its cries.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is the matter with her?" cried Molly rushing in.  "We thought she
+was sound asleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Babies don't sleep forever," remarked Luella sarcastically.  "Here,
+Miss Ada, I'm used to 'em.  Let me see if there's a pin stickin' her
+anywhere; there's no knowin' what foolin' with her clothes these
+children have been doin'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The children dared not protest against this charge while Miss Ada said:
+"Oh, I have looked and she seems all right," but she relinquished the
+baby into Luella's capable hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That young woman turned the screaming infant over, felt for an
+offending pin, turned her back again, and finally laid her across her
+knees and began to pat her on the back.  "I guess she's got colic," she
+decided.  "Molly, you just step up to Mis' Chris Fisher's and see if
+she's got a handful of catnip.  She mostly does keep it, seein' she
+always has got a baby on hand.  There, there, there," she tried to
+soothe the child on her knees.  "Miss Ada, you'll either have to take
+her or see to them pies in the oven; I can't do both."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll see to the pies," responded Miss Ada escaping to the kitchen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly was already on her way to Mrs. Chris Fisher's.  Polly vainly
+tried to attract the baby's attention by every means within her power.
+Mary stood by suggesting alternately mustard poultices and ginger tea,
+which suggestions Luella contemptuously put aside.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see what's the matter with her unless it is colic," she
+remarked.  "She may be subject to it; I ain't heard say.  I'll ask Ora
+next time I go out.  When was she fed last?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, I don't know."  The two little girls looked at each other.  "Did
+you give her the bottle, Mary?" asked Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," was the reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe Molly did.  I reckon it was Molly; she was playing she was
+mother this morning, you know."  Luella said nothing but continued the
+rocking movement of her knees till Molly came in, breathless, with the
+bunch of dried catnip.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose she's been fed regular," said Luella addressing Molly, "and
+you've took care to give her the milk warm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear!"  Molly stood still.  "I forgot she had to be fed oftener
+than we are, and oh, Luella, I am afraid the last milk she took wasn't
+real warm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then no wonder she's yellin' like mad," said Luella disgustedly.
+"You're a nice set to take care of a young un.  Here, some of you hold
+her whilst I get her milk and give it to her right.  If she ain't got
+colic from cold milk she's starvin'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly meekly took charge of the screaming child who did not cease its
+crying till Luella, returning with the bottle of milk, thrust the
+rubber nipple into its mouth; then suddenly all was quiet.  "Just what
+I thought; half starved," said Luella.  "It looks as if I'd got to see
+to the youngster, if she stays here.  Miss Ada's not much better than
+the rest of you.  What does she know about babies?  I guess Ellis can
+beat the best of you, after all, when it comes to 'tendin' babies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little girls felt properly abashed.  Only the second day of the
+baby's stay and she had gone hungry for an hour, while the day before
+she had been overfed.  It did not look as if their benevolent plan
+worked very well, and indeed, by the end of the week, Miss Ada decided
+that Miss Myrtle must return to her own.  This was made easier by her
+grandmother's arrival upon the scene, and there were helpers enough to
+relieve Ellis for at least half the day.  However the interest in
+Parker Dixon's family did not end at once.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER IX</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>New Burdens for Ellis</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The three cousins were having a tea on the rocks with their friend
+Grace Wharton.  Luella had baked them some tiny biscuits and some wee
+ginger-snaps; they had made the fudge themselves, and as for the tea,
+the amount Miss Ada allowed them would not affect the nerves of any one
+of the four.  There was plenty of hot water in the little brass
+tea-kettle, and an unlimited supply of milk and sugar.  A big flat rock
+served as a table, and smaller ones gave them excellent seats.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had just finished eating the last of the cakes and were nibbling
+the fudge when Polly, perched highest on the rocks, exclaimed: "There's
+Granville talking to Luella!  I wonder what he is doing up here this
+time of day.  They look real excited.  There, Luella is going into the
+house.  Now Aunt Ada has come out with her and they are all talking
+together.  I believe I'll go up and see what it is all about.  Don't
+eat up all the fudge."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hurry back then," Molly called after her.  "Let's hide it, girls, and
+pretend when she comes back that we've eaten it all up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll hide it," said Grace.  She ran down a little way below them and
+poked the remaining pieces of fudge into a crevice in the rock, and
+then returned to await Polly's return, who in a few minutes came
+running back.  "Oh," she said, "I have something to tell you.  Our poor
+little baby hasn't any father.  He has been drowned."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how dreadful!"  Three pairs of startled eyes showed how this news
+affected the little tea-drinkers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do tell us about it," said Molly setting down the cup from which she
+was draining the last sugary drop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I didn't hear all about it," Polly told them, "but I know he tried to
+save one of his shipmates and couldn't, and they were both drowned.
+Luella is going down to stay with Ora's children this afternoon.  They
+haven't told Leona yet, and poor Ellis is perfectly distracted,
+Granville says.  Isn't it sad, when Leona has been so ill and now this
+dreadful thing has happened?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I feel so very sorry for Ellis," remarked Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So do I," said Polly, "for the baby isn't big enough to know, and
+maybe Leona can get another husband, but Ellis can't get another
+brother."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all agreed that this was a plain fact and sat quite solemnly
+looking off at the blue sea which had so cruelly swallowed up Parker.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last Polly gave a long sigh, and she broke the silence by
+exclaiming, "There, you mean piggies, you ate up all the fudge!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You were gone so long," said Molly giving Grace a nudge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't care; you ought to have saved an extra piece for my bringing
+you such exciting news."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it was such sad news," said Grace turning away her head so Polly
+could not see her smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it is sad you needn't laugh about it," said Polly severely.  "I
+believe you hid it!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you think so, look for it," said Molly.  And Polly immediately set
+to work to search each one of the party, but could not find a crumb of
+fudge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she seized Molly, playfully shaking her.  "Tell me truly, did you
+eat it all?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amid her struggles to free herself, Molly confessed that they had not.
+"But, I can't find it," Polly persisted.  "Do you know where it is,
+Molly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Molly!"  This from Grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't exactly know.  You hid it," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then Grace Wharton, tell me."  Polly loosed her hold upon Molly, and
+turned to Grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, the first that finds it can divide it and can have an extra piece."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In vain the three searched up and down the cliff.  "Grace said she hid
+it between two rocks," announced Molly at last.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then she's just got to find it," said Polly.  "Grace!  Grace!" she
+called.  And Grace responded by appearing on the rocks above them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'll have to show us where you hid it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On Grace's face was an expression of concern as she came swiftly
+clambering down to them.  "Why, girls," she cried as she reached the
+spot where they stood, "I'm awfully afraid that&mdash;&mdash;  Oh, dear, why
+didn't I remember about the tide; I'm afraid they're spoiled."  She ran
+to a rock a little lower down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look out or you'll get splashed," warned Molly.  "There's a big wave
+coming in."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Grace sprang back to avoid the swash of water which poured over the
+rock at her feet; then she exclaimed ruefully: "If I wasn't sure
+before, I am now!  The fudge is just under that rock, between those two
+small ones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then it's simply all salty, if it isn't gone entirely," declared
+Molly.  True enough when they examined the spot, during a lull in the
+inpour of waves, they discovered only a couple of water-soaked bits of
+fudge, fast melting away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our joke didn't turn out very well," said Molly turning to Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, never mind," returned Polly cheerfully, "it would all be eaten up
+and forgotten anyhow if I had not gone up to the house, so what's the
+difference?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll make some very soon," Grace assured her.  "I'll do it to-night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, don't mind," said Polly.  "We've had enough for to-day.  See,
+there is Aunt Ada coming down to us.  She will tell us more about the
+Dixons."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada came with a scheme to unfold.  "I'm going over to Green
+Island," she told them, "and if I am not back in time for supper you
+children hunt around and get something for yourselves.  Luella has gone
+to stay with Ora's family so Ora can be with Leona.  She will need all
+the comfort she can get.  We must try to help the poor girl, for her
+illness and all this will take everything they may have saved.  Ellis
+is pitifully sad, but he says he means to support the family.  Poor
+little chap, as if he could!  I am going to try to arrange a bazaar or
+cake sale or something to help them; you children may help if you like."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, may we?  How lovely!" cried Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've helped at fairs," said Grace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And once I helped my aunt at a tea she gave the village children,"
+said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll do everything I can, though I never saw a fair or a bazaar," said
+Polly.  "Tell us more about it, Aunt Ada."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tell her all you know, girls," said Aunt Ada.  "I must go now.  You
+will not be afraid to stay alone till I get back, will you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her nieces assured her that they would not, and she left them in quite
+a state of excitement, for, sad as the occasion was, they could not
+help anticipating the pleasure of the bazaar.  "We will have such a
+lovely time getting ready for the sale," said Molly.  "We have had them
+here before, and they are lots of fun.  I know what I am going to do.
+I'm going to the wood-pile and strip off a whole lot of birch bark to
+make things of."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What kind of things?" asked Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, all sorts of things; napkin rings and picture frames and boxes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!"  Mary was interested.  She had never seen such things except
+those that the Indian peddlers brought around to the cottages, and
+never did one appear over the brow of the hill, bowed under the burden
+of his baskets, that she did not run for her purse, and by now had
+quite an array of gifts for her English friends.  To add to these a
+supply of birch-bark souvenirs which she could make herself was a
+prospect truly delightful.  "It is very convenient that a quarter is
+about the same as a shilling," she remarked, "but I can never remember
+that a penny is two cents; it seems as if an American penny should be
+the same as an English one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should think you would be glad it isn't," said Polly, "for when you
+are counting at the rate of our pennies you have twice as many as you
+would have English ones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't know," said Mary thoughtfully.  "I had a whole pound
+when I reached here, and Uncle Dick had it changed into American money.
+I thought I had such a number of pennies and I found they were only
+cents, but then one can buy a great many things here for a cent that
+one would have to pay a penny for at home, especially sweets."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening she sat fingering her little hoard while Molly was busy
+preparing her birch bark.  "I think I can do very nicely," announced
+Mary.  "I shall have a dollar to spend at the bazaar.  Oh, is that the
+way you do the napkin rings, Molly?  Could I do some, do you think?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course you could," said Molly, encouragingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know what I am going to do," said Polly, jumping up; "I'm going to
+get some tiny pine trees to put into little birch-bark boxes; they will
+look so pretty.  Come on, Molly, it isn't dark yet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but we mustn't get them now," replied Molly.  "We must wait till
+the very last thing, so they will look as fresh as possible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly stopped short.  In her impetuous way she had forgotten this
+important point.  "Oh, I never thought of that," she said.  "Well,
+anyhow, we can make the boxes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't believe we can do those either," returned Molly, further
+dampening Polly's ardor.  "We ought to have some small wooden boxes to
+tack or glue the bark on.  We can try some little baskets with handles,
+and we can fill those with fudge or some kind of home-made candy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, very well, we'll begin on those, then."  And Polly sat down
+contentedly with the others to try her ingenuity.  They became so
+absorbed in their work that they forgot all about supper, the more so
+that their afternoon tea had taken the edge from their appetites, and
+it was not till the maid from the Whartons came over for Grace, saying
+that her grandmother was wondering how much longer they must save her
+supper for her that they realized how late it was.  Then Grace having
+scurried home, the three cousins searched about to see what was in the
+larder for themselves.  They found plenty of bread and butter,
+ginger-snaps and stewed gooseberries, but not much else, so they sat
+down contentedly to this fare while the sunset turned from rose to
+purple and then to gray.  It was late enough in the season for the
+evenings to become chilly after sundown, and Polly proposed that they
+should have an open fire.  "We can sit around and tell stories," she
+said, "and we can go on with our work at the same time, so the time
+will pass very quickly till Aunt Ada comes back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll love that," declared Molly.  "I think telling stories is the very
+nicest way of passing away the time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So do I," said Mary, "when I don't have to tell the stories.  I never
+know anything interesting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but you do," protested Polly.  "We like to hear about England, of
+how you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers in the
+schoolroom, of how you can't walk out without your governess or some
+one older and all about not having sweet potatoes nor corn, and of how
+tomatoes are grown under glass and all those ways that are so different
+from ours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But that isn't a real tale," objected Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind, we like to hear it," said Molly.  "What are you doing,
+Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am building the fire; there must be a whole lot of light stuff to
+set it going."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That looks like a good deal," said Molly doubtfully regarding the pile
+of bark, shaving and light wood that Polly was stowing in the fireplace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will kindle all the quicker," returned Polly in a satisfied voice,
+touching the kindling with a lighted match.  In an instant not only was
+the light stuff all ablaze, but the flames, leaping out, caught the
+white apron which Polly had put on, half in sport, when they were
+getting their supper.  It was one of her Aunt Ada's and reached to
+Polly's ankles, so that she seemed enveloped in flames.  She shrieked,
+but stood still.  Quick as a flash Mary caught up the pitcher of water
+standing on the table and dashed it over her cousin, then she grabbed
+her and threw her on the floor, snatching up the rug from the floor
+before doing so, thus protecting herself, and at the same time
+providing a means of putting out the fire which she did by rolling
+Polly in the rug.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly was perfectly helpless with fright and all she could do was to
+wring her hands and cry, "Oh, what shall we do?  What shall we do?  Oh,
+Polly, Polly!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just as the fire was all crushed out, the door opened and in walked
+their Uncle Dick.  Molly rushed to him.  Throwing herself in his arms,
+she cried: "Oh, Polly is burning up!  Save her!  Save her!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is all this?" said Dick springing forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary arose from where she was kneeling over Polly.  "I think it is all
+out now," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly unwound herself from her mummy-like case.  "Are you badly hurt?"
+her uncle asked anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," she said with a sobbing breath; "only my legs hurt me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did it all happen?" said her uncle, picking her up and setting her
+in a chair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We were kindling the fire," explained Mary, "and Polly's apron caught."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Mary saved her life," sobbed Molly completely unnerved.  "She
+threw water on her, and rolled her in the rug."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is what my governess said we should do in such cases," said Mary
+quietly, though her face was twitching.  "I never loved Miss Sharp
+before," she added with a little laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You certainly did save Polly's life," said her uncle as he examined
+Polly's clothing.  "Fortunately she has on a woolen frock and has been
+only slightly scorched about the legs.  The fire evidently did not
+reach her bare flesh.  You didn't breathe the flames, did you, Polly,
+for I see the fire did not go above your waist."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sure I didn't breathe any flames," Polly assured him.  "Mary was
+so quick.  She saw at once that I had caught fire and she threw the
+water over me right away, but oh, Uncle Dick, I may not be burned
+badly, but it does hurt."  And she buried her face on her uncle's
+shoulder to hide her tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor little girl, I know it hurts," he said.  "Get some salad oil,
+Molly, and some baking soda; then see if you can find an old
+handkerchief or two and some raw cotton.  We must try to ease this
+wounded soldier.  How did you children happen to be here alone?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary explained, her uncle listening attentively.  "I wish I had known
+it," he said; "I would not have stayed to supper with the boys.  We
+came in on the Gawthrops' yacht about supper-time and they persuaded me
+to stay, but somehow I felt that I ought to get home soon after.  You
+children must not be left alone again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll never try to kindle another fire," said Polly woefully.  "Molly
+said I was putting on too much light stuff and it just leaped out like
+a tiger to bite me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly had returned with the oil and other things by this time, and soon
+Polly was made as comfortable as her hurts would allow, but it was some
+days before she could run about, and if there was anything lacking in
+her affection for her English cousin before this, now it was that she
+could not bear her out of sight, for Mary, by her coolness and capable
+help, had proved herself a heroine to be loved and admired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although this scare was the important topic with the family for some
+time, the scheme for helping the distressed Dixon family went forward
+rapidly and the next week when Polly's burns gave her no more
+uneasiness, the bazaar was held.  There was no prettier table the
+length of the room than that at which Miss Ada presided, assisted by
+her three little nieces.  Their Uncle Dick had cleverly helped them
+with the decorations as well as with their birch bark boxes in which
+were planted the little pine trees.  These were so much admired that
+not one was left after the sale, and Mary had to bespeak some to be
+made for her to carry home.  Some little packages of fudge and
+home-made candies went off rapidly, and of Luella's famous doughnuts
+not one was left.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was at the end of the sale when the biggest, finest cake was yet
+waiting a buyer that Polly had a whispered talk with her Uncle Dick and
+afterward stood in front of the cake table holding fast to her purse.
+The cake in all the deliciousness of nut-spotted icing and rich
+interior, was delivered to her when she paid over the amount asked for
+it.  Taking the treasure in her hands she bore it over to where Mary
+was helping her aunt count up the money they had taken in.  Polly set
+the cake on the table before Mary.  "There," she said, "it is all
+yours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mary.  "Who said so?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I say so.  I bought it for you because you said it looked so perfectly
+delicious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary was quite overcome by Polly's generosity, but she understood the
+motive, and accepted the cake graciously, promising to divide it with
+the family.  It certainly was a delicious cake, and Polly really
+enjoyed her share of it, feeling that in this instance she could have
+her cake and eat it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Over a hundred dollars!  I can scarcely believe it," said Miss Ada
+when all the receipts were in.  But so it was, and so did little Ellis
+Dixon have his burdens lifted, for a hundred dollars will go a long way
+when fish can be had for the catching, and when one has his own potato
+patch.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER X</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>Arabs</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Of all the things which most amused the three little girls and their
+friend, Grace, they enjoyed dressing up at dusk, and, in their queer
+costumes, going around from cottage to cottage to call.  Uncle Dick was
+very clever in painting their faces so that they appeared as birds with
+owl-like eyes and beaks or as cats, rabbits or some other animal.  At
+other times they were Indians in war paint and feathers; again they
+were Egyptians or Chinese and dressed to suit the character.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What shall we do this evening?" said Polly one day when the question
+of the evening's fun was being talked over.  "We want to go to Mrs.
+Phillips's this time because she gives us such good cakes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's pretty far," said Molly doubtfully.  "It is almost to the
+village, and there are some rough boys down that way.  I don't mind
+going to Mrs. Phillips's in the morning, but if we should happen to get
+caught there after the sun goes down I shouldn't like it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We needn't get caught late," Polly protested, "besides, it is so much
+more mysterious to go around when it is a little bit duskish.  It isn't
+as if any one of us would be alone; there will be four and nobody
+around here would do anything to hurt us, anyhow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I don't suppose any one really would," Molly returned weakly, her
+objections over-ruled.  And therefore when the cottages began to loom
+darkly against the evening sky, the four little girls sallied forth,
+draped in white sheets, and made their way over the hilltop to the road
+beyond.  They had usually confined their visits to their acquaintances
+in the immediate neighborhood, so their aunt did not trouble herself to
+inquire where they were going that evening, otherwise she might have
+forbidden the walk they had in mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't they look like four dear little Arabs?" said Miss Ada to her
+brother.  "They make a perfect picture as they go over the hill in the
+evening light.  How much they enjoy these little frolics."  She turned
+from watching the white-sheeted four who soon disappeared down the road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was great fun, thought the girls, to call upon their various friends
+and pretend they were foreigners who did not understand the language of
+those whom they were visiting; yet they understood enough to accept
+refreshments offered them, and managed to say, "thank you" and
+"good-bye."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was after they had been regaled upon cakes and lemonade at Mrs.
+Phillips's that the moment came which Molly had been dreading.  The
+shadows had deepened and the stars were trying to come out, while a
+little light still lingered in the western sky.  "We'd better not take
+the short cut," said Molly.  "It is so rough that way, and it is muddy
+in places; we'll go around by the road."  The lights were twinkling out
+from the fishermen's homes and from the vessels anchored in the cove.
+There were not many persons on the road, and the four little girls
+hastened their steps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently a shout, then the bark of a dog arose from behind them, and
+in another minute they were surrounded by a crowd of jeering boys and
+barking dogs.  "Yaw!  Yaw!  Yaw!" shouted the boys.  "Sic 'em, Sailor!
+Sick 'em, Towser!"  The dogs nipped at the retreating heels and the
+boys twitched the flowing robes of the four Arabs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, let us alone!  Let us alone!" shrieked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who be ye?" cried one of the boys peering into their faces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What ye doin' dressed up this here way?" said another.  The paint upon
+their faces so disguised them that they were not recognized by any of
+the boys, if, indeed, any knew them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They ain't none o' our folks," said another boy, trying to jerk off
+Polly's head covering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She turned on him fiercely.  "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,"
+she cried.  "How would you like any one to treat your sisters so?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How'd you like any one to treat your sisters so?" mimicked the boy in
+a piping voice.  "I ain't got no sister, and if I had she wouldn't be
+traipsin' 'round the P'int in circus clothes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wrenching herself from the boy's grasp, Polly started to run, the other
+girls following.  One boy thrust out his foot tripping Grace who fell
+sprawling in the dusty road.  Her companions stopped in their flight to
+come to her rescue.  "Oh, you bad, bad boys," cried Molly indignantly.
+"If I don't tell Cap'n Dave on you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We ain't feared o' Cap'n Dave," was the scoffing reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girls picked up the weeping Grace.  "Are you hurt?" they whispered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know," whimpered Grace.  "Oh, how can we get home?  I want to
+go home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her weeping caused cessation in hostilities for a moment, but as soon
+as the four figures started forward they were again surrounded and the
+teasing recommenced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But just as the girls were in despair of ever escaping from their
+tormentors, another boy came up.  "What's up?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nawthin'," replied one of the boys laughing.  "We cal'late to keep
+furriners away from the P'int, and these here ain't dressed like
+Amur'cans."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who are they?"  The boy bent over to peer into Molly's face.  She gave
+a joyful cry.  "Oh, Ellis, Ellis, save us from them.  They won't let us
+go home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The newcomer turned.  "Say, you fellows," he said.  "You'd ought to be
+ashamed.  These here is friends of mine.  If any of you fellows touches
+one of 'em, I'll pitch into him like sin.  Don't you know who they are?
+They're the little gals up to the Reid cottage, that's been so good to
+us, nursing the baby and gettin' up that fair and all that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boys slunk away.  "We didn't know it was them," the largest one
+said.  "Why didn't they say so?  We thought it was that crowd of sassy
+youngsters over by Back Landing; they're always so fresh.  One of 'em
+sneaked off with Dan's boat yesterday and we wanted to pay 'em back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm awful sorry we scared you," said another boy, coming up.  "Was you
+hurt, sissy, when you fell down?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, not so very much," replied Grace, ceasing her sobbing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll see you home safe," said one of the boys.  "Come on, fellers.
+Lem, go get a lantern; we're nearest your house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lem ran obediently and in a few minutes returned with the big lantern
+in his hand.  He stalked on ahead, the others trooping after, the dogs
+at the heels of their masters.  All the way they escorted the little
+girls, Ellis not ceasing to voice his indignation, nor the boys to
+explain and excuse themselves, and it is needless to say that it was a
+relief to all concerned when the wandering Arabs were safe within their
+own dwellings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In spite of the outcome of their adventure, the girls did not care to
+repeat it and never again wanted to go beyond the cottages in their own
+immediate vicinity.  Yet, unpleasant as the experience was, it resulted
+in more than one effort on the part of the gang of boys to make up for
+their ill behavior.  The very next morning after the affair, Polly, who
+was the first down-stairs, saw a tall boy coming toward the cottage and
+went out on the porch to meet him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You one of the little gals that was down the road last night?" he
+asked as he came up.  "One of them that was dressed up?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly nodded.  "Yes, I was there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Us boys didn't know you lived here.  We wouldn't have hurt a hair of
+your head if we had knowed who you was."  Then he added somewhat
+shamefacedly, "I fetched ye a salmon.  Maybe ye ain't never see a
+salmon jest out of the water.  They're pretty-colored, ain't they?"
+And he held up to view the glistening pink fish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how beautiful it is.  It seems too pretty to catch, doesn't it?"
+said Polly bending over to examine the fish the boy laid on the grass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He stared at her, not quite comprehending how any one could think any
+fish too pretty to be caught.  "They're awful good eatin'," he went on
+to say, "but they don't often come in here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you happen to get this one?" asked Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was in my father's pound this morning, and I begged him for it.
+Shall I take it into the kitchen for you?" he added hastily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, do you mean to give it to us?  How very good you are," said Polly
+appreciatively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boy gave a short laugh.  "I wasn't very good last night, was I?" he
+said, and Polly understood that this was a peace-offering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That afternoon two younger lads were seen hanging around the house
+bearing a mysterious something done up in a newspaper.  "What in
+conscience do them boys want?" said Luella, looking out of the kitchen
+window.  "It's Billy Laws and Horeb Potter.  What are they peekin'
+around here for I want to know."  One of the boys now advanced toward
+the house, but at the appearance of Miss Ada on the porch, he took to
+his heels, and lurked in the distance where his companion was uneasily
+waiting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luella went out to Miss Ada.  "Them boys has got some errant here," she
+said, "but they won't come in whilst they see you on the piazza."  Miss
+Ada reëntered the house.  The three little girls peeped from the
+windows, looking out from behind the blinds.  In a few minutes the boys
+came stealthily forth, tiptoed toward the house, halted fearfully, took
+a few steps back, came on more quickly.  He who bore the newspaper
+package was suddenly pushed violently forward by the other and came on
+with a trot, bolted into the kitchen, laid the package on the table
+before Luella and exclaimed hastily: "It's for the little gals!" then
+he took to his heels, not stopping till he was clear out of sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luella came laughing into the living-room.  "Here's another present,"
+she announced.  "You open it, Miss Ada."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What can it be?" exclaimed the children, gathering around their aunt
+who untied the string of the damp parcel, unwrapped it and disclosed to
+view a huge lobster, fiery red, and still warm from recent boiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Isn't he a monster?" exclaimed Miss Ada.  "I don't believe I ever saw
+a larger.  We'll have him for supper, Luella.  I hope you took half the
+salmon to Mrs. Wharton, for we couldn't eat that and this, too.
+Children, you will have to invite Grace over to have her share.  I
+suppose some of it is due to her anyhow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She ought to have it all," said Polly, "for she was the only one who
+was hurt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm afraid she'd suffer more still if she attempted to devour this
+entire lobster," laughed Miss Ada.  "We'd better spare her little turn,
+Polly, and help her eat this."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was after such of the lobster as they could eat had been disposed
+of, and the children with no desire for long wanderings, were safely
+gathered around the fire, that a tap was heard at the door.  Uncle Dick
+arose to open it and received into his hands a large cold jar, while a
+small lad piped out: "Jerry sent this to the little gals.  They'll
+keep."  And then the figure vanished into the darkness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know who Jerry is, nor what 'this' is," said Uncle Dick,
+bearing in the glass jar and setting it on the table.  "It's for the
+'little gals' I was told.  Great Caesar!  It's clams, carefully
+shelled.  See here, Ada, we won't have to buy any more provender this
+season at this rate.  When we get short of provisions we can send out
+our Arabs on the road, for behold the result of their evening's
+migrations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every one laughed at this latest gift, and it was set away for the next
+day's use.  But the end was not yet.  On the door sill the next morning
+was discovered a splint basket.  To the handle was tied a scrap of
+paper on which was awkwardly written: "To the little gals."  Molly was
+the finder of this.  "Hurry down all of you!" she called to the others.
+"There is a present."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Another one?" said Polly over the baluster.  "What is it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't looked," was the reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other children, joined by Miss Ada, came down as soon as possible,
+their curiosity excited.  Molly lifted the wet seaweed covering the
+contents of the basket and they saw a pile of shining little mackerel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tinkers!" cried Miss Ada.  "What a nice lot of them!  Oh, and there
+are some butter-fish, too.  They are all cleaned beautifully, and we
+must have some for breakfast; it will take only a few minutes to cook
+them.  Yon children can run over to Grace with her share."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This the little girls were glad to do, but returned with their platter
+full explaining that smaller lot had been left at the Whartons'.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But two more conscience offerings were received after this.  Four thick
+braids of sweet grass were found hanging on the door-knob, and, during
+the day a man delivered a mysterious box slatted across one end.  This
+was found to contain a beautiful kitten of the variety called "Coon."
+The children were wild over this last gift, the only drawback to their
+delight being the difficulty of deciding which one should take it home.
+Their Aunt Ada came to the rescue by telling them not to bother about
+it till the time came and then to let circumstances settle it.  Her own
+little cat, Cosey, was not inclined to favor the intruder at first, but
+in a few days she began to mother it and they soon became good friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you glad that the boys scared us that night?" asked Polly one day
+not long after the "day of gifts" as the children called it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly weighed the subject.  "When I think of the dear kitten and the
+salmon and the tinkers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the lobster."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, and the sweet grass, then I am, but when I think of how
+dreadfully frightened we were, I'm not."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't intend to remember the scare," said Polly philosophically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Neither do I," added Mary.  "I'd be an Arab again for the sake of
+finding out how really good-hearted those boys are," which showed that
+Mary had a good heart, too.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER XI</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>The Roseberry Family</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The green grass of June had turned to russet; the bay berry bushes
+began to look dingy, and the waxy cranberries in the bog were turning
+to a delicate pink.  It had been a dry season and the children could
+safely traverse the bog from end to end without danger of getting their
+feet wet.  Ellis was their pilot to this fascinating spot, and the day
+of their introduction to it was one long to be remembered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was one morning when Ellis came around to the back door to deliver
+clams that they first heard of the bog.  He added to the weekly order a
+little bag of pinky-white cranberries.  "I thought maybe you'd like
+'em," he said.  "Miss Alice Harvey says they're much better when
+they're not quite ripe.  Ora tried some and they were fine, but they
+took a lot of sugar."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you for remembering us," said Miss Ada as she received the
+offering.  "How much, Ellis?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nawthin'.  They're easy to pick and there's plenty of 'em," he made
+reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Ada accepted the gift in the spirit in which it was intended.
+"I'm sure we shall enjoy them," she declared.  "Where is the bog,
+Ellis?  Is it very wet there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Tain't wet at all this year.  This has been such a dry season.  It's
+down back of Cap'n Orrin's barn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, is that the place?"  Molly was peeping over her aunt's shoulder.
+"I've always longed to go there but I was afraid it was all sloppy and
+marshy; some one said it was."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would you like me to go there with you?" said Ellis bashfully.  "I
+know where the cranberries grow, and there's lots of other things down
+there, the kind you city people like to get, weeds, we call 'em."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, may we go?" Molly appealed to her aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why yes, I have no objection.  It is perfectly safe if it's not wet.
+I suppose you may encounter a garter snake or two, but you don't mind
+them, Molly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait for us, Ellis," said the little girl speeding away for her
+cousins with whom she returned in a moment.  All three were
+breathlessly eager to start on the voyage of discovery, for with Ellis
+as leader, into what regions of the unknown might they not penetrate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Over the hill they went, leaving Cap'n Orrin's mild-eyed cows gazing
+after them ruminatively as they crept under the fence which separated
+the pasture from the wild bottom land at the foot of the hill.  On the
+other side arose the ridge along which were ranged cottages looking
+both coveward and seaward.  A winding path led past runty little apple
+trees and huge boulders, and finally was lost in the tangle of growth
+overspreading the marsh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is dry enough now," said Mary exultantly, setting her foot on a
+tuft of dry grass.  "Where are the cranberries, Ellis?  I want to see
+those first."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are standing right over some," he said smiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary looked down, but only a mass of weeds and grass greeted her eyes.
+"I don't see them," she declared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ellis laughed, bent over and parted the grass to disclose the delicate
+wreaths of green, and the pretty smooth cranberries, tucked away in the
+dry grass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As if they were afraid of being picked," remarked Mary.  "You will not
+escape me that way."  And down on her knees she went in search of the
+pink fruit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly meanwhile had gone further afield, and was gathering flowers
+strange to her, and grasses as lovely as the blossoms.  Earlier in the
+season, she had delighted in the rosy plumes of the hard-hack, the
+sweet pinky-white clover, the wild partridge peas, but here were new
+acquaintances which were not to be found outside the marsh, and upon
+them she pounced eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Polly, however, who discovered the Roseberry family, for Polly,
+who had spent her life far from cities, had developed her imagination,
+and could fashion from unpromising material the most fascinating
+things, and though she, too, picked her share of cranberries, she also
+gathered a lot of roseberries which she declared were the biggest she
+had ever seen.  These she bore away in triumph, while Molly carried her
+bouquet with a satisfied air and Mary was quite content with having the
+largest showing of cranberries.  So they returned, well pleased, to the
+cottage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We had the splendidest morning," said Molly, setting her flowers in a
+large vase.  "I never knew that bogs could be so perfectly fine.  What
+are you doing, Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was seated on the floor industriously picking off her roseberries
+from the twigs.  "Wait and you will see," was her answer.  "Do get me
+some pins, Molly, a whole lot.  Aunt Ada will give you some."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly's curiosity being aroused, she rushed off to her aunt, returning
+with a paper of pins.  She squatted down on the floor by Polly's side.
+Mary, meanwhile, had gone to the kitchen to superintend Luella's
+cooking of the cranberries.  Polly stuck a pin in one side of the
+biggest, fattest roseberry, then another in the other side.  "This is
+Mr. Roseberry," she said, "and these are his two arms.  Now his head
+goes on, and then his legs.  I use the pins, you see, because you can
+bend them so as to make the people sit down."  She held up the
+completed mannikin.  "Now I must pick out some berries for Mrs.
+Roseberry, and then I'll make the children."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Polly, you are so ridiculous," said Molly in a tone of admiration,
+"but do you know, they are awfully funny with their little round heads
+and bodies."  Polly worked away industriously till she had completed
+her entire family.  "Now what?" said Molly.  "What in the world is
+that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a lamp," returned Polly, deftly fitting a base to her red globe.
+"Now, if I had some pasteboard I could make some furniture, and we'd
+play with the Roseberry family this afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dinner is nearly ready now," said Molly, "but it will be fun to play
+with them this afternoon.  We could have two or three families.  What
+can I name mine?"  She watched Polly interestedly as she put the last
+touch to a vase in which she stuck a bit of green.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You might call them Pod," said Polly.  "These are really the seed pods
+of the wild roses, you know.  They are like little apples, aren't they?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll call them Appleby," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We know some people named that.  Save that tiny one for the baby,
+Polly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The cranberries are perfectly delicious," said Mary, coming in from
+the kitchen, "but they have to cool before we can eat them.  Luella
+says they take so much sugar that they will keep perfectly for me to
+take some home.  Oh, what curious little figures."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is the Roseberry family," Polly told her, indicating the dolls on
+the right, "and these," she pointed to those on her left, "these are
+the Applebys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must have some, too, Mary," said Molly.  "What shall you call
+yours?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary had picked up one of the little figures.  "Why, they are made of
+hips, aren't they?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are hips?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is what we call the berries of the briar-rose, and in England the
+hawthorn berries are haws."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hips and haws," sang Molly.  "Don't they go nicely together?  Shall
+you call your people Mr. and Mrs. Hips?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes, I can.  I think that would be a very good name.  Are we
+going to play with them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After dinner we are, if Polly can find anything to make furniture of."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly's ingenuity did not fail her here, for, by the use of some match
+ends, birch bark and a needle and thread she contrived all sorts of
+things and then each girl hunted up a box for a house, so that these
+new playthings proved to be very fascinating.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But at last the every-day commonplaces grew too dull for Polly, and she
+suddenly exclaimed: "I'm tired of just visiting and talking about
+measles and nurses and mustard plasters!  I'm going to take the
+Roseberry family down to the shore.  They're going to have an
+adventure."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Polly, what?  Can ours go, too?" cried Molly.  "I would like to
+have the Applebys meet an adventure, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I'd like Mr. and Mrs. Hips to have one," echoed Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are they very wicked, black-hearted people?" asked Polly, darkly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;"  Mary hesitated and looked to Molly for her cue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do they have to be wicked to have an adventure?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If they join the Roseberries, they'll have to be, for the Roseberries
+are wreckers and smugglers."  Polly spoke impressively, and at this
+flight of fancy Molly and Mary gazed at her admiringly.  Yet they were
+not quite willing that their families should give up their morals to
+too great an extent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do they have to do?" asked Mary, determined to find out the worst.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mine have a cave," said Polly, mysteriously.  "It is on an island&mdash;I
+know what island I am going to have&mdash;and there they hide their
+treasures.  They are counterfeiters, too," she added to their list of
+crimes, "and they have chests of counterfeit money&mdash;sand dollars."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly laughed and Polly looked at her reproachfully.  "It is as good as
+any other counterfeit money," she remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind the money.  Go on, Polly."  Molly was enjoying her cousin's
+inventions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, they go out in a boat on stormy nights and when a vessel is in
+distress, instead of helping, they don't do anything but just wait till
+the vessel is wrecked and then they help themselves, to what they can
+get.  They have, oh, such a store of diamonds and rubies and precious
+stones in their cave, and they have their own vessel that flies a black
+flag."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then they're pirates," said Mary recoiling.  "I don't want the Hips to
+be pirates."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They don't have to be," Polly calmly assured her.  "They can be as
+good as they want to, and can be on one of the vessels that gets
+wrecked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then they'll all get drowned."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, they needn't; they can cling to a raft and go ashore on some
+desert island."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having saved the lives as well as the reputations of the Hips family,
+although they would probably lose everything else, Mary was satisfied,
+but Molly was ready to compromise.  A little spice of wickedness seemed
+necessary to make her Applebys interesting.  "My family can be
+smugglers," she announced, "but I don't want them to be pirates and I
+don't want them wrecked either.  Smugglers aren't so wicked as pirates;
+they only bring in things that you ought to pay duty on, Uncle Dick
+told me, and Mary's father told her that in England almost everything
+comes in free, and that the United States is as mean as can be about
+making people pay for what is brought into the country.  A lady, Molly
+saw on the steamer when they came over, had an awful time about a
+shabby old sealskin coat she'd had for years, and just because she wore
+it ashore from the steamer, they made an awful fuss about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I don't understand about it, but if the United States said it
+was wrong, of course it must have been; they are always right," said
+Polly loyally.  "I don't exactly know about smuggling," she confessed,
+"however, the Roseberries are going to be smugglers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Uncle Dick was telling us about smugglers the other night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know, that is what made me think of it.  He showed me the
+island where there used to be a smuggler's cave."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember it; we saw it when we were out sailing one day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must build a birch bark ship for the Hips family," said Polly,
+changing the subject.  "Your Applebys can live on my island and if they
+don't want to associate with the Roseberries they can have a cave to
+themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Roseberry is such a nice pleasant name for wicked people," remarked
+Mary.  "Why don't you call them something else?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nobody ever does call them that," returned Polly readily.  "The father
+is the leader of the gang, and he is Bold Ben.  His three sons are
+One-eyed Peter, Crooked Tom, and Sly Sam.  They call his wife Old Mag,
+and then there are two cousins, twins; they are Smiling Steve and
+Grinning Jim."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Polly, how do you think of such names?" said Molly delightedly.
+"What does Old Mag do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She pulls in things from the wreck and she cooks the meals.  Then,
+when the men are all away smuggling, she sits in the cave and spends
+her time looking at the jewels and letting them drip through her
+fingers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jewels can't drip," observed Mary in a matter-of-fact way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, they look as if they could," returned Polly.  "The diamonds are
+like drops of water, the pearls like milk and the rubies like blood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know where you found that," said Molly; "in the fairy tale we were
+reading the other day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly admitted the fact and the ship being now ready to launch, they
+proceeded to the shore where Polly pointed out the island.  This was a
+large rock, nearly covered at high tide, but now showing quite a
+surface above the water.  Its rugged sides held caves quite large
+enough for persons of such size as the Roseberry family, and they were
+presently hidden behind their barnacled barriers.  In a little pool the
+Hips family were set afloat while the Applebys contented themselves
+with gathering stores of supposed precious stones from the little beach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Hips family had hardly set sail before Polly invoked a storm and
+stirred to monster waves the waters in their pool, so they were in
+great danger.  "Oh, dear, the youngest Hips is floating away and I
+can't save him," cried Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind, let him go; there are plenty more of them," returned Polly
+heartlessly banging her stick up and down in the water so the ship
+would rock more violently.  "They've got to be wrecked, you know," she
+added.  "I'll drive them on that rock, then you can grab them before
+they sink and get them on the raft."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary managed to rescue all but one more of the family, and these were
+set adrift on a piece of birch bark to which Polly tied a string that
+they might not go beyond return.  She also allowed the storm to cease,
+but this was because the gang of wreckers had to haul up the ship and
+gather in their plunder.  She kept up so lively an account of their
+doings that Molly left the Applebys to their own devices and Mary drew
+the Hipses to shore that she might listen to Polly's blood-curdling
+account of Bold Ben and the rest.  Polly did not have to draw
+altogether from her imagination, for her brothers had been too often
+her playmates for her not to be ready with tales of plunder and
+adventure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Time passed very quickly and the children became so absorbed in the
+manoeuvres of the gang that they did not notice the stealthy rise of
+the tide till Mary exclaimed, "Oh, the Hipses have floated off and they
+were quite high on the beach!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly looked around her.  "No wonder," she said; "the tide is rising.
+We'd better start back."  Leaving Bold Ben and his comrades to their
+fate, she ran to the further side of the rock, but here she hesitated.
+The sea was steadily making in, sending little cascades over the
+weed-covered ledges each time it retreated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can't you get across?" asked Molly, as she came up with her Applebys,
+and saw Polly standing still.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm almost afraid to jump," said Polly, "for if a big wave should come
+in suddenly it might wash in over my feet and the sea-weed is so
+slippery I'm afraid to trust to it, where it is shallower." Molly
+looked up at the rocky shelf jutting out above her.  "If we could only
+get up there," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we can't; it is too far to climb to that first jutty-out place,
+and we can't crawl under and then up, like flies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mary bearing the sole survivor of the unfortunate Hips family now came
+up.  "I had to let the rest go," she said.  "They were beyond reach.  I
+fished this one out of the water just in time.  What is the matter?
+Why don't you go on, Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For answer Polly pointed silently to the creeping waves at her feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are we going to do?" asked Mary in alarm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stay here till the tide goes down, I suppose.  This rock is never
+covered," said Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we may get dreadfully splashed," returned Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Polly dubiously.  She looked at the
+rock above her, and then at her two cousins.  "Which of you two could
+stand on my shoulders and get hold of that rock so as to draw herself
+up and go for help?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I never could do it in the world," said Mary, shrinking back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly turned to Molly.  "Could you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm afraid I couldn't pull myself up so far, but I could stand and let
+you get on my shoulders, if you could do the pulling up part."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I could do that easily enough," Polly told her.  "I've often practiced
+it with the boys, and we have swung ourselves up the rocks in the
+mountains out home.  Are you sure you can bear my weight, Molly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can try."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll both do it," Mary offered.  "You can put one foot on my shoulder
+and one on Molly's, then you won't be so heavy for either one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right.  Steady yourselves.  Here goes."  And in a moment Polly had
+clambered to the supporting shoulders, had caught hold of the jutting
+rock and had drawn herself up.  As she gained her feet and sped away
+crying: "I'll be right back," Molly breathed a sigh of relief.  "I was
+so afraid a piece of the rock would split off and she'd fall," she
+confessed to Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It took but a little time to bring Uncle Dick and one of his friends
+who swung themselves down easily and set the two stranded children upon
+a safe spot, none too soon, for a big wave almost immediately sent a
+shower of salt spray over the rock where they had been standing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You would have been drenched to the skin," said Uncle Dick as he led
+the way to the house, while, left to their fate, the wicked Roseberries
+perished miserably.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>CHAPTER XII</I>
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+<I>East and West</I>
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+By the middle of September the cottages on the Point were nearly all
+deserted, though the Reids lingered on, to the children's satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, I don't want to go back to school, to horrid old examples
+and things, although I do want to see my dear Miss Isabel," said Molly,
+one morning just before the close of their stay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't want to see Miss Sharp, I can tell you that, but I do want to
+see mother and Reggie and Gwen," said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hate to leave you all," Polly put in, "though I shall be glad to see
+mamma and papa and the boys.  I'll like to see the ponies too, and the
+mountains and everything, but I do wish you girls were going with me."
+She really had fewer regrets than her cousins for Polly loved the
+freedom of the west, and the miles between seemed very long to the
+little girl who had seen neither father, mother nor brothers for three
+months.  To Mary the delights of unlimited supplies of sweet potatoes
+and corn, bountiful plates of ice-cream, freedom from the vigilance of
+a strict governess, and the range of fields and woods, where one need
+not fear of trespassing, and which were not enclosed by high walls, all
+these compensated much for her separation from her family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The time for her leave-taking of America was drawing near, however, for
+her father wrote that they would probably sail about the first of
+October, and Uncle Dick would take Polly home about the same time.
+Aunt Ada, too, had promised to go to Colorado for a visit so Polly felt
+that she had anticipations the others did not have.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish we could all go to Polly's; that's what I wish," declared
+Molly.  "I wish my father and mother and Mary and Miss Ainslee were all
+going."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I speak for Miss Ainslee to sit with me," said Uncle Dick coming up
+with an open letter in his hand.  He handed a second letter to Molly.
+"Can you read it?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course I can," returned Molly indignantly.  Then she added, "Mamma
+always writes to me on papa's typewriter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her uncle laughed, though Molly could not see why.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd better read every word in it," he remarked, "for there is big
+news there for a young woman of your size."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly hastily tore open the envelope and began to read.  She had not
+finished the page, however, before she cried out: "News!  News!  I
+should think it was news.  What do you think, Mary?  What do you think,
+Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can't imagine," said Polly.  Then as a second thought occurred to her,
+"Oh, is your mother going to let you go home with me?  I know my mother
+has asked to have you, for I wrote to her to beg that you could come."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly shook her head.  "No, it's east instead of west, Polly.  Mother
+and I are going to England with Mary and Uncle Arthur."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!"  Mary jumped to her feet and clasped her hand ecstatically.  "Oh,
+Molly, I am so glad.  Aren't you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I am except for one thing; I know I shall be scared to death of
+Miss Sharp.  Is she really so very, very strict?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My word! but you'd think so.  Fancy never being allowed to run, nor to
+climb nor to do anything one really likes to do, and, oh, Molly, I
+wonder will you eat your meals in the nursery with us children.
+There's nasty rice pudding twice a week, you know, and there are never
+hot rolls nor biscuits for breakfast as you have here, then we do have
+horribly cold houses in winter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!"  Molly looked quite disturbed by this report.  But presently her
+face again broke into smiles.  "But then, to see England and to be with
+you, Mary.  We shall go up to London in the spring and we shall spend
+the winter in Cornwall or Devon, where it is not so very cold, mother
+says."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we are to be in the country, then," said Mary.  "I'm glad of that.
+Papa thought we should take our country home again this winter; we were
+not there last year."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's so funny to go to the country for winter and the city for
+summer," remarked Polly.  "We do just the opposite."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but we like the country in winter," Mary explained.  "It's jolly
+good sport to be there then.  We have a proper little pony of our own,
+you know, and we really have quite good times." Polly laughed.  "It is
+so funny to hear Mary say a 'proper' pony.  We would say a real pony,
+wouldn't we?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be corrected a great many times for the American things I have
+learned to say," said Mary.  "I've no doubt but that Miss Sharp will be
+continually coming down on me for saying them.  She is a sharp one,
+true enough.  I'll have to watch myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She needn't try to correct me," Molly put in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but you are an American," Mary hastened to reassure her, "and
+you'll do just as your mother bids you, of course."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This relieved the situation for Molly.  The prospect of frequent drives
+behind the "proper little pony," and the pleasure of a real English
+Christmas, which Mary had described in glowing colors, cheered her up,
+and she stated that she thought she could stand Miss Sharp as long as
+her own mother would always be on hand to refer to.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the three were talking it all over, Uncle Dick appeared at the door.
+"Well, Mollykins," he said, "how do you like your news?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, do you know it, too?" she said, running up to him.  "I like it
+very much, but I wish you and Aunt Ada and Polly were going, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That would be too many at once," he returned.  "Go in and see your
+Aunt Ada; she has something to tell you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is it about?" asked Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Uncle Dick walked down the porch steps.  "It concerns me very much," he
+said over his shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Concerns him?  Do you suppose he is going to England, too?" said Mary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go and find out," returned Molly.  And the three ran indoors to
+where Miss Ada sat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, kitties," she said as they came in, "there is a lot of news
+to-day, isn't there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, isn't it fine that mother and I are going to England?  That is
+what you meant, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Uncle Dick said you had something to tell us," said Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So I have.  It concerns Polly more than any of you, though it might
+concern Molly if she were not going abroad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That sounds like a puzzle," laughed Polly.  "But Uncle Dick said it
+concerned him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The silly boy!"  Miss Ada drew down the corners of her mouth.  "No
+doubt he'll make it his concern.  Why Polly, it is this: Mr. Perkins,
+your tutor, has had a good offer in Denver and as he is so well and
+strong now he thinks he must accept it, and as Walter is old enough to
+go away to school, your father and mother thought a man was not needed
+to teach you and the others, so you are to have a new teacher.  Guess
+who it is to be?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I can't.  Tell me."  Polly was all eagerness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Ainslee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not my Miss Ainslee?" cried Molly in surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your Miss Ainslee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm jealous," said Molly.  "Oh, Polly, to think you will have her
+all to yourself.  Oh, dear!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you will not be here, honey," said her aunt, "and besides it is
+better for Miss Ainslee that she should go, for the doctor thinks she
+cannot get along in the east, and that she must either stop teaching or
+go to another climate.  She isn't ill exactly, but it is better that
+she should not wait till she is.  So you see&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I see, but I am sorry all the same," said Molly dolefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I am tremendously glad," said Polly.  "I liked Mr. Perkins very
+well, but Miss Ainslee is such an improvement on him.  Is she to go out
+with us, Aunt Ada?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then that is what Uncle Dick meant when he said it concerned him.  He
+was thinking how nice it would be to travel all that way with her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's looking further than that," remarked Miss Ada with a smile.  "If
+things keep on this way I don't believe she will ever come east again
+to live, Polly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She won't if I can help it," said Uncle Dick from the doorway.  "What
+do you think of our scheme, Pollywog?" he asked as he caught Polly and
+tousled her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think it is grandiferous," replied Polly, squirming out of his
+grasp.  "But you'd better behave yourself, Mr. Dicky-Pig, or I'll tell
+on you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just see how she gets me in her power," said Uncle Dick to his sister.
+"I'll not be safe a moment from that wicked child's malicious tales."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you call me a wicked child," said Polly darting at him.  "Now
+for your nose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Spare me!  Spare me!" cried her uncle, putting up both hands.  "I'll
+be good, Polly; I will indeed, but if you spoil my features, how can
+you expect Miss Ainslee ever to like me?  If you'll promise to be good
+and say nice things about your dear uncle, I'll let you be bridesmaid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Dick, you silly boy!" expostulated his sister.  "Don't fill the
+child's head with such notions.  He hardly knows Miss Ainslee, Polly,
+and it will make her so uncomfortable that she will leave, in a month,
+if your Uncle Dick keeps up this sort of nonsense."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This hushed up Master Dick and he began to ask Polly such silly
+questions as: "What is the result of half a dozen ears of corn and a
+pint of Lima beans?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can't add ears and pints," protested Polly stoutly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, you can," returned her uncle jauntily.  "Luella does it often
+and the result is succotash."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly made a contemptuous mouth at him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He laughed and went on.  "Here's another.  When apples are ten cents a
+quart how much are blueberries?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, why&mdash;they're just the same.  Aren't they?" Polly appealed to her
+Aunt Ada.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The blueberries are less; they're always less; they're smaller, you
+see," her uncle answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's no answer at all," said Polly in a disgusted tone.  "I won't
+play," and she stalked off to join her cousins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet, as the poet Burns says: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang
+aft agley," and, after all, things did not turn out exactly as was at
+first expected; for when the children had made their rounds to say good
+bye to Ellis and Myrtle, Leona, Ora and the rest, and when they were
+actually on the boat with Cooney safe in a big basket, Uncle Dick
+pulled some letters out of his pocket and began to look them over.  "I
+found these in our box this morning when I went into the post-office,"
+he said.  "There's one for you, Ada, and here's one for me from
+Arthur."  He glanced down the page.  "Well, well, well," he exclaimed,
+"this settles your hash, Miss Molly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you mean?" asked Molly, leaving her seat and coming over to
+him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, listen.  This is from Mary's father.  'A turn in the business
+which brought me over, compels me to remain at least three months
+longer, so I am accepting John Perrine's kind offer to keep my little
+girl till I am ready to go back home.  I am sure the dry climate of
+Colorado will complete the good work of the summer and that I shall be
+able to take Mary home with her health entirely established.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly rushed tumultuously at Mary and gave her a hearty squeeze.  "I'm
+going to have you!  I'm going to have you!" she cried.  "Won't we have
+good times?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly sat with a very grave face looking on.  Her uncle smiled down at
+her.  "Looks as if you were out of it, doesn't it, Mollykins?" he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly turned a mournful countenance upon him and gave a long sigh.  "I
+s'pose mother and I will not be going to England at all," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I' s'pose' not," said her aunt.  "In fact I am quite sure of it."  She
+put down the letter which she was reading.  "There is a change of plans
+all around, Molly dear, and you're not left out, as you will see.  You
+know, my dearie, that your mother was taking the opportunity of
+visiting England because your father expected to make a business trip
+which would keep him away from home all winter, and your parents had
+concluded to rent their house to some friends.  Now that the house is
+actually rented and you are not going to England your mother will go
+with your father, and you, Molly, my kitten, will go to Colorado that
+you may still have your lessons and be in good hands.  Your father and
+mother will stop for you on their way home.  As for me&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Molly did not wait for the last words, but rushed over to where Mary
+and Polly with heads together were excitedly talking over the plans for
+the coming winter.  Molly precipitated herself upon them in a tumult of
+excitement.  "I'm going, too!  I'm going, too!" she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where?  Where?" exclaimed Polly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To Colorado! to Colorado, with you and Mary!" chanted Molly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A squeal of delight from Polly was followed by one scarcely less joyful
+from Mary, and then the three took hold of hands and danced around the
+steamboat cabin till they dropped in a heap at the feet of their aunt
+and uncle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just think," said Molly when she had recovered her breath.  "We'll all
+be together just as we were this summer, you, Polly, and Mary and Uncle
+Dick and Aunt Ada."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must count me out, Molly," said her Aunt Ada.  "I shall do no more
+than see you all safely at the ranch, and then I am going to spend the
+winter further south with my dear friend Janey Moffatt who has been
+married a whole year and whom I have never yet visited.  I have just
+had this letter setting the time for me to come.  I think Miss Ainslee
+and your Aunt Jennie can keep you three in order."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If not, there am I," put in Uncle Dick scowling savagely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As if you&mdash;&mdash;" began Polly.  But he made a dive at her and she
+disappeared behind a pillar of the cabin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "it is just as I said: there will be no
+difficulty in deciding where Cooney is to go, and to tell you the
+truth, my dears, I think he will thrive better in a cool climate than
+anywhere else, for with their fluffy coats, these little coon cats are
+liable to fall ill and die where it is too warm for them.  The ranch
+will be just the place for him."  So Cooney's future was assured and in
+time he reached his new home safely, none the worse for the long
+journey, during which he was tenderly cared for.  Luella had gladly
+taken charge of Cosey, promising to return to Miss Ada the next summer
+and to bring the little cat with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Even if I'm married," she said, "Granville says I may live with you
+summers, Miss Ada, whilst he's off fishing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Molly had spent two weeks with her parents and Mary had seen her
+father, the three little girls were ready to set out upon their longer
+journey, though it must be confessed that at the last Molly found it
+hard to say good-bye, and Mary looked rather grave.  Polly, however,
+reminded Mary that there would be no Miss Sharp at the ranch, and Uncle
+Dick whispered to Molly that he didn't see how any one could be other
+than happy at the prospect of spending part of each day in Miss
+Ainslee's company, and from that began to make such delightful plans
+that in a short time they were happy in thinking of the good times
+ahead of them.  Uncle Dick promised to provide each with a safe little
+broncho to ride.  Aunt Ada told them that their Aunt Jennie had put
+three small beds in her biggest room, so that the little girls could
+room together.  Miss Ainslee told Molly confidentially that it made all
+the difference in the world to her that she was to have one of her own
+little pupils with her, and Polly, who really loved Cooney more than
+either of the others, was so delighted at not having to give him up
+that she was ready to share him generously with her cousins, and always
+lifted him over into Mary's or Molly's lap whenever one of them said:
+"Now, Polly, you have had him long enough."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Altogether the long journey was not unpleasant, and when the travelers
+at last arrived, though they were weary, they were very happy, and that
+night cuddled down in their little white beds while around their
+dwelling place towered up the great mountains, steadfast as the
+friendship which was born that summer in the hearts of the three little
+cousins and which lasted their lifetime.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
+
+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: Three Little Cousins
+
+Author: Amy E. Blanchard
+
+Release Date: August 7, 2008 [EBook #26208]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE LITTLE COUSINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover art]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THREE LITTLE COUSINS
+
+
+BY
+
+AMY E. BLANCHARD
+
+
+_Author of "Playmate Polly," "A Little Tomboy," "A Sweet Little Maid,"
+"Dimple Dallas," etc._
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+HURST & COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1907, by
+
+GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
+
+_Published July, 1907_
+
+
+
+
+_CONTENTS_
+
+
+    I.  MOLLY AND POLLY
+   II.  UNCLE DICK AT SCHOOL
+  III.  MARY
+   IV.  THE RHINESTONE PIN
+    V.  MARY AND THE BOY
+   VI.  DISCOVERIES
+  VII.  IN ELTON WOODS
+ VIII.  ELLIS AND THE BABY
+   IX.  NEW BURDENS FOR ELLIS
+    X.  ARABS
+   XI.  THE ROSEBERRY FAMILY
+  XII.  EAST AND WEST
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER I_
+
+_Molly and Polly_
+
+It had stopped raining; Molly made quite sure of it by looking into the
+little puddles upon the walk.  At first she thought there were drops
+still falling upon them, but it was only the wind which ruffled the
+surface.  The green grass was misty with rain and upon the bushes the
+shining drops hung from every twig.  Presently a sudden burst of
+sunshine broke through the clouds and changed the drops to sparkles of
+light.  "There!" exclaimed Molly, "I see a piece of blue sky.  Now I
+may go, mayn't I, mother?  It is clearing off."
+
+Mrs. Shelton came to the window and Molly with serious face watched her
+scan the sky.  "It really is brighter," Mrs. Shelton decided.  "Yes, I
+see a piece of blue big enough for a Dutchman's breeches so I think the
+rain is over, but you'd better put on your rubbers, Molly."
+
+Molly scarcely waited to hear but danced out of the room and down the
+steps.  "Don't forget your rubbers!" her mother called after her, and
+Molly scurried to the closet under the stairs, grabbed the rubbers,
+snatched up her hat and was out of the door in a twinkling.  Steadying
+herself on one foot, she drew on the overshoes, for there was no time
+to sit down; she could hear the whistle of the cars in the distance and
+knew there was barely time to reach the station before the train would
+stop.
+
+It was an important occasion, for would not the express bring Molly's
+Cousin Polly whom she had always longed to meet?  And not only Polly
+was coming but their Uncle Dick who was bringing Polly all the way from
+Colorado to the east.  Uncle Dick was not so much of a novelty as
+Polly, but he was quite as ardently expected, for he was the jolliest
+fellow in the world, Molly thought, and, though he teased her
+unmercifully, he was full of jokes and funny quips and amusing
+anecdotes, besides being generous in the extreme and always ready to
+put himself out to do a kind turn.  As for Polly, Molly had many
+conjectures concerning her.  What sort of girl would she be who had
+always lived on a ranch far away from the rest of the world; a girl who
+had never been to school and only a few times to church, who had never
+seen a big city, nor an automobile, nor even a trolley car?  Would she
+be very wild indeed, whooping like a savage Indian and eating with her
+knife like an untutored woodsman?  Would Molly be ashamed to have her
+friends meet her?  These questions, to which the answer was so near,
+Molly asked herself for the hundredth time as she walked toward the
+station.
+
+Already the train was slowing up and in a few moments Molly was
+standing tiptoe, looking eagerly along the line of cars.  Then she
+watched each person who descended the steps till at last she was
+rewarded by the sight of a tall young man who lifted down a little girl
+about Molly's age, a fair-haired, rosy-cheeked little girl, prettily
+dressed, and in no way suggesting a wild Indian.  The instant Molly saw
+her, she was seized with a fit of shyness and could not follow her
+first impulse to rush forward.  Instead she waited where she was till
+the two came up.
+
+"Hello!" cried Uncle Dick.  "I expected you would come at least to the
+next station to meet us, and here you are backing away instead."
+
+Feeling that Polly might think that she really did not show the
+eagerness to see her that she ought to expect, Molly put out her hand
+but was presently seized in Polly's fervent hug.  "Oh, but I am glad to
+see you," she said.  "I could scarcely wait to get here, could I, Uncle
+Dick?  It's such a long way and to-day was the longest one of all."
+
+"I've been just crazy to see you, too," returned Molly.  "I was so
+afraid it would rain hard and mother would not let me come to meet you.
+Where's Uncle Dick going?  Oh, I see; he is looking after your baggage.
+Don't you hate sleeping-cars, and didn't it seem funny to have no one
+but Uncle Dick all these days?"
+
+"No one but Uncle Dick; I like that," said that gentleman rejoining
+them.  "Are you going to have me called a nobody at the very outset,
+Polly?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't mean----" began Molly covered with confusion.
+
+"Oh, yes you did; you said it when you thought my back was turned,"
+interrupted her uncle.
+
+Polly began to pound him with her fist.  "Quit your nonsense, you great
+big, long-legged, old tease," she said.  "You know that wasn't what
+Molly meant.  You aren't a bit nice to her; you began to tease her the
+very minute you set eyes on her.  You'd better be pretty good to her or
+I won't let you take me home again; so there, sir."
+
+Uncle Dick gave her a playful shake.  "You'll be homesick enough in a
+week from now to go home by yourself," he warned her.
+
+"She'll do no such thing," cried Molly, gathering courage from Polly's
+example.  "She'll just love it here, I know.  Come along, Polly; we'll
+get home first."
+
+But, in spite of their trying to run ahead, Uncle Dick's long legs
+overtook them, and with a hand, which they could not shake off, on the
+shoulder of each, he rushed them along so fast that they were
+breathless when they reached the front gate.  Molly's mother was at the
+door to greet them.  She gathered travel-stained little Polly into her
+arms.  "Dear Polly, I am so glad we are to have you with us at last,"
+she said.  "Are you very tired, dearie?  Was it a tiresome journey?"
+
+"It was rather tiresome at the last," Polly acknowledged, "though at
+first I liked it for there were some very kind ladies who came as far
+as St. Louis, but the rest of the way I did get tired of sitting still
+all day.  I am dreadfully cindery and black, Aunt Betty, so I am afraid
+you can't see at all what I look like.  I did try to get off some of
+the worst about an hour ago, but I suppose I am still very black, as
+black as Manuel."
+
+"Who is Manuel?" asked Molly.
+
+"He's the blackest one of the Mexicans who work for father," Polly
+replied.
+
+"Take your cousin up-stairs and see to making her comfortable," Mrs.
+Shelton told Molly.  "Well, Dick, I believe you are actually taller
+than when I last saw you.  When are you going to stop growing?" she
+said to her brother.
+
+"When I come east to live," he returned.  "Everything is big out our
+way, you know.  Everything, including our hearts."
+
+"That's true enough in your case," responded his sister.  "Your old
+room is ready for you.  Run right up; I must speak to the maids."
+
+By this time, the two little girls were in the room they were to share
+together, and in a few minutes Polly had made herself more presentable
+by the use of soap and water, and with Molly's help in changing her
+dress.  Then the cousins faced each other and examined one another
+critically, and presently both burst out laughing.  "You don't look a
+bit as I thought you did," said Molly.
+
+"Neither do you," returned Polly.  "I thought you would be fair, like a
+doll I have named Molly."
+
+"And I thought you would be like a picture I have of Minnehaha,"
+returned Molly.  Then they laughed again.  "Isn't it funny that we are
+both named for our grandmother," continued Molly.  "Suppose you had
+been called Molly instead of Polly, wouldn't we get mixed up?"
+
+"Yes, almost as much as if we were both called Polly," said Polly,
+laughing again.
+
+"Are you very, very fond of Uncle Dick?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, dear, yes; I adore him.  We are just the best sort of friends.  He
+is the greatest tease, but I know ways to tease him, too."
+
+"Oh, do tell me," Molly begged, "for he teases me nearly to death,
+though I think he is perfectly splendid."
+
+"Wait till he is in a teasing mood, and you'll see," Polly answered.
+"Oh, Molly, I am perfectly wild to think I am to see the ocean.  I have
+lived among the mountains all my life, and I am wild to get to the sea."
+
+"You will love it," Molly assured her.  "Won't we have a fine time all
+summer together?"  She looked admiringly at Polly's curling locks, her
+dimples, and her pretty fresh white frock.  Here was a cousin of whom
+she need not be ashamed.  Why had Uncle Dick called her as wild as a
+March hare?  Why had he given Molly the impression that an Indian was a
+tame creature beside Polly Perrine?
+
+Polly was thinking much the same thing.  Why had Uncle Dick given her
+the idea that she would find her cousin a fair, doll-like creature?  To
+be sure she had seen a photograph of Molly, but she had worn a hat and
+coat when it was taken and one could easily get a wrong impression from
+it.
+
+"Let's go down," proposed Molly; "I have lots of things to show you;
+besides I want to see Uncle Dick."  She felt a little jealous of her
+cousin's claim to their uncle, and she felt sure her father would
+appropriate him if he happened to come in before she reached the porch
+where her mother was sitting with her brother.
+
+Her father had not arrived, having gone to some business meeting which
+was sure to keep him late.  Uncle Dick was lolling back in a porch
+chair.  "Hello, youngsters," he cried as he caught sight of his nieces.
+"How are you getting along?  What do you think of each other?"
+
+Polly ran to him, and perching herself upon the arm of the chair,
+turned up his nose with an impertinent finger.  "Badness," she said,
+"why did you tell me that Molly looked like a wax doll?"
+
+"Did I tell you that?  Well, if I were a maker of wax dolls, I could
+make one just like her, I think, if I had some of old Doc's tail for
+hair and two pieces of coal for eyes."
+
+"Her eyes aren't black; they're like two pieces of brown velvet,"
+objected Polly, "and her hair isn't a bit like Doc's tail; it is as
+soft as silk.  Your nose must go up higher for that, sir."  She gave
+his nose an extra tilt while he squirmed under the process.
+
+"There, there, Polly, that is high enough!" he exclaimed; "it will
+never come down again if you turn it up too high."
+
+"I hope it will not," said Polly; "I hope it will stay turned up like
+Dicky-pig's."
+
+"Who is Dicky-pig?" asked Molly.
+
+"Oh, he is a little pig I named after my beautiful uncle; he looks just
+like him," said Polly mirthfully.
+
+"Does your brother look like a pig?" Dick asked his sister.
+
+Mrs. Shelton smiled as she looked at the handsome youth.  "I don't
+detect a striking resemblance," she replied, rising to leave.
+
+"Well, he acts like one sometimes," declared Polly.  "I want to know,
+too," she went on, to her uncle, "if you have been telling Molly things
+about me that aren't so."
+
+"He said you were wild as a March hare and looked like an Apache
+Indian," announced Molly from the other side of the chair, giving her
+uncle's hair a tweak.
+
+"Two to one is not fair," cried Dick.  "I draw the line at having my
+hair pulled out by the roots; it is quite enough to have my nose mauled
+all out of shape.  Here, young woman, you must be kept in better order.
+Polly, you are setting a bad example to your cousin; never before has
+she pulled my hair."  He grabbed first one and then the other, stowed
+them away under his knees and held them tight.
+
+"You're spoiling my clean frock," complained Polly.  "Let me out and
+I'll not turn up your nose."  Dick loosed his hold, "till the next
+time," added Polly darting away.
+
+Dick made a grab for her and Molly, too, escaped.  "Come back, come
+back!" cried Dick.  "I have something for you, Molly, and you shall
+have it if you will answer me one question."
+
+The girls slowly returned, but kept at a safe distance.  "What is the
+question?" asked Molly.
+
+Uncle Dick dived down into one of his pockets and drew forth a box of
+candy which he laid on the chair by his side.  "I want to see how you
+are progressing with your studies," he remarked with gravity.  "By the
+way, is school over yet?"
+
+"No, it closes next week," Molly told him, eying the candy.
+
+"Ah, then I must visit it and inquire into your record," said her uncle
+with an air of dignity.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick!" Molly was on pins and needles lest he should really
+do something of the kind, and if he should hurt the feelings of her
+dear Miss Isabel whom she adored, Molly did not know what she should
+do.  Miss Isabel might not understand her uncle's joking ways and--oh,
+dear!  Her anxious look made her uncle chuckle with glee.
+
+"I'll go sure as a gun," he declared, seeing a chance to tease.
+
+"Oh, please don't," begged Molly.
+
+"Why not go?  Indeed I shall.  I am confident from your manner, Miss
+Shelton, that it really is necessary that I should make some inquiries
+for the credit of the family.  Tell me why I should not go, if you
+please."
+
+"Why--why--none of the girls' uncles ever do go," said Molly lamely.
+
+"Not a bit of reason why I should not start the custom.  What is your
+teacher like?  Old, with little bobbing curls each side her face?
+Wears a cap, does she? or false frizzes and her teeth click when she
+talks?"
+
+"She's nothing like that at all," returned Molly indignantly.  "She is
+perfectly lovely with blue eyes and long black lashes, and the
+beautifullest hair, and she has the prettiest, whitest teeth, like even
+corn on the cob."
+
+"My, oh, my!  All the more must I go," said Dick.  "Is she young, dear
+niece?  How old might she be, darling Molly?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; I think about twenty-one, for she has only been
+teaching a year.  She didn't leave college till last summer, and she
+told me she wasn't seventeen when she first went there."
+
+"Delightful," said Uncle Dick meditatively.  "Where is my sister?  I
+must interest her in this matter.  Now, Molly, sweet girl, answer my
+question and you shall have, not only this box of candy, but another to
+take to--what did I understand your teacher's name to be?"
+
+"It is Isabel Ainslee, and it is a beautiful name."
+
+"I quite agree with you.  Now, Molly, answer me.  How many cakes can
+you buy two for three cents apiece?"
+
+Molly looked at Polly.  This was a puzzler surely.  "Two," she ventured
+uncertainly.
+
+Uncle Dick looked at her penetratingly.  "That might be the answer
+under some circumstances," he said.
+
+This puzzled Molly more than ever and she looked at Polly for
+inspiration.
+
+Polly was laughing.  "You're an old fraud," she said to her uncle.
+"That is no question at all.  It is nonsense, Molly.  It depends
+entirely upon how much money you have.  If you have six cents you can
+buy two cakes."
+
+"So you can," returned Molly, seeing daylight.  "I have just six cents,
+so I could buy two cakes at three cents apiece."
+
+"But you didn't answer; it was Polly who did," said her uncle.
+
+"Then Polly takes the candy," said that person darting forward and
+snatching up the candy box which she thrust into Molly's hand.  "Here,
+Molly, run," she cried.  And run Molly did, holding fast to the box and
+giving one backward glance at her uncle which showed him laughing and
+shaking his fist at the two retreating figures.
+
+"Just wait till I see that Isabel Ainslee," he called after them.
+"I'll fix it for you, Molly Shelton."
+
+But Molly had no fears, for Polly whispered; "He's only trying to
+tease, Molly.  Don't mind him."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER II_
+
+_Uncle Dick at School_
+
+It wanted but a week of the time when the delightful season would begin
+which meant long days of freedom for the two little girls, for they
+were to spend the summer in a dear little cottage by the sea.  Ever
+since Aunt Ada Reid bought her cottage it had been Molly's happy
+experience to spend the summer there, and to enjoy the delight of
+running wild.  Polly was already enthusiastic but she became doubly so
+as the time approached and Molly dwelt upon the joys before them.
+
+"We can run anywhere we like and nobody cares," Molly told her, "and
+there is so much to do the days never seem half long enough.  Just this
+week of school, and then free! free!  Uncle Dick didn't do as he
+threatened after all; he has not been to the school once."
+
+"Oh, he has forgotten all about it," returned Polly.
+
+But Uncle Dick had not forgotten, as the day's proceedings proved.
+Polly was deeply interested in school matters, for she had been taught
+at home always, and knew nothing of routine and system, which, even in
+a small school, must be carried on.  She had gone as a visitor with
+Molly when the rules were not so strictly enforced, for in the last
+warm days of the term Miss Ainslee was lenient and Polly thought school
+life perfectly delightful with easy lessons and ever so many
+interesting things said and done by both teacher and pupils.
+
+The two little girls were sitting side by side, listening attentively
+to Miss Ainslee's account of the early Britons, when the door softly
+opened and a tall young man appeared.  He looked smilingly around.
+Molly gave the stifled exclamation: "Uncle Dick!"  Polly jumped to her
+feet but sat down again.
+
+It was a hot morning.  The breeze scarcely stirred the leaves of the
+wistaria vines over the windows.  Once in a while a robin gurgled out
+his cheerful song which Molly always declared reminded her of cherry
+juice; the little girls in thin frocks fanned themselves behind the
+rows of desks.  Miss Ainslee's back was toward the door and she kept on
+with the reading, not having heard the intruder who presently made a
+step forward and gave a roguish glance in Molly's direction, to that
+young person's confusion, for the color mounted to her cheeks.  What
+was he going to do she wondered.  He gave an apologetic little cough
+which caused Miss Ainslee to look up from her book with a surprised
+expression.
+
+"Isn't it most time for recess?" asked Uncle Dick gently.
+
+Miss Ainslee glanced at the clock.  "Why yes," she replied, her
+surprise more evident.
+
+"That's what my sister said, and as it is such a warm morning we
+thought--she thought some ice cream would be refreshing to you all, so
+she has sent over a freezer; I told the man to set it outside."
+
+Pleased giggles issued from the little girls behind the desks.
+
+"I never thought," continued Dick, "but perhaps I ought--we ought to
+have furnished dishes and spoons.  You couldn't eat it from the
+ink-wells, I suppose."  He turned to the children who again giggled
+delightedly.
+
+"Oh, I think we can manage in an emergency," said Miss Ainslee.  "We
+have a small cooking class here on Saturday mornings and there is quite
+a supply of dishes in the cupboard yonder.  I think we can make them go
+around."
+
+Dick's smile grew wistful as he said: "It was pretty hot coming over
+here, but I don't suppose you could ask me to have some of the cream
+with you; I'm not a little girl, you know, and I perceive you don't
+take boys."
+
+A tremulous little smile danced about the corners of Miss Ainslee's
+mouth as she moved toward the cupboard.
+
+"I could help to dish it out at least," Dick added hastily.  "I could
+do that beautifully, couldn't I, Polly?"  He turned to his niece.
+
+"Oh, you are Molly's uncle, aren't you?"  The puzzled expression with
+which Miss Ainslee was regarding him changed to one of understanding.
+"She has been talking of you for the past month.  Certainly stay.  I
+shall be very glad of your help."
+
+Dick cast a triumphant look at Molly.  "Then I'll go right out and take
+off the ice from the freezer," he said.  "Will you have the cream in
+here or out there?"
+
+"Out there, I think," returned Miss Ainslee.  "I like the children to
+take their recess out of doors whenever they can.  I will bring out the
+plates and spoons."
+
+"No, don't," said Dick.  "Just show me where they are.  Oh, I see:
+among the gallipots and things.  You please go and get the kids--I mean
+the little girls all settled and I will play butler."
+
+To this Miss Ainslee would not consent, but she dismissed the children
+who fled out with excited whispers, and presently, to their great
+satisfaction, they were served with heaping saucers of ice cream and
+delicious little cakes.  Once or twice Molly and Polly ventured near to
+where their uncle and Miss Ainslee were sitting under a great tree, but
+each time that they appeared Uncle Dick would say in a strong voice: "I
+want to inquire about Molly's marks, Miss Ainslee.  How is she getting
+on with her arithmetic?"  As this was Molly's bugbear, she would move
+off hastily whenever the study was mentioned while Uncle Dick looked
+after her with a twinkle in his eye.  He politely took his leave after
+recess was over, though some of Molly's friends clamored for him to
+stay and tell them stories of the great west, for they had heard of his
+powers in that direction.  He refused to stay, however, though he
+promised that he would come again, if Miss Ainslee would permit.
+
+The girls all gathered around their teacher when the visitor had gone,
+and were loud in their praises of Molly Shelton's uncle.  But Molly
+herself said never a word, though after school was dismissed she crept
+up to Miss Ainslee and whispered: "Did you tell him I never do get half
+my examples right?"
+
+Miss Ainslee put her arm around her and whispered back: "No, dear, I
+didn't, for it wouldn't have been true.  Sometimes you do get more than
+half of them right."
+
+"I do try," said Molly wistfully.
+
+"I know you do," returned Miss Ainslee, giving her a hug.  So Molly
+went home satisfied that after all her uncle's visit to the school
+meant only good will and not a desire to discover the weak spots in his
+niece's record.
+
+Uncle Dick made a second visit to the school at another recess hour
+when it threatened rain and he brought umbrellas for Molly and Polly,
+and rain it did, coming down in such torrents for a while that he
+accepted the shelter offered, and, while the thunder rolled and the
+lightning flashed, told the children such thrilling stories as
+completely absorbed the attention of the whole school, and no one
+thought of being afraid of the storm.
+
+Then came the last day of the term when Uncle Dick, as invited guest,
+came with Mrs. Shelton to see the pretty Garden of Verses which Miss
+Ainslee had arranged for the closing entertainment.  Even Polly took
+part in that and repeated the lines:
+
+  "A birdie with a yellow bill
+  Hopped upon the window sill,
+  Cocked his shining eye and said.
+  'Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!'"
+
+while Molly, wearing a long silken gown, swept in with rustling skirt
+to say:
+
+  "Whenever auntie moves around
+  Her dresses make a curious sound;
+  They trail behind her up the floor,
+  And trundle after through the door."
+
+
+She was called to the front of the little stage to receive the bunch of
+lovely roses her Uncle Dick sent her, and felt very grand when they
+were handed up to her.  Polly, too, came in for her share of flowers,
+though hers were sweet-peas because her name began with P.  However,
+that did not account fur the white bell-like blossoms which were
+presented to Miss Ainslee, though Polly explained it by saying, "She is
+a belle, you know," and did not see the whole joke till she remembered
+Miss Ainslee's first name.
+
+To Polly, Miss Ainslee was a paragon of perfection.  She had never
+before known so dainty and pretty a young lady.  The tutor which she
+and her brothers had was a young man who had gone to Colorado for his
+health, and when stranded in Denver was chanced upon by Dick Reid who
+befriended him and brought him home, where he was glad enough to teach
+the niece and nephews of his former college mate.  Miss Ainslee was a
+teacher of quite another stamp and ardent little Polly adored her.
+
+When the little girls had returned from the closing exercises of the
+school, their thoughts turned to the next excitement which was the
+journey northward with Uncle Dick.  They were to start the very next
+morning, and their trunks stood ready to go.
+
+As they entered the hall, Mrs. Shelton picked up a letter which the
+postman had just brought.  It had a foreign postmark, and Molly knew it
+must be from her Aunt Evelyn, her Uncle Arthur's wife, who lived in
+England.  Mrs. Shelton sat down in the library and opened the letter.
+She had read only a few lines when she exclaimed: "Well, I declare!"
+
+"What is it, mother?" asked Molly.  "What does Aunt Evelyn say?  How is
+Mary?"
+
+"She is better, and what do you think, Molly?  Uncle Arthur is coming
+over and is going to bring Mary with him.  They are on their way."
+
+"Oh, Polly!  Polly!" cried Molly, "what do you think?  Our Cousin Mary
+is coming.  Three Marys in one house and all named after the same
+grandmother.  Tell us more, mother.  When are they coming and how long
+are they going to stay, and all about it.  Are they going to Aunt Ada's
+with us?"
+
+"Wait a minute," said Mrs. Shelton, scanning the final page of her
+letter.  Molly watched her till she read the last word.  "It is this
+way," Mrs. Shelton told her; "your Uncle Arthur has to come to America
+on business and Mary, you know, has not been very well, so when the
+doctor advised a sea voyage, Uncle Arthur decided to bring Mary with
+him and leave her with some of us while he should travel about to look
+after his business matters.  It was all determined upon very hurriedly
+and Aunt Evelyn is much concerned lest she is giving us a charge we may
+not wish to undertake.  However, I shall hasten to let her know that we
+shall be delighted to welcome Mary.  My own little niece whom I have
+never seen!  It is a great happiness to have both my nieces here this
+summer."  She smiled at Polly.
+
+"But when is she coming?" asked Molly.
+
+"In about a week I should judge."
+
+"Oh, we will be gone then," said Molly, turning to Polly.  She hardly
+knew whether to be glad or sorry of the fact.
+
+"I am glad I determined to wait a little later before going away with
+your father," continued Mrs. Shelton, "for now I shall be here to
+receive Arthur and Mary, and can bring Mary up with me on the way to
+Rangeley.  Aunt Ada will be perfectly delighted to know she is to have
+a visit from Mary, for she has asked so many times that her parents
+would lend her for a summer."
+
+"It will be just lovely to expect her," said Molly hospitably.  "I do
+hope we shall like her, mother, and that she will be as easy to get
+acquainted with as Polly is.  I feel as if I had always known Polly;
+she is just like a sister."
+
+"I fancy you will find Mary somewhat different from Polly," said Mrs.
+Shelton, remembering her sister-in-law's exact little ways, and
+thinking of Polly's unfettered life on the ranch.  "However, I am sure
+she is a dear child and that we shall love her very dearly."
+
+"I wish she had been here to see the Garden of Verses and our
+costumes," said Polly, who was quite carried away by the morning's
+performance.
+
+"Oh, I suppose she sees much finer things in England," said Molly.  "I
+suppose she dresses much finer, too, than we do.  Why, there are kings
+and queens and princesses over there, and they wear ermine and crowns
+and tiaras."
+
+"I haven't the least idea what a tiara is," said Polly.
+
+"I don't know exactly myself," acknowledged Molly, "but I know it is
+something you wear on your head and it is studded with diamonds or some
+kind of precious stones."
+
+"Maybe it is some kind of hat," ventured Polly.
+
+Molly wasn't quite sure, but she wondered if Mary would have one.  "At
+least she can tell us what it is like," she remarked to Polly.
+
+Mrs. Shelton had hurried from the room to tell the news to her brother
+and the little girls were left in the library alone.  Molly was
+thinking very seriously.  Presently she said: "Polly Perrine, if you
+will never, never tell any one, I'll tell you something.  Cross your
+heart you won't tell."
+
+Polly promptly crossed her heart.  "I won't tell," she assured her
+cousin.
+
+"Then," said Molly looking furtively around, "I am not sure I am glad
+Mary is coming."
+
+"Oh, why not?" asked Polly, looking the least bit shocked.
+
+"Why, she may be prim and fusty and spoil our plays.  I notice often
+that two girls can play together beautifully, but when a third one
+comes she is sure to want to do something that one of the others
+doesn't like and either breaks up the play or gets mad and goes off
+making you feel sort of hurt and queer inside.  You know it is hard to
+please everybody and the more people you have to please the harder it
+is."
+
+Polly pondered upon this philosophy of her cousin's.  "Well," she said
+finally, "perhaps if she doesn't like to play our way, she can find
+some one else to play with."
+
+"Of course she can.  I never thought of that," said Molly in a relieved
+tone.  "I remember now before I knew you were coming mother told me
+that Mrs. Wharton was going to have her granddaughter with her this
+summer, and I was very glad because the Mowbrays have gone abroad, and
+I expected to have them to play with.  Now we can pair off; you and I
+can go together and Mary can go with Grace Wharton.  I don't suppose,"
+she added after a minute, "that it would be quite polite always to have
+it that way, for Mary is our own cousin and we can't shove her off on a
+stranger."
+
+"Maybe we shall not want to," said Polly.  "If she is real nice, Molly,
+we won't mind taking turns, or we can all three play together when the
+Wharton girl isn't there."
+
+"But don't you ever, ever tell that I said I wasn't sure of wanting
+Mary," said Molly impressively.
+
+Polly promised, and just then they were called to luncheon and went
+down-stairs with their arms around each other.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER III_
+
+_Mary_
+
+A week later the family was settled for the summer in Miss Ada Reid's
+cottage by the sea.  In front of them was a stretch of green; beyond
+were the jagged rocks, and then came the ocean.  The landing was some
+distance from the cottage and was upon the bay side of the peninsula,
+so, although Polly had caught glimpses of the sea during her journey,
+she did not have a clear view of the wide expanse until they had nearly
+reached the house and the great blue ocean spread out before her.  Then
+she danced up and down with sheer joy.
+
+"It is just as big and just as blue as I thought," she cried.  "Oh, I
+am so happy!  I am so happy!"
+
+Molly was delighted at Polly's enthusiasm, for she, too, loved the sea
+and the rocks and the wide stretches of grassy hummocks.  "There is the
+cottage," she told her cousin; "the one peeping over that little hill.
+It looks just like a brownie, doesn't it, with its surprised
+window-eyes?  I always call the cottage 'The Brownie,' and Aunt Ada
+says it is a very good name for it, because it is a sort of brown."
+
+"I should call it gray," said Polly.
+
+"It is really gray, but it is a sort of brownish gray, and anyhow I
+like the name of Brownie for it.  There is Aunt Ada on the porch
+watching for us."
+
+Miss Reid came running out to meet them.  She gave Molly a hug and a
+kiss and then turned to her other niece.  "And this is our Polly, isn't
+it?" she said.  "Bless the dear; I am so glad to see her.  Come along
+in all of you; I know you are as hungry as hunters and I have dinner
+all waiting."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Ada, is there to be baked mackerel?" asked Molly.
+
+"Yes, and lobster salad, too."
+
+"Are the wild roses in bloom yet, and are the wild strawberries ripe?"
+queried Molly.
+
+"The strawberries are trying to get ripe, but I haven't seen a single
+wild rose yet.  Come right in; I know by Dick's eager look that he is
+ready for my baked mackerel.  I have Luella Barnes to help me this
+year," she whispered, "and she has a big white satin bow in her hair
+because we have a young man as guest."  She laughed mirthfully and
+Polly thought the way her eyes squeezed up was perfectly fascinating.
+Her Aunt Ada had visited Colorado when Polly was a baby, but, of
+course, Polly did not remember it, nor would her aunt have recognized
+her baby niece in the little rosy-cheeked girl before her.
+
+"This is something like our house," said Polly, looking around with a
+pleased expression at the unplastered room with its simple furnishings.
+
+"Then you will feel at home," said her aunt.  "Take off your hats,
+girlies, while I see to dinner, for you know the necessity, Molly, of
+looking after things yourself up this way."
+
+Just here Luella appeared.  She was a tall, angular young woman with a
+mass of fair hair, very blue eyes and a tiny waist.  The white satin
+bow was conspicuous, and as she caught sight of Dick Reid she simpered
+and giggled in what the little girls thought a very silly way since it
+displayed Luella's bad teeth to which she evidently never gave the
+least attention.  However, they all soon forgot everything but
+satisfying their appetites with the baked mackerel, deliciously fresh,
+the roasted potatoes, young peas and lobster salad.
+
+"These taste so different from canned things," said Polly, passing up
+her plate for a second helping of lobster.
+
+Luella reached out a bony arm and took the plate.  "I'm glad to see you
+can eat hearty," she remarked.  "Give her a real good help, Mr. Reid."
+
+Molly giggled, though she knew the ways of the "hired help" her aunt
+employed in the summer.  Aunt Ada gave her a warning look, for the
+natives were quick to take offense and Miss Ada had no wish to be left
+with no one in the kitchen.  "And when is Mary coming?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, we don't know exactly," Molly told her.  "Mother will bring her up
+when she and papa go to Rangeley.  Mother thought it would be in about
+a week.  What will you do with three little girls to look after, Aunt
+Ada?"
+
+"Oh, I expect them to look after me," returned Miss Ada.
+
+"And if they don't do that properly, or if they get obstreperous," put
+in Uncle Dick, "it is the easiest thing in the world to throw them
+overboard.  I'll do it for you, Ada; the rocks are very handy, and it
+will not be much of a job."
+
+Polly made a face at him.  "I know how much you'll throw us over," she
+said.  "You'd better not try it with me, you sinful evil-doer."
+
+"You see what is before you, Ada," said Dick.  "You'll rue the day you
+consented to have three nieces with you for a whole summer; yet," he
+shook his head and said darkly, "I know what can be done if worse comes
+to worst."
+
+"What then, Mr. Dicky-Picky?" said Polly.
+
+"That's for me to know and for you to find out," he replied.
+
+"My, ain't she sassy?" said Luella in a loud whisper to Miss Ada, "but
+then he ain't no more'n a boy the way he talks."
+
+This was too much for Dick who could not keep his face straight as he
+rose from the table quickly.  "Who's for the rocks, the cove or the
+woods?" he asked.
+
+"The rocks, the rocks, first," cried both little girls.
+
+"I want to show Polly the dear little pools where the star-fish are,
+and the cave under the rocks where we found the sea-urchins and where
+those queer bluey, diamondy shining things are," said Molly.
+
+Polly squeezed her hand.  "Oh, I'm so excited," she said.  "I have been
+just wild to see all those things."
+
+"You shall see them in short order," her uncle told her.  "We keep our
+aquarium in the front garden."
+
+"Where is the garden?" asked Polly innocently.
+
+Her uncle laughed as he led the way over the hummocks down the rugged
+path to the rocks.  Here they clambered over crags and barnacled
+boulders till they came to a quiet pool reflecting the blue of the sky.
+Its sides were fringed with floating sea-weeds and it was peopled by
+many sorts of strange creatures which thrived upon the supplies brought
+in by the ocean with its tides.  A green crab scuttled out of sight
+under some pebbles; a purple star-fish crept softly from behind a bunch
+of waving crimson weeds; a sea-anemone opened and shut its living
+petals; by peering under the shelving rock one could see the dainty
+shell of a sea-urchin.
+
+Polly gazed astonished at the pool's wonders.  "It is like fairy-land,"
+she whispered.  "I never saw anything so beautiful.  Can we come here
+every day and will the little pools with these queer creatures always
+be just this way?"
+
+"We can always come at low tide," Molly told her.
+
+"Then I'll always come down here at this time every day."
+
+"But it will not be low tide always at this time," said Molly.
+
+"Oh, won't it?" returned inland little Polly, quite taken aback.  "Why
+won't it?"
+
+Then her uncle told her how the coming in of the tide changes just as
+the rising of the moon does, and that one must know the difference in
+time to be sure.  Then he went on to explain something about the small
+creatures which inhabited the pools, the barnacles which covered the
+rocks up to a certain point.
+
+"Why don't the barnacles go any higher?" asked Polly.  "I should think
+they would grow and grow just like grass does over bare places in the
+ground.
+
+"They extend only to high water-mark," her uncle told her, "for you see
+they are fed by the ocean.  If you will watch closely, you can see them
+open and close as the waves come and go."
+
+"Isn't it wonderful?" said Polly in an awe-struck voice.
+
+"I like it best when the tide is up," remarked Molly, "for I don't
+think all that dark sea-weed that covers the rocks is very pretty."
+
+Polly looked down at the long ropes of seaweed which clung to the
+craggy places beneath them.  "It makes the rocks look just like
+buffaloes or some strange kind of animals," she said.  "I shall call
+that Buffalo Rock, and that other the Lion's Den, for it looks like a
+lion lying down."
+
+"There is a dear place further down," said Molly.  "It is sheltered
+from the wind and we have tea there sometimes.  There is a cunning
+fireplace that Uncle Dick built there last year.  I wonder if it is
+still standing.  Let's go and see."
+
+They followed the shore a little further and found a flat rock not far
+below the top of the bluff.  The fireplace was nearly as they had left
+it, and only required a few stones to make it as good as new.  Molly
+viewed it with a satisfied air as her uncle topped it with a final
+stone.  "There," she exclaimed, "it is ready for our first afternoon
+tea!  We'll toast marshmallows, too, as soon as we can get some at the
+store."
+
+"Why can't we get them to-day?" asked Polly who did not want to put off
+such a pleasure.
+
+"Because Mr. Hobbs never has any before the Fourth of July.  He always
+gets in his good things then, but never a day sooner or later.  I know
+him of old," said Dick.
+
+"By that time Mary will be here," said Molly thoughtfully, "and we can
+have our first tea-party in her honor."
+
+"Yes, and she can help us make our Fourth," said Uncle Dick, laughing.
+"She has never known our great and glorious Fourth over there in
+England."
+
+"Of course not," said Polly.  "I forgot she was a wicked Britisher."
+
+"Not very wicked," said Uncle Dick.
+
+"But we must never let her think we have any grudge against her because
+we were the ones that won the Revolution," said Molly.  "It wouldn't be
+polite to pick at her because she isn't an American.  Do you suppose
+she will be very snippy, Polly? and will be disagreeable and run down
+America?"
+
+"Oh, my, I hope not; I'd hate her to be that way," returned Polly
+alarmed at such a prospect.  "It would be dreadful for us to be
+quarreling all the time and of course we couldn't keep still if she
+runs down our country.  What shall we do if she does?"
+
+"Send her to me," said Uncle Dick.
+
+This settled the matter and was a relief to both little girls, who
+considered that what Uncle Dick didn't know was not worth knowing,
+besides he had a smiling way of putting down persons who bragged too
+much, as the cousins well knew.
+
+"I am just crazy to see her, and yet somehow I dread it," Polly told
+Molly.
+
+Molly confessed to much the same feeling and declared that she would be
+glad when the first meeting was over and they were all acquainted.
+Then she undertook to show Polly more of her favorite haunts and it was
+suppertime before they had begun to see all they wished to.
+
+The next week Mary arrived with Mrs. Shelton who remained but a short
+time before she resumed her journey.  Mary was a slim, pale,
+plainly-dressed little girl who looked not at all as her cousins
+imagined.  She did not seem shy but she had little to say at first,
+sitting by herself in a corner of the porch as soon as dinner was over
+and answering only such questions as were put to her.
+
+"Did you have a pleasant trip?" asked Molly by way of beginning the
+acquaintance.
+
+"No," returned Mary.  "Fancy being seasick nearly all the way."
+
+"Oh, were you?  Wasn't that disagreeable?"
+
+"Most disagreeable," returned Mary.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes and then Mary put her first
+question: "Do you always eat your meals with your parents, or only when
+you are at a curious place like this?"
+
+"Why, we always do," Polly answered.  "Where would you expect us to eat
+them?  In the kitchen?"
+
+"No," returned Mary; "in the nursery."
+
+"There is no nursery here, you know," Molly informed her.
+
+"Yes, I know; that is why I asked.  But in the city, or in your own
+home you have a nursery?"
+
+"Yes, we have," Polly told her, "but we don't eat there."
+
+"Really?" Mary looked much surprised.  "And do you come to the table
+with the grown persons?"
+
+"Why, certainly."
+
+"How curious!"
+
+Polly looked at Molly.  "Don't you ever go to the table with your
+parents?" asked Polly.
+
+"Sometimes we go for dessert."
+
+"Well," returned Polly, "if I couldn't stay all the time, I must say
+I'd like better to come in for dessert than just for soup."
+
+Mary looked serious, but Molly laughed.  "Don't you want to go down on
+the rocks with us?" asked the latter.
+
+"I think I would prefer to sit here," said Mary.
+
+"All by yourself?" said Molly, surprised.
+
+"Oh, yes, I like to be alone."
+
+This was too decided a hint for the others not to take, so they marched
+off together.  "Well," said Polly when they were out of hearing, "I
+don't think much of her manners, and I don't think I shall trouble her
+much with my company.  She likes to be alone; well, she will be, as far
+as I am concerned."
+
+"Oh, she feels strange at first," said Molly by way of excusing her
+English cousin.  "After while she will be more 'folksy,' as Luella
+says."
+
+"Well then, when she wants to come with us she can say so.  I shall not
+ask her, I know.  She is just like what I was afraid she would be
+stand-offish and airish.  She reminds me of 'the cat that walks by
+herself.'  I was always afraid the girls I might meet would be that
+way."
+
+At this Molly looked quite hurt.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean you," Polly went on, putting her arm around her
+cousin to reassure her.  "You are just dear, Molly.  I loved you right
+away."
+
+Molly's hurt feelings disappeared at this.  "I am sure," she remarked,
+"Mary needn't be so high and mighty; she hasn't half as pretty clothes
+as we have."
+
+"And she doesn't look nice in those she does have," returned Polly.
+
+From this the two went on from one criticism to another till finally
+they worked themselves up into quite hard feelings against Mary, and
+resolved to let her quite alone and not invite her to join their plays.
+This plan they began to carry out the next day to such a marked extent
+that their Aunt Ada noticed it.
+
+"I did suppose Molly and Polly would want to show more hospitality to
+their little English cousin," she said to her brother.
+
+Dick smiled.  "They will in time," he said.  "A dose of their own
+medicine might do them good."
+
+"Perhaps Mary has really said something to offend them," said Miss Ada
+thoughtfully, "or possibly they misunderstand each other's ways.  I
+will watch them for a day or two and try to discover what is wrong."
+She kept Mary at her side after this, and when she was not doing
+something to entertain her, Dick was, till both Molly and Polly began
+to add jealous pangs to their other grievances, yet they would only
+sidle up to their aunt and uncle or would sit near enough to hear what
+was said without joining in the conversation.
+
+"They are jealous; that's what it is, poor dears," said their aunt to
+herself.  "I must gather them all together in some way."  So the next
+evening when she and Mary were established in a cozy corner by the open
+fire, she called the other two little girls, "come here, lassies.  Mary
+has been telling me some very interesting things about England.  Don't
+you want to hear them, too?"
+
+Molly and Polly came nearer and sat on the edge of the wood-box
+together.
+
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "I think it would be a good way to pass the time
+if each were to tell her most exciting experience.  Mary can tell of
+something that happened to her in England; Polly can give us some
+experience of hers in Colorado, and Molly can choose her own locality.
+Molly, you are the eldest by a month or two, you can begin."
+
+Molly was silent for a few minutes and then she began.  "My most
+exciting time was last fall when we were going home from here.  We took
+the early boat, you remember, Aunt Ada, and the sea was very rough.  We
+were about half way to the city when a tremendous wave rushed toward us
+and we were all thrown down on deck.  I went banging against the rail,
+but Uncle Dick caught me, though he said if the rail hadn't been strong
+we all might have been washed off into the sea.  It was two or three
+minutes before we could get to our feet and I was awfully scared; so
+was everybody."
+
+"It was not rough at all when we came down here from the city,"
+remarked Mary.
+
+"It is usually very smooth," said Miss Ada, "but the time of which
+Molly speaks it was unusually rough and we all had reason to be
+terrified.  Now your tale, Polly."
+
+Polly sat looking into the fire for a moment before she said, "I think
+the time I was most scared was once when Uncle Dick and I were riding
+home on our ponies.  It was most dark and the sun was dropping behind
+the mountains; it always seems lonely and solemn then anyhow.  I wasn't
+riding my own pony that day for he had hurt his foot, so I had Buster,
+Ted's broncho: I'd often been on him before and I wasn't a bit afraid
+to ride him.  Well, we were coming along pretty fast because it was
+getting so late and we were a good distance from home.  Of course there
+were no houses nearer than ours, and that was three miles away.  I was
+a little ahead when a jack-rabbit jumped up right before Buster's nose
+and he lit out and ran for all he was worth.  I held on tight, but he
+kept running and pretty soon I saw we were making toward a bunch of
+cattle.  Buster used to be a cattle pony and I thought: suppose that
+bunch should stampede and I should get into the thick of them.  I was
+always more scared of a stampede than anything else.  Well, the cattle
+did begin to run but I jerked at Buster's bridle and managed to work
+him little by little away from the cattle, but he never stopped running
+till we got home and then I just tumbled off on the ground, somehow,
+and sat there crying till Uncle Dick came up.  He had no idea that
+Buster was doing anything I didn't want him to, but just thought I was
+going fast for a joke and because I wanted to get home."
+
+"I think that was tremendously exciting," commented Molly, "and I think
+you were very brave, for it lasted so long.  It is easy to be brave for
+a minute, but not for so long."
+
+"Fancy living in such a wild country," remarked Mary.
+
+"Oh, but it is beautiful," said Polly enthusiastically.  "The mountains
+are bigger than anything you can imagine, and it is so fine and free.
+Oh, you don't know till you see it."
+
+"I am quite sure I should like England better," declared Mary
+positively.  "London is much finer than New York, which is very ugly, I
+think, and our dear little villages are so pretty.  I never saw such
+queer tumble-down places as you have here in the country.  I think our
+hedge-rows and lanes are much prettier."
+
+"Never mind, now," said Miss Ada gently.  "Tell us about your most
+exciting time."
+
+"Really, I never did anything very exciting, you know," returned Mary.
+"Once I was in Kensington Gardens and got lost from nurse.  I was
+frightfully scared for a little while.  However, I sat quite still and
+she came up after a bit."
+
+Molly gave Polly a little nudge; it seemed a very tame experience after
+Polly's wild ride.
+
+"I am afraid Mary is something of a little prig," said Miss Ada to her
+brother when the little girls had gone to bed.
+
+"Polly will broaden her views if any one can," aid Uncle Dick.  "Don't
+let her flock by herself too much, Ada; it isn't good for her, and she
+needs a little Americanizing."
+
+"I don't think Polly will be harmed by Mary's gentleness.  She has such
+a charming voice and Polly might well subdue hers."
+
+"They'll do one another good," repeated Uncle Dick.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IV_
+
+_The Rhinestone Pin_
+
+In spite of Miss Ada's efforts to bring the three little cousins nearer
+together, it was some time before they actually did become real
+friends: Mary, seeing that anything she could say against America
+aroused a fierce contradiction from Polly, slyly teased her whenever
+she could, and Polly, who was loyal to the backbone, grew more and more
+indignant, often on the verge of tears, rushing to her aunt or uncle
+with a tale of Mary's abuse of her beloved country.
+
+"And her father is an American, too.  I don't see how she can do it,"
+she complained one morning.  "She is half American herself, and I told
+her so."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Aunt Ada.
+
+"She said she was born in England and so was her mother, so of course
+she was English, and besides, although her father was once American,
+that now he lives in England so he must be English, too.  She makes fun
+of everything, or at least she sniffs at us and our ways all the time.
+Now, is that polite, Aunt Ada?  I live in the west, but I'd be ashamed
+to make fun of the east."
+
+"I think Mary will learn better after awhile, when she has been here
+longer."
+
+"I wish I could show her what my mother wrote to me in the letter that
+I had from her this morning," said Polly.  Then, with a sudden thought.
+"Aunt Ada, won't you read it aloud to all three of us?"
+
+"Bring it to me," said Miss Ada, "and I will see."
+
+Polly ran off and came back with the letter which her aunt read over
+carefully, nodding approvingly from time to time.  "Where are the
+others?" she asked presently.
+
+"Out on the porch," Polly told her.
+
+Miss Ada picked up her knitting bag and Polly followed her to a
+sheltered corner where Molly and Mary were playing with a store of
+pebbles they had picked up on the shore.
+
+"Polly has had such a nice letter from her mother," said Miss Ada.
+"Don't you all want to hear it?  She gives such interesting accounts of
+things out there, and Mary will get quite an idea of ranch life from
+it."  She sat down and read the pages which were full of a pleasant
+recital of every-day doings, interesting to those unaccustomed to the
+great west, and more interesting to Polly.  At the last came these
+words:
+
+"There is one thing I want my little girl to remember: the essence of
+good breeding comes from a good heart.  It is both unkind and ill-bred
+to give offense in a house where hospitality is shown you, to find
+fault or criticise what is set before you, to draw comparisons between
+the locality where you live and that which you are visiting so that the
+latter will appear in a bad light.  Persons who have not been
+accustomed to the society of well-bred people think it is very smart to
+find fault with things which are different from those with which they
+have been familiar.  Now, I don't want my Polly to be that way, and I
+must ask her not to be so rude as to abuse hospitality by belittling
+the customs of a house or the town, state or locality in which it is.
+I want my Polly to be considered a true lady, even if she is from the
+wild and woolly west."
+
+Mary looked a little startled while this reading was going on and when
+Polly stole a glance at her she became very red in the face and turned
+away her head, but to Polly's great satisfaction, from that time she
+was less ready to criticise things American.  In consequence
+warm-hearted little Polly tried to be magnanimous and because Aunt Ada
+asked her to help her to show a generous hospitality, she overlooked
+Mary's praise of England, and would answer her remarks by saying:
+"Well, we have some nice things, too."  Her clear loud voice, moreover,
+she tried to tone down when Aunt Ada told her to notice the difference
+between her way of speaking and Mary's.  As to Mary the benefits of her
+visit were only beginning to tell.  Later they showed more plainly, but
+it was not till there was much heart-burning and many tears were shed.
+
+It all began in this way: Molly rushed in one morning, her face all
+aglow with the importance of the news she had to tell.  "Oh, Aunt Ada,"
+she cried, "they are going to have a dress-up party at Green Island
+hall, fancy costumes, you know, and we are all invited, you and Uncle
+Dick and we children.  The Ludlows have come and it is Miss Kitty's
+birthday.  Will you go? and what can we wear?"
+
+"Oh, mayn't I be a grown-up lady and wear a long skirt?" asked Mary.
+"I have always longed to do that."
+
+"Why, I am sure I don't object," replied Miss Ada.  "Tell me more about
+it, Molly.  Where did you find out all this?"
+
+"I met Edgar Ludlow just now, and he gave me this note," and Molly
+thrust an envelope into her aunt's hand.  "He told me all about the
+party."
+
+Miss Ada opened the note and read:
+
+
+"DEAR ADA:
+
+"Come over to the hall to-morrow night, you and your brother, and bring
+the youngsters.  We are going to celebrate my birthday by dressing up
+in any old thing we can find around the house.  Come in any character
+you choose, from the Queen of Sheba to a beggar maid, only don't fail
+to come and bring the girlies.
+
+"Lovingly,
+  "KITTY."
+
+
+The three cousins watched their aunt's face anxiously.  "You will go,
+won't you, Aunt Ada?" asked Polly.
+
+"I most certainly will.  The first thing to do is to see what odds and
+ends I have in the attic."
+
+From this time on for the next two days there was great excitement
+everywhere in the house, for with five costumes to devise out of
+scraps, Miss Ada had her hands full.  But when the moment came for them
+all to start forth, each one had been provided with something suitable.
+Miss Ada herself wore a Puritan cap and kerchief which distinguished
+her as Priscilla, the Puritan maiden; Uncle Dick looked stunning, his
+nieces agreed, as a Venetian gondolier; Mary was perfectly happy with a
+long trained skirt, short waist and powdered hair, her crowning glory
+being a pin which her aunt had lent her; it was set with rhinestones,
+which in her innocence she mistook for real diamonds, but she was so
+delighted with the shining brilliants that Miss Ada did not have the
+heart to undeceive her.  Polly insisted upon going as the wild Indian
+her uncle had suggested to Molly that she looked like, and though her
+costume did not accord very well with her fair hair, she was painted up
+skilfully and with blanket, beads and moccasins was quite content.
+Molly made a pretty butterfly with yellow paper wings, and as they all
+set out across the hummocks to the little landing every one was
+entirely satisfied.  Green Island was not far away, and, as it was
+bright moonlight these nights, no one minded the trip across the narrow
+channel between the point and the island.  The little hall was gay with
+decorations of Japanese lanterns and wild flowers, and looked so
+festive that even Mary declared it was perfectly lovely.
+
+There were not very many children present, and the cousins felt quite
+like grown-ups when they danced with Uncle Dick and other young men of
+his age, the music being furnished by whoever would volunteer to play
+two-steps and waltzes.  Mary felt the necessity of crossing the room a
+great many times that she might have the pleasant consciousness of the
+train sweeping behind her.  Polly as a dancer did not excel except in
+funny whirls and figures and in a Spanish dance which she had learned
+from her father's Mexican servants, and which won her great applause.
+Molly had danced often enough in this very hall to which she had gone
+every summer since she could dance at all.
+
+It was Mary's first experience of such an affair where young and old
+shared the entertainment.  Never before had she been to any such
+assemblage which was not intended for children alone, and while for
+some time her friends had been slowly converting her to a more
+flattering view of American ways, this completely won her heart, and at
+once all her childish home festivities paled before it.  In her
+enthusiasm she turned to Polly and said: "Oh, I do love America!" and
+Polly, unmindful of her painted face, threw her arms about her and
+kissed her.
+
+At ten o'clock the guests departed, and after their water trip in a
+small motor boat, they went stumbling home by the light of the moon.
+
+Luella was there to welcome them, eager to hear all the account of the
+evening's doings.  "You summer folks beat me out!" she exclaimed.
+"Land! to see you rig up in all this trash and dance them funny dances
+is as good as a circus.  I was watching you through the windows, me and
+some of the other girls."
+
+"Was Granville there?" asked Polly.
+
+"You go 'long," returned Luella, coyly.  "I won't tell you whether he
+was or not."  The girls were much interested in the young fisherman who
+saw Luella home every night, and thought his high-sounding name
+beautiful.  Luella had confided to Polly that they were going to get
+married some day and that she had already begun to piece her quilts.
+
+It was something of a task to get off their toggery and to rid
+themselves of paint and powder, but finally the butterfly wings were
+unfastened, the powder shaken from Mary's locks and the red paint
+washed from Polly's face and hands.  It was during the process of
+undressing, however, that Mary made a discovery which took away all the
+joy of her evening.  The beautiful shining pin was gone!  She clutched
+the front of her frock where it had been pinned; she examined the fall
+of lace; she shook out the folds of the skirt.  In her distress and
+fear she commenced to search eagerly around on the floor with her
+candle.
+
+"What are you looking for?" called Polly from the next room.
+
+"I have dropped a pin," said Mary, in agitation.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't fuss about it; the mice won't eat it up," said Polly,
+sleepily, "and nothing will carry it off in the night.  Wait till
+morning and it will be just where you dropped it, just the same."
+
+This Mary felt to be the truth, and she finally crept into bed, still
+miserable, but hopeful and determined to waken early to make a search
+for the precious pin.
+
+As soon as the sun showed its golden disc over the edge of the ocean
+she was up, creeping softly around the room on her hands and knees, and
+trying not to waken her sleeping cousins in the next room.  At last,
+after she had searched in every possible nook and cranny, she concluded
+that she must have lost it on the stairs or on her way home, so, after
+dressing herself, she stole downstairs, looking upon each step as she
+went, then through the living-room and out on the porch.
+
+The air was soft and sweet.  The song-sparrows were singing from the
+house-tops; across the ocean the sun shone gloriously, and pouring its
+beams upon the dew-sprinkled grass, turned their blades into sparkling
+sheaths which mocked poor Mary, searching for false diamonds.  No one
+was in sight but a lobsterman out in his dory.  From one or two
+chimneys the smoke was beginning to curl, showing that there were other
+early risers.  Mary stepped along anxiously, looking this side and
+that, and with her hands pushing the grass aside in places.  Little by
+little she made her way toward the landing.  She would search so far
+and if it were not to be found this side the separating channel of
+water she would trust to luck to take her to the island later.
+
+But no pin was to be found that morning, hunt faithfully though she
+did, and the child returned to the cottage in great distress of mind.
+She was afraid to confess the loss to her aunt, and she could not make
+up her mind to tell one of her cousins.  "I must find it!  I must!" she
+exclaimed, clasping her hands as she left the last turnstile behind
+her.  "I hope, I do hope Aunt Ada will not ask for it first thing this
+morning."
+
+This Aunt Ada did not do, thinking, indeed, no more of the little
+trinket after having pinned it into Mary's frock.  No one noticed that
+the little girl was very quiet at the breakfast table, for all were
+talking merrily over the fun of the evening before, and no one observed
+Mary's troubled little face nor the fact that she scarcely tasted her
+breakfast.  Her Uncle Dick, however, at last did remark that Mary had
+not much to say.  "I am afraid grown-up parties are too much for Mary,"
+he said, after breakfast, drawing her to his side in the hammock and
+cuddling her to him.  "Are you sleepy, Mary, or don't you feel well?"
+
+Mary leaned her head against his shoulder.  "I don't feel sleepy," she
+told him, "and I am only a bit tired.  Uncle Dick, are diamonds the
+preciousest things in the world?"
+
+"Those glittering out there on the grass, do you mean?  They are fairy
+diamonds, you know, and they disappear as soon as the sun gets high up."
+
+"I know.  I didn't mean those; I meant the kind human people wear."
+
+"They are sold at rather a respectable price.  Are you thinking of
+investing or are you considering the display Miss Millikin made last
+night?  I think I counted thirteen on one hand.  All are not diamonds
+that glitter, Marybud.  Miss Millikin isn't a bit more precious because
+of her diamonds, so don't you go thinking I'll love you any better if
+you have six diamond rings on one hand."
+
+"But they are most costly, aren't they?"
+
+"They cost like fury.  That's why I can't be engaged to a girl; I can't
+afford to buy a ring."
+
+Mary took this perfectly seriously.  "I suppose six little diamonds
+would cost as much as twenty pounds," she said.
+
+"Yes, one might get six, not too big, for that price.  The little ones
+cost much less than the big one in proportion.  A large solitaire costs
+much more than a number of small ones taking up as much space.  But why
+this sudden interest in diamonds?  Have you twenty pounds to spend and
+are you thinking of spending it all in diamonds to take home as a gift
+to your mother?"
+
+"Oh, no, I have only one pound to spend, and mamma wouldn't wish me to
+spend all that upon her."
+
+"Then let's talk of something else; song-sparrows or sand-peeps or
+sea-gulls, or something not so sordid as gold and diamonds.  Look at
+that yacht out there, isn't it a corker?  Now, when I have money to
+spend I shall not buy diamonds, I shall buy a yacht.  By the way, did
+you know we were all going out sailing this afternoon, to Rocky Point?"
+
+"Are we?" said Mary listlessly.
+
+"Why I thought you would enjoy it.  We have been talking of this sail
+for two or three days, and you little kitties were wild about it, I
+thought."
+
+"I am delighted; of course I am," returned Mary with more show of
+interest.  "Shall we take supper there?  I heard Aunt Ada and Luella
+talking about sandwiches."
+
+"Yes, that is the intention.  We shall not try sailing by the outside
+route but will go around by Middle Bay where it is not rough.  Polly
+has not tried sailing yet, and we must be sure of smooth waters.  If it
+gets too much for her we can set her ashore somewhere and she can come
+back by the next steamboat.  She is calling you now."
+
+Mary slipped away to join Polly and Molly.  "We are going to look for
+wild strawberries," they said; "Aunt Ada said we might."
+
+"I'm going barefoot," Polly informed her, "but Molly won't; she is
+afraid of taking cold; you aren't, are you, Mary?"
+
+Mary was most decided in her refusal to take off her shoes and
+stockings, declaring that her mother would certainly disapprove, but
+her heart leaped within her when told that they were to look for
+strawberries.  She would then have an excuse to continue her search for
+the lost pin, and therefore she set for herself the bounds which
+included the path to the landing.  But it must be confessed that she
+found few strawberries and was crowed over by the others.
+
+"You might have known you couldn't find near so many there along the
+path," Polly told her.  "Why, they are as thick as can be over there
+where nobody walks."
+
+Mary made no excuse for her choice, and indeed made no reply.
+
+"You aren't mad, are you?" asked Polly after looking at her for a
+moment.
+
+Mary shook her head.
+
+"Tell me, are you homesick, Mary?  I won't tell any one if that is what
+is the matter."
+
+Again only a shake of the head in reply.
+
+"Well, you needn't tell if you don't want to," said Polly, walking off.
+She was a quick-tempered little soul, easily offended, and when Mary
+decided that she would rather stay at home with Luella that afternoon,
+than run the risk of being seasick, Polly made up her mind that either
+Mary really was homesick, or that she did not care for the society of
+her American cousins.
+
+"I'm not going to insist on playing with her.  She needn't think I'm so
+crazy about it that I can't keep away from her," she confided to Molly
+after they had set sail.
+
+"Oh, but maybe she really is homesick," said Molly, "and maybe we ought
+not to have gone away and left her."
+
+"But Uncle Dick and Aunt Ada said we should."
+
+"That was because Mary was so determined not to go.  She was seasick
+nearly all the way coming from England, and Aunt Ada thinks that is why
+she was afraid to go to-day."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!  Nobody could be seasick on this smooth water," said
+Polly, looking over the side of the boat at the blue waves.  "Isn't it
+jolly, Molly?"
+
+"Jolly Molly sounds funny," laughed Molly.
+
+"So does jolly Polly," returned Polly.  Then, fumbling in her uncle's
+pocket, she found a bit of paper and a pencil; in a moment she handed
+to Molly the following brilliant production:
+
+  "Golly, Molly,
+  It's jolly,
+  Polly
+
+
+This sent them both into shrieks of merriment, for it took very little
+to start the two laughing, and they soon forgot Mary.
+
+"Look here," called Uncle Dick, "I shall have to make you two laugh the
+other side of the mouth, for you're tipping the boat all to one aide.
+Shift them a little bit further, Ada.  We're going to run into the cove
+for supper."
+
+The beautiful little cove made a quiet and safe harbor.  Here they
+anchored and made ready to make coffee, roast potatoes and toast
+marshmallows.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER V_
+
+_Mary and the Boy_
+
+Meanwhile Mary at the cottage was disconsolate enough.  To be sure
+Luella was rather a cheerful companion, and even Miss Ada's Maltese
+kitten, Cosey, was not to be despised as giving a comforting presence.
+Yet the weight of her loss lay heavily upon Mary, and she soon escaped
+from Luella to begin again the weary search.  She was on her knees
+before a large rock when she heard a voice above her say: "What you
+looking for?  A sparrow's nest?  I know where there is one."
+
+Mary looked up to see a barefooted boy peering down at her.  He had a
+pleasant face and appeared much as other boys, though she saw at once
+that he was a fisherman's son, and not one of the summer visitors.
+"No, I'm not looking for a bird's nest," she said slowly; "I've lost
+something.  Did--did--do you know if any one has found a piece of
+jewelry?"  It flashed across her that she might do well to confide in
+the little lad.
+
+"Why, no, I don't," he replied, "but I'll help you look for it.  I'd
+just as lief as not.  What was it like?"
+
+Mary glanced around her.  "I'll tell you," she said, "but I don't want
+any one else to know.  I am so afraid my aunt will be vexed.  It is a
+brooch, a diamond brooch in the shape of a star, that I wore to the
+party the other night.  I lost it coming home, I think."
+
+"It will be pretty hard to find, I'm afraid," said the boy.  "Why don't
+you tack up a notice in the post-office?"
+
+"Oh, because I don't want my aunt to know.  I thought if I could only
+find it, I'd so much rather not tell."
+
+"But, say, you don't stand near so good a chance of finding it if
+nobody knows."
+
+Mary pondered over this, her desire to find the pin battling with her
+desire to keep the loss a secret.  "I'll look a little longer," she
+said at last, "and then if I don't find it I will have to tell."
+
+"I guess you do feel pretty bad about it," said the boy.  "Diamonds are
+valuable and if anybody found the pin it might be a temptation to keep
+it, especially if it wasn't known who it belonged to.  We're pretty
+honest about here and I guess the Green Island people are, too, so, if
+it's found, I guess you'll get it again as soon as it's known who lost
+it."
+
+"I've looked and looked all the way from here to the landing," said
+Mary disconsolately, "and I don't believe it is here.  I do wish I
+could get over to Green Island somehow."
+
+"Why, it's easy enough to get there," said the boy.  "Us boys go over
+often to pick berries, or sell lobsters to the hotel.  I'll row you
+over in my brother Parker's boat; I know he'll let me have it."
+
+"Oh, how very kind!  I would be so relieved.  It is most kind of you to
+offer to take me.  Could we go now, before the others get back?"
+
+"Why, I guess so.  You come on with me and I'll see.  Park's down to
+the fish-house, and I know he won't be using the boat to-day.  You know
+who I am, don't you?  I live in that yellow house just this side
+Hobbs's store, and I'm Park Dixon's brother Ellis.  I'm going
+lobstering next year; I'm big enough."
+
+Mary looked him over.  He was not very big, she thought, but she did
+not know just what was the necessary size for one to reach in order to
+go lobstering, yet it seemed rather to place him in a position to be a
+safe guide, and she was glad he had told her.  "I'm sure," she said
+following out her thought, "that you're quite big enough to take me."
+
+"Of course I am," he said.  "I've sot over quite a lot of people to
+Green's Island.  I sot over a man last week."
+
+Mary hesitated before she asked, "If you please, what is sot over?"
+
+"Why, row 'em over.  If you don't take the steamboat there ain't no
+other way than to be sot over, you see."
+
+"Oh, I see.  Thank you.  Shall we go to the fish-house now?"
+
+"Why, yes, or you can wait here if you'd rather."
+
+Upon considering, Mary concluded it would be more satisfactory to go,
+for perhaps Ellis might give her the slip, or, if the big brother
+objected, she might add her persuasions to Ellis's and so clinch the
+matter.  Yet while she stood waiting for Ellis to make his request for
+the boat, she had many compunctions of conscience.  She had never
+before done so bold and desperate a thing.  She had scarcely ever
+appeared on the street without her governess, and indeed it was the
+strict measures of this same governess which made the child timid about
+confessing the loss of the pin.  As she thought about the trip to Green
+Island with a strange little boy to whom she had never even spoken
+before that day, it seemed a monstrous undertaking, and for a moment
+she quailed before the prospect.  Yet what joy if she should return
+with the precious pin and be able to restore it without a word of
+censure from any one.  This thought decided her to follow when Ellis
+beckoned to her.  Big Parker Dixon smiled and nodded from where he was
+unloading shining mackerel and big gaping cod, and Mary knew his
+consent had been given.
+
+"It is a very smelly place," she remarked as she picked her way along
+the wet fish-house floor.
+
+Ellis laughed.  "That's what you summer folks think; we like it."
+
+"Fancy liking it," said Mary, then feeling that perhaps that did not
+show a proper attitude toward one so kind as Ellis, she hastened to
+say, "No doubt it is a lovely smell, you know, and if I were an
+American perhaps I should prefer it, but I am English, you see."
+
+"That's what makes you talk so funny," said Ellis bluntly.
+
+"Oh, really, do I talk funny?  I can't help it, can I, if I am English?"
+
+"Oh, some of the folks that live other places not so far away think we
+talk funny," Ellis went on to say.
+
+"Do they?  Then there is as much difference in liking ways of talking
+as in the kind of smells you like.  Now, I never could bear the smell
+of onions cooking, and yet nurse says they smell so 'earty and
+happetizing; she drops her h's, you know."
+
+Ellis stared.  He had never heard of dropping h's, but he was too wise
+to say so.  "I'll go get the _Leona_," he said by way of changing the
+subject.  "That's the name of my brother's boat; he named it after his
+wife.  You'd better come on down to Cap'n Dave's wharf; it is easier
+getting aboard there."
+
+Mary followed down a winding path to the shore of the cove and waited
+on the pebbly sands till the boat was shoved up and then she waveringly
+stepped in, fearfully sat down where Ellis directed, and in a moment
+his sturdy young arms were pulling at the oars.  The deed was done and
+Mary felt as if she had cast away every shred of home influence.  What
+would Miss Sharp say to see her?  Polly wouldn't hesitate to do such a
+thing, she reflected, and after all she was in America which was a
+perfectly free country, so Molly and Polly were always telling her,
+then why not do as she chose?  So she settled herself more comfortably
+and really began to enjoy the expedition.
+
+It was but a short distance to Green Island, and the water of the
+dividing sound was too smooth to produce any uncomfortable qualms so
+that Mary felt only a pleasant excitement as she stepped ashore and was
+piloted by Ellis to the little hall where the fancy dress party had
+been given.  All the way along they looked carefully to see if by
+chance anything could be discovered of the missing pin, but there was
+no sign of it.  Ellis started inquiries, putting the question to each
+one he met: "You hain't heerd of anybody's findin' a breastpin, hev ye?
+I'll ask at the post-office," he told Mary.  "They won't know who you
+are and if anybody finds it, I'll leave word it's to be returned to me."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure you're very kind," said Mary gratefully.  "I can give a
+reward.  Isn't that what persons do?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure.  Nobody about here wants any reward.  I guess
+any of us is ready to return property when we know where it belongs."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary felt properly rebuked.  Really Ellis was a very superior
+sort of person if he did murder the king's English.  It was quite
+evident that his morals were above question.  She pattered by his side
+till they reached the hall.  The door was open and the place
+unoccupied.  It no longer seemed enchanted ground.  The Japanese
+lanterns looked out of place in the glare of daylight, and the flowers
+still remaining, were faded and drooping.  Instead of being bright and
+festive, it appeared bare and desolate to Mary.
+
+She and Ellis walked slowly around, looking in every corner, but their
+search was not rewarded, and they returned to the boat, stopping at the
+post-office on their way.  The postmaster and his entire family were
+greatly interested in Ellis's tale of the lost trinket.
+
+"A diamond breaspin, did you say?" asked Jim Taylor.  "Wal now, ain't
+that a loss?  I'll put up a notice right away.  Marthy, you ain't heerd
+of nobody's findin' a diamond breaspin, hev ye?" he questioned a girl
+who came in to mail a letter.  "Some of the P'int folks has lost one.
+If you hear of its bein' found, tell 'em to fetch it here."  He
+carefully wrote out a notice which he pinned up alongside an
+advertisement of a boat for sale, a cottage to let, and a moonlight
+excursion.  "That'll fetch it," he said.  "If it's been found on this
+island, you'll get it.  You tell 'em over to the P'int we're on the
+lookout.  How is it you're undertakin' to look it up, Ellis?  Who's the
+lady?"
+
+Ellis glanced furtively at Mary, squirming his bare toes on the dusty
+floor.  "Wal, I cal'lated I could find it," he replied.  "I undertook
+it on my own hook, and I guess I'll see it through.  I'd like the fun
+of restorin' it, if I can, Jim."
+
+The postmaster laughed.  "You're right cute, Ellis," he said.  "Parker
+gone a-fishin' yet?"
+
+"No," Ellis told him; "he's goin' on Cap'n Abe Larkins' boat.  They're
+loadin' up now.  They cal'late to get off in a day or two."
+
+Jim Taylor nodded, and, having despatched the business with Ellis, he
+turned to wait upon a customer, for this was store and post-office as
+well.
+
+Mary was surprised to find that every one, young and old was called by
+the first name; it seemed to her a queer custom.  She would have said
+Mr. Taylor, but Ellis called even the old men Joshua and Abner and all
+that.  She did not criticise, however, for she was very grateful to
+Ellis for not disclosing her secret.  Really he was a boy of very fine
+feelings, she decided, and she spoke her thought by saying: "You are
+very good to do all this for me, Ellis."
+
+Ellis looked confused.  He had not been brought up to receive praise.
+"Oh, it ain't nothin'," he said awkwardly.  Then changing the subject
+suddenly, he exclaimed: "There's Luella Barnes!"
+
+"Where?" cried Mary in alarm.
+
+"Comin' out of the ice-cream saloon with Granville.  I guess he fetched
+her over."
+
+"I wonder if she's come after me," said Mary looking scared.
+
+"Did she know you were comin'?"
+
+"No, but I said I would go over to the Whartons'.  I meant to go when I
+told her, so maybe she thinks I am there and thought there was no need
+for her to stay in.  She goes somewhere every afternoon anyhow, so I
+fancy she hasn't come for me, after all, though I'd rather not see her."
+
+However this was not to be avoided, for Luella had caught sight of Mary
+and was about to bear down upon her when her attention was distracted
+by a friend who hailed her and in the meantime Mary slipped out of
+sight.  "That was Mary Reid as sure as shootin'," said Luella to
+Granville.
+
+"I guess not," he replied.  "What would she be doing over here?"
+
+"I cal'lated she'd gone to Whartons'," said Luella, pinching her under
+lip thoughtfully as she looked down the road.
+
+"Maybe she did go and they've fetched her over in their launch."
+
+Luella "cal'lated" that was just the way of it, and gave herself no
+further uneasiness, so Mary escaped by plunging down the bank and
+skirting the shore till she reached the spot where the boat lay.
+
+"I'll row you over to Jones's Island, if you'd like to go.  'Tain't but
+a little way.  There's lots of strawberries there," the boy said.
+
+This was a temptation Mary considered.  The afternoon was but half
+gone; the evenings were long, and the sailing party would not return
+before sunset.  They enjoyed most of all the coming home when sea and
+sky were a glory of color and light.  It would be a delightful way to
+pass the remainder of the afternoon, and to carry home a lot of berries
+for supper would be an excuse to Luella for her long absence.  "What
+will we get the berries in?" she asked Ellis, when her thoughts had
+traveled thus far.
+
+"I'll run up to the store and get some of those little empty fruit
+boxes; Jim'll give 'em to me.  I saw a pile of 'em lying outside.  You
+wait here."  So Mary waited.  If it should be discovered that she had
+gone off with Ellis in the _Leona_, she would at least have the berries
+as an evidence of what they had gone for.  Mary was getting more and
+more crafty.
+
+The end of it all was that they did row over to Jones's Island.  A
+barren looking, uninhabited spot it seemed from a distance.  Barren of
+trees it was, but when one once reached it there were great patches of
+strawberries, clumps of wild roses and bayberry bushes, pinky-white
+clover, deliciously sweet, tiny wild white violets and many other
+lovely things.  Then, too, it was the haunt of birds which,
+undisturbed, had built their nests there year after year.
+
+It did not take long to pick as many berries as they could eat and as
+many as they wanted to carry away, and then when the sky was shining
+gold and pink and blue above and the water shining blue and pink and
+gold beneath, they started home, reaching there just as Luella,
+standing on the porch, was watching earnestly for the little girl's
+return.  Ellis had parted from his companion at the point where their
+roads separated.  His supper hour was over long ago, though he did not
+say so, his parting words being: "I'll let you know first thing if I
+hear anything of the breastpin."
+
+"Thank you so much," said Mary.  "I cannot tell you how much I have
+enjoyed the afternoon."
+
+"I thought maybe you'd stayed at the Whartons' for supper," said
+Luella, as Mary came up.  "Land's sake, where did you get all them
+berries?  I know you didn't get 'em about here.  There, now, I said I
+seen you to Green's.  That's just what I said.  Did you have a good
+time?  Whartons' is real good about their la'nch, ain't they?  Now
+there's Roops hardly ever takes anybody out but their own folks.  I
+call that mean.  Come on in and get your supper.  Them berries is so
+fresh I guess they'll keep till tomorrow, and you'll want the others to
+have some.  I cal'late you've eat your fill of 'em anyway."
+
+Glad that Luella's flow of talk did not demand answers, Mary followed
+her into the house and when the young woman drew up her chair sociably
+to eat supper with her, Mary did not feel any resentment, so happy was
+she that no explanations were expected.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VI_
+
+_Discoveries_
+
+But the end was not yet for Mary.  To be sure her strawberries were
+much appreciated, and every one was good enough to say she had been
+missed, and that it was too bad she had decided to stay at home.
+"Though after all you weren't lonely," said Molly, "and I'm glad you
+went over to the Whartons'; they are such nice, friendly people."
+
+"I think they are, too," said Polly.  "Luella told us they took you to
+Green Island on their launch."
+
+"I am delighted that you had that pleasure," said Aunt Ada.
+
+"And I am pleased that you were so industrious as to pick all those
+berries," Uncle Dick put in his word.
+
+Poor Mary felt very uncomfortable.  "I am a wretchedly deceitful girl,"
+she told herself.  "Why can't I tell them the truth?  But, oh, dear, it
+is harder to now than it was at first." So she summoned voice to say
+only, "Yes, I did have a real nice time.  Green Island is almost as
+pretty as the Point, isn't it?"
+
+"We don't think it is near so pretty," said Molly, loyally.
+
+"But it is lovely," admitted Miss Ada.  "I wish you could have seen
+Rocky Point, Mary; that is the wildest spot imaginable.  Perhaps after
+a while you will get over your fear of being seasick and can go with us
+on another trip there."
+
+"Oh, it is such a fine place to have supper," put in Polly.  "We had a
+dear little fireplace, and it was so still you could imagine you were
+hundreds of miles away from a house, and there was nothing to disturb
+us----"
+
+"Except ants and grasshoppers and mosquitoes," interrupted Uncle Dick.
+
+"I'm sure there were very few of them," protested Molly.  "Anyhow it
+was just fine, Mary, and you must be sure to go next time.  We had the
+loveliest sail home through the sunset."
+
+"Through the sunset," said Uncle Dick scornfully.  "One would suppose
+we were in a balloon."
+
+"Well, but it was sunset on the water, too," persisted Molly.  "The sea
+was just as colorful as the sky."
+
+"When anybody coins words like that I'm ready for bed," said Uncle
+Dick.  And Mary, feeling that the subject of the afternoon's doings was
+exhausted, drew a breath of relief.
+
+The three cousins played together most amicably all the next morning.
+In Mary's breast hope was high, for might not Ellis appear at any time
+with the pin?  She counted much on that notice in the Green Island
+post-office.  She was brighter than she had been for days so that Molly
+confided to Polly: "She seems more like us."
+
+"I'm beginning to like her real well," admitted Polly.  "She isn't so
+stiff as she was at first."
+
+"I suppose her Englishism is wearing off," returned Molly.
+
+But that afternoon when she returned from the post-office, whither she
+had gone for her Aunt Ada, she beckoned to Polly who was playing jacks
+with Mary.  They had a set of jackstones which they had collected
+themselves from the pebbles on the beach, and the place was much more
+interesting because of them.
+
+"What do you want?" asked Polly following Molly into the house.  "Are
+there any letters for me?"
+
+"No," said Molly, "but just wait a minute and I'll tell you.  I must
+take Aunt Ada her mail first."  Her manner was mysterious and Polly
+wondered what mighty secret she had to disclose.
+
+"Let's go down to the rocks, to the lion's den," proposed Molly when
+she came back into the room.  "We'd better go around by the back way."
+
+Polly looked surprised.  "Why?  What for?"
+
+"I've something to tell you and I don't want any one to bear.  You will
+scarcely believe it, Polly, and I'm sure I don't know what to do about
+it."
+
+"Oh, dear, what can it be?" said Polly.  "Is it anything about Luella?
+Is she going to leave?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no.  It is about some one much nearer than Luella."
+
+They avoided being seen from the front of the house till they were well
+away, and then they ran down to the rocks and settled themselves out of
+sight below one of the great ledges.
+
+"Now tell," said Polly, all curiosity.
+
+"You must promise not to breathe a word."
+
+"I promise on my sacred word and honor."
+
+"Well then; it is about Mary."
+
+"Mary!  Oh, Molly!"
+
+"Yes, what do you think?  She wasn't at the Whartons' at all yesterday
+afternoon."
+
+Polly looked as astonished as Molly expected, though she said, after a
+pause: "Well she never said she was."
+
+"She let us think so.  She didn't deny it."
+
+"But did she go to Green Island?  Now I think of it, all she said was
+that she thought it was a pretty place.  She knew that because she saw
+it when she went over there to the party."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but it wasn't at Green Island that she got the
+strawberries, Polly, and she didn't go anywhere with the Whartons."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I saw Grace at the post-office.  I said to her: 'It was real nice of
+you all to take Mary out in the launch yesterday,' and she looked so
+surprised when she said: 'Why, we didn't take Mary.  We didn't go out
+at all yesterday, for Uncle Will had some of his friends up from town
+and they were using the launch all day.'"
+
+"What _did_ you say?"
+
+"I didn't know what to say.  'Did Mary tell you she was with us?' Grace
+asked, and I had to crawl out by saying: 'No, Luella thought so.'  Then
+Grace said--now what do you think of this, Polly--she said: 'Why, I saw
+Mary going out with Ellis Dixon in his brother's boat.  I watched them
+rowing off.  I am sure it was Mary.  I couldn't be mistaken for no one
+around here has a hat like hers.'"
+
+Polly was silent with amazement and Molly went on: "I had to say, 'Oh,
+very likely Aunt Ada knows all about it,' and then I came away as fast
+as I could."
+
+"Why Molly Shelton!" exclaimed Polly finding her voice, "do you suppose
+she sneaked off that way with a strange little boy when she says her
+mother is so particular that she doesn't even let her go on the street
+alone?  I can't believe it.  I think Grace must have been mistaken."
+
+"No, she wasn't.  I know that."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I saw Parker Dixon and he said, 'Did the little girl get home all
+right?  She was pretty safe with El, but I didn't know as your aunt
+mightn't hev been oneasy, seeing they was just two children.  You tell
+her she needn't hev no fear of El; he can handle a boat as good as I
+kin.'"  Molly unconsciously imitated Parker's manner of speaking.
+
+"Then it is true; of course it is," decided Polly.  "Are you going to
+tell Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I don't know what to do.  I feel as if I ought, and yet I feel sort of
+sorry for Mary.  She is 'way off from all her people and we've been
+picking at her for being so particular and not doing this and not doing
+that, so maybe she thought she was doing no more than we would have
+done if we had been in her place."
+
+"I know, and maybe we would have done the same, but she needn't have
+been deceitful," returned Polly.  "She could have asked if she might
+go."
+
+"She didn't have a chance, for we had gone sailing, you know."
+
+"Then she ought to have told the first thing, as soon as she saw Aunt
+Ada.  No, she is a sneaky, horrid girl and I am not going to have
+anything more to do with her, if she is my cousin.  I was beginning to
+like her, too."  Polly spoke regretfully.
+
+"So was I," agreed Molly.  "But now the main thing is, shall we tell or
+shall we not?  I hate to be a tattle-tale."
+
+"Then don't let's tell, but don't let's be more than polite to her and
+she'll see that something is wrong and maybe she will tell of her own
+accord.  I wish she'd go.  I don't like sneaky girls; I'd rather they'd
+be out and out naughty."
+
+"Why do you suppose she didn't tell?" said Molly thoughtfully.  "She
+might have known that Aunt Ada wouldn't punish her or even scold.  She
+would only have said: 'I'd rather you'd always tell me, Mary, before
+you undertake such trips again.'"  Again Molly imitated the person she
+quoted.  "It doesn't seem to me she could be scared of Aunt Ada when
+she's always so gentle and kind."
+
+"Well, I don't care whether she was scared or not, she wasn't honest,
+and I think anyhow it was very queer for her to sneak off with a boy
+she didn't know."
+
+"But I know him; I used to play with him when I was only four years
+old," said Molly.  "He is a very nice boy.  Aunt Ada says that he has
+been very well raised and that any mother could be proud of him.  He is
+real bright, too: why, he can manage a sail boat as well as a man, and
+he's always so ready and willing to do anything he can for any of us.
+He is very different from some of the others who just can't bear the
+summer people."
+
+"Never mind about him; I suppose he is all right; it is Mary I am
+bothered over."
+
+"Well, the only thing we can do is to wait and see if she will tell of
+her own accord; maybe she hasn't had a good chance yet to see Aunt Ada
+alone; we are giving her the chance now, so we will wait and see what
+happens."
+
+This Polly agreed was best, but they returned to the house to turn a
+cold shoulder to Mary, and to ignore her in every way they could
+without being directly rude.  So directly opposite was this course of
+conduct from that of the morning, when her cousins had been all smiles
+and sweetness, that Mary's fears again arose and she was so miserable
+that at bedtime when Molly went in to her English cousin's room to get
+a bottle of cold cream with which to anoint her sunburned face, she
+heard a soft little sob from Mary's bed.
+
+Immediately her sympathies were aroused.  Mary was far from home and
+mother.  What if she had done wrong?  She was alone among comparative
+strangers and who knew the exact truth of yesterday's proceedings?  She
+crept softly to Mary's bedside.  Her cousin's face was buried in the
+pillow, and she was shaking with sobs.  Molly leaned over her.  "Are
+you sick, Mary?" she whispered, "Do you want me to call Aunt Ada?"
+
+"No," came feebly from Mary.
+
+"Is anything the matter?  Please tell me.  I'll get into bed with you."
+And suiting the action to the word she slipped in beside Mary, putting
+a sympathetic arm around her.  "What is it?" she repeated.
+
+Only sobs from Mary.
+
+"Please tell," persisted Molly.
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," said Mary, her tears flowing fast.
+
+"I won't tell a soul.  I cross my heart I won't."
+
+Mary checked her sobs a little as she gave heed to the earnest promise.
+It was a relief to have Molly's comforting presence near by there in
+the dark.  But in a moment her tears gushed forth again.  "I want my
+mother, oh, I want my mother," she wailed.
+
+"Are you so homesick?  Is that it?" asked Molly with concern.  "Never
+mind, Mary, you'll see your father soon, and--and--I'm sorry," she
+whispered, "I'm sorry we were horrid to you.  Is that why you are
+homesick, because Polly and I weren't nice to you?"
+
+"Oh, n-no, it isn't that," replied Mary.  "I deserved it, Molly, but
+oh, you won't tell, you won't tell, will you?"
+
+"Tell what?"
+
+"Oh, Molly, I've lost Aunt Ada's diamond pin, and I can't find it.
+I've looked and looked and Ellis Dixon helped me, too.  I thought if it
+had been found we would know by this time.  That is why we went over to
+Green Island."
+
+"Then you did go with Ellis."
+
+"Yes, he came along while I was looking for the brooch, after you had
+all gone sailing, and he offered to take me to Green Island in his
+brother's boat, and when we got there the postmaster put up a notice in
+the post-office and we looked all over the hall everywhere, and all
+along the road and asked every one we met, but it was no use, and now I
+am afraid to tell Aunt Ada, and diamonds cost so much I could never buy
+another like it."  It was a relief to Mary to thus unburden herself.
+
+"I don't seem to remember exactly about the pin," said Molly.  "Aunt
+Ada is always getting some pretty new thing, but I don't believe she
+showed me any diamond pin; it must be quite new.  I was so excited
+about my own costume that night, I forget about any ornaments you wore.
+Perhaps you could buy another one some time.  I have some money, five
+dollars, and I'll give it to you; I'll take it out of my bank when we
+go home; that would help."
+
+"Oh, Molly, how good you are!"  Mary turned over to put her arm around
+her cousin.  "I have a pound, too, and that might be half enough, or
+nearly half, but I am afraid it would be a long time before we could
+get the rest."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't be scared of Aunt Ada, Mary," Molly said.  "She is a
+dear, and she'll be very sorry, but she will know it was not your fault
+that you lost it."
+
+"Miss Sharp would say it was my carelessness, and she would be so very
+vexed."
+
+"Then she's a mean old thing, and not a bit like dear Aunt Ada.  Do
+tell her, Mary."
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't," persisted Mary, terror again seizing her, "I am
+so afraid she will be vexed."
+
+"Then let me tell."
+
+"Oh, no, please.  Wait a little longer.  Perhaps the broach can be
+found.  Oh, I am so miserable; Aunt Ada will think I am so careless and
+deceitful, and everything bad."
+
+Molly now felt only a deep pity for the poor little sinner, and she
+began to kiss away the tears on Mary's cheeks.  "Please don't be
+miserable," she begged.  "I think maybe you ought to have told at
+first, but I see how you felt, and I'll not be horrid to you any more,
+Mary.  I'll stand up for you straight along, and when you want Aunt Ada
+to know I will go with you to tell her."
+
+Mary really began to feel comforted.  "I think you are a perfect duck,
+Molly," she said.  "Fancy after all I have been doing, for you to be so
+kind.  But please don't tell Polly; I know she doesn't like me."
+
+"She did like you," said Molly truthfully, "until--until we heard that
+you had not been where Aunt Ada thought you were."
+
+"And she thinks I am deceitful; so I have been, and I hate myself for
+it."
+
+"But Polly doesn't know why you did it."
+
+"Then don't tell her; I'd rather anything than that."
+
+"Don't you want Polly to like you?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't want her to know I lost the brooch."
+
+It was useless to try to rid poor Mary's mind of the one idea, and at
+last Molly gave up trying, but she did not leave her forlorn little
+cousin, and Polly, in the next room while she wondered what could be
+keeping Molly, fell asleep in the midst of her wondering.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VII_
+
+_In Elton Woods_
+
+Polly was all curiosity the next morning.  "Why in the world didn't you
+sleep with me?" she asked, sitting up in bed as Molly came in from the
+next room.
+
+"Because Mary needed me.  She was in awful trouble," replied Molly
+soberly.
+
+"What was it?" asked Polly eagerly.
+
+"I can't tell you."
+
+"I think that's real mean," returned Polly indignantly.  "You're just a
+turncoat, Molly Shelton; first you're friends with me, and then you're
+thick as can be with Mary."
+
+"I'm not a turncoat," retorted Molly, angry at being called names.
+"She's as much my cousin as you are, and I reckon if you were way off
+from your mother and had a dreadful thing happen that you couldn't talk
+to her about, you'd want some one to be a little sorry for you."
+
+"I think a dreadful thing is happening to me when you talk that way to
+me," said Polly, melting into tears.  "I just wish I had never come
+here, I do so, and I reckon I want my mother as much as Mary does hers.
+I am going to tell Uncle Dick how you act, so I am."
+
+"Oh, please don't tell him!" exclaimed Molly, alarmed.  "We don't want
+any one to know."
+
+This but whetted Polly's curiosity.  "I think you might tell me," she
+pouted.
+
+"I can't.  I promised I wouldn't.  You shall know as soon as Mary says
+I may tell."
+
+"Oh, I don't care then.  Keep your old secrets if you want to," and
+Polly flounced out of bed and began vigorously to prepare for her bath.
+For the rest of the time before breakfast she did not speak a word to
+Molly who felt that she was indeed between two fires.  She had promised
+not to tell Aunt Ada and if Polly were to tell Uncle Dick that morning
+that something was wrong, it might add to Mary's troubles.  She
+pondered the matter well while she was dressing, and by the time she
+had tied on her hair ribbon she had concluded to forestall Polly by
+telling her Uncle Dick something of what was the matter.  She decided
+that she could do so without betraying Mary's confidence.  So she
+stepped down-stairs ahead of Polly and joined her Uncle Dick who was
+energetically walking up and down the porch.
+
+"Hello, Mollykins!" he cried.  "I'm getting up an appetite for
+breakfast.  Come and join me."
+
+"As if you ever had to do anything to get up an appetite," retorted
+Molly, slipping her hand under his arm.  "Oh, you take such long steps
+I have to take two to keep up with you."
+
+"So much the better, then you work twice as hard and can have twice as
+much.  I peeped into the kitchen, but Luella looked as fierce as a
+sitting hen, and I didn't dare to stay; however, I know we are to have
+hot rolls for breakfast; I saw them."
+
+"The pocketbook kind, with the lovely brown crust all around?  Good!  I
+certainly want a double appetite for those.  Uncle Dick, you oughtn't
+to tell other people's secrets, ought you?"
+
+"No-o, not usually.  Whose secret is burning in your breast?"
+
+"Why--promise not to tell a soul."
+
+"Is it a murder?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"Is it grand larceny?"
+
+"I don't know what that is."
+
+"It is stealing something worth while, not like a loaf of bread nor a
+pin, nor anything of that kind.  You know the copy-book says: 'It is a
+sin to steal a pin.'"
+
+"Is it a sin to lose a pin?"
+
+"Why, no, not unless it is a breastpin or a scarf-pin and you wilfully
+throw it to the fishes."
+
+Molly drew a sigh of relief.  "Suppose you lose something that belongs
+to some one else; is that a sin?"
+
+"Why no, it is a misfortune, not a crime.  You don't do it on purpose,
+you see, and in fact I think the loser generally feels worse than the
+one the thing belongs to.  What have you lost?  Not my favorite
+scarf-pin, I hope.  Have you been using it to pin rags around your
+doll?"
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, of course I haven't.  I was only asking, just because
+I wanted to know."
+
+"As a seeker after ethical truths.  It does you credit, Miss Shelton.
+You will probably join a college settlement when you are older, or at
+least write a paper on moral responsibilities."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you do use such silly long words."
+
+"I forget, when you tackle these abstruse subjects.  I will come down
+from my lofty perch, Molly.  What more can your wise uncle tell you?"
+
+"If a person loses something very costly, something that has been lent
+to her, ought she to pay it back?"
+
+"It is generally supposed to be the proper thing to replace it, but
+half the world doesn't do it; sometimes because they can't and
+sometimes because they don't want to.  Then, sometimes the one to whom
+the thing belonged, insists upon not having it replaced, and would feel
+very uncomfortable if it were, though, from the standpoint of strict
+honesty, one should always make good any borrowed article whether lost,
+strayed or stolen."
+
+"Would you insist upon its not being made good?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if I were that kind of gander."
+
+"Would Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I think she's probably that kind of goose."
+
+"Oh, I am so glad she is a goose."
+
+"Glad who is a goose?" said Aunt Ada from the doorway.
+
+"We were talking about you," said her brother laughing.  "Molly was
+calling you a goose."
+
+"Oh, Uncle Dick, you began it."
+
+"Did I?  Well, never mind.  I smell those rolls, Molly, and I feel that
+I can demolish at least six.  Come on, let's get at them."
+
+Although she had not really carried the subject as far as she wanted,
+Molly felt that matters were not so bad for Mary as they had at first
+appeared, therefore, she took the first opportunity to reassure her on
+that point.  Polly walked off to the Whartons' immediately after
+breakfast, announcing with quite an air of wishing it generally known
+that she would probably spend the day with Grace in the woods, and that
+Luella had given her a lunch to take.
+
+Miss Ada smiled when this announcement was made.  She realized that
+there had been some childish squabble and she never paid much attention
+to such.  Mary saw at once that Polly was jealous of Molly's attentions
+to her small self, and Molly felt so grieved at Polly's desertion that
+she could hardly keep back the tears.  It was very hard to do right in
+this world, she thought.  If she were loyal to Mary she must lose
+Polly's companionship, and she did love to be with Polly more than any
+one she had ever known.  If she clung to Polly, she must give up Mary
+at a time when Mary most needed her.
+
+She looked after Polly skipping over the hummocks to Grace Wharton's
+and wished she were going, too.  It was so lovely in the woods.  As if
+reading her thought, her Aunt Ada came up and put a hand on her
+shoulder.  "Suppose we all take our luncheon in the woods to-day," she
+said.  "It is too lovely to stay indoors a minute.  Should you kitties
+like to go?  Dick is to be off sailing with Will Wharton and we three
+could have a nice quiet time.  I'll take some books; you can have your
+dolls, and we'll go to Willow Cove."
+
+"That's where Polly is going," said Molly quickly.
+
+Aunt Ada smiled.  "Suppose we go to Elton woods instead, then."
+
+"I like it better anyhow," said Molly truthfully.  "I'd like nothing
+better than to spend the day there, you dearest auntie."
+
+"Then there we will go.  Luella wants the day off, anyhow.  She says
+she must go to town to have a tooth out, for 'the tooth aches something
+awful.'  That is the third since we came.  If she keeps on at this
+rate, she will not have a tooth left in her head by fall.  It will be
+much easier to have a nice little lunch in the woods than to cook a
+dinner at home, don't you think?  Suppose you and Mary run over to Mrs.
+Fowler's and see if she can let us have a boiled lobster; she generally
+is ready to put them on about this time of day, and you might stop at
+Skelton's on your way back and get some of those good little
+ginger-snaps."
+
+"Aunt Ada is such a dear," said Molly, as the two started off.  "I
+don't believe she would ever, ever want you to get another pin, Mary,
+and if I were you I would tell her all about it to-day; it will be such
+a good chance."
+
+"I'll see about it," said Mary evasively.
+
+There was no lovelier spot on the Point than Elton woods.  Here the
+great trees grew to the very edge of the cliffs, and the way to them
+was through paths bordered by ferns, wild roses, and woodland flowers.
+In some places the trees wore long gray beards of swaying moss and
+stood so close together that only scant rays of daylight crept under
+them; in others they shot up high and straight above their carpet of
+pine-needles, which made a soft dry bed for those who lingered beneath
+them to gaze at the white-capped waves chasing each other in shore, or
+who, lying down, watched the fleecy clouds drifting across the sky.
+Near by was a pebbly beach where one could gather driftwood for a fire,
+or could pick up smooth water-washed stones to build walks and walls
+for tiny imaginary people.  There was no end of the material the place
+afforded for amusement, and when they reached there, Molly eagerly fell
+to devising plays.
+
+Yet, alas!  She missed Polly's fertile brain and imaginative
+suggestions.  Polly was always able to discover fairy dells and
+gnome-frequented caves.  It was she who invented the plays which were
+the most delightful.  Mary was rather tiresome when it came to anything
+more than sober facts.  She would play very nicely with the dolls, but,
+when it came to make-believe creatures, she was sadly wanting, and the
+best response Molly could expect to get when she built a fairy dwelling
+was: "Oh, I say, that is a proper little house, isn't it?" or "What a
+duck of a tree that is you are planting; it is quite tiny, isn't it?"
+
+"We always take some of these little bits of trees home with us," Molly
+told her, "and they live ever so long."
+
+"I wonder could I take one to England," said Mary.
+
+"Why, yes, I should think you could easily.  We will get some the very
+last thing, and I am sure they'll live quite a while."
+
+"It would be jolly nice to have one, wouldn't it?" said Mary as she
+watched Molly patting the ground smooth around the one she had just
+planted in the fairy garden.  "I'd like to take some pebbles and some
+starfish, too.  Reggie would be so pleased with them; he would be quite
+vexed if I brought him none after telling him about them."
+
+"How often you say vexed, don't you?" remarked Molly.  "We hardly ever
+say vexed."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know; we say mad and angry and provoked."
+
+"But then I really mean vexed," returned Mary after a moment's thought.
+"I don't mean anything else," and Molly had nothing more to say.
+
+It was after they had finished the lobster, the egg sandwiches, the
+buttered rolls and gingersnaps and were delicately eating some wild
+strawberries the children had gathered, that Molly made a sudden
+resolution to plunge Mary into a confession.
+
+"If you lent some one a diamond pin and she were to lose it would you
+be very--very vexed, Aunt Ada?" she asked, after a hasty glance at Mary.
+
+"If I possessed a diamond pin I might be, but as I haven't such a thing
+I couldn't be vexed," her aunt said.
+
+Mary jumped to her feet, startled out of her usual reserve.
+
+"But, Aunt Ada, you did have one!"
+
+"When, please?  You must nave dreamed it, Mary, dear."
+
+"But you did have.  Oh, do you mean you know it is lost?"
+
+It was Miss Ada's turn to look surprised.  "What do you mean, child?"
+she said knitting her brows.  "I never had a diamond pin to my
+knowledge.  I always liked diamond rings, and I have two or three of
+those, but a pin I never possessed.  What are you talking about?"
+
+Mary laced and unlaced her fingers nervously.  "I mean the one you lent
+me to wear the night we dressed up for the party at Green Island.  Was
+it some other person's, then?  Oh, Aunt Ada, had some one lent it to
+you, for if they did"--she faltered, "I lost it coming home."  She sank
+down at Miss Ada's feet on the mossy ground and buried her face in her
+aunt's lap.
+
+Miss Ada put a kind hand on her head.  "And all this time you have been
+distressing yourself about it, you poor little kitten?  I ought to have
+told you, but you were so pleased in thinking it was real I thought I
+would let it go, and I have not thought of it since.  Why, dear, it was
+of no value at all, a mere trumpery little rhinestone that cost only a
+couple of dollars."
+
+Mary lifted her tearful eyes.  "Oh, I am so relieved," she said.  "I've
+searched and searched for it ever since."
+
+"Yes, Aunt Ada, and she has been nearly sick over it," put in Molly.
+"She cried herself to sleep last night, and the reason she wouldn't go
+sailing with us the other day was because she wanted to hunt for the
+pin."
+
+"You poor little darling, how can I make up to you for all this
+trouble?" said Miss Ada compassionately.  "I am so sorry; it is all my
+fault for not telling you in the first place."
+
+On the strength of this there seemed no better time to confess her
+doings of the afternoon when she had gone to Green Island in the
+_Leona_, and so Mary faltered out her tale, Molly once in a while
+coming in with excuses and comments so that in the end Miss Ada was not
+"vexed" at all but only said, "If it had been any one but Ellis, I
+might feel inclined to warn you against going out in a row-boat, but he
+is a good, careful little lad, and if you will call it quits, Mary, I
+will, for I am conscience-stricken my own self; but next time, dearie,
+ask me when you want to go on the water."
+
+"Oh, I will, I will," said Mary fervently.  "It was because I felt so
+dreadful at losing the brooch that I didn't tell this time."
+
+"It is a perfect shame," said her Aunt Ada, cuddling her close.  "I
+hope now you will never find the old pin.  I never want to see it
+again, for it would remind me of how my dear little niece suffered."
+
+"But I was bad.  I deceived you."  Mary's head went down again in her
+aunt's lap.  "I was afraid to tell you," she murmured.
+
+"Afraid of what, dear child?  Not of your Aunt Ada?"
+
+"I don't know, oh, I don't know why I was so scared.  Miss Sharp is
+always so terribly severe when we are careless or try to get out of any
+thing we have done wrong."
+
+"But I'm not Miss Sharp, honey.  Just forget all about this, if you
+love me.  Of course you weren't quite frank, but you were scared and it
+is as much my fault as yours; mine and Miss Sharp's," she added half to
+herself.
+
+Yet they were destined to see the pin again, for that very afternoon,
+as they were coming home, whom should they meet but Polly and Grace.
+"Guess what we've found!" cried Grace.
+
+"See, Miss Ada, we were looking for birds' nests between your cottage
+and ours, and we found this caught in the grass just near where a
+sparrow had built.  Polly says she thinks it is yours, that it looks
+like one you lent to Mary to wear to the party."  And she held out the
+little shining star in the palm of her hand.
+
+Miss Ada took it and gave a whimsical look at Mary.  "Yes, I believe it
+is mine," she said.  She tossed it back and forth from one hand to the
+other as she stood thinking.
+
+"Ellis Dixon came along just after we found it, and he seemed awfully
+pleased," Grace went on.
+
+Miss Ada laughed softly.  "Thank you very much, Grace, dear," she said.
+"It was good of you to bring it right to me."  Then changing the
+subject she asked, "How is your grandmother to-day?"
+
+"Not so very well," Grace replied.  Then with sudden remembrance, "I
+must go right back, for she worries if I am not in time for supper."
+And she sped away.
+
+Miss Ada stood still smiling and looking from one of her nieces to the
+other.  She continued to toss the little star from one hand to the
+other.  "I know what I am going to do with it," she said looking at
+Mary.  "I'm going to give it to Luella for a wedding present."
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER VIII_
+
+_Ellis and the Baby_
+
+That evening Polly was told the whole story and was properly contrite.
+She felt a little aggrieved that she had not been one of the party to
+go to Elton woods, but she realized that it was her own fault, and
+offered at once to "make up" with Molly and Mary.  So all was serene
+again, and the three children sat side by side all evening before the
+open fire, listening to a fascinating story Uncle Dick read aloud to
+them, and at last the three fell asleep all in a heap, Molly's head in
+Polly's lap, and the other two resting against Miss Ada's knees.  When
+they all stumbled upstairs to bed, they were not too sleepy, however,
+to kiss one another good-night, and indeed were so bent upon showing no
+partiality that they all tumbled into the same bed, which happened to
+be Mary's, where they went to sleep, hugging each other tight.
+
+The brightness of the restored pin seemed to be reflected upon them all
+after this.  Uncle Dick was so tremendously funny at breakfast that
+Polly fell from her chair with laughter, and Luella giggled so that she
+held a plate of griddle cakes at such an angle that the whole pile slid
+off on the floor; then every one laughed more than ever and Molly said
+that her jaws fairly ached and that she would have to spend the day
+with Cap'n Dave's old white horse, for he had such a solemn face it
+made you want to sigh all the time.  Of course this started the
+children off again and they left the table in high spirits.
+
+Yet before the day was over they had occasion to look serious without
+the society of old Bill horse, for about ten o'clock Ellis appeared,
+trouble puckering his pleasant face into worried lines.  He had
+forgotten all about the finding of the pin in a more personal interest,
+for the cares of life had been suddenly thrust upon him.  His brother
+Parker the day before had sailed away to the Grand Banks for
+sword-fishing.  He had left his young wife and little baby in Ellis's
+charge.  Now Leona had fallen ill, "and," said Ellis, "it's up to me to
+take care of the baby."
+
+"Is there no one else?" asked Miss Ada, as Ellis told his doleful tale.
+
+"Ora Hart is taking care of Leona," Ellis answered; "but she has as
+much as she can do to look after her own children.  She's Leona's
+cousin and she's awful good to come in at all.  You see most
+everybody's got folks of their own to see to, and they can't spare much
+time, although they're all willin' enough to do what they can.  I ain't
+much used to babies myself.  I got Nellie Brown to look after her while
+I come up here.  I knew you'd wonder why I didn't bring them clams I
+promised, and so I come to tell you why.  I hope it won't put you out,
+Miss Ada."
+
+"We can have something else just as well," she told him.  "We are
+rather used to not getting just what we plan for," she went on,
+smiling, for be it known one could never tell, at the Point, just how
+an order might turn out.  If one expected lamb chops like as not "Hen
+Roberts hadn't fetched over no lamb," or if mackerel had been ordered
+like as not the fish delivered would be cod, and the excuse would be
+that some one came along and carried off the entire supply of mackerel
+before the last orders were filled; therefore it was no new experience
+for Miss Ada to have to alter her bill of fare.
+
+"I'm awful sorry about havin' to stay home just now," said Ellis
+disconsolately, "for this is when I expected to get in some time with
+the boat.  I promised two or three parties to take 'em out, and now
+I'll have to get some one else to take my place, but I'll have to let
+'em go shares.  Park's let me have the _Leona_ whilst he's away, but,
+if I could run her myself, I could make twice as much."
+
+The three little girls listened attentively, and presently Polly
+twitched her Aunt Ada's sleeve.  "Couldn't we take care of the baby?"
+she whispered.
+
+Miss Ada looked down at her with a smile, but shook her head.
+
+"Oh, why not?" said Polly in ft louder whisper.  "I'd love to."
+
+"So would I," came from Molly on the other side.
+
+Miss Ada beholding the eager faces said: "Wait a moment, Ellis.  I want
+to talk over something with these girls of mine."  She led the way
+indoors, leaving Ellis on the porch.  "Now, lassies," she said when
+they were all in the living-room, "what is it you want to do?"
+
+"We want to take care of Ellis's baby," chanted the two, and Mary
+coming in as a third repeated the words.
+
+"But do you realize what it would mean?  You would have to give up much
+of your playtime, and could not go off sailing or rowing or picnicking."
+
+"We could go picnicking," insisted Polly, "because we could take the
+baby with us."
+
+"Very well, we will leave out the picnic.  I might get Luella to stay
+afternoons sometimes, but you know she goes home to help her mother,
+for Mrs. Barnes has more laundry work than she can do, and Luella has
+to help her when she can; those were the only terms upon which she
+would consent to come to me; so you see we can't count on Luella."
+
+"It may not be for very long," said Polly, hopefully.  "Leona may soon
+get well."
+
+"If it is typhoid, as they suspect, she is likely to be ill a long
+time."
+
+"Well, I don't care; I'll give up my afternoons," decided Polly.
+
+"And I'll give up my mornings," said Molly, not to be outdone.  "And
+then the baby does sleep some, so we can play while she is asleep.  Oh,
+Polly, we could have lovely times playing with something alive like
+that."
+
+"Wouldn't it be jolly to have a real live baby for a doll," put in Mary.
+
+"I see you are not to be put off," said Miss Ada, laughing, "so I will
+allow you to undertake the charge for a week, and at the end of that
+time if I think it is too much for you, I shall have to insist that you
+give it up."
+
+"Oh, we'll never think it is too much," declared Polly with conviction,
+and the others echoed her.
+
+So they all trooped out to Ellis.  "We have the loveliest plan," Molly
+began eagerly.
+
+"You can have all your time," put in Polly.
+
+"I am so very pleased to be able to do something for you when you were
+so kind to me," said Mary earnestly.
+
+Ellis looked bewildered.
+
+"The girls propose to take care of your brother's little baby for a
+week, Ellis," Miss Ada explained.
+
+"Oh, I can't let 'em do that," said Ellis bashfully.
+
+"Oh, but we are just wild to," Polly assured him.
+
+"Yes, we truly are," Molly insisted.  "We adore babies.  When can you
+bring her over, Ellis?  Shall we keep her day and night, Aunt Ada, and
+may she sleep with me?"
+
+"Oh, Ora's sister says she can take her at night," Ellis hastened to
+say.  "She can't leave home very well, and she is too busy during the
+day to look out for her, for she has a lot of children, but none of
+them are little small babies; the youngest is three, and she says she
+doesn't mind having the baby at night."
+
+"Then we'll arrange for the day only," said Miss Ada with decision;
+"that is when she would require your time, Ellis, and we are glad to
+help you out so you can take out the boat when you have the
+opportunity."
+
+"I'm sure I'm much obliged," said Ellis awkwardly.  Like most of the
+"Pointers" he was unused to showing his gratitude.  To his mind any
+display of appreciation was poor-spirited.  He was too proud to let any
+one see that he felt under obligations and to say even as much as he
+did was an effort.  Nevertheless, he trotted off feeling a great weight
+removed, and in half an hour was back again with the little
+four-months-old baby.
+
+For that day, at least, the small Miss Myrtle Dixon was overwhelmed
+with attentions.  Polly sat by when she slept, ready to pounce upon her
+and take her up at the slightest movement.  Molly was on hand to urge a
+bottle of milk upon her if she so much as whimpered.  Mary dangled
+be-ribboned trinkets before her the minute she opened her eyes, and
+they were all in danger of hurting her with overkindness.
+
+The second day she was less of a novelty, though sufficiently
+entertaining for each of her three nurses to clamor for her.
+
+"She is too dear for anything," said Molly ecstatically.  "See her
+laugh, Mary, and flutter her little hands.  She is to be my baby this
+morning.  Let's go around the side of the house, where it is shady, and
+play.  You can have the place under the porch for your house, Polly,
+and Mary can have the wood-shed.  I'll take the cellar."
+
+"Oh, but that will be too cold and damp for the baby," said Mary.  "You
+take the wood-shed and I'll take the cellar," she added generously.
+
+Molly agreed and presently baby was established in a crib made of the
+clothes-basket where she lay contentedly sucking her thumb.  Mary,
+hugely enjoying herself, kept house in the cellar.  She sat at the door
+in a rocking-chair which she rocked back and forth with a blissful
+expression on her face.  If there was any American comfort which Mary
+did appreciate it was a rocking-chair.  She had never seen one till she
+came to the United States, neither had she ever before made the
+acquaintance of chewing-gum.  This was a luxury seldom allowed the
+little girls.  "It is a disgusting habit," Miss Ada declared, "and I
+don't want you children to acquire it.  Your mother, Mary, would be
+shocked if she saw you use it."  But once in a while Uncle Dick slyly
+furnished each with a package and Miss Ada allowed them to have it,
+though protesting all the time to her brother.  This special morning
+Uncle Dick had hidden a package under each of their breakfast plates,
+and it is needless to say that three pairs of jaws were working
+vigorously as they played house.
+
+"I'm agoing to ask Aunt Ada if we may go barefoot," announced Molly;
+"it is plenty warm enough to-day."
+
+Mary jumped up, tipping over her rocking-chair as she did so.  "Oh,
+does she allow you to do that?" she cried.  "I've always secretly
+longed to, but Miss Sharp is perfectly horrified when we ask her."
+
+The other two looked at each other with a little smile, for it was not
+such a great while before this that Mary herself had been horrified at
+the suggestion.
+
+"Aunt Ada doesn't care, if it is warm enough," Molly informed her.  "I
+always go barefoot up here, if I feel like it and it isn't too cold.
+I'll go ask her now.  Watch the baby for me, girls."
+
+They promised to be faithful nurses while Molly went on her errand.
+She was gone some time and when she returned she was carefully bearing
+a plate of fresh doughnuts.  "Which would you rather have, Polly," she
+cried, "doughnuts or chewing-gum? you can't have both, Aunt Ada says."
+
+"Doughnuts," decided Polly without hesitation taking the chewing-gum
+from her mouth and slapping it securely against a stone in the
+foundation of the porch.  "Don't they look good?  So brown and sugary.
+I do think Luella makes the best doughnuts," and she helped herself to
+a specially fat, appetizing one.
+
+"Which do you choose, Mary?" asked Molly.
+
+Mary continued her rocking and chewing.  "I'll keep the gum, thank you."
+
+Molly laughed.  "That is what Aunt Ada said you would do.  And girls,
+we may take off our shoes and stockings.  How's the baby, Polly?"
+
+"Sound asleep."
+
+"Good!  Then I reckon we can leave her for a while, I do want to get my
+bare toes on the grass, don't you?  Come on, Polly, and let's hunt for
+snakes."
+
+"Snakes!"  Mary jumped to her feet in horror.  "Are there snakes here?
+Fancy!"  She gathered her skirts about her and looked ready to fly.
+
+"Why, yes.  Do you mind them?" returned Molly calmly.  "Polly and I
+love the little green grass snakes; they are perfectly harmless and are
+so pretty."
+
+"Pretty?  I could never imagine anything pretty about a snake," replied
+Mary, recoiling.
+
+"My word! Molly, just fancy your talking so of a horrid snake."
+
+Molly laughed at her horror.  "They aren't poisonous, Mary."
+
+"But the very idea of them is so loathsome."
+
+"It isn't unless you make it so," put in Polly.  "I like all kinds of
+little creatures so long as they don't bite or sting, and some of
+those, like bees, for example, I like, though I don't want them to get
+too near me.  Of course when it comes to rattlesnakes or copperheads,
+or such, I am afraid of them, but these little grass snakes are
+different."
+
+But Mary could not be persuaded to give up her prejudices and would
+none of the snakes, so they decided to gather buttercups, and wandered
+off among the soft grasses on the hilltop.  But it was only when they
+saw Luella wildly waving the dish-cloth to attract their attention that
+they remembered the baby.  Then they started toward the cottage
+post-haste, arriving there to find Miss Ada walking the floor with the
+baby and trying to still its cries.
+
+"What is the matter with her?" cried Molly rushing in.  "We thought she
+was sound asleep."
+
+"Babies don't sleep forever," remarked Luella sarcastically.  "Here,
+Miss Ada, I'm used to 'em.  Let me see if there's a pin stickin' her
+anywhere; there's no knowin' what foolin' with her clothes these
+children have been doin'."
+
+The children dared not protest against this charge while Miss Ada said:
+"Oh, I have looked and she seems all right," but she relinquished the
+baby into Luella's capable hands.
+
+That young woman turned the screaming infant over, felt for an
+offending pin, turned her back again, and finally laid her across her
+knees and began to pat her on the back.  "I guess she's got colic," she
+decided.  "Molly, you just step up to Mis' Chris Fisher's and see if
+she's got a handful of catnip.  She mostly does keep it, seein' she
+always has got a baby on hand.  There, there, there," she tried to
+soothe the child on her knees.  "Miss Ada, you'll either have to take
+her or see to them pies in the oven; I can't do both."
+
+"Oh, I'll see to the pies," responded Miss Ada escaping to the kitchen.
+
+Molly was already on her way to Mrs. Chris Fisher's.  Polly vainly
+tried to attract the baby's attention by every means within her power.
+Mary stood by suggesting alternately mustard poultices and ginger tea,
+which suggestions Luella contemptuously put aside.
+
+"I don't see what's the matter with her unless it is colic," she
+remarked.  "She may be subject to it; I ain't heard say.  I'll ask Ora
+next time I go out.  When was she fed last?"
+
+"Why, I don't know."  The two little girls looked at each other.  "Did
+you give her the bottle, Mary?" asked Polly.
+
+"No," was the reply.
+
+"Maybe Molly did.  I reckon it was Molly; she was playing she was
+mother this morning, you know."  Luella said nothing but continued the
+rocking movement of her knees till Molly came in, breathless, with the
+bunch of dried catnip.
+
+"I suppose she's been fed regular," said Luella addressing Molly, "and
+you've took care to give her the milk warm."
+
+"Oh, dear!"  Molly stood still.  "I forgot she had to be fed oftener
+than we are, and oh, Luella, I am afraid the last milk she took wasn't
+real warm."
+
+"Then no wonder she's yellin' like mad," said Luella disgustedly.
+"You're a nice set to take care of a young un.  Here, some of you hold
+her whilst I get her milk and give it to her right.  If she ain't got
+colic from cold milk she's starvin'."
+
+Molly meekly took charge of the screaming child who did not cease its
+crying till Luella, returning with the bottle of milk, thrust the
+rubber nipple into its mouth; then suddenly all was quiet.  "Just what
+I thought; half starved," said Luella.  "It looks as if I'd got to see
+to the youngster, if she stays here.  Miss Ada's not much better than
+the rest of you.  What does she know about babies?  I guess Ellis can
+beat the best of you, after all, when it comes to 'tendin' babies."
+
+The little girls felt properly abashed.  Only the second day of the
+baby's stay and she had gone hungry for an hour, while the day before
+she had been overfed.  It did not look as if their benevolent plan
+worked very well, and indeed, by the end of the week, Miss Ada decided
+that Miss Myrtle must return to her own.  This was made easier by her
+grandmother's arrival upon the scene, and there were helpers enough to
+relieve Ellis for at least half the day.  However the interest in
+Parker Dixon's family did not end at once.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER IX_
+
+_New Burdens for Ellis_
+
+The three cousins were having a tea on the rocks with their friend
+Grace Wharton.  Luella had baked them some tiny biscuits and some wee
+ginger-snaps; they had made the fudge themselves, and as for the tea,
+the amount Miss Ada allowed them would not affect the nerves of any one
+of the four.  There was plenty of hot water in the little brass
+tea-kettle, and an unlimited supply of milk and sugar.  A big flat rock
+served as a table, and smaller ones gave them excellent seats.
+
+They had just finished eating the last of the cakes and were nibbling
+the fudge when Polly, perched highest on the rocks, exclaimed: "There's
+Granville talking to Luella!  I wonder what he is doing up here this
+time of day.  They look real excited.  There, Luella is going into the
+house.  Now Aunt Ada has come out with her and they are all talking
+together.  I believe I'll go up and see what it is all about.  Don't
+eat up all the fudge."
+
+"Hurry back then," Molly called after her.  "Let's hide it, girls, and
+pretend when she comes back that we've eaten it all up."
+
+"I'll hide it," said Grace.  She ran down a little way below them and
+poked the remaining pieces of fudge into a crevice in the rock, and
+then returned to await Polly's return, who in a few minutes came
+running back.  "Oh," she said, "I have something to tell you.  Our poor
+little baby hasn't any father.  He has been drowned."
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!"  Three pairs of startled eyes showed how this news
+affected the little tea-drinkers.
+
+"Do tell us about it," said Molly setting down the cup from which she
+was draining the last sugary drop.
+
+"I didn't hear all about it," Polly told them, "but I know he tried to
+save one of his shipmates and couldn't, and they were both drowned.
+Luella is going down to stay with Ora's children this afternoon.  They
+haven't told Leona yet, and poor Ellis is perfectly distracted,
+Granville says.  Isn't it sad, when Leona has been so ill and now this
+dreadful thing has happened?"
+
+"I feel so very sorry for Ellis," remarked Mary.
+
+"So do I," said Polly, "for the baby isn't big enough to know, and
+maybe Leona can get another husband, but Ellis can't get another
+brother."
+
+They all agreed that this was a plain fact and sat quite solemnly
+looking off at the blue sea which had so cruelly swallowed up Parker.
+
+At last Polly gave a long sigh, and she broke the silence by
+exclaiming, "There, you mean piggies, you ate up all the fudge!"
+
+"You were gone so long," said Molly giving Grace a nudge.
+
+"I don't care; you ought to have saved an extra piece for my bringing
+you such exciting news."
+
+"But it was such sad news," said Grace turning away her head so Polly
+could not see her smile.
+
+"If it is sad you needn't laugh about it," said Polly severely.  "I
+believe you hid it!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+
+"If you think so, look for it," said Molly.  And Polly immediately set
+to work to search each one of the party, but could not find a crumb of
+fudge.
+
+Then she seized Molly, playfully shaking her.  "Tell me truly, did you
+eat it all?"
+
+Amid her struggles to free herself, Molly confessed that they had not.
+"But, I can't find it," Polly persisted.  "Do you know where it is,
+Molly?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Oh, Molly!"  This from Grace.
+
+"I don't exactly know.  You hid it," said Molly.
+
+"Then Grace Wharton, tell me."  Polly loosed her hold upon Molly, and
+turned to Grace.
+
+"No, the first that finds it can divide it and can have an extra piece."
+
+In vain the three searched up and down the cliff.  "Grace said she hid
+it between two rocks," announced Molly at last.
+
+"Then she's just got to find it," said Polly.  "Grace!  Grace!" she
+called.  And Grace responded by appearing on the rocks above them.
+
+"You'll have to show us where you hid it."
+
+On Grace's face was an expression of concern as she came swiftly
+clambering down to them.  "Why, girls," she cried as she reached the
+spot where they stood, "I'm awfully afraid that----  Oh, dear, why
+didn't I remember about the tide; I'm afraid they're spoiled."  She ran
+to a rock a little lower down.
+
+"Look out or you'll get splashed," warned Molly.  "There's a big wave
+coming in."
+
+Grace sprang back to avoid the swash of water which poured over the
+rock at her feet; then she exclaimed ruefully: "If I wasn't sure
+before, I am now!  The fudge is just under that rock, between those two
+small ones."
+
+"Then it's simply all salty, if it isn't gone entirely," declared
+Molly.  True enough when they examined the spot, during a lull in the
+inpour of waves, they discovered only a couple of water-soaked bits of
+fudge, fast melting away.
+
+"Our joke didn't turn out very well," said Molly turning to Polly.
+
+"Oh, never mind," returned Polly cheerfully, "it would all be eaten up
+and forgotten anyhow if I had not gone up to the house, so what's the
+difference?"
+
+"I'll make some very soon," Grace assured her.  "I'll do it to-night."
+
+"Oh, no, don't mind," said Polly.  "We've had enough for to-day.  See,
+there is Aunt Ada coming down to us.  She will tell us more about the
+Dixons."
+
+Miss Ada came with a scheme to unfold.  "I'm going over to Green
+Island," she told them, "and if I am not back in time for supper you
+children hunt around and get something for yourselves.  Luella has gone
+to stay with Ora's family so Ora can be with Leona.  She will need all
+the comfort she can get.  We must try to help the poor girl, for her
+illness and all this will take everything they may have saved.  Ellis
+is pitifully sad, but he says he means to support the family.  Poor
+little chap, as if he could!  I am going to try to arrange a bazaar or
+cake sale or something to help them; you children may help if you like."
+
+"Oh, may we?  How lovely!" cried Molly.
+
+"I've helped at fairs," said Grace.
+
+"And once I helped my aunt at a tea she gave the village children,"
+said Mary.
+
+"I'll do everything I can, though I never saw a fair or a bazaar," said
+Polly.  "Tell us more about it, Aunt Ada."
+
+"Tell her all you know, girls," said Aunt Ada.  "I must go now.  You
+will not be afraid to stay alone till I get back, will you?"
+
+Her nieces assured her that they would not, and she left them in quite
+a state of excitement, for, sad as the occasion was, they could not
+help anticipating the pleasure of the bazaar.  "We will have such a
+lovely time getting ready for the sale," said Molly.  "We have had them
+here before, and they are lots of fun.  I know what I am going to do.
+I'm going to the wood-pile and strip off a whole lot of birch bark to
+make things of."
+
+"What kind of things?" asked Mary.
+
+"Oh, all sorts of things; napkin rings and picture frames and boxes."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary was interested.  She had never seen such things except
+those that the Indian peddlers brought around to the cottages, and
+never did one appear over the brow of the hill, bowed under the burden
+of his baskets, that she did not run for her purse, and by now had
+quite an array of gifts for her English friends.  To add to these a
+supply of birch-bark souvenirs which she could make herself was a
+prospect truly delightful.  "It is very convenient that a quarter is
+about the same as a shilling," she remarked, "but I can never remember
+that a penny is two cents; it seems as if an American penny should be
+the same as an English one."
+
+"I should think you would be glad it isn't," said Polly, "for when you
+are counting at the rate of our pennies you have twice as many as you
+would have English ones."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Mary thoughtfully.  "I had a whole pound
+when I reached here, and Uncle Dick had it changed into American money.
+I thought I had such a number of pennies and I found they were only
+cents, but then one can buy a great many things here for a cent that
+one would have to pay a penny for at home, especially sweets."
+
+That evening she sat fingering her little hoard while Molly was busy
+preparing her birch bark.  "I think I can do very nicely," announced
+Mary.  "I shall have a dollar to spend at the bazaar.  Oh, is that the
+way you do the napkin rings, Molly?  Could I do some, do you think?"
+
+"Of course you could," said Molly, encouragingly.
+
+"I know what I am going to do," said Polly, jumping up; "I'm going to
+get some tiny pine trees to put into little birch-bark boxes; they will
+look so pretty.  Come on, Molly, it isn't dark yet."
+
+"Oh, but we mustn't get them now," replied Molly.  "We must wait till
+the very last thing, so they will look as fresh as possible."
+
+Polly stopped short.  In her impetuous way she had forgotten this
+important point.  "Oh, I never thought of that," she said.  "Well,
+anyhow, we can make the boxes."
+
+"I don't believe we can do those either," returned Molly, further
+dampening Polly's ardor.  "We ought to have some small wooden boxes to
+tack or glue the bark on.  We can try some little baskets with handles,
+and we can fill those with fudge or some kind of home-made candy."
+
+"Oh, very well, we'll begin on those, then."  And Polly sat down
+contentedly with the others to try her ingenuity.  They became so
+absorbed in their work that they forgot all about supper, the more so
+that their afternoon tea had taken the edge from their appetites, and
+it was not till the maid from the Whartons came over for Grace, saying
+that her grandmother was wondering how much longer they must save her
+supper for her that they realized how late it was.  Then Grace having
+scurried home, the three cousins searched about to see what was in the
+larder for themselves.  They found plenty of bread and butter,
+ginger-snaps and stewed gooseberries, but not much else, so they sat
+down contentedly to this fare while the sunset turned from rose to
+purple and then to gray.  It was late enough in the season for the
+evenings to become chilly after sundown, and Polly proposed that they
+should have an open fire.  "We can sit around and tell stories," she
+said, "and we can go on with our work at the same time, so the time
+will pass very quickly till Aunt Ada comes back."
+
+"I'll love that," declared Molly.  "I think telling stories is the very
+nicest way of passing away the time."
+
+"So do I," said Mary, "when I don't have to tell the stories.  I never
+know anything interesting."
+
+"Oh, but you do," protested Polly.  "We like to hear about England, of
+how you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers in the
+schoolroom, of how you can't walk out without your governess or some
+one older and all about not having sweet potatoes nor corn, and of how
+tomatoes are grown under glass and all those ways that are so different
+from ours."
+
+"But that isn't a real tale," objected Mary.
+
+"Never mind, we like to hear it," said Molly.  "What are you doing,
+Polly?"
+
+"I am building the fire; there must be a whole lot of light stuff to
+set it going."
+
+"That looks like a good deal," said Molly doubtfully regarding the pile
+of bark, shaving and light wood that Polly was stowing in the fireplace.
+
+"It will kindle all the quicker," returned Polly in a satisfied voice,
+touching the kindling with a lighted match.  In an instant not only was
+the light stuff all ablaze, but the flames, leaping out, caught the
+white apron which Polly had put on, half in sport, when they were
+getting their supper.  It was one of her Aunt Ada's and reached to
+Polly's ankles, so that she seemed enveloped in flames.  She shrieked,
+but stood still.  Quick as a flash Mary caught up the pitcher of water
+standing on the table and dashed it over her cousin, then she grabbed
+her and threw her on the floor, snatching up the rug from the floor
+before doing so, thus protecting herself, and at the same time
+providing a means of putting out the fire which she did by rolling
+Polly in the rug.
+
+Molly was perfectly helpless with fright and all she could do was to
+wring her hands and cry, "Oh, what shall we do?  What shall we do?  Oh,
+Polly, Polly!"
+
+Just as the fire was all crushed out, the door opened and in walked
+their Uncle Dick.  Molly rushed to him.  Throwing herself in his arms,
+she cried: "Oh, Polly is burning up!  Save her!  Save her!"
+
+"What is all this?" said Dick springing forward.
+
+Mary arose from where she was kneeling over Polly.  "I think it is all
+out now," she said.
+
+Polly unwound herself from her mummy-like case.  "Are you badly hurt?"
+her uncle asked anxiously.
+
+"No," she said with a sobbing breath; "only my legs hurt me."
+
+"How did it all happen?" said her uncle, picking her up and setting her
+in a chair.
+
+"We were kindling the fire," explained Mary, "and Polly's apron caught."
+
+"And Mary saved her life," sobbed Molly completely unnerved.  "She
+threw water on her, and rolled her in the rug."
+
+"That is what my governess said we should do in such cases," said Mary
+quietly, though her face was twitching.  "I never loved Miss Sharp
+before," she added with a little laugh.
+
+"You certainly did save Polly's life," said her uncle as he examined
+Polly's clothing.  "Fortunately she has on a woolen frock and has been
+only slightly scorched about the legs.  The fire evidently did not
+reach her bare flesh.  You didn't breathe the flames, did you, Polly,
+for I see the fire did not go above your waist."
+
+"I am sure I didn't breathe any flames," Polly assured him.  "Mary was
+so quick.  She saw at once that I had caught fire and she threw the
+water over me right away, but oh, Uncle Dick, I may not be burned
+badly, but it does hurt."  And she buried her face on her uncle's
+shoulder to hide her tears.
+
+"Poor little girl, I know it hurts," he said.  "Get some salad oil,
+Molly, and some baking soda; then see if you can find an old
+handkerchief or two and some raw cotton.  We must try to ease this
+wounded soldier.  How did you children happen to be here alone?"
+
+Mary explained, her uncle listening attentively.  "I wish I had known
+it," he said; "I would not have stayed to supper with the boys.  We
+came in on the Gawthrops' yacht about supper-time and they persuaded me
+to stay, but somehow I felt that I ought to get home soon after.  You
+children must not be left alone again."
+
+"I'll never try to kindle another fire," said Polly woefully.  "Molly
+said I was putting on too much light stuff and it just leaped out like
+a tiger to bite me."
+
+Molly had returned with the oil and other things by this time, and soon
+Polly was made as comfortable as her hurts would allow, but it was some
+days before she could run about, and if there was anything lacking in
+her affection for her English cousin before this, now it was that she
+could not bear her out of sight, for Mary, by her coolness and capable
+help, had proved herself a heroine to be loved and admired.
+
+Although this scare was the important topic with the family for some
+time, the scheme for helping the distressed Dixon family went forward
+rapidly and the next week when Polly's burns gave her no more
+uneasiness, the bazaar was held.  There was no prettier table the
+length of the room than that at which Miss Ada presided, assisted by
+her three little nieces.  Their Uncle Dick had cleverly helped them
+with the decorations as well as with their birch bark boxes in which
+were planted the little pine trees.  These were so much admired that
+not one was left after the sale, and Mary had to bespeak some to be
+made for her to carry home.  Some little packages of fudge and
+home-made candies went off rapidly, and of Luella's famous doughnuts
+not one was left.
+
+It was at the end of the sale when the biggest, finest cake was yet
+waiting a buyer that Polly had a whispered talk with her Uncle Dick and
+afterward stood in front of the cake table holding fast to her purse.
+The cake in all the deliciousness of nut-spotted icing and rich
+interior, was delivered to her when she paid over the amount asked for
+it.  Taking the treasure in her hands she bore it over to where Mary
+was helping her aunt count up the money they had taken in.  Polly set
+the cake on the table before Mary.  "There," she said, "it is all
+yours."
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mary.  "Who said so?"
+
+"I say so.  I bought it for you because you said it looked so perfectly
+delicious."
+
+Mary was quite overcome by Polly's generosity, but she understood the
+motive, and accepted the cake graciously, promising to divide it with
+the family.  It certainly was a delicious cake, and Polly really
+enjoyed her share of it, feeling that in this instance she could have
+her cake and eat it.
+
+"Over a hundred dollars!  I can scarcely believe it," said Miss Ada
+when all the receipts were in.  But so it was, and so did little Ellis
+Dixon have his burdens lifted, for a hundred dollars will go a long way
+when fish can be had for the catching, and when one has his own potato
+patch.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER X_
+
+_Arabs_
+
+Of all the things which most amused the three little girls and their
+friend, Grace, they enjoyed dressing up at dusk, and, in their queer
+costumes, going around from cottage to cottage to call.  Uncle Dick was
+very clever in painting their faces so that they appeared as birds with
+owl-like eyes and beaks or as cats, rabbits or some other animal.  At
+other times they were Indians in war paint and feathers; again they
+were Egyptians or Chinese and dressed to suit the character.
+
+"What shall we do this evening?" said Polly one day when the question
+of the evening's fun was being talked over.  "We want to go to Mrs.
+Phillips's this time because she gives us such good cakes."
+
+"It's pretty far," said Molly doubtfully.  "It is almost to the
+village, and there are some rough boys down that way.  I don't mind
+going to Mrs. Phillips's in the morning, but if we should happen to get
+caught there after the sun goes down I shouldn't like it."
+
+"We needn't get caught late," Polly protested, "besides, it is so much
+more mysterious to go around when it is a little bit duskish.  It isn't
+as if any one of us would be alone; there will be four and nobody
+around here would do anything to hurt us, anyhow."
+
+"No, I don't suppose any one really would," Molly returned weakly, her
+objections over-ruled.  And therefore when the cottages began to loom
+darkly against the evening sky, the four little girls sallied forth,
+draped in white sheets, and made their way over the hilltop to the road
+beyond.  They had usually confined their visits to their acquaintances
+in the immediate neighborhood, so their aunt did not trouble herself to
+inquire where they were going that evening, otherwise she might have
+forbidden the walk they had in mind.
+
+"Don't they look like four dear little Arabs?" said Miss Ada to her
+brother.  "They make a perfect picture as they go over the hill in the
+evening light.  How much they enjoy these little frolics."  She turned
+from watching the white-sheeted four who soon disappeared down the road.
+
+It was great fun, thought the girls, to call upon their various friends
+and pretend they were foreigners who did not understand the language of
+those whom they were visiting; yet they understood enough to accept
+refreshments offered them, and managed to say, "thank you" and
+"good-bye."
+
+It was after they had been regaled upon cakes and lemonade at Mrs.
+Phillips's that the moment came which Molly had been dreading.  The
+shadows had deepened and the stars were trying to come out, while a
+little light still lingered in the western sky.  "We'd better not take
+the short cut," said Molly.  "It is so rough that way, and it is muddy
+in places; we'll go around by the road."  The lights were twinkling out
+from the fishermen's homes and from the vessels anchored in the cove.
+There were not many persons on the road, and the four little girls
+hastened their steps.
+
+Presently a shout, then the bark of a dog arose from behind them, and
+in another minute they were surrounded by a crowd of jeering boys and
+barking dogs.  "Yaw!  Yaw!  Yaw!" shouted the boys.  "Sic 'em, Sailor!
+Sick 'em, Towser!"  The dogs nipped at the retreating heels and the
+boys twitched the flowing robes of the four Arabs.
+
+"Oh, let us alone!  Let us alone!" shrieked Molly.
+
+"Who be ye?" cried one of the boys peering into their faces.
+
+"What ye doin' dressed up this here way?" said another.  The paint upon
+their faces so disguised them that they were not recognized by any of
+the boys, if, indeed, any knew them.
+
+"They ain't none o' our folks," said another boy, trying to jerk off
+Polly's head covering.
+
+She turned on him fiercely.  "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,"
+she cried.  "How would you like any one to treat your sisters so?"
+
+"How'd you like any one to treat your sisters so?" mimicked the boy in
+a piping voice.  "I ain't got no sister, and if I had she wouldn't be
+traipsin' 'round the P'int in circus clothes."
+
+Wrenching herself from the boy's grasp, Polly started to run, the other
+girls following.  One boy thrust out his foot tripping Grace who fell
+sprawling in the dusty road.  Her companions stopped in their flight to
+come to her rescue.  "Oh, you bad, bad boys," cried Molly indignantly.
+"If I don't tell Cap'n Dave on you."
+
+"We ain't feared o' Cap'n Dave," was the scoffing reply.
+
+The girls picked up the weeping Grace.  "Are you hurt?" they whispered.
+
+"I don't know," whimpered Grace.  "Oh, how can we get home?  I want to
+go home."
+
+Her weeping caused cessation in hostilities for a moment, but as soon
+as the four figures started forward they were again surrounded and the
+teasing recommenced.
+
+But just as the girls were in despair of ever escaping from their
+tormentors, another boy came up.  "What's up?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, nawthin'," replied one of the boys laughing.  "We cal'late to keep
+furriners away from the P'int, and these here ain't dressed like
+Amur'cans."
+
+"Who are they?"  The boy bent over to peer into Molly's face.  She gave
+a joyful cry.  "Oh, Ellis, Ellis, save us from them.  They won't let us
+go home."
+
+The newcomer turned.  "Say, you fellows," he said.  "You'd ought to be
+ashamed.  These here is friends of mine.  If any of you fellows touches
+one of 'em, I'll pitch into him like sin.  Don't you know who they are?
+They're the little gals up to the Reid cottage, that's been so good to
+us, nursing the baby and gettin' up that fair and all that."
+
+The boys slunk away.  "We didn't know it was them," the largest one
+said.  "Why didn't they say so?  We thought it was that crowd of sassy
+youngsters over by Back Landing; they're always so fresh.  One of 'em
+sneaked off with Dan's boat yesterday and we wanted to pay 'em back."
+
+"I'm awful sorry we scared you," said another boy, coming up.  "Was you
+hurt, sissy, when you fell down?"
+
+"Oh, no, not so very much," replied Grace, ceasing her sobbing.
+
+"We'll see you home safe," said one of the boys.  "Come on, fellers.
+Lem, go get a lantern; we're nearest your house."
+
+Lem ran obediently and in a few minutes returned with the big lantern
+in his hand.  He stalked on ahead, the others trooping after, the dogs
+at the heels of their masters.  All the way they escorted the little
+girls, Ellis not ceasing to voice his indignation, nor the boys to
+explain and excuse themselves, and it is needless to say that it was a
+relief to all concerned when the wandering Arabs were safe within their
+own dwellings.
+
+In spite of the outcome of their adventure, the girls did not care to
+repeat it and never again wanted to go beyond the cottages in their own
+immediate vicinity.  Yet, unpleasant as the experience was, it resulted
+in more than one effort on the part of the gang of boys to make up for
+their ill behavior.  The very next morning after the affair, Polly, who
+was the first down-stairs, saw a tall boy coming toward the cottage and
+went out on the porch to meet him.
+
+"You one of the little gals that was down the road last night?" he
+asked as he came up.  "One of them that was dressed up?"
+
+Polly nodded.  "Yes, I was there."
+
+"Us boys didn't know you lived here.  We wouldn't have hurt a hair of
+your head if we had knowed who you was."  Then he added somewhat
+shamefacedly, "I fetched ye a salmon.  Maybe ye ain't never see a
+salmon jest out of the water.  They're pretty-colored, ain't they?"
+And he held up to view the glistening pink fish.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful it is.  It seems too pretty to catch, doesn't it?"
+said Polly bending over to examine the fish the boy laid on the grass.
+
+He stared at her, not quite comprehending how any one could think any
+fish too pretty to be caught.  "They're awful good eatin'," he went on
+to say, "but they don't often come in here."
+
+"How did you happen to get this one?" asked Polly.
+
+"It was in my father's pound this morning, and I begged him for it.
+Shall I take it into the kitchen for you?" he added hastily.
+
+"Oh, do you mean to give it to us?  How very good you are," said Polly
+appreciatively.
+
+The boy gave a short laugh.  "I wasn't very good last night, was I?" he
+said, and Polly understood that this was a peace-offering.
+
+That afternoon two younger lads were seen hanging around the house
+bearing a mysterious something done up in a newspaper.  "What in
+conscience do them boys want?" said Luella, looking out of the kitchen
+window.  "It's Billy Laws and Horeb Potter.  What are they peekin'
+around here for I want to know."  One of the boys now advanced toward
+the house, but at the appearance of Miss Ada on the porch, he took to
+his heels, and lurked in the distance where his companion was uneasily
+waiting.
+
+Luella went out to Miss Ada.  "Them boys has got some errant here," she
+said, "but they won't come in whilst they see you on the piazza."  Miss
+Ada reentered the house.  The three little girls peeped from the
+windows, looking out from behind the blinds.  In a few minutes the boys
+came stealthily forth, tiptoed toward the house, halted fearfully, took
+a few steps back, came on more quickly.  He who bore the newspaper
+package was suddenly pushed violently forward by the other and came on
+with a trot, bolted into the kitchen, laid the package on the table
+before Luella and exclaimed hastily: "It's for the little gals!" then
+he took to his heels, not stopping till he was clear out of sight.
+
+Luella came laughing into the living-room.  "Here's another present,"
+she announced.  "You open it, Miss Ada."
+
+"What can it be?" exclaimed the children, gathering around their aunt
+who untied the string of the damp parcel, unwrapped it and disclosed to
+view a huge lobster, fiery red, and still warm from recent boiling.
+
+"Isn't he a monster?" exclaimed Miss Ada.  "I don't believe I ever saw
+a larger.  We'll have him for supper, Luella.  I hope you took half the
+salmon to Mrs. Wharton, for we couldn't eat that and this, too.
+Children, you will have to invite Grace over to have her share.  I
+suppose some of it is due to her anyhow."
+
+"She ought to have it all," said Polly, "for she was the only one who
+was hurt."
+
+"I'm afraid she'd suffer more still if she attempted to devour this
+entire lobster," laughed Miss Ada.  "We'd better spare her little turn,
+Polly, and help her eat this."
+
+It was after such of the lobster as they could eat had been disposed
+of, and the children with no desire for long wanderings, were safely
+gathered around the fire, that a tap was heard at the door.  Uncle Dick
+arose to open it and received into his hands a large cold jar, while a
+small lad piped out: "Jerry sent this to the little gals.  They'll
+keep."  And then the figure vanished into the darkness.
+
+"I don't know who Jerry is, nor what 'this' is," said Uncle Dick,
+bearing in the glass jar and setting it on the table.  "It's for the
+'little gals' I was told.  Great Caesar!  It's clams, carefully
+shelled.  See here, Ada, we won't have to buy any more provender this
+season at this rate.  When we get short of provisions we can send out
+our Arabs on the road, for behold the result of their evening's
+migrations."
+
+Every one laughed at this latest gift, and it was set away for the next
+day's use.  But the end was not yet.  On the door sill the next morning
+was discovered a splint basket.  To the handle was tied a scrap of
+paper on which was awkwardly written: "To the little gals."  Molly was
+the finder of this.  "Hurry down all of you!" she called to the others.
+"There is a present."
+
+"Another one?" said Polly over the baluster.  "What is it?"
+
+"I haven't looked," was the reply.
+
+The other children, joined by Miss Ada, came down as soon as possible,
+their curiosity excited.  Molly lifted the wet seaweed covering the
+contents of the basket and they saw a pile of shining little mackerel.
+
+"Tinkers!" cried Miss Ada.  "What a nice lot of them!  Oh, and there
+are some butter-fish, too.  They are all cleaned beautifully, and we
+must have some for breakfast; it will take only a few minutes to cook
+them.  Yon children can run over to Grace with her share."
+
+This the little girls were glad to do, but returned with their platter
+full explaining that smaller lot had been left at the Whartons'.
+
+But two more conscience offerings were received after this.  Four thick
+braids of sweet grass were found hanging on the door-knob, and, during
+the day a man delivered a mysterious box slatted across one end.  This
+was found to contain a beautiful kitten of the variety called "Coon."
+The children were wild over this last gift, the only drawback to their
+delight being the difficulty of deciding which one should take it home.
+Their Aunt Ada came to the rescue by telling them not to bother about
+it till the time came and then to let circumstances settle it.  Her own
+little cat, Cosey, was not inclined to favor the intruder at first, but
+in a few days she began to mother it and they soon became good friends.
+
+"Are you glad that the boys scared us that night?" asked Polly one day
+not long after the "day of gifts" as the children called it.
+
+Molly weighed the subject.  "When I think of the dear kitten and the
+salmon and the tinkers."
+
+"And the lobster."
+
+"Yes, and the sweet grass, then I am, but when I think of how
+dreadfully frightened we were, I'm not."
+
+"I don't intend to remember the scare," said Polly philosophically.
+
+"Neither do I," added Mary.  "I'd be an Arab again for the sake of
+finding out how really good-hearted those boys are," which showed that
+Mary had a good heart, too.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XI_
+
+_The Roseberry Family_
+
+The green grass of June had turned to russet; the bay berry bushes
+began to look dingy, and the waxy cranberries in the bog were turning
+to a delicate pink.  It had been a dry season and the children could
+safely traverse the bog from end to end without danger of getting their
+feet wet.  Ellis was their pilot to this fascinating spot, and the day
+of their introduction to it was one long to be remembered.
+
+It was one morning when Ellis came around to the back door to deliver
+clams that they first heard of the bog.  He added to the weekly order a
+little bag of pinky-white cranberries.  "I thought maybe you'd like
+'em," he said.  "Miss Alice Harvey says they're much better when
+they're not quite ripe.  Ora tried some and they were fine, but they
+took a lot of sugar."
+
+"Thank you for remembering us," said Miss Ada as she received the
+offering.  "How much, Ellis?"
+
+"Nawthin'.  They're easy to pick and there's plenty of 'em," he made
+reply.
+
+Miss Ada accepted the gift in the spirit in which it was intended.
+"I'm sure we shall enjoy them," she declared.  "Where is the bog,
+Ellis?  Is it very wet there?"
+
+"'Tain't wet at all this year.  This has been such a dry season.  It's
+down back of Cap'n Orrin's barn."
+
+"Oh, is that the place?"  Molly was peeping over her aunt's shoulder.
+"I've always longed to go there but I was afraid it was all sloppy and
+marshy; some one said it was."
+
+"Would you like me to go there with you?" said Ellis bashfully.  "I
+know where the cranberries grow, and there's lots of other things down
+there, the kind you city people like to get, weeds, we call 'em."
+
+"Oh, may we go?" Molly appealed to her aunt.
+
+"Why yes, I have no objection.  It is perfectly safe if it's not wet.
+I suppose you may encounter a garter snake or two, but you don't mind
+them, Molly."
+
+"Wait for us, Ellis," said the little girl speeding away for her
+cousins with whom she returned in a moment.  All three were
+breathlessly eager to start on the voyage of discovery, for with Ellis
+as leader, into what regions of the unknown might they not penetrate.
+
+Over the hill they went, leaving Cap'n Orrin's mild-eyed cows gazing
+after them ruminatively as they crept under the fence which separated
+the pasture from the wild bottom land at the foot of the hill.  On the
+other side arose the ridge along which were ranged cottages looking
+both coveward and seaward.  A winding path led past runty little apple
+trees and huge boulders, and finally was lost in the tangle of growth
+overspreading the marsh.
+
+"It is dry enough now," said Mary exultantly, setting her foot on a
+tuft of dry grass.  "Where are the cranberries, Ellis?  I want to see
+those first."
+
+"You are standing right over some," he said smiling.
+
+Mary looked down, but only a mass of weeds and grass greeted her eyes.
+"I don't see them," she declared.
+
+Ellis laughed, bent over and parted the grass to disclose the delicate
+wreaths of green, and the pretty smooth cranberries, tucked away in the
+dry grass.
+
+"As if they were afraid of being picked," remarked Mary.  "You will not
+escape me that way."  And down on her knees she went in search of the
+pink fruit.
+
+Molly meanwhile had gone further afield, and was gathering flowers
+strange to her, and grasses as lovely as the blossoms.  Earlier in the
+season, she had delighted in the rosy plumes of the hard-hack, the
+sweet pinky-white clover, the wild partridge peas, but here were new
+acquaintances which were not to be found outside the marsh, and upon
+them she pounced eagerly.
+
+It was Polly, however, who discovered the Roseberry family, for Polly,
+who had spent her life far from cities, had developed her imagination,
+and could fashion from unpromising material the most fascinating
+things, and though she, too, picked her share of cranberries, she also
+gathered a lot of roseberries which she declared were the biggest she
+had ever seen.  These she bore away in triumph, while Molly carried her
+bouquet with a satisfied air and Mary was quite content with having the
+largest showing of cranberries.  So they returned, well pleased, to the
+cottage.
+
+"We had the splendidest morning," said Molly, setting her flowers in a
+large vase.  "I never knew that bogs could be so perfectly fine.  What
+are you doing, Polly?"
+
+Polly was seated on the floor industriously picking off her roseberries
+from the twigs.  "Wait and you will see," was her answer.  "Do get me
+some pins, Molly, a whole lot.  Aunt Ada will give you some."
+
+Molly's curiosity being aroused, she rushed off to her aunt, returning
+with a paper of pins.  She squatted down on the floor by Polly's side.
+Mary, meanwhile, had gone to the kitchen to superintend Luella's
+cooking of the cranberries.  Polly stuck a pin in one side of the
+biggest, fattest roseberry, then another in the other side.  "This is
+Mr. Roseberry," she said, "and these are his two arms.  Now his head
+goes on, and then his legs.  I use the pins, you see, because you can
+bend them so as to make the people sit down."  She held up the
+completed mannikin.  "Now I must pick out some berries for Mrs.
+Roseberry, and then I'll make the children."
+
+"Polly, you are so ridiculous," said Molly in a tone of admiration,
+"but do you know, they are awfully funny with their little round heads
+and bodies."  Polly worked away industriously till she had completed
+her entire family.  "Now what?" said Molly.  "What in the world is
+that?"
+
+"It is a lamp," returned Polly, deftly fitting a base to her red globe.
+"Now, if I had some pasteboard I could make some furniture, and we'd
+play with the Roseberry family this afternoon."
+
+"Dinner is nearly ready now," said Molly, "but it will be fun to play
+with them this afternoon.  We could have two or three families.  What
+can I name mine?"  She watched Polly interestedly as she put the last
+touch to a vase in which she stuck a bit of green.
+
+"You might call them Pod," said Polly.  "These are really the seed pods
+of the wild roses, you know.  They are like little apples, aren't they?"
+
+"Oh, I'll call them Appleby," said Molly.
+
+"We know some people named that.  Save that tiny one for the baby,
+Polly."
+
+"The cranberries are perfectly delicious," said Mary, coming in from
+the kitchen, "but they have to cool before we can eat them.  Luella
+says they take so much sugar that they will keep perfectly for me to
+take some home.  Oh, what curious little figures."
+
+"This is the Roseberry family," Polly told her, indicating the dolls on
+the right, "and these," she pointed to those on her left, "these are
+the Applebys."
+
+"You must have some, too, Mary," said Molly.  "What shall you call
+yours?"
+
+Mary had picked up one of the little figures.  "Why, they are made of
+hips, aren't they?"
+
+"What are hips?" asked Molly.
+
+"That is what we call the berries of the briar-rose, and in England the
+hawthorn berries are haws."
+
+"Hips and haws," sang Molly.  "Don't they go nicely together?  Shall
+you call your people Mr. and Mrs. Hips?"
+
+"Why, yes, I can.  I think that would be a very good name.  Are we
+going to play with them?"
+
+"After dinner we are, if Polly can find anything to make furniture of."
+
+Polly's ingenuity did not fail her here, for, by the use of some match
+ends, birch bark and a needle and thread she contrived all sorts of
+things and then each girl hunted up a box for a house, so that these
+new playthings proved to be very fascinating.
+
+But at last the every-day commonplaces grew too dull for Polly, and she
+suddenly exclaimed: "I'm tired of just visiting and talking about
+measles and nurses and mustard plasters!  I'm going to take the
+Roseberry family down to the shore.  They're going to have an
+adventure."
+
+"Oh, Polly, what?  Can ours go, too?" cried Molly.  "I would like to
+have the Applebys meet an adventure, too."
+
+"And I'd like Mr. and Mrs. Hips to have one," echoed Mary.
+
+"Are they very wicked, black-hearted people?" asked Polly, darkly.
+
+"Why--why----"  Mary hesitated and looked to Molly for her cue.
+
+"Do they have to be wicked to have an adventure?" asked Molly.
+
+"If they join the Roseberries, they'll have to be, for the Roseberries
+are wreckers and smugglers."  Polly spoke impressively, and at this
+flight of fancy Molly and Mary gazed at her admiringly.  Yet they were
+not quite willing that their families should give up their morals to
+too great an extent.
+
+"What do they have to do?" asked Mary, determined to find out the worst.
+
+"Mine have a cave," said Polly, mysteriously.  "It is on an island--I
+know what island I am going to have--and there they hide their
+treasures.  They are counterfeiters, too," she added to their list of
+crimes, "and they have chests of counterfeit money--sand dollars."
+
+Molly laughed and Polly looked at her reproachfully.  "It is as good as
+any other counterfeit money," she remarked.
+
+"Never mind the money.  Go on, Polly."  Molly was enjoying her cousin's
+inventions.
+
+"Well, they go out in a boat on stormy nights and when a vessel is in
+distress, instead of helping, they don't do anything but just wait till
+the vessel is wrecked and then they help themselves, to what they can
+get.  They have, oh, such a store of diamonds and rubies and precious
+stones in their cave, and they have their own vessel that flies a black
+flag."
+
+"Then they're pirates," said Mary recoiling.  "I don't want the Hips to
+be pirates."
+
+"They don't have to be," Polly calmly assured her.  "They can be as
+good as they want to, and can be on one of the vessels that gets
+wrecked."
+
+"Then they'll all get drowned."
+
+"No, they needn't; they can cling to a raft and go ashore on some
+desert island."
+
+Having saved the lives as well as the reputations of the Hips family,
+although they would probably lose everything else, Mary was satisfied,
+but Molly was ready to compromise.  A little spice of wickedness seemed
+necessary to make her Applebys interesting.  "My family can be
+smugglers," she announced, "but I don't want them to be pirates and I
+don't want them wrecked either.  Smugglers aren't so wicked as pirates;
+they only bring in things that you ought to pay duty on, Uncle Dick
+told me, and Mary's father told her that in England almost everything
+comes in free, and that the United States is as mean as can be about
+making people pay for what is brought into the country.  A lady, Molly
+saw on the steamer when they came over, had an awful time about a
+shabby old sealskin coat she'd had for years, and just because she wore
+it ashore from the steamer, they made an awful fuss about it."
+
+"Well, I don't understand about it, but if the United States said it
+was wrong, of course it must have been; they are always right," said
+Polly loyally.  "I don't exactly know about smuggling," she confessed,
+"however, the Roseberries are going to be smugglers."
+
+"Uncle Dick was telling us about smugglers the other night."
+
+"Yes, I know, that is what made me think of it.  He showed me the
+island where there used to be a smuggler's cave."
+
+"I remember it; we saw it when we were out sailing one day."
+
+"We must build a birch bark ship for the Hips family," said Polly,
+changing the subject.  "Your Applebys can live on my island and if they
+don't want to associate with the Roseberries they can have a cave to
+themselves."
+
+"Roseberry is such a nice pleasant name for wicked people," remarked
+Mary.  "Why don't you call them something else?"
+
+"Nobody ever does call them that," returned Polly readily.  "The father
+is the leader of the gang, and he is Bold Ben.  His three sons are
+One-eyed Peter, Crooked Tom, and Sly Sam.  They call his wife Old Mag,
+and then there are two cousins, twins; they are Smiling Steve and
+Grinning Jim."
+
+"Oh, Polly, how do you think of such names?" said Molly delightedly.
+"What does Old Mag do?"
+
+"She pulls in things from the wreck and she cooks the meals.  Then,
+when the men are all away smuggling, she sits in the cave and spends
+her time looking at the jewels and letting them drip through her
+fingers."
+
+"Jewels can't drip," observed Mary in a matter-of-fact way.
+
+"Well, they look as if they could," returned Polly.  "The diamonds are
+like drops of water, the pearls like milk and the rubies like blood."
+
+"I know where you found that," said Molly; "in the fairy tale we were
+reading the other day."
+
+Polly admitted the fact and the ship being now ready to launch, they
+proceeded to the shore where Polly pointed out the island.  This was a
+large rock, nearly covered at high tide, but now showing quite a
+surface above the water.  Its rugged sides held caves quite large
+enough for persons of such size as the Roseberry family, and they were
+presently hidden behind their barnacled barriers.  In a little pool the
+Hips family were set afloat while the Applebys contented themselves
+with gathering stores of supposed precious stones from the little beach.
+
+The Hips family had hardly set sail before Polly invoked a storm and
+stirred to monster waves the waters in their pool, so they were in
+great danger.  "Oh, dear, the youngest Hips is floating away and I
+can't save him," cried Mary.
+
+"Never mind, let him go; there are plenty more of them," returned Polly
+heartlessly banging her stick up and down in the water so the ship
+would rock more violently.  "They've got to be wrecked, you know," she
+added.  "I'll drive them on that rock, then you can grab them before
+they sink and get them on the raft."
+
+Mary managed to rescue all but one more of the family, and these were
+set adrift on a piece of birch bark to which Polly tied a string that
+they might not go beyond return.  She also allowed the storm to cease,
+but this was because the gang of wreckers had to haul up the ship and
+gather in their plunder.  She kept up so lively an account of their
+doings that Molly left the Applebys to their own devices and Mary drew
+the Hipses to shore that she might listen to Polly's blood-curdling
+account of Bold Ben and the rest.  Polly did not have to draw
+altogether from her imagination, for her brothers had been too often
+her playmates for her not to be ready with tales of plunder and
+adventure.
+
+Time passed very quickly and the children became so absorbed in the
+manoeuvres of the gang that they did not notice the stealthy rise of
+the tide till Mary exclaimed, "Oh, the Hipses have floated off and they
+were quite high on the beach!"
+
+Polly looked around her.  "No wonder," she said; "the tide is rising.
+We'd better start back."  Leaving Bold Ben and his comrades to their
+fate, she ran to the further side of the rock, but here she hesitated.
+The sea was steadily making in, sending little cascades over the
+weed-covered ledges each time it retreated.
+
+"Can't you get across?" asked Molly, as she came up with her Applebys,
+and saw Polly standing still.
+
+"I'm almost afraid to jump," said Polly, "for if a big wave should come
+in suddenly it might wash in over my feet and the sea-weed is so
+slippery I'm afraid to trust to it, where it is shallower." Molly
+looked up at the rocky shelf jutting out above her.  "If we could only
+get up there," she said.
+
+"But we can't; it is too far to climb to that first jutty-out place,
+and we can't crawl under and then up, like flies."
+
+Mary bearing the sole survivor of the unfortunate Hips family now came
+up.  "I had to let the rest go," she said.  "They were beyond reach.  I
+fished this one out of the water just in time.  What is the matter?
+Why don't you go on, Polly?"
+
+For answer Polly pointed silently to the creeping waves at her feet.
+
+"What are we going to do?" asked Mary in alarm.
+
+"Stay here till the tide goes down, I suppose.  This rock is never
+covered," said Molly.
+
+"But we may get dreadfully splashed," returned Mary.
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," said Polly dubiously.  She looked at the
+rock above her, and then at her two cousins.  "Which of you two could
+stand on my shoulders and get hold of that rock so as to draw herself
+up and go for help?"
+
+"Oh, I never could do it in the world," said Mary, shrinking back.
+
+Polly turned to Molly.  "Could you?"
+
+"I'm afraid I couldn't pull myself up so far, but I could stand and let
+you get on my shoulders, if you could do the pulling up part."
+
+"I could do that easily enough," Polly told her.  "I've often practiced
+it with the boys, and we have swung ourselves up the rocks in the
+mountains out home.  Are you sure you can bear my weight, Molly?"
+
+"I can try."
+
+"We'll both do it," Mary offered.  "You can put one foot on my shoulder
+and one on Molly's, then you won't be so heavy for either one."
+
+"All right.  Steady yourselves.  Here goes."  And in a moment Polly had
+clambered to the supporting shoulders, had caught hold of the jutting
+rock and had drawn herself up.  As she gained her feet and sped away
+crying: "I'll be right back," Molly breathed a sigh of relief.  "I was
+so afraid a piece of the rock would split off and she'd fall," she
+confessed to Mary.
+
+It took but a little time to bring Uncle Dick and one of his friends
+who swung themselves down easily and set the two stranded children upon
+a safe spot, none too soon, for a big wave almost immediately sent a
+shower of salt spray over the rock where they had been standing.
+
+"You would have been drenched to the skin," said Uncle Dick as he led
+the way to the house, while, left to their fate, the wicked Roseberries
+perished miserably.
+
+
+
+
+_CHAPTER XII_
+
+_East and West_
+
+By the middle of September the cottages on the Point were nearly all
+deserted, though the Reids lingered on, to the children's satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, dear, I don't want to go back to school, to horrid old examples
+and things, although I do want to see my dear Miss Isabel," said Molly,
+one morning just before the close of their stay.
+
+"I don't want to see Miss Sharp, I can tell you that, but I do want to
+see mother and Reggie and Gwen," said Mary.
+
+"I hate to leave you all," Polly put in, "though I shall be glad to see
+mamma and papa and the boys.  I'll like to see the ponies too, and the
+mountains and everything, but I do wish you girls were going with me."
+She really had fewer regrets than her cousins for Polly loved the
+freedom of the west, and the miles between seemed very long to the
+little girl who had seen neither father, mother nor brothers for three
+months.  To Mary the delights of unlimited supplies of sweet potatoes
+and corn, bountiful plates of ice-cream, freedom from the vigilance of
+a strict governess, and the range of fields and woods, where one need
+not fear of trespassing, and which were not enclosed by high walls, all
+these compensated much for her separation from her family.
+
+The time for her leave-taking of America was drawing near, however, for
+her father wrote that they would probably sail about the first of
+October, and Uncle Dick would take Polly home about the same time.
+Aunt Ada, too, had promised to go to Colorado for a visit so Polly felt
+that she had anticipations the others did not have.
+
+"I wish we could all go to Polly's; that's what I wish," declared
+Molly.  "I wish my father and mother and Mary and Miss Ainslee were all
+going."
+
+"I speak for Miss Ainslee to sit with me," said Uncle Dick coming up
+with an open letter in his hand.  He handed a second letter to Molly.
+"Can you read it?" he asked.
+
+"Of course I can," returned Molly indignantly.  Then she added, "Mamma
+always writes to me on papa's typewriter."
+
+Her uncle laughed, though Molly could not see why.
+
+"You'd better read every word in it," he remarked, "for there is big
+news there for a young woman of your size."
+
+Molly hastily tore open the envelope and began to read.  She had not
+finished the page, however, before she cried out: "News!  News!  I
+should think it was news.  What do you think, Mary?  What do you think,
+Polly?"
+
+"Can't imagine," said Polly.  Then as a second thought occurred to her,
+"Oh, is your mother going to let you go home with me?  I know my mother
+has asked to have you, for I wrote to her to beg that you could come."
+
+Molly shook her head.  "No, it's east instead of west, Polly.  Mother
+and I are going to England with Mary and Uncle Arthur."
+
+"Oh!"  Mary jumped to her feet and clasped her hand ecstatically.  "Oh,
+Molly, I am so glad.  Aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, I am except for one thing; I know I shall be scared to death of
+Miss Sharp.  Is she really so very, very strict?"
+
+"My word! but you'd think so.  Fancy never being allowed to run, nor to
+climb nor to do anything one really likes to do, and, oh, Molly, I
+wonder will you eat your meals in the nursery with us children.
+There's nasty rice pudding twice a week, you know, and there are never
+hot rolls nor biscuits for breakfast as you have here, then we do have
+horribly cold houses in winter."
+
+"Oh!"  Molly looked quite disturbed by this report.  But presently her
+face again broke into smiles.  "But then, to see England and to be with
+you, Mary.  We shall go up to London in the spring and we shall spend
+the winter in Cornwall or Devon, where it is not so very cold, mother
+says."
+
+"Oh, we are to be in the country, then," said Mary.  "I'm glad of that.
+Papa thought we should take our country home again this winter; we were
+not there last year."
+
+"It's so funny to go to the country for winter and the city for
+summer," remarked Polly.  "We do just the opposite."
+
+"Oh, but we like the country in winter," Mary explained.  "It's jolly
+good sport to be there then.  We have a proper little pony of our own,
+you know, and we really have quite good times." Polly laughed.  "It is
+so funny to hear Mary say a 'proper' pony.  We would say a real pony,
+wouldn't we?"
+
+"I shall be corrected a great many times for the American things I have
+learned to say," said Mary.  "I've no doubt but that Miss Sharp will be
+continually coming down on me for saying them.  She is a sharp one,
+true enough.  I'll have to watch myself."
+
+"She needn't try to correct me," Molly put in.
+
+"Oh, but you are an American," Mary hastened to reassure her, "and
+you'll do just as your mother bids you, of course."
+
+This relieved the situation for Molly.  The prospect of frequent drives
+behind the "proper little pony," and the pleasure of a real English
+Christmas, which Mary had described in glowing colors, cheered her up,
+and she stated that she thought she could stand Miss Sharp as long as
+her own mother would always be on hand to refer to.
+
+As the three were talking it all over, Uncle Dick appeared at the door.
+"Well, Mollykins," he said, "how do you like your news?"
+
+"Oh, do you know it, too?" she said, running up to him.  "I like it
+very much, but I wish you and Aunt Ada and Polly were going, too."
+
+"That would be too many at once," he returned.  "Go in and see your
+Aunt Ada; she has something to tell you."
+
+"Who is it about?" asked Molly.
+
+Uncle Dick walked down the porch steps.  "It concerns me very much," he
+said over his shoulder.
+
+"Concerns him?  Do you suppose he is going to England, too?" said Mary.
+
+"Let's go and find out," returned Molly.  And the three ran indoors to
+where Miss Ada sat.
+
+"Well, kitties," she said as they came in, "there is a lot of news
+to-day, isn't there?"
+
+"Yes, isn't it fine that mother and I are going to England?  That is
+what you meant, isn't it?"
+
+"Not all."
+
+"Uncle Dick said you had something to tell us," said Polly.
+
+"So I have.  It concerns Polly more than any of you, though it might
+concern Molly if she were not going abroad."
+
+"That sounds like a puzzle," laughed Polly.  "But Uncle Dick said it
+concerned him."
+
+"The silly boy!"  Miss Ada drew down the corners of her mouth.  "No
+doubt he'll make it his concern.  Why Polly, it is this: Mr. Perkins,
+your tutor, has had a good offer in Denver and as he is so well and
+strong now he thinks he must accept it, and as Walter is old enough to
+go away to school, your father and mother thought a man was not needed
+to teach you and the others, so you are to have a new teacher.  Guess
+who it is to be?"
+
+"Oh, I can't.  Tell me."  Polly was all eagerness.
+
+"Miss Ainslee."
+
+"Not my Miss Ainslee?" cried Molly in surprise.
+
+"Your Miss Ainslee."
+
+"Oh, I'm jealous," said Molly.  "Oh, Polly, to think you will have her
+all to yourself.  Oh, dear!"
+
+"But you will not be here, honey," said her aunt, "and besides it is
+better for Miss Ainslee that she should go, for the doctor thinks she
+cannot get along in the east, and that she must either stop teaching or
+go to another climate.  She isn't ill exactly, but it is better that
+she should not wait till she is.  So you see----"
+
+"Oh, I see, but I am sorry all the same," said Molly dolefully.
+
+"And I am tremendously glad," said Polly.  "I liked Mr. Perkins very
+well, but Miss Ainslee is such an improvement on him.  Is she to go out
+with us, Aunt Ada?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then that is what Uncle Dick meant when he said it concerned him.  He
+was thinking how nice it would be to travel all that way with her."
+
+"He's looking further than that," remarked Miss Ada with a smile.  "If
+things keep on this way I don't believe she will ever come east again
+to live, Polly."
+
+"She won't if I can help it," said Uncle Dick from the doorway.  "What
+do you think of our scheme, Pollywog?" he asked as he caught Polly and
+tousled her.
+
+"I think it is grandiferous," replied Polly, squirming out of his
+grasp.  "But you'd better behave yourself, Mr. Dicky-Pig, or I'll tell
+on you."
+
+"Just see how she gets me in her power," said Uncle Dick to his sister.
+"I'll not be safe a moment from that wicked child's malicious tales."
+
+"Don't you call me a wicked child," said Polly darting at him.  "Now
+for your nose."
+
+"Spare me!  Spare me!" cried her uncle, putting up both hands.  "I'll
+be good, Polly; I will indeed, but if you spoil my features, how can
+you expect Miss Ainslee ever to like me?  If you'll promise to be good
+and say nice things about your dear uncle, I'll let you be bridesmaid."
+
+"Oh, Dick, you silly boy!" expostulated his sister.  "Don't fill the
+child's head with such notions.  He hardly knows Miss Ainslee, Polly,
+and it will make her so uncomfortable that she will leave, in a month,
+if your Uncle Dick keeps up this sort of nonsense."
+
+This hushed up Master Dick and he began to ask Polly such silly
+questions as: "What is the result of half a dozen ears of corn and a
+pint of Lima beans?"
+
+"You can't add ears and pints," protested Polly stoutly.
+
+"Oh, yes, you can," returned her uncle jauntily.  "Luella does it often
+and the result is succotash."
+
+Polly made a contemptuous mouth at him.
+
+He laughed and went on.  "Here's another.  When apples are ten cents a
+quart how much are blueberries?"
+
+"Why, why--they're just the same.  Aren't they?" Polly appealed to her
+Aunt Ada.
+
+"The blueberries are less; they're always less; they're smaller, you
+see," her uncle answered.
+
+"That's no answer at all," said Polly in a disgusted tone.  "I won't
+play," and she stalked off to join her cousins.
+
+Yet, as the poet Burns says: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang
+aft agley," and, after all, things did not turn out exactly as was at
+first expected; for when the children had made their rounds to say good
+bye to Ellis and Myrtle, Leona, Ora and the rest, and when they were
+actually on the boat with Cooney safe in a big basket, Uncle Dick
+pulled some letters out of his pocket and began to look them over.  "I
+found these in our box this morning when I went into the post-office,"
+he said.  "There's one for you, Ada, and here's one for me from
+Arthur."  He glanced down the page.  "Well, well, well," he exclaimed,
+"this settles your hash, Miss Molly."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Molly, leaving her seat and coming over to
+him.
+
+"Why, listen.  This is from Mary's father.  'A turn in the business
+which brought me over, compels me to remain at least three months
+longer, so I am accepting John Perrine's kind offer to keep my little
+girl till I am ready to go back home.  I am sure the dry climate of
+Colorado will complete the good work of the summer and that I shall be
+able to take Mary home with her health entirely established.'"
+
+Polly rushed tumultuously at Mary and gave her a hearty squeeze.  "I'm
+going to have you!  I'm going to have you!" she cried.  "Won't we have
+good times?"
+
+Molly sat with a very grave face looking on.  Her uncle smiled down at
+her.  "Looks as if you were out of it, doesn't it, Mollykins?" he said.
+
+Molly turned a mournful countenance upon him and gave a long sigh.  "I
+s'pose mother and I will not be going to England at all," she said.
+
+"I' s'pose' not," said her aunt.  "In fact I am quite sure of it."  She
+put down the letter which she was reading.  "There is a change of plans
+all around, Molly dear, and you're not left out, as you will see.  You
+know, my dearie, that your mother was taking the opportunity of
+visiting England because your father expected to make a business trip
+which would keep him away from home all winter, and your parents had
+concluded to rent their house to some friends.  Now that the house is
+actually rented and you are not going to England your mother will go
+with your father, and you, Molly, my kitten, will go to Colorado that
+you may still have your lessons and be in good hands.  Your father and
+mother will stop for you on their way home.  As for me----"
+
+Molly did not wait for the last words, but rushed over to where Mary
+and Polly with heads together were excitedly talking over the plans for
+the coming winter.  Molly precipitated herself upon them in a tumult of
+excitement.  "I'm going, too!  I'm going, too!" she cried.
+
+"Where?  Where?" exclaimed Polly.
+
+"To Colorado! to Colorado, with you and Mary!" chanted Molly.
+
+A squeal of delight from Polly was followed by one scarcely less joyful
+from Mary, and then the three took hold of hands and danced around the
+steamboat cabin till they dropped in a heap at the feet of their aunt
+and uncle.
+
+"Just think," said Molly when she had recovered her breath.  "We'll all
+be together just as we were this summer, you, Polly, and Mary and Uncle
+Dick and Aunt Ada."
+
+"You must count me out, Molly," said her Aunt Ada.  "I shall do no more
+than see you all safely at the ranch, and then I am going to spend the
+winter further south with my dear friend Janey Moffatt who has been
+married a whole year and whom I have never yet visited.  I have just
+had this letter setting the time for me to come.  I think Miss Ainslee
+and your Aunt Jennie can keep you three in order."
+
+"If not, there am I," put in Uncle Dick scowling savagely.
+
+"As if you----" began Polly.  But he made a dive at her and she
+disappeared behind a pillar of the cabin.
+
+"Now," said Miss Ada, "it is just as I said: there will be no
+difficulty in deciding where Cooney is to go, and to tell you the
+truth, my dears, I think he will thrive better in a cool climate than
+anywhere else, for with their fluffy coats, these little coon cats are
+liable to fall ill and die where it is too warm for them.  The ranch
+will be just the place for him."  So Cooney's future was assured and in
+time he reached his new home safely, none the worse for the long
+journey, during which he was tenderly cared for.  Luella had gladly
+taken charge of Cosey, promising to return to Miss Ada the next summer
+and to bring the little cat with her.
+
+"Even if I'm married," she said, "Granville says I may live with you
+summers, Miss Ada, whilst he's off fishing."
+
+When Molly had spent two weeks with her parents and Mary had seen her
+father, the three little girls were ready to set out upon their longer
+journey, though it must be confessed that at the last Molly found it
+hard to say good-bye, and Mary looked rather grave.  Polly, however,
+reminded Mary that there would be no Miss Sharp at the ranch, and Uncle
+Dick whispered to Molly that he didn't see how any one could be other
+than happy at the prospect of spending part of each day in Miss
+Ainslee's company, and from that began to make such delightful plans
+that in a short time they were happy in thinking of the good times
+ahead of them.  Uncle Dick promised to provide each with a safe little
+broncho to ride.  Aunt Ada told them that their Aunt Jennie had put
+three small beds in her biggest room, so that the little girls could
+room together.  Miss Ainslee told Molly confidentially that it made all
+the difference in the world to her that she was to have one of her own
+little pupils with her, and Polly, who really loved Cooney more than
+either of the others, was so delighted at not having to give him up
+that she was ready to share him generously with her cousins, and always
+lifted him over into Mary's or Molly's lap whenever one of them said:
+"Now, Polly, you have had him long enough."
+
+Altogether the long journey was not unpleasant, and when the travelers
+at last arrived, though they were weary, they were very happy, and that
+night cuddled down in their little white beds while around their
+dwelling place towered up the great mountains, steadfast as the
+friendship which was born that summer in the hearts of the three little
+cousins and which lasted their lifetime.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Three Little Cousins, by Amy E. Blanchard
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