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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41631 ***
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in small caps is marked with a tilde ~. A list of corrections made
+can be found at the end of the book.
+
+
+
+
+      A Dear Little Girl's
+      Summer Holidays
+
+      AMY E. BLANCHARD
+
+      [Decoration]
+
+      ~Whitman Publishing Co.~
+
+      RACINE, WISCONSIN
+
+
+
+
+      Copyright 1911 by George W. Jacobs & Co.
+
+
+      A Dear Little Girl's Summer Holidays
+
+
+      Printed in 1924 by
+      Western Printing & Lithographing Co.
+      Racine, Wis.
+      Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+      CONTENTS
+
+
+      Chapter      Page
+
+      I THE INVITATION 11
+
+     II THE ARRIVAL 24
+
+    III MISS ELOISE 39
+
+     IV THE PORCH PARTY 54
+
+      V THE LITTLE BUNGALOW 70
+
+     VI IN THE FOG 84
+
+    VII A SAILING PARTY 98
+
+   VIII THE FIRE 114
+
+     IX TO BOSTON 128
+
+      X THE BAZAR 143
+
+     XI OLD NORTH CHURCH 159
+
+    XII HOME AGAIN 174
+
+
+
+
+      A Dear Little Girl's Summer Holidays
+
+
+
+
+      THE INVITATION
+
+
+It was a very warm morning in June. Edna and her friend Dorothy Evans
+were sitting under the trees trying to keep cool. They both wore their
+thinnest morning frocks and had pinned their hair up in little pug
+knots on the tops of their heads. They had their boxes of pieces and
+were trying to make something suitable for their dolls to wear in the
+hot weather.
+
+"It's too sticky to sew," said Dorothy, throwing down her work.
+"Marguerite will have to go without a frock and sit around in her
+skin."
+
+"You mean in her kid," returned Edna.
+
+"Well, isn't kid skin?" asked Dorothy.
+
+Edna laughed. "Why, yes, I suppose it is, and Ben says we are kids,
+so our skin is kid skin. Oh, dear, it is hot. I wish I were a fish; it
+would be so nice to go slipping through the cool water."
+
+"Yes, but it wouldn't be so nice to be in a frying pan sizzling over a
+fire."
+
+"I feel almost as if I were doing that now. There comes the postman, I
+wonder if he has a letter from Jennie. We promised one another we would
+always write on blue paper because blue is true, you know, and that
+looks as if it might be a blue letter the postman has on top. I'm going
+to see."
+
+"I'll wait here," returned Dorothy. "It's too hot to move."
+
+She sat fanning herself with the lid of her piece box, watching her
+friend the while. Once or twice Edna stopped on her way back, and
+finally she began to dance up and down, then ran toward Dorothy,
+calling out, "Oh, there's a lovely something to tell you. Oh, I do hope
+it can come true."
+
+"What is it?" cried Dorothy, roused out of her listlessness.
+
+"Just listen." Edna sat down and spread out the letter on her knee.
+
+"'We want you and Dorothy to come down to make me a nice long visit.
+Mamma is writing to your mothers about it and I do so hope you can
+come. I shall be so awfully disappointed if you don't. Oh, Edna, we
+shall have such fun. I can scarcely wait to hear.'"
+
+"Do you suppose our mothers have their letters from Mrs. Ramsey?" asked
+Dorothy now as much excited as Edna.
+
+"Do let's go and see," returned Edna. "We'll go up and ask my mother
+first because that will be the nearest and if she has her letter your
+mother is pretty sure to have hers."
+
+All thought of the hot sun was forgotten as they sped across the lawn
+to the house, and two little girls with hot faces, panting as they
+came, burst into the room where Mrs. Conway was reading her letters.
+
+"Oh, Mother," began Edna, "did you get a letter from Mrs. Ramsey?"
+
+"Mrs. Ramsay? Why, I don't know. I will see in a moment. Just wait till
+I have finished this from your Aunt Kitty."
+
+It seemed incredible to Edna that any letter should be of more
+importance than Mrs. Ramsey's, and the two little girls danced around
+so impatiently that Mrs. Conway finally put down the sheet she was
+reading and said, "How warm you children look. Do sit down and cool
+off. I never saw such little fidgets."
+
+"We ran all the way from the oak tree," explained Edna. "We were in
+such a hurry."
+
+"No wonder your faces are red. You are such an impetuous little
+somebody, Edna. You shouldn't forget that mother has so often told you
+not to run in the hot sun."
+
+"But we did so want to hear about Mrs. Ramsey's letter," replied Edna
+anxiously. How could her mother take things so coolly?
+
+"Is it so very important, then?"
+
+"Oh, Mother, it is so exciting we can scarcely stand it till we know."
+
+"Then there is nothing to do but relieve the strain," said Mrs. Conway
+laughing. She turned over the letters at her side. "Let me see. This is
+from the dressmaker, and this one from cousin Grace. This must be it."
+She opened the letter with what seemed to the children a great lack of
+haste, and began to scan the lines, two pairs of eager eyes watching
+her the while. "Ah, now I begin to understand," she remarked as she
+turned the page.
+
+"Well," said Edna breathlessly.
+
+"Wait a moment, dear." And Edna was obliged to be patient till the last
+line was reached.
+
+"Oh, Mother," said the child pleadingly, "you are going to let me go,
+aren't you?"
+
+"Why, dearie, I shall have to think about it a little. I can't say just
+on the instant, and I shall have to see what your father thinks about
+it."
+
+"But, Mother, won't you say that maybe I can? That will be better than
+nothing at all."
+
+Mrs. Conway smiled. "I think I can venture to say that much or even a
+little more. I can say that I should like very much to have you go."
+
+"Goody! Goody!" cried Edna clapping her hands. "That is almost as if
+you said I really could. I had a letter from Jennie, Mother, and she is
+just crazy for us to come. You know Dorothy is invited, too. Would you
+like to see Jennie's letter?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+Edna promptly handed over the blue envelope, and was not disappointed
+to have her mother say, "That is a very nice cordial letter, Edna,
+and I am sure the invitation shows that both Mrs. Ramsey and Jennie
+really want you. I will talk it over with your father this evening. Now
+run along, and don't exercise too vigorously this warm day, and don't
+forget what I said about being in the sun." She returned to her letters
+and Edna with Dorothy left the room.
+
+"Now we must go to my mother," declared Dorothy.
+
+"Yes, but we must walk slowly and I think we had better take an
+umbrella," returned Edna, fresh from her mother's advice.
+
+"All right," said Dorothy, "I think it would be better, for there is
+that long sunny stretch along the road, though the rest of the way is
+shady."
+
+They set forth talking eagerly. "Don't you think it sounded as if I
+might go?" asked Edna.
+
+"Why yes," replied Dorothy, "only I don't see how we can wait till
+evening to know."
+
+"Do you believe your mother will say positively that you can or that
+you can't?"
+
+"I think she will say just what your mother did; that she will have to
+talk to papa about it, but--oh, Edna, I know what I shall do."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I shall ask mother if she can't telephone in to father and find out,
+and if she says she can't take the time to do it, I know Agnes will."
+
+"What a lovely idea!" exclaimed Edna. "I shall do that very same thing
+as soon as I get home."
+
+"And if he says yes, you can telephone over to me."
+
+"That's just what I'll do. Oh, isn't it exciting?"
+
+In spite of their determination to walk slowly, they covered the ground
+very quickly and in a few minutes had reached Dorothy's home. "Where's
+mother?" cried Dorothy as she came upon her sister who was sitting on
+the back porch.
+
+"She has gone over to Mrs. MacDonald's," Agnes told her.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Dorothy despairingly, "just when I wanted her so very,
+very much. Will she be gone long, Agnes?"
+
+"I don't know, honey. What is the particular haste? Can I help you out?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," answered Dorothy in a woe-begone voice. "Do you know
+whether mother has had a letter from Mrs. Ramsey this morning?"
+
+"I don't know that, either. She took her mail and said she would read
+it while she was driving over. What is it about Mrs. Ramsey, and why
+are you so interested?"
+
+"We'll explain," replied Dorothy. "You let her read Jennie's letter
+Edna, and that will tell most of it."
+
+A second time Edna handed over the letter to be read, and when Agnes
+had finished, she told her about the letter Mrs. Conway had received.
+
+"And so you see," Dorothy took up the tale, "mother is sure to say just
+what Mrs. Conway did, only I thought we might find out sooner what papa
+thought if we talked to him over the 'phone."
+
+"I don't see why we can't do that anyhow, and get that much settled,"
+said Agnes. "Suppose I call him up and tell him about it, then when
+mother comes in we will tell her what he says, for she is pretty sure
+to have had Mrs. Ramsey's letter."
+
+"Oh, Agnes, that will be lovely," cried Dorothy, clasping her hand. "It
+is awfully good of you to think of doing it."
+
+"Let me see," said Agnes, "I think father is pretty sure to be in his
+office about this time; we might as well go and get it over."
+
+She went to the 'phone, the two little girls standing by while she
+carried on the conversation, and once in a while one of them would put
+in a word of argument, so that they could be sure the last word had
+been said on the subject. After a while Agnes hung up the receiver and
+looked down with a smile.
+
+"That much is settled," she told them. "Father says he hasn't the
+slightest objection and leaves it all to mother to decide."
+
+"Then there is nothing to do but wait, I suppose," said Dorothy with a
+sigh.
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Agnes after a moment's thought. "Why can't
+you call up Mrs. MacDonald's and get mother there? She will have read
+the letter, you see, and it will be fresh in her mind."
+
+"Why, of course," said Dorothy delightedly.
+
+"Shall I do it myself, Agnes?"
+
+"You might as well plead your own cause."
+
+So Dorothy was soon discussing the matter with her mother, and finally
+won from her the assurance that she did not see anything to prevent,
+though she would not say positively until she had discussed it with
+Mrs. Conway.
+
+"Then, Mother, will you please stop there on your way home?" was
+Dorothy's final prayer.
+
+"She's going to stop and talk it over with your Mother on her way
+home," was the news she gave Edna. "Now I suppose that is all that we
+can do. Do you think it is, Agnes?" she asked.
+
+"I don't see why Edna couldn't call up her father just as you did
+yours," returned Agnes, "and then there would be only the mothers to
+deal with."
+
+"Why, of course," agreed Dorothy, with a pleased look. "Come on, Edna,
+and see what he says."
+
+But here they met with a disappointment, for Mr. Conway was not at
+his office and it was uncertain when he would be, so his word on the
+subject must be left till later.
+
+At Dorothy's urgent request Edna stayed until Mrs. Evans' return,
+and the two spent most of the intervening time in watching for the
+carriage.
+
+At last it was seen slowly coming up the drive, and the two little
+girls rushed out to meet it.
+
+"Go in out of the hot sun," called Mrs. Evans, as the little figures
+took up a place either side of the carriage. "What are you thinking of?
+Do you want to have a sunstroke?"
+
+"Oh, but, Mother, please stop and let us get in; then we won't be in
+the sun," said Dorothy.
+
+"Stop then, William," Mrs. Evans ordered the driver, and the two
+children clambered in.
+
+"We just can't wait," began Dorothy. "Mother, do please tell us what
+you and Mrs. Conway decided."
+
+"We decided that we would not decide until we found out what our
+husbands had to say."
+
+"Oh, but we know what your husband has to say," returned Dorothy
+triumphantly. "Agnes called him up on the 'phone and he said he had no
+objection as far as he was concerned and he would leave it all to you."
+
+Mrs. Evans laughed. "Well, you certainly have not wasted any time."
+
+"Then, please, please say what you think."
+
+"Why, my dear, you haven't given me time to think."
+
+"How long will it take, then," continued Dorothy, pressing the matter.
+
+"I will try to decide by this evening. There is no great hurry, is
+there?"
+
+"Why, Mother, of course there is. I don't think I could sleep unless I
+knew."
+
+"Then, I shall try to prevent such a catastrophe by settling it before
+bedtime. Here we are. You will stay to lunch won't you, Edna?"
+
+"Why, no, Mrs. Evans, thank you, I don't think I ought, for I didn't
+tell mother I would stay."
+
+"Then let William take you home; it is too warm to walk. The horses
+haven't been very far, and William can drive slowly."
+
+So the two little girls parted and Edna returned to her own home. She
+was not long in finding her mother, and in plying her with questions
+upon the all-important subject, but she received no further assurance
+than had been given her in the beginning and was fain to exercise her
+patience and unburden herself to her sister Celia, who was interested
+and sympathetic. But at last even Celia became tired of the topic and
+went off to take a nap in her own room. So Edna went down to a cool
+spot at the back of the house where there was a little stream, and
+tried to amuse herself with a book.
+
+But even her favorite fairy tales failed to fix her attention, so she
+returned to the house to find everyone given up to napping and the
+place so still that finally in the coolest corner of the library where
+a little breeze found its way through the open windows, she herself
+fell asleep.
+
+When she awoke it was to hear her father's voice saying: "Hallo! who is
+this? The Sleeping Beauty?"
+
+"Oh, Papa," cried Edna, awake in a moment, "how nice and early you have
+come home."
+
+"It was too hot to stay in the city any longer than necessary," her
+father told her. "There wasn't much doing, so I thought I would be
+better off here."
+
+"I called you up on the 'phone this morning," said Edna, "but you
+weren't at the office."
+
+"And what did you want of me?"
+
+"Mother will tell you," answered Edna, suddenly shy of meeting a
+decision which might disappoint her.
+
+"Then I'd better find mother and see what it is all about."
+
+Left to herself Edna waited for what seemed to her a very long time,
+quite long enough for the affairs of a nation to be settled, and then
+she went slowly up the stairs, and paused before the open door of her
+mother's room. To her surprise her parents were talking about something
+quite different from the subject uppermost in her own mind.
+
+"Edna, dear," said her mother, catching sight of the little figure,
+"you'd better get ready for dinner. We shall have it a little earlier,
+so Susan won't be kept so late over the hot fire."
+
+Edna took a step into the room. "Did you ask him?" she said wistfully.
+
+"Ask what? Oh, yes, I forgot dear," she said turning to her husband.
+"Edna has had a very cordial invitation from Mrs. Ramsey to spend
+some weeks at the Ramsey's summer home. She and Dorothy Evans are both
+invited, and I think the Ramseys really will be disappointed if we do
+not allow Edna to go. What do you think?"
+
+Wasn't it just like mother to put it that way? thought Edna. Surely her
+father could not be so heartless as to refuse his consent after that.
+
+Her faith in her mother's tact was not misplaced for her father
+replied: "Why, I think that will be great for Edna. Of course let her
+go."
+
+"Oh, Mother, Mother, may I? May I?" cried Edna with clasped hands and
+beseeching eyes.
+
+Her mother turned from the mirror before which she was standing to
+arrange her hair. "Well, honey," she said. "I think it is decided that
+you may."
+
+Edna flew to her to bestow a rapturous hug and kiss, and then sped out
+of the room and downstairs to the telephone. "One, six, seven; ring
+two," she called in an excited voice.
+
+Presently there was an answering "Hallo," from the other end.
+
+"Is that you, Dorothy?" called Edna.
+
+"Yes. Oh, Edna, I hoped it was you. Do tell me, is there any news?"
+
+"I'm going," came the triumphant reply.
+
+"So am I," came promptly back to her.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER II
+
+      THE ARRIVAL
+
+
+For the next few days there was much talk of clothes and packing, of
+trains and time-tables, and it was a matter of some discussion as
+to the best way for the little girls to make their journey of some
+hundreds of miles. Dorothy had never been so far away from home, and
+was therefore the more excited of the two. After some writing back and
+forth it was decided that the two children should go to the city under
+Mr. Conway's care and there he turned them over to Mr. Ramsey who was
+to join his family at the seashore in about a week.
+
+"Do you suppose we shall get homesick?" asked Dorothy as the time drew
+near for them to make their start.
+
+"Oh, I hope not," returned Edna fervently. "I was awfully homesick at
+Aunt Elizabeth's, but this will be quite different, for there will be
+Jennie, and Mrs. Ramsey is a real mother; besides we shall have one
+another."
+
+"I know all that," returned Dorothy a little dubiously, "but Jennie's
+mother won't be mine nor yours."
+
+Edna was willing to admit this, but she had gone through some rather
+trying experiences and was not disposed to think that anything but
+pleasant times awaited them. As Jennie had pictured it the visit was
+to be one long season of delight, so Edna said determinedly. "Well, I
+don't intend to be homesick."
+
+"Then I'll try not to be," returned Dorothy, not to be outdone in
+courage.
+
+However, when the trunks stood ready packed, and Edna said good night
+for the last time before undertaking the journey, she held her mother
+very tightly around the neck and whispered: "I wish you were going too,
+Mother."
+
+"That can't be, darling," said her mother. "You will have such a fine
+time that you will not miss your mother at all."
+
+"Oh, but I shall," returned Edna, half wishing she were not going after
+all. "I 'most wish it was time to come back instead of time to go."
+
+Her mother laughed. "And this is the little girl who could scarcely
+wait to be told she could go. Never mind, dearie, you will feel quite
+differently to-morrow morning. Now go to sleep, for you must get up
+bright and early, you know."
+
+Edna settled down with a sigh, but, in spite of her excitement,
+she soon fell asleep to waken in the morning with the feeling that
+something very important was to happen. Her mother came in to see that
+she was properly dressed and to tie the bows on her hair. Then just as
+they were about to sit down to breakfast, the expressman came for the
+trunk, and next Dorothy arrived all impatience.
+
+"Why, Edna, haven't you had breakfast yet?" she asked. "Aren't you
+afraid we shall be late?"
+
+"We don't have to go till papa does, and he hasn't half finished,"
+replied Edna. So Dorothy had to possess her soul in patience for there
+was no gainsaying the fact that they could not go without Mr. Conway.
+
+At last the good-byes were said, and Edna waved to her mother till she
+could no longer see the white figure on the porch. Agnes and Celia had
+gone on ahead to the station and the boys were there, too, to see them
+off. Soon the train came in sight; in another moment they had been
+helped aboard, and the next they were off. It was but a short ride to
+the city, and this part of the journey was not exciting, as it was one
+with which they were very familiar. But when they were ushered into Mr.
+Ramsey's private office, they felt that here began their untrod way.
+
+They sat for some time, their feet dangling from their high chairs
+while Mr. Ramsey conferred with his clerks in the outer office. Their
+talk was carried on in whispers, though once in a while a stifled
+giggle told that they were in good spirits.
+
+At last Mr. Ramsey appeared. "Well, young ladies," he said, "I am sorry
+I had to leave you so long, but when a man is about to take a holiday,
+he has so many things to see about that he doesn't know which way to
+turn." He looked at his watch. "I think we have just about time enough
+to get that ten o'clock train." He pressed an electric button and a boy
+in a grey uniform came to the door. "Take these bags, Edward," said Mr.
+Ramsey, pointing to the satchels each little girl had placed carefully
+by her chair. The boy led the way to the elevator and down they went to
+the first floor of the big office building, then to the street where an
+automobile stood to whizz them off to the station. Mr. Ramsey directed
+the chauffeur to see about the trunks while he conducted the little
+girls to the waiting-room where he left them, returning in a moment to
+hurry them to the train, and the second part of their journey began.
+
+"I never was in a parlor car before," whispered Dorothy to Edna as
+the porter turned their seat to a proper angle and adjusted their
+footstools.
+
+"I was once," replied Edna.
+
+Here Mr. Ramsey handed over some picture papers to them and a box of
+chocolates. "I am going into the smoking-car," he said. "Do you think
+you young ladies can get along a little while without me?"
+
+"We'll try to," replied Edna politely.
+
+"If you want a glass of water or anything, just call the porter," Mr.
+Ramsey told them and then he left them.
+
+There were not so very many persons in the car to interest them and
+for a time the children gave their attention to the newspapers and the
+box of chocolates, but after a while they wearied of these, and began
+to look at their fellow travellers. A very pretty young lady smiled
+at them from across the aisle, and an older woman back of her looked
+interested in their movements. After a while this latter person came
+over and took the place directly behind them where Mr. Ramsey had been
+sitting.
+
+"Are you children all alone?" she began the conversation.
+
+"No," replied Dorothy.
+
+"Are you sisters?" was the next question.
+
+"No, we are only friends," Edna answered this time.
+
+"And is the gentleman who came with you your father?"
+
+"No, he is just taking us to his house where we are going to make a
+visit."
+
+"Is he any relation to you?" came next.
+
+"No relation at all. He is the father of the friend we are going to
+visit." It was Dorothy's turn this time.
+
+"And do your mothers approve of your going off this way without a
+member of your family?"
+
+This question the children thought a very disagreeable one. They looked
+at one another before Dorothy made reply. "If it wasn't exactly right
+our parents wouldn't let us do it. They never let us do a thing that
+isn't exactly right."
+
+"And nobody knows what is right so well as my mother," Edna chimed in.
+
+"Mine, too," put in Dorothy.
+
+"How far did you say you were going?" asked their questioner.
+
+"We didn't say," answered Dorothy, "but we are going to New York."
+She gave a little frown to Edna, who understood that she was not to
+vouchsafe any further information. "I just wasn't going to tell her
+where we were really going from New York," Dorothy said to her friend
+afterward. "It wasn't any of her business."
+
+"New York is a very wicked city," their acquaintance informed them.
+"You must be very careful not to be alone in the streets. I would
+advise you never to lose sight of your escort for a moment."
+
+Both little girls felt rather glad that they were not to remain in such
+a dreadful place, but they made no reply and wished most heartily that
+Mr. Ramsey would return to his seat and rid them of this undesirable
+companion. Presently Edna had a bright idea. "Would you like to look at
+some of our papers?" she asked.
+
+"What have you?" asked the lady putting up her lorgnette.
+
+"We have Life and Puck and Judge and--"
+
+"I'll take Life and Puck." She accepted the papers handed to her and
+settled back in the seat she had behind them. The two children looked
+at each other with relieved expressions. "Don't you wish Mr. Ramsey
+would come back?" whispered Edna.
+
+"Yes, but where will he sit?" Dorothy whispered back. They both
+smothered a giggle at this, and looking up Edna caught sight of the
+pretty young lady looking at them with an amused expression. She made a
+little movement with her hand to beckon Edna over to her.
+
+"Is that old turtle quizzing you?" she asked in a low tone. "She is a
+perfect bore. She tackled me first but I wouldn't talk to her. Are you
+wondering if she is going to take that seat and keep it?"
+
+"We were wondering what Mr. Ramsey would do," returned Edna.
+
+"I'll tell you what to do; you take her seat and see what will happen.
+It is just here in front of me."
+
+Edna took possession and in a few moments the inquisitive lady looked
+up and saw her there. She at once hurried over, dropping the papers by
+the way. "Here here," she cried, "what are you doing in my seat? You
+must get right up. All my things are here, and I don't want anyone to
+meddle with them. Get right up."
+
+Edna arose with alacrity while the pretty young lady leaned over and
+said: "I asked her to sit there while you occupied her friend's seat.
+I wanted to talk to her, too. It is a poor rule that doesn't work both
+ways, you know."
+
+The inquisitive lady gave the speaker a withering look and sank to her
+place with an air of great dignity while Edna returned to her place by
+Dorothy. In a few minutes Mr. Ramsey returned and both children gave a
+sigh of relief, though both kept wondering what would have happened if
+he had found someone in his place, and what more would have happened
+if he had taken the place the lady now occupied. They soon forgot all
+this, however, for Mr. Ramsey began to talk to them about the place
+to which they were going and before they knew it they had reached New
+York. The pretty young lady gave them a nod and a smile as she passed
+out, but the inquisitive lady did not look their way at all though she
+still retained the copy of Life they had lent her.
+
+A taxi-cab whirled them up-town to the hotel where they were to lunch.
+Mr. Ramsey sent them upstairs to a pretty room, in charge of a neat
+maid who tidied them up and then took them down to the dining-room
+where Mr. Ramsey was already seated waiting for them. They felt very
+grand to be in so fine a place lunching with a gentleman quite like
+grown-up young ladies, and both wished their sisters could see them.
+
+Lunch over, Mr. Ramsey took them to a large reception room where he
+stationed them at a window so they could look out on the street. "I
+think you will be entertained here," he said. "I am obliged to meet
+a business appointment, but I will be back as soon as I can. In the
+meantime amuse yourselves as you like, but don't leave the hotel. Here
+is the key of your room. The elevator boy or one of the chambermaids
+will show you where it is, if you would rather go there. I am glad
+there are two of you, for you can't be lonesome with one another.
+Good-bye." He was off and the two little girls, feeling that they were
+very small frogs in an immense puddle, sat by the window looking out
+on the street. Although it was not so warm as it had been earlier in
+the week, still it was warm enough, and the passers-by looked hot and
+tired, and after a while the two little girls wearied at looking at the
+constant stream of people.
+
+"Let's go upstairs," suggested Dorothy.
+
+"All right. Let's," returned Edna.
+
+But just as they were standing timidly looking up and down the corridor
+trying to determine in which direction to go to find the elevator, a
+man wearing many brass buttons on his coat, came up to them. "Are you
+the young ladies in Number 136?" he asked.
+
+Dorothy looked at the key she was holding and on its wooden tag she
+read the number 136. "Yes, that is the number," she told the man.
+
+"Then here's something that's come for you," he said holding out
+two packages. "I knocked at your door, but you wasn't there, and the
+chambermaid said you might be in here."
+
+The children thanked him and looked at the packages which were quite
+distinctly marked with their names and the number of their room as well
+as with the name of the hotel. They inquired their way to the elevator
+and had soon closed the door of their room after them.
+
+"I'd a great deal rather be in here to ourselves," said Edna, "so we
+can do just what we like. You open one package, Dorothy, and I will
+open the other. Do you suppose Mr. Ramsey sent them?"
+
+"Of course, because no one else knows where we are. Isn't it funny,
+Edna, to think that even our mothers don't know where we are? Do hurry
+and open your package. Mine isn't tied, and I know what it is but I
+don't want to tell till you have yours ready."
+
+"This is such a heavy string," said Edna fumbling at the knot. "If I
+had a knife I would cut it, but I think I know what this is; it is a
+book, I am sure." After much to-do they managed to unfasten the package
+to disclose a new book of fairy tales.
+
+"How perfectly lovely!" cried Dorothy. And, "I have wanted to read
+those ever since I took a peep at them one day when we were at Helen
+Darby's."
+
+"Now we'll look at the other package," said Dorothy, slowly unfolding
+the paper which enclosed this.
+
+The second package was found to contain two paper-dolls and two
+puzzles. After the paper-dolls were duly admired they were laid aside.
+"For," said Dorothy, "we haven't any scissors, so we can't cut out
+their frocks."
+
+"I think it was perfectly lovely of Mr. Ramsey to think of getting such
+nice things," said Edna warmly.
+
+"I suppose he thought we might get lonely if he stayed so long away.
+What would you do, Edna, if something happened that he didn't ever come
+back?"
+
+Edna considered for awhile before she answered: "I'd send a telegram to
+papa to come and get us."
+
+"It would be better to telephone," returned Dorothy. "We could use the
+long-distance 'phone and tell them all about it."
+
+"So we could. I didn't think of that. We could stay right here and not
+leave the hotel at all, because that woman said it wouldn't do for us
+to go alone in the streets of New York."
+
+But such an emergency did not arise, though as the afternoon wore on,
+the little girls began to get somewhat anxious. They read several of
+the fairy tales; they worked over their puzzles; they watched from the
+windows, and finally decided to put on their hats and pack up such of
+their belongings as they had taken from their satchels so they might be
+all ready. The new book and other gifts were stowed away, too, and this
+was hardly done before there came a quick knock at the door, and it was
+opened to Mr. Ramsey himself.
+
+"You're all ready?" he cried. "Good! Come right along as fast as you
+can."
+
+A boy had already snatched up their hand-bags and was hurrying off
+with them. Mr. Ramsey rushed them along the hall and into the elevator,
+then they were hurried into a taxi-cab which stood waiting and off they
+went.
+
+As soon as they had started, Mr. Ramsey looked at his watch. "It's a
+close shave, but I think we can make it," he said. Then he leaned over
+to speak to the driver. "Get us to the Fall River boat in time and you
+shall have an extra tip," he said.
+
+So through the crowded streets, worming their way among lines of heavy
+teams, across car-tracks, and into queer-looking neighborhoods they
+were taken, arriving just in time to be taken on board the boat before
+she should move off.
+
+It was all very exciting, but not unpleasant, for they felt quite safe
+with Mr. Ramsey. He smiled down at them as he led the way to the deck.
+"We did make it, didn't we?" he said. "If you children had not been all
+ready we should have been goners."
+
+"Suppose we had been too late for the boat what would you have done?"
+asked Edna.
+
+"We could have taken a night train, but it would not have been so
+pleasant this warm evening. Now you can sit here while I get the keys
+of our staterooms, then we will go on deck and see the harbor. Our
+staterooms open into one another, so you needn't be afraid, but you
+will have to draw lots for the upper berth."
+
+This last matter was easily adjusted for Dorothy begged to be allowed
+to climb up while Edna thought she would prefer to be below. After all
+this was talked over and settled, they sat on deck till they had seen
+the Statue of Liberty, had passed under the Brooklyn bridges, and had
+gone beyond the boundaries of New York. Mr. Ramsey pointed out all
+the things of interest and at last said they would better have supper.
+This over, they returned to the deck till sleep overcame them and they
+were put in charge of the stewardess while Mr. Ramsey remained above to
+smoke a final cigar.
+
+Edna was awakened the next morning by Dorothy's leaning over to tickle
+her ear with a slip of paper. "Do you know where you are?" she asked.
+
+Edna sat up rubbing her eyes. "I didn't at first," she answered, "but I
+do now. Is it time to get up, Dorothy?"
+
+"I don't know, but I should think so, for the boat isn't going. I
+think it has stopped for good, for there is a great noise of taking off
+things, and I hear people talking outside."
+
+In a few minutes there came a knock from Mr. Ramsey's stateroom and his
+voice inquired: "Are you getting up, young ladies?"
+
+"We are up," replied Edna, "but we aren't dressed yet."
+
+"Come out when you are and we'll have some breakfast before we take the
+train," came the response.
+
+"I should think we'd better hurry a little," Edna told Dorothy. "I'll
+do your ribbons and buttons if you will do mine." This mutual help
+hastened matters decidedly and they were very soon ready, deciding that
+they would be on the safe side in putting on their hats, but after all
+breakfast was rather a hurried meal, and next thing they knew they were
+on the train for Boston. Here they crossed the city to take another
+train which should bear them over the last stage of their journey.
+
+"Jennie is sure to be there to meet us." Mr. Ramsey told them. "I shall
+let her know what famous travelers you are. I shouldn't want better. No
+stopping to prink at the last moment, no forgetting something when it
+is too late to go back for it. Always smiling and in good spirits. You
+are models, I tell you."
+
+The girls felt very much flattered at such high compliments, and were
+glad they had given heed to the careful instructions they had received
+from their mothers.
+
+When at last the train did stop at the station, sure enough there was
+Jennie the first one to greet them. She was so eager to welcome her
+friends that her father complained that she had no eyes for him. At
+this she gave him a hasty kiss, but at once turned back to Edna and
+Dorothy. "I am going to take you home myself in the pony cart," she
+said. "Papa can go in the motor-car."
+
+"All alone?" queried her father in pretended dismay. "I like that."
+
+"Oh, but you will have Mack," returned Jennie, "and it isn't far."
+
+Mr. Ramsey laughed and the two delighted guests clambered into the
+little pony-cart, Jennie took her seat, touched up the pony very
+lightly with her be-ribboned whip and off they went full of pleased
+anticipations.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER III
+
+      MISS ELOISE
+
+
+It was quite a different looking country from that they had left which
+Dorothy and Edna now drove through. Instead of rolling meadows, hills
+and dales, were long stretches of salt marsh, sand dunes and beyond all
+the great expanse of ocean. An avenue of trees led up to the Ramsey's
+home, and there was a broad lawn in front, but on the east side was a
+pretty beach, a view of the harbor and the sparkling water. "Isn't it
+beautiful?" whispered Edna to Dorothy as the two followed Jennie up the
+steps to where Mrs. Ramsey stood on the porch to meet them.
+
+"Fine," returned Jennie.
+
+She had time to say no more than this, for here was Mrs. Ramsey asking
+how they had stood the journey, and how they had left all at home,
+so their attention must be given to answering questions and not to
+discussing what they saw around them.
+
+Mr. Ramsey had already arrived, the motor-car having far outdone
+the little pony, and he was now talking to two ladies who sat at the
+further end of the porch. They were hidden by his figure so the little
+newly-arrived guests did not recognize them then.
+
+"Take the little girls up to their room, Jennie," directed Mrs. Ramsey.
+"You will all have time for a nice dip in the sea before lunch time."
+
+This was a very exciting prospect, for neither of the two had ever gone
+through the experience of sea-bathing.
+
+"We have new bathing-suits," they told Jennie with pride.
+
+"But they are in our trunks," suddenly exclaimed Dorothy, "and those
+haven't come yet."
+
+"Never mind," replied Jennie, "I have two or three, so we need not
+wait."
+
+However, the trunks did arrive before they had need to borrow, and
+the bathing-suits were easily found and hastily put on amidst much
+giggling and many exclamations, for it was such a new excitement it
+was impossible to do anything soberly. Then Jennie led the way down
+the back stairs and over a path at the rear of the house to the little
+stretch of beach. With many little squeals of apprehension, the two
+who lacked experience, ventured to the edge of the water, but Jennie
+dashed in, letting the waves completely cover her, and with such an
+example the other two soon became braver and began to enjoy themselves
+hugely. Indeed they were fain to remain longer than they should, but at
+last a maid came to say they must not stay in a moment longer as it was
+nearing time for lunch.
+
+"I think it is perfectly lovely," said Edna as, with the water dripping
+down her bare legs, she entered the little bath house where they
+exchanged their wet suits for dry clothing which the maid had brought
+down. "Do you go in every day, Jennie?"
+
+"Just about," she replied.
+
+"Even when it rains?"
+
+"Oh, no, not then, unless it is a very gentle rain and it is not too
+cold."
+
+Edna gave a sigh of satisfaction. "And what do you do in the
+afternoons?"
+
+"Oh, anything I please. Sometimes I take the pony and drive up to the
+rocks, and sometimes I just stay around the house or the grounds. What
+should you like to do? Would you like to go to the village?"
+
+"Why, I don't know." Edna looked at Dorothy. "I'd like to do whatever
+you two would like."
+
+"That's just like you," said Jennie. "You always want to have other
+people have a good time whether you do or not. We don't forget about
+Clara Adams, do we, Dorothy?"
+
+"Oh, that wasn't anything," returned Edna. "Besides, I had the very
+finest sort of a time."
+
+"Well, we can decide after lunch what we would like to do," Jennie went
+on, "but now I daresay you are as hungry as hunters; I know I am."
+
+"Who were the two ladies sitting on the porch?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"Oh, didn't you know?" said Jennie in a tone of surprise. "Then I won't
+tell, and you can find out when we go in. I know you will be awfully
+pleased."
+
+The mystery of this made the other two hurry with their dressing, but
+they were none too early as they found when they reached the house,
+for the rest were already seated at table. To the surprise of both
+the visitors the two ladies were well known to them for one was their
+teacher, Miss Newman, and the other was her invalid sister, Miss
+Eloise.
+
+"Oh, isn't this lovely?" cried the latter. "We knew you were coming,
+but you didn't know we were here, did you?"
+
+"Indeed we did not," replied Edna. "How did you get here, Miss Eloise?"
+
+"We came all the way by boat, and I did enjoy it so much. I'll tell you
+all about it after lunch."
+
+"And if you are as hungry as I am," said Mr. Ramsey, "you will be glad
+to give your undivided attention to this clam-chowder first thing. We
+all know how entertaining Miss Eloise's tales can be, so you'd better
+save them for dessert."
+
+The luncheon was so good that the children did not need a second
+bidding, and were surprised to find how hungry they were till they
+remembered that they had not eaten anything since their none too hearty
+breakfast. It was certainly delightful to be there in the cool spacious
+house with the noise of the sea ever in their ears and the cool breeze
+coming in the windows, and the newcomers felt that all this accounted
+for the better color in Miss Eloise's cheeks and for the brighter look
+in her eyes.
+
+They all gathered around her on the porch after lunch and she told them
+about her coming.
+
+"You see it was this way," she began. "It was so stifling in the city
+that I was perfectly exhausted by the heat and the doctor told my
+sister I must get away if possible, but neither of us could see where
+or how, and poor sister was so worried she didn't know what to do. Then
+all of a sudden, just as if she knew all about our difficulties, came
+a letter from Mrs. Ramsey asking us to come up here, and arranging it
+all so nicely that there seemed no reason in the world why I could not
+make the journey comfortably. So we decided that we would try it. Mr.
+Ramsey sent the automobile that took us to the wharf and we came all
+the way by boat to Boston where Mrs. Ramsey met us, and from there
+we took another boat which brought us to the wharf here. Sister was
+so afraid I would be seasick, but I was not, in fact it was the most
+glorious trip I ever had, and we can go back the same way. It is all
+so wonderful that I haven't recovered from the wonder of it yet. I am
+so much stronger that I can walk about a very little, and don't have to
+sit in a rolling chair all day."
+
+All this did seem very wonderful to the little girls who had been
+accustomed to seeing Miss Eloise always in an invalid's chair wheeled
+from room to room. "Do you think you will be able to walk more and
+more?" asked Edna interestedly.
+
+"The doctor--Mrs. Ramsey's doctor--thinks I may be able to as I get
+stronger. He has encouraged me so much that I begin to think anything
+possible."
+
+All this was very pleasant news, but here Miss Newman interfered by
+saying, "Ellie, darling, you know you must not overtax your strength
+and now you must be taking a rest. The salt baths are doing her a world
+of good," she turned to the children to say, "but we must not go beyond
+her strength." So she bore off Miss Eloise and the little girls were
+left to themselves.
+
+There were so many pleasures in sight that they found it hard to
+choose, but finally it was decided among them that each should take her
+turn in making plans for the afternoons, and that they would draw lots
+for first choice. This they did with three slips of paper. Dorothy drew
+the longest, therefore to her fell the choice for that day. Jennie drew
+the second longest and she was to take the next day. As Edna's was the
+shortest she came last and after that it was easy enough, for they were
+to keep it up in this order.
+
+After much discussion, Dorothy decided that the very nicest and most
+unusual thing to do would be to go out in a boat for a row.
+
+"I think that will be perfectly lovely," declared Edna, who had been
+wavering in her own mind between a preference for the water and a drive
+behind the little pony.
+
+"I'm sure I shall like it," Jennie said, "and we shall have a good
+time, I know. Mother always lets me go when we can get old Cap'n Si to
+take us, for he is perfectly safe and is such a funny old fellow.
+
+"Who is he?" asked the others.
+
+"He is an old fisherman who used to have a fishing vessel of his own,
+but now he is too old to go to the Banks, so he just fishes around a
+little, and takes people out rowing or sailing when they don't want to
+go too far. He lives in that little old house over on that point."
+
+Dorothy and Edna looked to where she indicated and saw a little low
+brown house very near the water. They could distinguish someone sitting
+in the doorway.
+
+"What is he doing?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"He is mending his nets."
+
+"How will he know we want him? Do we have to go over and tell him?"
+
+"No, I will tell you how we manage. Come with me."
+
+The two followed her to the bath-house, one side of which was used as
+a boat-house. From a nail inside the door Jennie took down a tin horn,
+which she blew lustily, then looked intently in the direction of Cap'n
+Si's house. "He hasn't heard," she said presently, and blew another
+blast. At this Cap'n Si shaded his eyes, and then waved his hand.
+
+"He hears," said Jennie. "Now I must let him know the time." She went
+to where a flag-pole displayed a blue and white pennant. This she
+raised and lowered three times. "Now he will know that he is to come at
+three o'clock," she told the others.
+
+Cap'n Si evidently understood, for he waved his hand three times.
+
+"I think that is a fine way to let him know," said Edna. "How did you
+ever think of it?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't think of it, Cap'n Si did. He always sits out there on
+that bench pleasant afternoons, and he told me just how I could let
+him know when I wanted him. I think I will get him to take us to Shelly
+Beach; it is such a nice place."
+
+"Are there really shells there?"
+
+"Oh, yes, ever so many, and some of them are so pretty, tiny little
+pinky ones."
+
+This sounded so fascinating that Edna declared that if it had been her
+afternoon to choose she could have selected nothing more to her mind
+than this expedition.
+
+"We must go tell mother where we are going," said Jennie, "so she won't
+be anxious."
+
+Mrs. Ramsey was in the library at a desk writing letters. She looked
+up as the children came in. "I am just sending a line to your mothers,
+dearies," she said to Edna and Dorothy. "I thought they would be
+anxious to know of your safe arrival. What is on hand for this
+afternoon?"
+
+"We are going to get Cap'n Si to take us to Shelly Beach," Jennie told
+her.
+
+"Then be sure to take some warm wraps and be back before six."
+
+"Oh, you know Cap'n Si never keeps us out late."
+
+"No, I realize that he can be relied upon. I think that will be a very
+nice expedition for you. Would you like to take along some biscuits or
+something? You can ask Emma to give you something of that kind if you
+like."
+
+"Could we have some hard-boiled eggs, too?"
+
+"If there is time to boil them. Let me see. Oh, yes, it is only half
+past two. Well, run along and make your preparations. Have a good
+time."
+
+"Isn't she dear?" said Dorothy, when they were out of the room. "Does
+she always let you have anything you want, like that?"
+
+"Oh, yes, generally. If she doesn't it is because there is some good
+reason why I shouldn't. I will take some extra salt and maybe Cap'n
+Si will get some fish and cook them for us on hot stones. He does that
+sometimes, and they do taste so good. I'll get Emma to pack everything
+in a little basket."
+
+"Where do we go to get in the boat?" asked Edna. "Do we have to go to
+the steamboat wharf?"
+
+"No, indeed, he will come right to our little landing there beyond the
+boat-house."
+
+This all seemed most convenient, and what with watching Emma pack the
+basket and with hunting up wraps the time went very rapidly and they
+were surprised to hear Mrs. Ramsey call to them, "Come along, children.
+Here comes Cap'n Si."
+
+Although the sun was hot it did not seem so intolerable as it did at
+home, for here was the cool sea-breeze always blowing, and even the way
+to the beach did not seem an uncomfortable walk. Cap'n Si, a grizzly,
+toothless old man with a pleasant smile and twinkling blue eyes had
+already drawn his boat up on the sands when they reached him. He gave a
+quick nod of greeting as the three came up.
+
+"These are my friends Dorothy Evans and Edna Conway," said Jennie.
+
+Cap'n Si jerked his head to each one. "Glad to see ye," he said. "Where
+be ye going, Jinny?"
+
+"We thought we would like to go to Shelly Beach. It isn't too far, is
+it?"
+
+"No, 'm, 'tain't. Good weather, too. Hot down your way?" He turned to
+Edna to ask.
+
+"It has been scorching hot," she told him, "but it wasn't quite so
+dreadful when we came away."
+
+"Ever been to these parts before?"
+
+"No, and we never saw the ocean, not the real ocean till now."
+
+Cap'n Si looked at her as if she were a strange species of animal.
+"Wal, I swan," he ejaculated. "Ain't it queer how folks kin live 'slong
+as that and not see the ocean," he said, turning to Jennie.
+
+"I guess I'd die ef you was to take me out of sight and sound of the
+water. Lived right here all my life." He turned to Edna again. "Born
+in that there little house, and ain't never lived nowhere else, less
+you call it living on board a fishing vessel. I've seen a good bit of
+towns and been to considerable many ports, but I ain't seen nawthin'
+I'd swop this place fur." He took the basket and stowed it safely away,
+gave directions about their getting in the boat, shoved it off and
+came aboard himself without seeming to mind the fact that he had walked
+through two feet of water.
+
+Edna and Dorothy thought him a most interesting person with his red
+face, his white tuft of beard under his chin and his great knotty
+hands. He had a fund of stories to tell them about the sea and the
+creatures that lived in it, and he used so many queer expressions that
+they thought him very amusing and determined to remember all his funny
+sayings that they might tell the boys when they returned home.
+
+They reached Shelly Beach in about half an hour, and found it a very
+surprising place, for here were not only shells but seaweeds and
+pretty pebbles. Just beyond the beach was a small grove where they
+decided they would have their little picnic after they had satisfied
+their desire for shells and pebbles. In the meantime Cap'n Si went off
+promising to return in a little while.
+
+"I say we gather some of these seaweeds for Miss Eloise," said Edna.
+
+"I am going to take some home to Agnes," declared Dorothy.
+
+"Then I'll take some to Celia, but there is plenty for everyone, so we
+needn't be afraid that anyone will have to be left out. I think I shall
+gather some shells for Uncle Justus." This from Edna.
+
+"Why, Edna, do you think he will care for them?"
+
+"Of course he will. He likes those Captain Doane has very much. I
+haven't found any of the tiny pink ones yet, have you, Jennie?"
+
+"Not yet, but I think we shall find some further along."
+
+"Then let's go further along."
+
+This they did and to their delight found some of the delicate little
+shells they were so anxious for. They were still absorbed in their
+search for these when Cap'n Si returned.
+
+"Oh, see what he has," cried Jennie.
+
+"What," asked Edna, turning her head to look.
+
+"A string of fish. I wonder if he got them for us and if he is going to
+cook them."
+
+They soon found that this was what Cap'n Si intended to do, for he
+began to gather driftwood for a fire, and while the stones were heating
+he cleaned the fish, which he finally set to cook on the heated stones.
+
+"After all, I think we'd better have our picnic on the beach," said
+Jennie, "for we won't want to carry fish so far. I'll go get the basket
+and we can spread it out, the picnic, I mean, on that big flat rock."
+
+"I think that will be nicer than the woods," declared Dorothy, "for
+we have had picnics in woods often, but we never had one on a beach
+before."
+
+Jennie proceeded to open the basketful of supplies and the other
+bustled about getting all things properly placed. They wondered how
+they would be served with fish as there were no plates, but Cap'n Si
+soon solved this difficulty by handing it around on clean pieces of
+driftwood.
+
+"How good it does taste," said Dorothy. "I never did taste such good
+fish. I think this is the finest kind of picnic. Don't you wish our
+mothers could see us, Edna?"
+
+"I don't see how I am able to eat so much?" remarked Edna. "I thought I
+was as hungry as I could be at lunch time and when it was over I didn't
+feel as if I ever wanted anything to eat again, but now I am just as
+hungry as if there had never been any lunch."
+
+Cap'n Si laughed at this. "That's what the sea air does for folks," he
+said. "I guess you'll take a pound or two more home with you than you
+come with."
+
+Edna looked down at her chubby little self and came to the conclusion
+that she would not care to take back too many more pounds, for she
+didn't like her brothers to call her Butterball, as they were in the
+habit of doing when they wanted to tease her. However, this did not
+prevent her from doing full justice to the biscuits and butter, the
+little cakes and the sweet chocolate with which they ended their meal.
+
+Then Cap'n Si said it was about time they were starting back, so they
+did not have time to explore the grove and had not gathered half the
+seaweeds they had intended to, though they were not so much disturbed
+at this lack because Jennie said, "Oh, well, don't bother, we can come
+here any time, and there will be just as many things as there are now."
+
+Edna turned this over in her mind for some time. It seemed a strange
+fact that in spite of the tide's forever washing away shells and weeds
+and pebbles, it forever washed in more to take the place of what had
+been given again to the sea.
+
+She smiled up into Cap'n Si's face as she clasped his horny hand when
+they were about to land. "I think it is all so beautiful," she said,
+"and I don't wonder you like it so much. Thank you for telling us about
+all those things. I hope you'll take us out again."
+
+Cap'n Si gave an answering smile. "Any time you want to go, just h'ist
+the flag," he said. Then he rowed off in his boat across the shining
+waters.
+
+"Oh, dear," said Edna with a sigh. "I am having such a lovely time I
+hate the day to be over."
+
+"But there's to-morrow," replied Jennie cheerfully.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER IV
+
+      THE PORCH PARTY
+
+
+This first afternoon was followed by many others quite as happy.
+Shelly Beach came to be a familiar spot, the grove was more than once
+explored, the drives up and down the coast became old acquaintances,
+while Cap'n Si grew to be as well known as any member of Jennie's
+family. The little girls were never allowed to go out in a sail boat
+and never were permitted to go too far in the rowboat though Mr. Ramsey
+promised that some day they should all go on a sailing party, even
+Miss Eloise. The salt baths and the fine air were doing Miss Eloise
+so much good that one might expect almost anything would be possible
+for her before the summer was over. She was a great favorite with
+everybody, and with none more than the three little girls to whom she
+gave confidences she withheld from older persons, and they came to know
+a great deal about the circumstances of herself and sister.
+
+"I wish we could do something about it," said Jennie, one day where the
+three children were sitting in a row on the warm sands.
+
+"About what?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"About Miss Eloise. You know she told us about the mortgage on their
+little house. I asked papa to tell me what a mortgage was. At first
+I thought it was something that had been built on and that had to be
+lifted off in some way, but it isn't that at all; it is money that
+has to be paid before they can own the house all themselves. I asked
+papa if he couldn't give them the money, but he said it would never
+do to offer it, for both Miss Eloise and Miss Newman were very proud
+and would much rather earn the money themselves even if it took a long
+time."
+
+"But Miss Eloise can't earn money; she is an invalid," put in Edna.
+
+"I know, but I wish she could: Papa said I needn't worry about it, as
+the mortgage was not so very big, and the money they had to pay on it
+every year did not amount to such a great deal, but I know from what
+Miss Eloise said that she would like it to be paid; she said she would
+feel ever so much more comfortable."
+
+"Oh, dear, how in the world can anyone ever understand about such
+things as interest and mortgages and all that?" said Dorothy. "I don't
+believe I ever shall get through fractions, let alone interest."
+
+"You see," Jennie went on, "Miss Eloise isn't like a Home for the
+Friendless or anything like that, or we could have a bazar for her."
+
+"Of course she isn't a Friendless," said Edna with indignation.
+
+"That's just what I said she wasn't, and that is what makes it hard
+to do things. I am so fond of her that I would like to have her get
+anything she wants."
+
+"She tells the most lovely stories," said Edna thoughtfully, "but the
+trouble is, she hasn't the strength to write them down."
+
+"Yes, but maybe she can some day," Dorothy spoke up. "Don't you
+remember when we first saw her she couldn't even sit up in her chair,
+and had to be wheeled everywhere."
+
+"Yes, I know that, but the doctor says she must be very careful and
+must never do anything to tire her back, and writing does tire it; she
+said so." Edna gave this last word.
+
+They were all very thoughtful for a little while after this. Edna
+employed herself in making little piles of sand, scooping it up with
+a purple mussel shell. Dorothy merely let the sand slide through her
+fingers, while Jennie amused herself by covering up one hand with sand
+and suddenly pulling it out of its covering.
+
+It was while they were thus occupied that Emma came down the beach to
+find them.
+
+"Your mother says you are to come up to the house and bring the others
+with you," she said to Jennie.
+
+"What does she want us for, Emma?"
+
+"To see some company that has come."
+
+"Oh, very well, I suppose we shall have to go. Come on girls."
+
+They all arose and followed Emma to the house to find that a neighbor
+had driven over with her two children, a little girl somewhat younger
+than either of the three, and a little boy somewhat older. Jennie had
+never met them before, but at her mother's suggestion she bore them off
+to a corner of the porch, leaving the ladies to talk together. In spite
+of there being a company of five, the children did not seem to get
+along very comfortably, for the visitors were shy and had very little
+to say.
+
+Miss Eloise from her chair watched them all for awhile. She could see
+that very little headway was made, though Jennie as hostess was doing
+her best to entertain. Billy Potter with round eyes stared straight
+ahead, taking interest only in the passing of an occasional vessel;
+Mallie, with drooping head responded yes or no to the questions put to
+her, and both visitors refused to leave their chairs to go anywhere
+or see anything. Presently Miss Eloise called Jennie softly and she
+immediately responded.
+
+"You're having rather a hard time of it, aren't you dear?" said Miss
+Eloise.
+
+"Oh, Miss Eloise, you don't know what sticks they are. I can't make
+the little girl say anything but yes and no, and the boy won't even say
+that much; we have all tried him."
+
+Miss Eloise laughed. "Do you think you could wheel me up closer?"
+
+"Why, of course I shall be delighted to."
+
+Edna seeing what was taking place, ran to help. "Oh, Miss Eloise," she
+cried, "are you coming to help us out?"
+
+"I am going to try," she said smiling. And presently the strangers
+looked up to see a sweet face smiling at them from a nest of silken
+pillows.
+
+It would be a rare child whom Miss Eloise could not entertain, and in
+a few moments Billy's round eyes removed their gaze from the passing
+ships while Mallie was a delighted listener to one of Miss Eloise's
+fascinating stories.
+
+Time passed so rapidly under this treatment that when, in the course of
+half an hour, Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Ramsey came over to where the group
+sat, they found no one ready to move until the tale was done, so both
+ladies sat down to hear its close.
+
+"Gee! but that was a fine story," said the hitherto silent Billy,
+when the end of the story came. "I wish you could tell 'em like that,
+Mother."
+
+"Oh, my dear, I wish I could," returned Mrs. Potter. "What a gift
+you have, Miss Newman. I wish more children could have the privilege
+of hearing you. I quite envy Mrs. Ramsey such an institution as a
+self-working reciter of tales."
+
+The ladies all laughed and Mrs. Ramsey said that her neighbors need
+not think they could send over and borrow this new institution, though
+she was sure the institution was much more entertaining than any
+phonograph. They were all quite merry over it, and all the time Edna
+was thinking very hard, and was the most sober one of the company.
+
+After the visitors had departed, the two younger of them quite thawed
+out, and promising with great readiness to come again, the three little
+girls returned to their place on the sands.
+
+They were discussing the two Potter children when suddenly Edna sang
+out: "I see a boat coming."
+
+"There are always boats coming and going," remarked Dorothy; "I don't
+think that is anything very unusual."
+
+"But they don't often come so close to the shore, as if they were
+making right for this little landing," protested Edna.
+
+Jennie sprang to her feet. "I do believe it is someone coming here,"
+she declared, "but I don't know who it is. I think it is one of the
+boats from the hotel. There are two pretty big boys in it and a smaller
+boy. Yes, they are going to land. Shall we stay here or go to the
+house? I am sure I don't know them."
+
+The other two were standing up by now. They watched the boat till it
+came up to the little landing, saw one of the boys, the smaller one,
+scramble ashore and then the others row off. The smaller boy came on
+directly to where the little girls were standing. As soon as he caught
+sight of them he took off his hat and walked faster.
+
+Then Edna recognized him: "Why it's Louis, my cousin Louis," she cried,
+and ran to meet him. "Why, Louis Morrison," she greeted him as he came
+up, "where in the world did you come from?"
+
+"From the hotel," responded Louis. "Mother and I are staying there and
+mother had a letter from your mother telling her that you were here
+and where you were staying, so when Al and Phil Haines said they were
+coming out in a boat I got them to leave me here. I say, it's fine,
+isn't it?"
+
+Just what was fine, Edna did not stop to inquire, but turned to her
+friends to say, "This is my cousin Louis Morrison; Louis, this is
+Jennie Ramsey and this is Dorothy Evans, my dearest friends."
+
+"What were you doing when I came up?" asked Louis.
+
+"We weren't doing anything in particular. It is Jennie's afternoon to
+choose--we take turns in choosing how we will spend our afternoons, you
+see--and she hadn't made up her mind exactly." Edna looked inquiringly
+at Jennie as if to ask what the program was to be.
+
+Jennie, like the little lady she was, turned to Louis. "What would you
+like to do?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't know." Louis looked a little embarrassed at being thus
+appealed to. "What do you generally do?"
+
+"Sometimes we get Cap'n Si to take us out rowing, sometimes we go for a
+drive, and if no one else is going to use the automobile, mother will
+let Mack take us out in that, but I am afraid she is going to use it
+this afternoon. We could take the pony, though, or we could go out in
+the boat."
+
+"Have you a boat of your own? I can row," Louis returned.
+
+"No, I haven't a boat of my own, but papa says I shall have one when I
+am old enough. He never lets anyone take me out but Cap'n Si."
+
+"Ho," exclaimed Louis, "I could take you as well as not."
+
+Here Jennie became quite dignified and drew herself up to her small
+height. "I believe it is my afternoon to choose," she said turning to
+the two girls; "I think we'd better go to drive. I will tell Peter to
+bring up the pony and cart in half an hour." She walked away toward the
+stables, Dorothy joined her and Edna was left with her cousin feeling
+half indignant with Louis and half miffed with the girls. Why couldn't
+they have asked her and Louis to go to the stables? They might have
+known Louis, being a boy, would be interested in the horses.
+
+She was roused from her thoughts by Louis who said, "I say, Edna, you
+don't want to go to drive, do you? It's stupid to just go driving up
+and down the roads; it's lots more exciting to go out in a boat. I like
+a sail-boat, don't you?"
+
+"I've never been in one," said Edna truthfully. "Mr. Ramsey doesn't
+think they are very safe, but he says we shall all go on a sailing
+party some day soon."
+
+"I hope I can go, too," returned Louis. Then, realizing that it would
+be best for himself if he tried to be more gracious to Edna's friends,
+he said, "I reckon after all, it will be nice to take a drive. Perhaps
+the driver will let me drive a little."
+
+"The driver is Jennie," Edna told him. She began to be a little
+troubled about this new element which had suddenly come in to disturb
+the harmony of the days. She knew that Jennie was rather tenacious of
+her rights in the matter of her pony, though she was generosity itself
+in other things. She wished that they were going out with Cap'n Si
+instead of in the pony-cart. She wasn't sure whether the girls wanted
+herself and cousin to follow them, and yet she did not like to stand as
+if waiting. "Let's go up to the house," she said suddenly.
+
+This proved an excellent move, for they met Mrs. Ramsey just as they
+were going up the steps, and when Edna explained who her companion was,
+Mrs. Ramsey said, "Why, that is very nice. I must go and call on Mrs.
+Morrison. I was going to the hotel anyhow. Where are the others, Edna?"
+
+"They went to the stable to order Peter to get out the pony and cart so
+we could all go to drive."
+
+"Wouldn't you rather go in the motor-car? There is plenty of room,
+for Miss Newman thinks it better Miss Eloise should not give up her
+afternoon rest, and will not leave her by herself. I can have Mack
+leave me at the hotel, and while I am making my calls he can take you
+children around by the Cape, and you can pick me up on the way back.
+How do you like that plan?"
+
+"I think it would be lovely," said Edna looking at Louis for
+confirmation.
+
+"Suits me down to the ground," said Louis.
+
+"Then I'll telephone down to the stables and tell Peter never mind
+about the pony, and I'll ask him to send Jennie and Dorothy up to me."
+
+Edna was much relieved at this outcome of the difficulty, for she knew
+there could be no attempt made to drive the motor-car whatever Louis
+might want to do in the matter of driving the pony. He was an only
+child and rather a spoiled one, having had his way at home, and being
+seldom thwarted by his over-indulgent parents. Edna was fond of him in
+a way, but she feared he would prove a marplot if he spent much time
+at the Ramsey's, and she began to wonder how long he and his mother
+were to be at the hotel. She did not like to ask, and just then the
+automobile appeared with the other two in it.
+
+"We're not going in the pony cart after all," explained Jennie. "Did
+you know, Edna?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, "your mother said so." She felt that the situation
+was relieved of its awkwardness because Mrs. Ramsey would be with them,
+and while she wasn't exactly offended with Jennie and Dorothy, she felt
+that she ought to be loyal to Louis, and now there would be no need
+of straining a point either one way or the other. Therefore when she
+and Louis settled down on the seat by Mrs. Ramsey all promised most
+favorably, and since Louis was bound to enjoy himself there was no
+friction.
+
+Leaving Mrs. Ramsey at the big hotel some distance beyond, they enjoyed
+a spin of half an hour and then returned. Mrs. Morrison came out to
+greet Edna and to tell Louis he had best remain instead of continuing
+the drive to the Ramseys.
+
+"Oh, bother," exclaimed Louis, "I don't see why I can't go back. I
+don't have to hang around here all the time."
+
+"No, but Louis, you will have a long way to return, and besides you
+have been away all the afternoon."
+
+"Oh, but that doesn't make any difference," Louis continued to parley.
+"I haven't seen Edna for ages."
+
+"But you can see her again to-morrow. Come in, dear, and I will tell
+you about a nice plan Mrs. Ramsey has been arranging."
+
+This brought Louis to a sense of propriety, for if he showed himself
+unpleasant he might not be included in all the nice plans, so out he
+clambered.
+
+"Thank Mrs. Ramsey for inviting you to go in her automobile," whispered
+his mother, and Louis gave his thanks heartily, calling out as the
+automobile started off, "Good-bye, Edna, I'll see you to-morrow."
+
+Jennie and Dorothy glanced at one another meaningly as he said this,
+and Mrs. Ramsey perceiving the look said, "I have thought of a nice
+plan, children."
+
+"Tell us, tell us," they clamored.
+
+"I am going to let you give a porch party to-morrow."
+
+"What is that, Mother?" asked Jennie.
+
+"Why, it is just this: I have been thinking how very hard it must be
+for those mothers who are boarding at the hotel with restless children
+and who must find it difficult to entertain them. Many of these mothers
+do not get a moment's rest, and would be so glad of a little time when
+they knew their children were safe somewhere, and were having a good
+time as well, so I thought I would gather up some of these children
+to-morrow for a porch party and let Miss Eloise tell them some of her
+stories. You know there is nothing she loves so well as to get a parcel
+of children around her, and the way she keeps them as still as mice
+is a perfect marvel to me. I want to do something of the kind for her
+before she goes, and I am sure she would like this better than any
+grown-up affair. What do you think of it?"
+
+"It would be fine," cried the little girls in chorus.
+
+"But what do you mean, Mother, by saying before Miss Eloise goes. She
+surely isn't going soon?"
+
+"Why, I am afraid she and her sister have made up their minds that they
+must."
+
+"Just as she is getting along so nicely. What a shame!" cried Jennie.
+"Can't you possibly persuade her to stay?"
+
+"I have tried my best, my dear, but you know they are very proud, and
+have said that while they are very grateful for the invitation to stay
+longer that they could not impose upon me to the extent of more than
+the original time for which I invited them; that was for a month, and
+the month was up last week."
+
+"Oh, Mother, why didn't you say all summer while you were about it?"
+
+"Why didn't I? I think it was because I was afraid if I made it so
+wholesale they would decline to come at all, and I thought once they
+did come it would be easy to persuade them to extend their visit, if it
+proved to be the best place for Miss Eloise."
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Jennie, "I just hate to think of her going back to
+that hot city. Isn't there some way we could manage to make them stay
+somewhere, even if it were not at our house? Why couldn't they take a
+little cottage or bungalow or something and stay till school begins?"
+
+"Even little cottages and bungalows cost something, and I am afraid
+they could not afford even the smallest of those."
+
+"Oh, dear," Jennie sighed again. "I never before wanted school in
+summer time, but now I wish there were one that Miss Newman could teach
+in so they would have to stay."
+
+"Why, my dear," exclaimed Mrs. Ramsey and then stopped suddenly.
+
+"What were you going to say, Mother?"
+
+"Nothing, only you have given me an idea. Mack, how much time have we?"
+
+Mack glanced at the clock in front of him. "About half an hour, Mrs.
+Ramsey. It is just six."
+
+"Then you can take me to the Point. Do you children want to go? I shall
+be making a business call only. Perhaps you'd better go home, for Miss
+Newman and Miss Eloise will think we have deserted them. I will be back
+to dinner. Just go as far as the gate, Mack. The children won't mind
+walking the rest of the way."
+
+So the children were set down at the gate and the motor-car went off in
+a rush. This latest talk had driven all thoughts of Louis out of mind,
+and the three little girls began to discuss the porch party with great
+eagerness. "I wonder if we may tell Miss Eloise," said Edna.
+
+Jennie thought they would better not, but they could speak of their
+regret in her leaving.
+
+They found the two sisters settled in their favorite corner of the wide
+porch. "Oh, Miss Eloise," cried Jennie, "we think it is just dreadful
+for you to think of going so soon. Why, I never dreamed but that you
+were going to stay all summer."
+
+"But, my dear, think of how long we have been here. Nothing we could
+ever do would repay your dear mother for all her kindness, and we
+certainly would prove ourselves very ungrateful if we imposed ourselves
+upon her to such an extent."
+
+"It wouldn't be imposing," protested Jennie.
+
+"It might not be if we could return the hospitality, but that we cannot
+do, and so, you see--"
+
+"I don't see at all," Jennie persisted.
+
+"But we do," put in Miss Newman. "We feel very much gratified that you
+don't want us to go, and we shall never forget how happy a season we
+have had here."
+
+"It will be something to treasure for the rest of my days," said Miss
+Eloise, her eyes fixed on the glittering sea, now gathering radiance
+from the evening sky. "Isn't it lovely?" she said. "Don't you want to
+sit down here and enjoy it with us?"
+
+"We must go and dress for dinner," Jennie told her, "but we will hurry."
+
+However, they were not ready till dinner was announced and Mrs. Ramsey
+had returned. Her eyes were bright and there was a little excited
+flush on her cheeks. The talk at the table was of the porch party, the
+prospect of which delighted Miss Eloise, but after dinner, Mrs. Ramsey
+said: "Miss Newman, I want to have a talk with you." So she and Miss
+Newman took themselves to the further corner of the porch while the
+little girls gathered around Miss Eloise till the stars came out and it
+was too cool to sit out longer.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER V
+
+      THE LITTLE BUNGALOW
+
+
+Immediately after breakfast the next morning Mrs. Ramsey bore off Miss
+Newman in the automobile, and the two were gone most of the morning.
+"And there is the porch party this afternoon," said Jennie. "It must be
+something very important or mother wouldn't stay so long."
+
+"What do you think it could be?" asked Edna. Louis had not yet made
+his appearance and the little girls had resumed their old harmonious
+attitude toward one another.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know, but I think it must be something about Miss
+Newman."
+
+"Let's ask Miss Eloise if she knows," suggested Dorothy.
+
+But Miss Eloise could give them no satisfaction. "Sister said they were
+going off on a little matter of business and that she would tell me
+when they came back," she informed the children.
+
+"Well, lunch is on the table," said Edna, "so we won't have to wait
+very long."
+
+She was quite right for at this moment the two ladies arrived. "What
+did keep you so forever, Mother?" asked Jennie as her mother joined the
+others who were already at table.
+
+"Well, my dear, it is quite a story. We have had a great morning of
+it, and as soon as we get something to eat we will tell you all about
+it. I am sure Miss Newman is half starved, for we have been from Dan to
+Beersheba this morning."
+
+"Those sound like Bible places," spoke up Edna.
+
+"So they are," said Mrs. Ramsey laughing, and though Edna was puzzled
+she did not stop to inquire further because just here Miss Newman said,
+"And what do you think we have been doing?" And then before anyone
+could guess, "We've been house-hunting," she said.
+
+"House-hunting," repeated Miss Eloise. "Sister, what do you mean?"
+
+Then Mrs. Ramsey broke in with, "And the best of it is we have not
+hunted in vain."
+
+This all sounded so very mysterious that everyone began asking
+questions until Mrs. Ramsey cried, "Do be quiet all of you and we'll
+try to tell you." So everyone subsided into expectancy and she began.
+"The house is for Miss Newman and Miss Eloise, and it is the Duncan's
+bungalow."
+
+"Oh, Mother," Jennie broke in, "that dear cunning little place at the
+edge of the woods? You don't mean that."
+
+"That is just what I do mean and it has all come about in the loveliest
+way, but I am not going to tell anything more till after lunch. You
+have had sauce enough for your curiosity and you can wait."
+
+"It all sounds so bewildering that I am not sure whether I am awake
+or not," said Miss Eloise. "Either I am dreaming or I shall have to
+believe in fairies. I think I would rather believe in fairies, for I am
+sure a very good one has been at work."
+
+Luncheon was disposed of in such short order that Mrs. Ramsey declared
+that everyone would have an attack of indigestion on account of such
+hasty eating, but she agreed to gratify the curiosity so very apparent
+and led the way to the porch where they all usually settled for a
+little talk after meals.
+
+"Shall I tell or will you, Miss Newman?" she asked.
+
+"You, please, for you can begin further back of the facts than I can
+who did not come into them till this morning."
+
+"Well, then," began Mrs. Ramsey, "it all began with Jennie."
+
+"With me?" came in a surprised voice from Jennie.
+
+"Yes, you," Mrs. Ramsey nodded. "It was when we were out in the
+automobile yesterday afternoon and were talking of how soon Miss
+Newman and Miss Eloise must end their visit, and you said you wished
+they could stay and wasn't there some little cottage they could
+take. Then you further set the ball rolling by adding that you wished
+there were a school that kept open all summer so Miss Newman could be
+occupied there. That was the very beginning, for it set me thinking.
+I remembered that Mrs. Duncan had said to me the last time I saw her,
+that she was afraid Rudolph wouldn't be able to enter college this
+fall as he had lost so much time on account of his illness last spring,
+but that she did not want to send him away anywhere to prepare for his
+examinations as he needed the sea air and the attention he would get at
+home. Moreover, her husband objected to his having a resident tutor for
+various reasons, and they thought Rudolph would overtax his strength
+if he went into Boston every day. All this suddenly came up to me and
+I said to myself, Why shouldn't Miss Newman be as capable of coaching
+him as a tutor? That was the first thought, and then I remembered the
+little bungalow. I knew the Duncans had met with some losses this year,
+that their two eldest sons, for whom the bungalow was built, had gone
+abroad, and that maybe they would let Miss Newman have it in exchange
+for coaching Rudolph. That is what took me over there last evening."
+
+Miss Eloise's face was lit up as with a flame and her lovely eyes were
+like stars. "Oh," she breathed, "didn't I say I had to believe in a
+good fairy?"
+
+"So," Mrs. Ramsey went on, "I had a most satisfactory interview with
+Mrs. Duncan who promised to talk over the matter with her husband
+when he should come home last evening, and I went away promising to go
+over this morning with Miss Newman. Mr. Duncan stayed at home to see
+her and we talked and talked, first with Mrs. Duncan, then with Mr.
+Duncan and last of all with Rudolph, and before we came away it was all
+settled. Miss Newman is to have the bungalow and Rudolph is to have the
+coaching."
+
+"Good! Good!" cried Jennie clapping her hands. "Did Miss Newman see the
+bungalow?"
+
+"Yes, we went all through it."
+
+"Isn't it a dear little place? I went all through it, too. Oh, Miss
+Eloise, it is so cunning. There are just four rooms: a living room
+with a big fireplace, two bedrooms and a cunning kitchen. The boys used
+to have spreads there, and would cook all sorts of messes. There is a
+bath-room, too. You can have either salt water, or fresh water, just as
+we have."
+
+Miss Eloise put out her hand to clasp her sister's. "It sounds too good
+to be true," she whispered.
+
+"But, Mamma," cried Jennie suddenly, "have you forgotten the porch
+party? It is almost time for the children to come."
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Ramsey, "I very nearly forgot, though I told
+Emma what preparations to make, and I am sure it will be all right.
+Still, you little girls had best go change your frocks so as to be
+ready."
+
+The three flew upstairs chattering like magpies, and when up they flew
+around excitedly so as to get down again to ask more questions, though
+this they were not able to do as the very first relay of guests arrived
+before they were quite dressed. These happened to be the Potters. They
+were followed by Louis and two other boys from the hotel, and then the
+arrivals did not cease till twenty children were established around
+Miss Eloise. For an hour they were delighted listeners, for it seemed
+as if this teller of tales had never been in better spirits nor had she
+ever told a more entrancing story, and when at last it came to an end
+there were many long drawn "Ahs" which showed that no one was ready to
+have her stop.
+
+Then the carriages and automobiles began coming up and the children
+were whirled away, though in several cases the mothers who had come
+for them remained to speak to Miss Eloise, and one or two remained in
+earnest conversation with Mrs. Ramsey long after the others had gone.
+
+It had been such an exciting day for Miss Eloise that she retired
+very early, and the little girls sat by themselves in a corner of the
+living-room while Mrs. Ramsey and Miss Newman talked in a low tone
+before the open fire. The evening was cool and it was not only too
+chilly to sit on the porch, but none too warm for the fire. The little
+girls themselves, though animated enough at first, soon began to grow
+drowsy and presently Edna's head was in Jennie's lap while Jennie's
+head was on Dorothy's shoulder, and Dorothy herself was propped up
+against the wall trying in vain to keep her eyes open. The murmur of
+voices went on and in a few minutes Jennie, finding that her prop was
+beginning to sway over toward a chair, roused up to hear her mother
+say:
+
+"Are you sure she will not find it too much of a task, Miss Newman?"
+
+"I am quite sure she will not, for she has her Children's Hour every
+day in the city, and she will be so rejoiced at the idea of earning
+something that she will be more than ever eager to do it. Then,
+consider, Mrs. Ramsey, how much stronger she is."
+
+Of course this must be about Miss Eloise, but what could she be going
+to do to enable her to earn money? Jennie was wide awake at once. She
+had more than once heard Miss Eloise long to be earning something,
+and now she was going to do it. Rather unceremoniously Edna's head was
+transferred to Dorothy's lap and Jennie got up to go to the two by the
+fire.
+
+"Oh, Mamma," she said, "I do so want to know what you are talking
+about. Is it Miss Eloise and what is she going to do?"
+
+"Dear me," said Mrs. Ramsey, "I thought you children had gone into the
+other room, you were all so quiet."
+
+"I think we were all half asleep. I know Edna is in Dreamland, and I
+think Dorothy is, too."
+
+"Well, my dear," spoke up Miss Newman, "I am sure Eloise will not
+object to your knowing that when we get into our little bungalow she is
+to have a porch party of her own every day. Several of the ladies who
+were here this afternoon, said they would be so pleased if she would
+agree to give an hour each day to the telling of tales to a certain
+number of children, and offered to pay very liberally for it. Many of
+the ladies are boarding, and would like a quiet hour when they could be
+sure their restless little children were not annoying anyone by their
+noise, and when this plan was proposed they were more than pleased."
+
+"And what did Miss Eloise say?" asked Jennie. "Does she know?"
+
+"Oh, yes, for she had to be consulted, of course. I have seldom seen
+her so pleased."
+
+"Then I am very glad," said Jennie. "May I tell the other girls?"
+
+"Certainly you may."
+
+"And since you are all tired out I think you'd better run up to bed,"
+said her mother. "It has been a very full day and we shall all turn in
+early."
+
+Thus charged Jennie went over to rouse the others who, though still
+sleepy, were ready to show interest in what Jennie had to tell them,
+and were heard talking of it all the way up the stairs.
+
+A more careful examination of the little bungalow showed that there
+would be some things wanted for the entire comfort of the Newman
+sisters, but these Mrs. Ramsey insisted upon furnishing, or at least
+lending from her own home, so the next week saw the inmates happy as
+two birds in a nest. Cap'n Si's grand-daughter was engaged to come over
+every morning to do up the dishes and help get dinner and the rest was
+easy enough, Miss Newman declared. Everyone missed Miss Eloise from
+her place on the porch, but she was so happy in her new surroundings,
+that all rejoiced for her. The little girls found amusement enough
+and managed to get along very well indeed when only the three were
+together, but when Louis appeared there was nearly always sure to be
+discord.
+
+Therefore one morning when Louis was seen coming in the gate, Dorothy
+gave an impatient "Oh, pshaw! I thought we were going to have a nice
+pleasant time to-day, and here comes Louis."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't talk that way about my cousin," said Edna, her
+loyal spirit rising within her.
+
+"I can't help it if he is your cousin, he is always doing or saying
+something to stir up a fuss. I don't see why he likes to play with
+girls, anyhow. I should think he would much rather play with boys."
+
+"There aren't any but very big boys or very little ones at the hotel,"
+explained Edna.
+
+"Then why doesn't he go play with Billy Potter?"
+
+"Billy Potter, that stick?" Edna spoke in great contempt. "Why he is
+such a lump that he couldn't play with anyone."
+
+"Well, at least he wouldn't fuss with them. We were going to play
+dolls, this morning, and Louis will never do that."
+
+"I'm going to play dolls, whatever Louis does or says," spoke up Jennie.
+
+"So am I then," declared Dorothy. "What are you going to do, Edna?"
+
+"I don't know," said Edna doubtfully. She dearly loved dolls, but she
+did not intend to desert Louis.
+
+"Well, if you want to play with Louis you can," continued Dorothy; "but
+unless he will play with dolls he cannot come with us."
+
+Edna turned slowly and went forward to meet Louis who had crossed the
+lawn and was nearly up to them. "Hallo," said he.
+
+"Hallo," returned Edna rather dejectedly. "The girls say they are going
+to play with the dolls out in the summer house; I don't suppose you
+want to play with them."
+
+"With dolls? Not I. If that's what they are going to do you and I
+can go down to the beach and build a sandcastle or go fishing or
+something."
+
+"Oh, not fishing," replied Edna quickly. Her tender heart could never
+stand that. "I'd just as lief build castles though." She followed Louis
+down to the beach and for a while they played quite contentedly.
+
+After a while Louis tired of castles and proposed that they go further
+along. "I know where there is a cave," he said. "We can play at being
+robbers, or smugglers."
+
+"How far is it?" asked Edna.
+
+"Oh, not very far." Louis waved his hand toward the point which curved
+beyond them. "It's just down that way."
+
+They set off together along the beach, but though they climbed over
+great boulders and scrambled around scraggy roots of trees the place
+was ever beyond them.
+
+"I think it is awfully far," said Edna at last.
+
+"Oh, it can't be far now; the boys told me it was this side of the
+point."
+
+"Oh, but I thought you knew just where it was."
+
+"So I do. Didn't the boys tell me?" Louis spoke with such assurance
+that Edna followed on and was presently relieved to hear him say:
+
+"Look there. What did I tell you?"
+
+Sure enough just ahead of them was a hollowed place in the bank which
+might easily be called a cave. The bank was quite high just here and
+stretched down almost to the sea so there was but a small stretch of
+sand in front of the cave. The children clambered into the shelter to
+rest, but Louis was not content to sit still for long.
+
+"I'm going out to explore," he said. "You sit here till I come back. I
+won't stay long."
+
+He was as good as his word for in a few minutes he returned. "Guess
+what," he began. "There's a boat out there. I'm going to borrow it and
+then we can pretend you are a female smuggler or you can be a robber
+maid and will rescue me to rob me. No, I'd rather have it the other
+way. I'll be the robber and will find you in this sea cave with a hoard
+of jewels that were left with you after a shipwreck. I'll go get the
+boat and row in."
+
+"Oh, Louis, indeed you'd better not," said Edna in fear lest he be too
+foolhardy.
+
+"But I'm not going out to sea really. The boat is just round the little
+bend the other side of us. I don't mean to steal it. I'll take it back
+when we get through playing."
+
+"Please don't, Louis. I'm so afraid you will upset or something,
+besides I don't think you ought to take the boat even for a little
+while. Suppose the owner should come and want it."
+
+"Oh, no, he won't." Louis was always very ready to believe things were
+going to happen just to suit him. "Isn't that just like a girl to get
+all worked up over a little thing like that? Why, I rowed ever so far
+the other day, and this is only a few yards."
+
+"But suppose, just suppose the boat should leak. It may be an old one."
+
+"I'll examine it first. You don't have to come, you know. All you have
+to do is to be the robber maid, no, I mean the ship-wrecked one. You
+might be gathering some pebbles for make-believe jewels. You can hide
+them in that corner and I will discover them. You must be asleep when I
+come."
+
+Seeing no persuasion was of any avail, Edna watched Louis go off and
+then set herself to work to gather pebbles. This was rather a pleasant
+amusement, and she soon had a nice little pile of those which were
+either milky white, which showed some faint color, or which shone with
+spots of mica or quartz. Her jewels in order, she began to think it
+high time to be expecting the robber, so she lay down on the sand to
+compose herself in pretended slumber.
+
+She lay there for some time, and being tired could almost have dropped
+off into a real sleep, only that she felt anxious about her cousin.
+Why didn't he come? "Perhaps he is fishing, or maybe he is talking to
+the man that owns the boat. The man might have come up and he might be
+angry with Louis for meddling. I think I'll go and peep."
+
+She crawled out of the cave surprised to find the strip of beach much
+narrower than she remembered it. Really there was no beach to speak
+of now, for just as she was venturing out a wave came curling up to
+her very feet. She retreated, a good deal alarmed. The cave was high
+enough for her to stand upright, but was not very deep. She stood for a
+moment watching the water at the entrance. It didn't come so far in the
+next time, but still it was quite far enough to cause alarm. Suppose
+the tide were rising and it should come up, up into the very furthest
+corner of the cave. The thought filled her with terror, and gave sudden
+purpose to her movements. She would flee while there was yet time. She
+dashed out, unheeding the water through which she splashed, and which
+came over her ankles. Her main thought was to climb up the bank and
+get beyond any possibility of the tide's over-taking her. Scrambling,
+falling, clutching at the bayberry bushes which fastened themselves
+securely into the soil, she managed at last to reach the top. From here
+she believed she could see up and down the coast. But all at once it
+was made evident to her that she could not see, for a chill grey fog
+had crept in, and was enveloping land and sea. Strain her eyes as she
+would there was no house visible, neither was there sign of Louis nor
+the boat.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER VI
+
+      IN THE FOG
+
+
+For a moment Edna stood still bewildered, then she ran a little way
+along the bank calling "Louis! Louis!" terrified at receiving no
+answer. The bank which here reached its greatest height, sloped gently
+down on the north side, and curved away from the sea, leaving a tiny
+cove in which Louis had seen the boat. There might be another cave on
+that side. Edna resolved to go down and investigate.
+
+The going down was much easier than the coming up, for at some distance
+away the shore was nearly level with the bank, and one had but to walk
+to reach it, no scrambling necessary. The grass, short and stubbly, was
+strung with fine mist and at each step Edna grew wetter and wetter, but
+she did not heed this, for her whole thought was centered upon Louis,
+and she was imagining all sorts of things. Perhaps he had drifted away
+in the boat far out of sight. Perhaps the boat's owner had seen him and
+had borne him off to be locked up for meddling with another's property.
+Perhaps he was really out there now on the water, hidden by the fog,
+and was trying to row ashore.
+
+She reached the beach at last. The tide was coming in higher and
+higher, and was sweeping around the point where the cave was, rushing
+in and out with a great noise. Edna shuddered as she thought; suppose
+she had not been able to get away before now and had been hemmed in
+on both sides by the waves. Once in a while the fog lifted slightly,
+and she strained her eyes for a sight of the boat. Once she was sure
+she saw it, but a second view disclosed a lobsterman coming in from
+hauling his lobster-pots. He rowed steadily, but passed by too far out
+for the little girl to attract his attention. It had grown very damp
+and chilly, and the east wind cut like a knife. The child's clothing
+was wet through and her teeth chattered as she faced the sea. She was
+not quite sure where she was, for she had never walked so far along the
+shore, but had reached different places by way of the road. Moreover,
+the fog hid all landmarks, and there was not even a fisherman's hut to
+guide her.
+
+At last she made up her mind that it was useless to stand there and
+concluded that she would best turn away from the shore and try to find
+the road. She went up the bank again by the easier way and then turned
+at right angles, stumbling through the stubbly grass and over hummocks.
+She thought she was going in a straight line, but she was really
+zig-zagging across the field and bearing toward the north instead of
+the south.
+
+Suddenly she saw through the veil of mist, a small building ahead. "It
+must be a fisherman's hut," she told herself. "Perhaps it belongs to
+the man who owns the boat. I'll go there and see." This gave her a new
+impetus and she hurried on, and presently was surprised to see that it
+was not a fisherman's house at all, but a small bungalow, set with back
+to a grove of trees and facing a small strip of beach. "Why," exclaimed
+Edna, delightedly, "if it isn't the little bungalow where Miss Eloise
+lives. Well, I am surprised. I hadn't an idea I was anywhere near it."
+
+On she went with better heart. Here were friends close at hand who
+could advise and comfort her. She reached the door and lifted the
+little brass knocker. The door was opened to her by Miss Newman.
+
+"Why, Edna Conway, what in the world brought you over here by
+yourself?" was Miss Newman's surprised greeting. "Why, the child is
+drenched to the skin. Come right in to the fire." She ushered her into
+the tiny living-room where a cheerful fire was blazing on the hearth.
+Before this Miss Eloise was sitting. "It is Edna, Ellie," said her
+sister, "and the child is soaking wet. My dear child, why did you come
+out in this fog wearing that flimsy gingham? And no rubbers, no coat?
+What were you thinking of?"
+
+This was too much for Edna and her lip quivered, the tears filled her
+eyes and she stood forlornly without saying a word.
+
+"You poor little dear," said Miss Eloise, who was watching her. "You
+shall not scold her, sister. You do not know what accident may have
+happened. Come over here, darling child, and tell me all about it."
+
+The effect of Miss Eloise's sympathy finished what Miss Newman's
+censure began and Edna burst into tears, sobbing out. "It--it was
+all--all nice and bright when we came away from the--the house,
+and--and I d--didn't know there was going to--to be any fog."
+
+"Of course you didn't," said Miss Eloise soothingly. "What did I tell
+you, sister? Go on, dear, and tell us how it all happened."
+
+"Louis and I went to find the cave, and it was ever so far." Edna drew
+a long breath but checked her tears. The fire was very comforting and
+Miss Eloise was a tower of refuge. "Then he went off to get a boat and
+was coming back to the cave. I was going to be a shipwrecked maiden
+with jewels and he was a bold robber, but--but he didn't come, and the
+tide--the tide--" Here she broke down into a second fit of weeping.
+
+"There, there, don't try to tell any more just yet. You see," she
+said to her sister, "the child is all wrought up. There is no knowing
+what she may have been through. She ought to have some dry shoes and
+stockings, sister, and she'd better take off that soaking frock. That
+little blue flannel kimono of mine will be just the thing."
+
+So Miss Newman went off to bring back the dry things, helped Edna off
+with the wet frock and on with the dry shoes and stockings, and by that
+time she had become calmer. The shoes were not very much too big, and
+the kimono was not much too long, for Miss Eloise was a tiny creature.
+"Now do you think you could tell us the rest," said Miss Newman taking
+example from her sister and speaking very gently.
+
+"I'll try," said Edna more at her ease. "I waited ever so long for
+Louis to come, and he didn't. I was inside the cave, you know, and I
+was pretending to be asleep, and when I knew it was too much of a long
+time I thought I would go out and find Louis, and then I saw the fog
+and the tide was coming in just as fast. I was so scared, for I knew it
+might come all the way up into the cave, and so I just tore out as hard
+as I could. It was up real high, for it splashed 'way over my feet. I
+had to scramble up the bank for the water was coming up all over the
+beach and there wasn't any other way. When I got to the top I saw that
+I could get down very easily on the other side. There was a little
+cove there, a tiny little one, and I guessed that was where Louis saw
+the boat, but the boat wasn't there and I called and called but nobody
+answered. Then I went down as far as I dared but I couldn't find Louis.
+Oh, Miss Eloise, I am so afraid he is drowned."
+
+Both ladies looked very grave, for there seemed likelihood of this
+being the case. Edna's tears began to flow again, and she buried her
+head in Miss Eloise's lap.
+
+"Poor little girl, you have had a sorry time of it," said Miss Eloise,
+gently caressing the child's head. "What do you think had better be
+done, sister?"
+
+Miss Newman sat thoughtfully looking into the fire for a few minutes
+before she answered, then she said: "I think I'd better go up to the
+Duncan's. They have a telephone, you know, and can let Mrs. Ramsey know
+where Edna is. She will be worried, I am sure. Then we can telephone to
+the hotel and find out if Louis is there. We need not necessarily alarm
+his mother, but if he is not there I will get Rudolph Duncan to go out
+and inquire about whose boat that was which Louis saw by the cave, and
+we may discover something that way. Rudolph will like to go, for he has
+his sou'wester and rubber boots, while as for me I am used to going out
+in all sorts of weather. I will not be gone any longer than I can help,
+and--why Edna, you have not had any dinner. Of course you haven't."
+
+"Why, is it dinner time?" she asked.
+
+"It is past our dinner time. We had just finished when you came in, or
+at least Amelia had just finished washing the dishes. We have dinner in
+the middle of the day, you know, on account of having Amelia come to do
+the dishes. Ellie, dear, I wonder if you could see that the child has
+something to eat while I am gone. Everything is in the refrigerator,
+but I am afraid there is not much beyond bread and milk."
+
+"There is pie," Miss Eloise reminded her, "and there are plenty of
+tomatoes. We can manage, I am sure, sister. You go right along."
+
+So Miss Newman did not waste time in getting ready, but started forth
+in a very few minutes, and then Miss Eloise sent Edna out into the
+little shed to report upon what she might find in the refrigerator.
+
+The child realized now that she was really hungry, and having shared
+her anxieties with some one to be depended upon, she felt that there
+was nothing further to be done. Holding up the blue kimono so it would
+not drag on the floor, she went out into the little shed, annexed to
+the back of the bungalow. She looked inside the refrigerator. There
+was a plate of cold fish. Not very appetizing, thought she. A dish of
+cold baked potatoes--neither did these appeal to her--, a few tomatoes,
+butter, milk, and a little saucer of stewed apples. She took out the
+milk, the butter, the tomato and the stewed apples, and set these on
+the table. "I've found something," she called out.
+
+"Bring it in here by the fire," said Miss Eloise in reply.
+
+Edna carefully carried the things into the front room.
+
+"There is salt on the shelf over the sink," Miss Eloise told her. "The
+bread is in the bread-box, and the pie is on the kitchen table covered
+with a tin lid. It gets soggy if you put it in the refrigerator. The
+knives are in the table drawer, and I think there are forks there,
+too."
+
+Edna returned to the kitchen to get these things. There was quite a
+large section of blueberry pie, and there were some slices of bread
+already cut. The pie looked very good and she was pleased to think that
+a whole pie had been too much for the two Newmans and Amelia. "I am
+going to eat the tomato and some bread and butter first," she told her
+friend; "then I will eat some bread and milk and the stewed apples, and
+keep the pie till the last. I am very glad it was such a big pie that
+you could not eat it all."
+
+"I am glad, too," said Miss Eloise smiling, "and I am glad you could
+find something else you liked."
+
+Edna ate her meal with a good appetite, and then carried the empty
+dishes out into the kitchen. "Shall I wash them?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, no, I wouldn't try," said Miss Eloise. "You might set them in the
+dish pan and run some water over them so they won't get dry or attract
+the flies."
+
+Edna did as she was told and then returned to watch for Miss Newman.
+She had not long to wait before she saw her coming across the field
+which separated the Duncan's house from the little bungalow. "Here she
+comes," cried Edna trying to get to the door in such haste that she
+forgot to hold up the blue kimono and came near to sprawling at full
+length. However, she did get to the door in time to open it before Miss
+Newman should turn the knob, and to be ready to ask, "Did you find out
+anything about Louis?"
+
+"Well, I did and I didn't," Miss Newman told her. "Let me get off this
+waterproof and I will tell you." She slipped off the garment and hung
+it over the back of a chair, then she removed her rubbers and came
+over to the fire to dry the edge of her skirt. "We called up Mrs.
+Ramsey first of all and told her where you were, then we called up the
+hotel. I let Rudolph do the asking, so Mrs. Morrison would think it was
+someone at the Duncan's who wanted to know about Louis. He was not with
+his mother, and she said she had not seen him since he went out after
+breakfast to see Edna. 'He is probably at Mrs. Ramsey's,' she told
+Rudolph."
+
+"Oh, dear, where can he be?" sighed Edna, anxiety written on her
+usually happy face.
+
+"Then I told Rudolph the circumstance of the boat. 'Oh, I know whose
+boat that is,' he said, 'it belongs to Dick Fenton. He is a fisherman.
+I can get hold of him easily.' So now Rudolph has gone to hunt up Dick
+and he has promised to come around this way and let us know. So now,
+my dear, all we can do is to wait till Rudolph returns. Did you get
+something to eat?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I did, and the pie was delicious. I am so very fond of
+blueberry pie. Thank you so much, Miss Newman for leaving me such a
+nice big piece."
+
+Miss Newman laughed. "I am glad you take it that way, though the truth
+is, we didn't know we were leaving it for you."
+
+"I am afraid I drank up all the milk," Edna went on. "I hope you will
+not need it for your supper."
+
+"No, we shall not, for neither of us takes milk in tea and they will
+bring more for the morning."
+
+"Did Rudolph think that anything dreadful had happened to Louis?" asked
+Edna after a pause.
+
+"No, he seemed to think that no one could take the boat without Dick
+Fenton's knowledge, and said that anyhow there were no oars in it, as
+Dick always took the oars up to the house."
+
+It was a great relief to hear this, and Edna began to feel much more
+hopeful. "Only," she said, "I don't see why he didn't come back."
+
+"That is where the mystery is," acknowledged Miss Newman.
+
+The mystery was not solved till an hour later when not only Rudolph,
+but Louis himself appeared. Miss Eloise was entertaining Edna with a
+story that the time might not hang too heavily. The bad weather had
+made a porch party out of the question, and this afternoon Edna was the
+only listener. The fairy prince had but just entered into the tale when
+a knock at the door scattered all hope of his ever being recognized as
+the little bird on a bough.
+
+Edna flew to the door, reaching it less clumsily this time as she
+had resumed her own frock which was now quite dry. "It's Louis! It's
+Louis!" she screamed. "Oh, Louis, why didn't you come? I was in such a
+trouble about you."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you how it was," said Louis, entering the room. "It
+wasn't my fault at all. I went down and got into the boat, but I found
+there were no oars, so of course there wasn't any use for me to try to
+go out in it. While I was sitting there Dick came along; he's the man
+the boat belongs to, you know. 'Hallo, sonny,' he said, 'Waiting for a
+trip to sea?' I said I was just sitting there pretending I was out at
+sea. 'I'm going to draw my pots,' he said, 'Want to come along?' Now,
+you know, Edna, of course I couldn't miss such a chance as that, for I
+had never seen anyone draw lobster-pots, so of course I said yes, I'd
+like to go. I didn't think we would be gone very long, and I knew you
+would stay until we got back. I never thought about the tide coming in,
+or would have made Dick wait till I had gone to tell you not to wait."
+
+"You should have gone to tell her anyhow," said Miss Newman severely.
+"It was inexcusable to leave a little girl all that time by herself."
+
+"Well, but you see," said Louis in self-defence, "I was afraid Dick
+wouldn't wait for me."
+
+"You could have asked him whether he would."
+
+Louis did not reply but hurried on with his story. In his heart of
+hearts he was conscious of having neglected his cousin for the sake of
+his own amusement, and had really no excuse to offer. "Well, so I got
+in the boat and we went off. It was further than I thought, but just
+the minute we got back I went right around to the cave, or at least
+I tried to get there. Gee! when I saw it was full of water, wasn't I
+scared for a minute? Then I said to myself, 'Edna's not such a fool as
+to stay and get drowned. Of course she's gone home,' but just the same
+I thought I'd better go see, so I went back to Mrs. Ramsey's, or at
+least I started to go, but I met Rudolph and he told me where you were
+and that everybody was kicking up a fuss about me, so I came back with
+him, and here I am."
+
+It was all so little of a tragedy, and all Edna's alarm had been due
+merely to the thoughtlessness of one careless and selfish boy, so
+no one felt the least sympathy with Louis when he said. "I missed my
+dinner, too."
+
+"Serves him right," said Rudolph, under his breath to Miss Newman.
+
+"Then I would advise you to go straight home to your mother," said Miss
+Newman in her most freezing manner, "and I hope it is the last time
+Edna ever trusts herself to your tender mercies."
+
+Here Miss Eloise held out her arms and gathered Edna to her with kisses
+and caresses, whispering to her that she was a darling child.
+
+Louis looked a little ashamed, but was evidently so much more sorry
+for himself at missing his dinner than for Edna in any state of mind or
+body, that no one detained him when he said he would go to his mother.
+Rudolph did not offer to see him on his way, but turning to Edna said,
+"Whenever you are ready to go I can take you to Mrs. Ramsey's as easily
+as not. We haven't our motor-car this year, but I can drive over in the
+surrey."
+
+Edna thanked him and he went off promising to return in half an hour.
+Neither Miss Newman nor Miss Eloise made any comment upon Louis, but
+Edna was perfectly aware that they did not approve of him. She wished
+Louis were not so selfish, and she looked back to the time when she
+and her cousin were together at school, with Uncle Justus and Aunt
+Elizabeth. Louis was really nicer then, though more than once, even at
+that time, he had put Edna at disadvantage. She looked so sober that
+Miss Eloise asked what she was thinking about.
+
+"Louis," was the laconic reply.
+
+"I wouldn't think about him," said Miss Eloise with more spirit than
+she usually displayed.
+
+"What that boy needs is to go to boarding school," said Miss Newman
+firmly. "He ought to be where there are a lot of other boys to teach
+him he is of no importance whatever."
+
+"He was so unhappy at Uncle Justus's school that his mother says he
+shall never go away to school again," remarked Edna.
+
+"Poor boy, then there is no hope for him," replied Miss Newman.
+
+Edna did not exactly understand what this meant, but she did not say
+so, but seeing she still looked very sober, Miss Eloise changed the
+subject, and began talking of Edna's friends, Dorothy and Jennie. "Why
+didn't you all play together, Edna?" she asked. "I thought you three
+little girls were inseparable."
+
+Edna hung her head. She wanted to shield Louis, but at the same time
+she did not want to say anything against her two friends. Finally she
+compromised by saying, "Boys don't like to play with dolls."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Miss Eloise with a smile, for Edna's words had given
+the key to the situation.
+
+It was not long before Rudolph appeared with the surrey. He brought a
+warm coat of his sister's to wrap Edna up in, and they set off after
+Edna had given earnest thanks to her entertainers.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER VII
+
+      A SAILING PARTY
+
+
+"What a time you have been done!" exclaimed Jennie when Edna appeared.
+"How did you happen to go to the bungalow? Come in and tell us all
+about it. Mother, here's Edna," she sang out.
+
+"Come in to the fire," said Mrs. Ramsey from the door of the
+living-room. "These sea-turns chill one to the marrow. Was that Rudolph
+who brought you over? That was very nice of him. I was just about to
+tell Mack he'd better go for you."
+
+Edna entered the house and stood before the fire. Dorothy who was
+established near at hand, looked up from the book she was reading.
+"Hallo, Edna," she said, and then returned to her book.
+
+"How did you happen to go to the bungalow?" Jennie repeated her
+question, coming over to where Edna stood.
+
+"It was the fog," Edna told her, and then she went on to give an
+account of her adventures. She had not proceeded very far before down
+went Dorothy's book, and she was as interested a listener as Jennie and
+her mother.
+
+"Oh, Edna," she said, when the tale was ended, "how dreadful it all
+was, and here we were half mad with you and not knowing anything about
+what was happening. Suppose, just suppose, that the tide had come up
+and, oh dear, oh dear, Edna I am so sorry we were hateful to you this
+morning."
+
+"But you were not hateful," Edna protested, "and I don't suppose I
+ought to have gone off with Louis, but you see--"
+
+"Yes, we do see," Jennie interrupted her, "and nobody was to blame but
+Louis. Wasn't he the one, Mother?"
+
+"I am afraid so," responded Mrs. Ramsey, "though my dear, I think you
+should have remembered that both Edna and Louis were your guests and
+that the proper thing to do was to propose some play in which you could
+all join. Little boys are not expected to play with dolls, you know."
+
+Jennie hung her head, but Edna gave Mrs. Ramsey a grateful look, for
+what she said was very true. But seeing that Jennie looked quite
+downcast Edna spoke up cheerfully. "Well, it is all over now, and
+I did have a very nice time at the bungalow. I had lunch out of the
+refrigerator, and Miss Eloise told me a lovely story. No, she didn't
+either, she didn't but half tell it for Louis came before it was done.
+Oh, Jennie, I wore Miss Eloise's shoes and stockings while mine were
+getting dry, and they were only a little bit too big for me. I wore her
+blue kimono, too."
+
+"I'm awfully glad you had a good time," said Jennie earnestly, "but
+if I had known what was going on I should have been very unhappy. We
+didn't have a very good time as it was, did we, Dorothy?"
+
+"No, we didn't," Dorothy agreed. "We missed you, Edna, and we were out
+of sorts all the time. Please stay with us next time."
+
+"I think Edna will do that," said Mrs. Ramsey gently, "for I think we
+must make a rule that no one of you is to go anywhere that you cannot
+all go, and then you will all be safer."
+
+Edna felt that this was a very good rule, and was sure that Mrs. Ramsey
+had made it for her protection, since now she could always say to
+Louis, "No, I can't go unless the others do." So she looked up in Mrs.
+Ramsey's face and said, "I like that rule."
+
+Mrs. Ramsey smiled down at her. "I am glad you do."
+
+However, so far as Louis went, there was little need of rules, for he
+kept away several days, having found a playmate in the person of a boy
+of about his own age who had come to the hotel to spend a few weeks.
+"The boy's father had a boat, a sail boat," Louis informed the girls
+when he saw them, and Louis was invited to go out every day in it, so
+any other amusement which they could offer paled before this.
+
+At the end of the week Mr. Ramsey came up for a longer stay than
+before, and who should appear in the harbor about the same time but
+Edna's big boy cousin, Ben Barker. Everybody liked Ben, for he was an
+entirely different sort of somebody from Louis. He had come up with
+some of his college friends on a yacht, but was frequently ashore.
+
+"I thought no one less than the King of Spain had arrived," declared
+Mr. Ramsey when he beheld the tumultuous welcome given Ben by the three
+little girls.
+
+"He is much nicer than the King of Spain," Jennie told him.
+
+"And this from my own daughter whose father has just arrived," said Mr.
+Ramsey laughing. "You are certainly a popular young man, Mr. Barker."
+
+"Oh, don't call him Mr. Barker; call him Ben; we do," said Jennie.
+
+"That is as he likes, my dear."
+
+"Oh, everybody calls me Ben," the young man told him.
+
+"Ben be it, then. And where are you staying, Ben?"
+
+"On the yacht with the boys, sir. We are cruising up the coast, and
+thought this would be a good place to anchor for a few days. We're not
+all boys, for the father of one of my chums, the fellow who owns the
+yacht, is with us, so is one of the college professors, and Edna, you
+will never guess who is one of the party."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Guess."
+
+"Celia, my sister Celia."
+
+"Wrong. No ladies aboard."
+
+"Then, let me see--not papa?"
+
+Ben shook his head. "You're a little warmer."
+
+"One of the boys; Frank or Charlie."
+
+"No small fry."
+
+"Then, please tell, I can't possibly guess."
+
+"Your Uncle Justus."
+
+"Oh, Ben, really?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, thy servant speaketh truly."
+
+"But where is he? and why didn't he come up with you?"
+
+"Because I wasn't sure how far it might be to this house, or how
+difficult it might be to get here."
+
+"You don't mean that it is Professor Horner of whom you are speaking,"
+said Mr. Ramsey.
+
+"Yes, sir, Mr. Justus Horner."
+
+"Well, well, well. Certainly we must have him over here. I will go
+speak to Mrs. Ramsey about it. How did you come over, Ben?"
+
+"I rowed over."
+
+"Then, if you will permit me to take an oar I will go back with you and
+call upon your goodly company. Whose is the yacht, did you say?"
+
+"Clem McAllister's."
+
+"Son of Davis McAllister? Why, I know his father well, and his father
+is on board, too, I believe you said. A double reason for my going." He
+hurried off to speak to his wife while Ben and the three little girls
+continued the conversation.
+
+"What do you think we saw in the water last night?" Ben asked them.
+
+"Oh what?" they asked in a breath. "Was it a whale?" said Jennie.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not a man? Oh, Ben, was it, and had he fallen overboard?"
+
+"No, it wasn't a man."
+
+"Then maybe it was a shark." This from Dorothy. "I'd hate to see a
+shark; it would scare me to death."
+
+"It wasn't a shark."
+
+"Then perhaps it was only a porpoise. They do come in quite near
+sometimes," Jennie ventured this.
+
+"No, it was nothing of a fishy nature."
+
+"Then we can't guess. Tell us, Ben," Edna begged.
+
+"All give it up?"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes."
+
+"It was a--" he paused and looked impressively at each one, "a--I
+hardly know how to describe it, for it seemed to be amphibious, having
+once lived on land, and yet I doubt if it will live there ever again."
+
+"Do you mean it will never be on land again?" Dorothy asked.
+
+"I didn't say that. I said I doubted its ever living on land. I really
+don't see how it could, though of course it might possibly be there.
+This is a case when there is a difference between being and living."
+
+"What was it doing when you saw it?" asked Jennie.
+
+"It was headed for the harbor, I should say."
+
+"Then it might have been a ship or a boat." Jennie began to think she
+was getting some light.
+
+"You are a very clever child, Miss Ramsey, but your intuitions fail you
+upon this occasion."
+
+"Then we give it up. We did give it up, Ben, you know, and then you
+started us guessing again. What was it?"
+
+"It was about five feet long, I should judge," Ben went on
+thoughtfully, and as if he had no idea of their having stopped
+guessing. "Its body was reared some distance above the water, but it
+was making its way very successfully, I thought."
+
+"It was a dog!" cried Edna triumphantly.
+
+"Of course it was," echoed the others.
+
+Ben heaved a long sigh. "How mistaken persons can be when they are sure
+they are right. I admit that if I were writing about this object you
+might think I was writing about a dog, but I wouldn't be because it was
+not a dog."
+
+"Then it was a horse or some kind of animal." Dorothy was very sure of
+this.
+
+Ben slowly shook his head. "On the wrong track, my dear Dorothy."
+
+"But you said it had lived on land, though you doubted if it ever would
+do so again."
+
+"Yes, verily, so said I."
+
+"Then we won't guess any more, will we girls? We gave it up and it has
+to stay given up."
+
+"Do you really want to know?"
+
+"Oh, we're not particular," replied Dorothy, with a little toss of her
+head.
+
+"Oh, well, then," said Ben, "I won't bother myself to tell you." He
+picked up the morning paper as if the last word had been said on the
+subject.
+
+"Ben Barker, you are just the worst tease," said Edna, tousling his
+hair. "You've just got to tell us after rousing our curiosity."
+
+"Oh, I am willing to tell you if you really want to know, but I thought
+you didn't. It was a large piece of driftwood."
+
+"Oh, you mean, mean thing!" Edna began to pommel him with her fist and
+the others joined in.
+
+"See here," cried Ben, "three against one isn't fair, is it, Mr.
+Ramsey?" he appealed to that gentleman who just then came in.
+
+Mr. Ramsey laughed. "I see it is high time to come to your rescue. Are
+you ready? If so, I am at your service."
+
+Ben shook himself free of the little girls, picked them up one after
+another and tossed them in a heap among the cushions of the divan, then
+strode off in Mr. Ramsey's wake.
+
+The girls, laughing and squealing, crawled out from the cushions to run
+after the departing figures, but these had already gone too far to be
+overtaken and they returned to watch them row off.
+
+In about an hour they were back again, bringing a third person. It was
+Edna who first caught sight of the approaching boat. "I see the boat
+coming," she sang out, "and there are three persons in it. Oh, girls, I
+know who is coming; it is Uncle Justus. I know him by his whiskers and
+his eyebrows, though he isn't wearing a hat, but a funny cap. Do come
+and see."
+
+"Let's go down to the landing and meet them," proposed Jennie.
+
+This was at once agreed upon and the three little girls went flying
+across the sands, so as to be on hand when the boat should come up. It
+seemed very queer to see Uncle Justus in yachting cap and flannels when
+he had always appeared in most severe dress, and never on any occasion
+wore such a frivolous thing as a cap. He appeared to have thrown off
+some of his dignity, too, for he stepped ashore with much agility and
+actually ran up the long board landing to meet Edna.
+
+"Well, well, well, little girl," he cried, "isn't this a great meeting?"
+
+"It is just fine," returned Edna. "I am mighty glad to see you, Uncle
+Justus. Are you glad to see me?"
+
+"Not a doubt of it. Did you ever expect to see your old uncle sporting
+around with a lot of college boys? I am continually surprising myself
+by saying or doing something I had forgotten, and which belongs
+properly to youth. They are a great set, those college boys."
+
+By this time Jennie and Dorothy had come up and were given hearty
+greetings. Professor Horner in the character of a yachtman was rather
+a different person from the grave and severe schoolmaster whose school
+they attended. As for Edna, she was so divided between her desire to
+be with her favorite cousin Ben and with Uncle Justus, of whom she
+was very fond, that she swung between her two desires like a pendulum
+till Ben caught her and pretended he was going to throw her overboard
+because she would not walk with him up to the house. By the time
+this pretended squabble was over Uncle Justus was well ahead with Mr.
+Ramsey, so the three little girls attended Ben like satellites.
+
+"You're going to stay to dinner, Mr. Horner said so," Jennie told Ben
+in a satisfied voice.
+
+"And do you know what we are going to do to-morrow?"
+
+"No. What are you going to do?"
+
+"We are going to have our breakfast on the yacht." Ben gave this
+information as if it were a great piece of news.
+
+"But I thought you always did that."
+
+"So we do."
+
+Jennie looked puzzled, but Edna laughed. It was so like cousin Ben to
+do that way. "It is so nice to have you here," said Edna, fondling the
+hand that held hers. She and the others had settled it that as Ben was
+her own cousin she had prior claim to his right hand and the other two
+hung on his left arm, getting in one another's way a great deal in an
+effort to establish an equal right.
+
+Ben's presence at the lunch table kept the little girls in a state of
+giggles, which was aggravated by the inquiring look Uncle Justus would
+give them over his spectacles once in a while, as if he would say, Why
+all this merriment when there is no apparent cause?
+
+It was at the lunch table that Mr. Ramsey proposed a sailing party for
+the next afternoon. "I have been promising these young people for some
+time that I would take them out," he said. "Old Cap'n Si has a good
+boat, and Mrs. Ramsey has promised we shall have a supper to take with
+us. Gosling Island is a pretty place, and I think you will all enjoy
+the sail. What do you say, Mr. Horner? Will you and Ben go with us?"
+
+"I cannot speak for my young friend," replied Mr. Horner, "but for
+myself, I should be delighted to go, especially as you and your good
+lady are to be my shipmates."
+
+At the words "good lady," Ben opened his eyes very wide at Edna and she
+collapsed into a fresh attack of giggles while Ben turned gravely to
+Mr. Ramsey to say, "And I shall be delighted, too, Mr. Ramsey. I think
+it will give the boys on the yacht a treat if I spare them my presence
+for one afternoon."
+
+"Now, Benjamin, you are entirely too modest," said Mr. Horner. "He is
+quite the life of the party, Mr. Ramsey, I assure you. They will not
+miss an old fogy like me, but young blood like Ben's gives a great
+infusion of spirits."
+
+The little girls stole a glance at Ben. He had meekly folded his hands
+and was looking down with such an expression of humility that not only
+the little girls but Mrs. Ramsey had to laugh. Truly it was anything
+but a solemn meal.
+
+The next day dawned bright and fair to the delight of three rather
+anxious little girls who were fearful lest gray skies would put a stop
+to any plans for the sailing party. But alas, as the day wore on it
+became more and more doubtful whether one of the three little maids
+would be able to go, for Edna, who waked with a little headache, became
+worse and worse, and by lunch time found it would be impossible for
+her to eat anything, and could be comfortable only when lying down.
+She was so disappointed and tried to persuade herself that the feeling
+of dizziness would pass away, and that she would be better by the time
+they were ready to start.
+
+However, it was Mrs. Ramsey who finally decided that she must not think
+of going. "Dearie," she said, "I am much afraid you would be worse for
+going. It isn't everyone who can go in a sailing vessel without being
+seasick, and I am a little doubtful for Dorothy and Miss Eloise, but
+in your present condition I am very sure it would be anything but a
+pleasure to you."
+
+Jennie who stood by listening with much concern, spoke up. "Couldn't we
+put it off, Mother?"
+
+"I think we can promise to go another time, but not with the same
+party, for the yacht will continue her cruise up the coast, so Ben
+tells me, and will not be here after to-morrow morning. Your father
+wants particularly to have Mr. Horner go with us, you see--"
+
+"Then I'm not going," said Jennie decidedly.
+
+Edna raised herself on her elbow. "Indeed you must," she said. "I think
+it is lovely of you, Jennie, to want to stay, but you see, I couldn't
+play or do anything but lie still, and I should be very unhappy if you
+were to stay on my account. Please say she must go, Mrs. Ramsey. If
+she stays, then Dorothy will think she must and it will spoil it for so
+many that it wouldn't do at all."
+
+"I think Jennie ought to go," said Mrs. Ramsey, after a moment's
+thought, "for we have asked Mrs. Duncan and her little girl, but I
+shall stay to take care of you."
+
+Edna raised her head again. "Oh, but Mrs. Ramsey, that will be just as
+bad. I am not so ill as that, indeed I am not. It is only that I feel
+dizzy when I raise my head. If I keep very quiet I may be well by the
+time you can get back. Besides, if it isn't polite for Jennie to stay
+home because you have invited Grace Duncan, then it wouldn't be polite
+for you because you have invited Mrs. Duncan."
+
+Mrs. Ramsey smiled at this laying down of the law, but continued,
+"I am sure our friends will understand why I am not going when it is
+explained to them."
+
+"Oh, but," Edna went on, "I shall be much sicker if you stay, because I
+shall feel as if it were all on my account. It makes me sicker just to
+think of it. Please, dear Mrs. Ramsey, go. Emma can take care of me and
+I shall not want anything, but just to keep still."
+
+She looked so imploring and was really so distressed that Mrs. Ramsey
+wavered. "I am sure it is not a very serious illness," she admitted,
+"and Emma is really a very good nurse. I could leave word with her to
+telephone for the doctor if you were to grow worse, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, yes, that will be all right, and I shall not be any worse unless
+you stay at home."
+
+"In that case," returned Mrs. Ramsey smiling, "it would seem the wisest
+plan for me to go. I will tell Emma to keep within hearing. She can
+take her mending in the next room and sit there, or would you rather
+lie on the divan in the living-room?"
+
+"I'll stay here for awhile, and if I get better I can go down there,"
+Edna decided.
+
+So, in due course of time they all left her, with many protestations,
+and loving farewells. "If you can get to sleep," said Mrs. Ramsey, "I
+think you will wake up feeling better. Emma can darken the room and it
+will be very quiet."
+
+So off they went, and Edna turned with a little sigh of regret and
+tried to compose herself to sleep. She closed her eyes and presently
+heard Emma tip-toeing about the room, softly drawing down the shades.
+After all it was rather pleasant and restful to lie there undisturbed,
+to know that nothing was expected of her, and that she did not have to
+pretend to feel better than she really was. Her head did not ache so
+badly when she kept perfectly still, and there was Emma near at hand
+if she should want anything. She heard the gentle plash of the water
+on the beach, and once in a while the distant "Putter, putter" of a
+motor-boat, but that was all. She wondered if Ben would miss her. She
+was sure Uncle Justus would. They were all getting in the boat now,
+and now they were sailing off, sailing off, and presently Edna herself
+sailed off, too, into the sea of Dreams.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER VIII
+
+      THE FIRE
+
+
+For about half an hour the child slept peacefully. Once or twice Emma
+stole softly in to find her with hand under a cheek, now rather pale,
+and with red lips half-smiling as if in a pleasant dream. "Bless the
+child, it's nothin' but a sick-headache," whispered Emma. "She'll
+be all the better for the sleep." At the end of the half hour Edna
+stirred, sighed, opened her eyes and then sat up. The dizzy feeling was
+nearly gone.
+
+Emma came to the door. "Well," she said, "and how are you feeling?"
+
+"A good deal better," said Edna cheerfully. "I think I'll get up and go
+down to the living-room, Emma."
+
+"Do you feel equal to it?" asked Emma.
+
+"Oh, yes I think I do. Besides the sun is coming in here now, and I've
+been here all day, so I'd like a change."
+
+"Then I'll tell you there's someone down there waiting for you. He
+wouldn't have you disturbed, but said I was to bring him word when you
+waked up. He's been there about a quarter of an hour, I should say, but
+he said he would amuse himself with the papers and magazines, and you
+were not to hurry on his account."
+
+This didn't sound as if it could be Louis, as Edna at first supposed it
+might be. He had not been asked to go on the sailing party, and could
+easily have come over. "It isn't my cousin Louis Morrison, is it?" she
+asked.
+
+"No, it's the owld gintleman with the eyebrows. I don't just remember
+the name."
+
+"Why, it must be Uncle Justus," cried Edna getting up with alacrity.
+"He was to have gone sailing with the others. I wonder why he didn't
+go. Is it the gentleman who was here to lunch yesterday, Emma?"
+
+"That very same."
+
+"Oh, then I'll go right down."
+
+She slowly descended the stairs. After all her head did still feel
+a little queer, and she was rather faint from eating nothing since
+breakfast, so she did not enter the room with her usual animation, and
+Uncle Justus did not see her till she had nearly reached his side. Then
+he looked up over his spectacles. "Well, well, well," he cried, "how is
+my little girl feeling?"
+
+He held out his arms and Edna went to him. "I'm feeling a little
+better," she said, as he took her on his knee and settled her
+comfortably with her head against his shoulder.
+
+"Poor little lamb," he murmured, "poor little lamb. I am so sorry--we
+were all sorry to hear about the headache."
+
+"But, Uncle Justus, I thought you were going on the sailing party."
+
+"So I was, my dear, but I couldn't have enjoyed it knowing you were
+here without your mother or any of your family. I know little folks
+like their mothers when they are not feeling well, and though I
+couldn't in any way take the place of your mother, I wanted to come and
+look after you a little."
+
+Edna put up a hand and softly stroked the cheek above the curled
+grey whisker, and even a part of the whisker itself. "I think it was
+dear of you to do that, but Uncle Justus, I am afraid Mr. Ramsey was
+disappointed not to have you go, and I did not mind so very much being
+alone. I did want mother awfully, when I was feeling the sickest, but
+I tried to think how lovely everyone was to me, and of how nice it was
+to be in this lovely cool place by the sea, instead of in the hot city,
+and I didn't feel so."
+
+Uncle Justus murmured something which Edna couldn't quite make out,
+something about babes and sucklings which really did not appear to have
+much to do with the subject.
+
+"Aren't you really disappointed about not going on the sailing party?"
+she asked presently.
+
+"No, my dear. I prefer to be here. Besides, do you remember a little
+girl who gave up having her Thanksgiving at home that she might share a
+lonely dinner with her old uncle? If you have forgotten, I have not."
+
+"Oh, but," returned Edna, quite embarrassed, for the little girl was
+none other than herself, "you see you were quite well, and didn't have
+a headache." Just what this had to do with it was rather puzzling and
+Uncle Justus smiled at the attempted argument.
+
+Then they fell into talking about various things, and in the course of
+the conversation Edna told of her adventure in the fog, of how scared
+she had been, and how fearful lest Louis were drowned. Uncle Justus
+listened attentively, and asked such adroit questions that though
+Edna tried to shield Louis, she knew that Uncle Justus was aware of
+everything that had happened. He was Louis's Uncle Justus as well as
+Edna's.
+
+When the story was ended Uncle Justus was silent for a time, but he
+stroked Edna's hair thoughtfully. At last he said half to himself, "I
+shall have to have a talk with the boy's mother. He will be ruined if
+something is not done." And then Emma came in to know if Mr. Horner
+would have tea, and then since he declined this, she asked if he would
+dine with Miss Edna.
+
+"Oh, you will, Uncle Justus, won't you," begged Edna.
+
+"I will if you would like me to," he said simply.
+
+So Edna sat up straight and said, "He will stay, Emma, but you must
+give him more than I am to have, for Mrs. Ramsey said I'd better not
+eat anything very hearty."
+
+"You were to have some broth and toast, Miss Edna," Emma told her, "and
+if you wanted more before bedtime I was to give you some hot milk."
+
+"But they will be back by bedtime, Emma, I am sure."
+
+"Very well, miss. I will see that the gentleman has something proper."
+
+She went out and Edna, feeling that she had been coddled long enough,
+took a seat on a low chair, and pretty soon dinner was announced, the
+two eating it very happily together. Edna had her chicken broth and
+toast for which she was quite ready by this time, declaring that she
+was actually hungry and that her head was steadily getting better.
+
+As she had predicted, it was not bedtime when the sailing party
+returned, full of their doings. Edna was ready with plenty of questions
+and was told how Miss Eloise proved to be a good sailor, and had
+enjoyed the trip immensely, of how Ben and Mr. Ramsey had carried her
+ashore bodily, of how they had made a fire and cooked their supper, and
+last of all, how they had all missed her.
+
+It was after Ben and Uncle Justus had departed for the yacht that
+Edna watching the lights in the harbor, heard Mr. Ramsey say, "We
+saw Mr. Horner in a new light to-day. Who could ever imagine him so
+tenderly anxious about his little niece? He always seemed rather a
+cold undemonstrative person to me. I was certainly surprised when he
+insisted upon returning that he might be with Edna in our absence."
+
+"I was rather surprised myself," responded Mrs. Ramsey, "though now I
+remember it, Jennie has told me that he is devoted to Edna, and though
+all his other pupils stand in awe of him, that she alone seems to have
+no fear. He must have a tender heart, for all his bushy eyebrows and
+stern exterior."
+
+The twinkling lights in the harbor were still shining when the little
+girls went to bed, but before morning a wilder light was blazing
+from the point where old Cap'n Si's little house stood, and, the next
+morning when the children looked across to where yesterday they had
+seen the old man sitting on the bench outside his door, the smoke
+curling from the chimney and the flowers in his little garden making a
+brave showing, they beheld but a heap of blackened ruins.
+
+Jennie was the first to see it and ran to her father who had just come
+down. "Oh, Papa," she cried, "just come here. There isn't any Cap'n
+Si's house any more."
+
+"What's that?" said her father joining her at the window where she
+stood.
+
+"Just look."
+
+Mr. Ramsey did look but he saw only the charred bits of wood from which
+a slight smoke was rising. "That's bad, very bad," he said shaking his
+head. "Why it was only last night that he was telling us that he was
+born in that house and hoped to die in it. I wonder how it could have
+happened. I hope no one was hurt. Who lives with him, daughter? Do you
+remember?"
+
+"His daughter and her family, Bert is the oldest; he is off fishing in
+Captain Eli Brown's boat, then there is Louberta, but she's married.
+Amelia comes next, and then there's little Si, and Kitty is the
+youngest. They haven't any father, for he was lost at sea two years
+ago."
+
+"I remember, I remember. It is all very sad. I must go over as soon as
+I have had some breakfast and we will see what is to be done."
+
+As one after another came down the news of the fire was told, and Mrs.
+Ramsey declared she must go with her husband to find out all about it.
+So they started off in the automobile as soon as breakfast was over,
+leaving three deeply interested little girls. There was no talk of
+calling Cap'n Si that morning, for he would not be looking for the flag
+to be run up, instead he was lying helpless on a cot, his hands swathed
+in cotton, and his stubbly beard singed by the fire he had vainly tried
+to put out.
+
+It was two hours before Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey returned, and then it
+was to tell a sorrowful tale. A lamp burning in one of the two little
+upper rooms had been overturned by one of the children very early in
+the morning, and before the full danger was realized the house was
+in flames. Fortunately no one was very seriously hurt, Cap'n Si was
+badly scorched, and his hands showed some bad burns, but the doctor
+had pronounced these not so very deep. Everything in the house was
+consumed, however, and the family were destitute and homeless.
+
+The children gathered around Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey listening with
+absorbed interest. "What will they do, Papa?" asked Jennie. "They
+have nowhere to go and no clothes and no furniture. Oh, dear, isn't it
+dreadful?"
+
+"Some of their neighbors have taken them in temporarily, and as soon
+as needs be we shall gather up whatever can be spared in the way of
+clothing for them. Then there is a plan on foot to get up a bazar in
+order to collect money for their furniture when they shall have another
+house."
+
+"How will they be able to build a house? I know they are very poor."
+
+"We hope enough money will be subscribed for that. Everyone respects
+Cap'n Si, and we think there will be enough forthcoming to build a
+house sufficiently large for their needs."
+
+"Has papa subscribed?"
+
+"Yes, dear; it was he who started the subscription paper."
+
+"Were none of the children hurt at all?" asked Edna.
+
+"One of them, the youngest was slightly burned, for she was asleep when
+the fire broke out. It was in saving her that Cap'n Si was burned."
+
+"Are they going to ask those young men on the yacht to give something?"
+asked Edna. "They are not going off till this afternoon, you know."
+
+"We didn't think of them, did we?" said Mrs. Ramsey to her husband.
+
+"That is true, we didn't and most of them can well afford to make a
+contribution. I will see McAllister myself."
+
+"What can we do?" asked Dorothy wistfully.
+
+"Oh, yes, we want to help, of course," chimed in Jennie. "I will give
+all the money I have left of my allowance, Mother, and all that is
+coming to me for the rest of the time we are here."
+
+"I think you'd better allow yourself a little, dear child, but I am
+sure papa will advance you whatever he thinks is right for you to
+give."
+
+"I think I could give a dollar," said Edna after a pause. "I have that
+much, and I am sure I don't have to spend it for I have six postage
+stamps, that will make two a week till I get back home. Would a dollar
+do any good, Mrs. Ramsey?"
+
+"It would do a great deal of good, but instead of giving the money
+outright how would you children like to buy materials to make fancy
+articles for the bazar? In that way I haven't a doubt but you would get
+a better return."
+
+"I think that would be a fine plan," said Dorothy, for, to tell the
+truth, her savings were of small account, and as she calculated she
+told herself that thirty-five cents would be the very limit. Money
+always burned a hole in Dorothy's pocket, and it was hard for her to
+pass a candy shop without spending her pennies. Mrs. Ramsey knew this
+and knew also that while Dorothy was quite as generous as the other two
+she would have less to offer.
+
+Both Jennie and Edna agreed with Dorothy that it was a very good plan
+to spend the money in this way and they at once began to plan what they
+should buy.
+
+"I think we all might make a trip to Boston in a day or two," said Mrs.
+Ramsey. "How would you like that? I think we might spend our money to
+better advantage there."
+
+"That would be simply perfect," cried one and another.
+
+All this had made everyone entirely lose sight of Edna's headache and
+it was not till Ben came in to say good-bye that anyone remembered it.
+"Well, Ande," he said, "how's that head? A pretty trick you played on
+us yesterday."
+
+"I didn't play any trick. It was my head played me a trick."
+
+"Oh, that was the way, was it? Well, how is the tricky head to-day?"
+
+"Why, it is about well, I think."
+
+"But you are not sure. I've known heads to act that way before. Let me
+see how you look." He turned her around to the light. "A little pale I
+should say. Did you eat any breakfast?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I ate an egg and some milk-toast."
+
+"Good enough. I reckon you'll do for a while. I say, wasn't it great
+for Uncle Justus to sneak away from us all in that way? I didn't think
+it was in the old chap. He wouldn't budge any more than a balky mule.
+Soon as he heard you were alone and laid up with a headache off he must
+trot in the other direction."
+
+"I think it was perfectly lovely of him," said Edna earnestly.
+
+"So it was, Pinky Blooms--by the way, you aren't Pinky Blooms to-day.
+To tell you the truth if Uncle Justus hadn't made up his sedate mind to
+come, yours truly intended to say ta-ta to the sailing party himself."
+
+"Oh, Ben, did you really?"
+
+"Yes, my lady, though it is too late in the day to make boastful
+vaunts, and it would have spoiled Uncle Justus's little game if both
+of us had come. Moreover, it wouldn't have been polite for all of us
+to have fled from the sailing party. You see Mr. McAllister took Uncle
+Justus's place and there would have been no one to take mine."
+
+"Did you hear about the fire?" Edna asked next.
+
+"Indeed I did, and I am glad enough that a plan is on foot to
+raise money for those poor fisher people. I wonder who is receiving
+subscriptions. All the fellows chipped in and I have quite a wad here
+which I am instructed to turn over to the proper authorities."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ramsey is just the one, for he started the paper."
+
+"Good! I'll get rid of it at once if you will help me find the
+gentleman."
+
+Edna was only too ready to do this and together they hunted up Mr.
+Ramsey whom they found in the little room where he had his desk, and
+which was called the smoking-room.
+
+It was indeed quite a roll of bills which Ben handed over. The boys
+said never mind specifying names, just say it is from the Pippin.
+"Nobody knows how much anybody gave. We just passed around the hat and
+this is the result."
+
+"A pretty handsome result, I should say," remarked Mr. Ramsey much
+pleased. "At this rate we shall be able to put up as good a house as
+need be. Please thank the Pippin in the name of myself and the family
+of Cap'n Si."
+
+"I'll do it, sir. The boys were glad to come up to scratch."
+
+"I think it is very lucky the fire was last night instead of to-night,"
+remarked Edna gravely.
+
+"And why?" asked Ben.
+
+"Because if it hadn't been till to-night you all would be gone and then
+you wouldn't have passed around the hat."
+
+Both Mr. Ramsey and Ben laughed at this subtle reasoning, and then Ben
+said he must say good-bye to Mrs. Ramsey, so they went out leaving Mr.
+Ramsey to other matters.
+
+"I wish you would tell me why the yacht is called Pippin," said Edna.
+
+"My dearest child, I see you do not make yourself acquainted with
+slang, and far be it from me to intrude it upon your youthful
+attention. If you were to ask Clem McAllister why he named it that he
+would say, 'Because she is such a pippin,' meaning a beauty, and that
+is all there is of it."
+
+Edna understood by this that a pippin was another name for a beauty and
+was quite satisfied. She had two brothers of her own, and cousin Ben
+had passed the previous year at her home; therefore she was not at all
+unfamiliar with boyish slang.
+
+The good-byes to Mrs. Ramsey and the other two little girls being
+made Ben took his departure, telling Edna she would see him early in
+the fall, and as Uncle Justus would not on any account leave without
+learning how Edna was, his was the next call. It was not a long one,
+for the yacht was to leave the harbor early and there was not much time
+left though Edna managed to tell about the fire and the bazar, and to
+send a great many messages to all at home whom Uncle Justus would see
+before she herself would.
+
+Edna felt a little homesick and lonely after these two relatives
+had left her. She was still a little the worse for her yesterday's
+illness, and wished for mother and Celia, for her father and the boys.
+It certainly would be very good to see them again, and she was glad
+that in two weeks she would be turning her face toward home. But these
+thoughts did not last long, for Jennie called her to come and see the
+pile of clothes her mother had laid aside for Cap'n Si's grandchildren,
+and began to tell of the many things which they could make for the
+bazar, so she was soon interested in all this.
+
+"We are going to see Miss Newman and Miss Eloise after lunch," Jennie
+told her, "for we want to tell everyone about the bazar, and they will
+be so interested on account of Amelia."
+
+"We might stop at the hotel, too," suggested Edna, "and I can tell my
+aunt about it, then she can tell the other people there and we might
+get a lot of things from them."
+
+"That will be a fine plan," declared Jennie. "We will go with mother in
+the automobile for she wants to see Mrs. Duncan. A lot of ladies are to
+meet here to-morrow to make all the arrangements, and mother wants to
+tell Mrs. Duncan to come."
+
+So there was quite enough on hand to drive away homesickness, and Edna
+started out with the rest with no thought of anything but the bazar and
+the promised trip to Boston.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER IX
+
+      TO BOSTON
+
+
+The trip to Boston became such an important topic that you would have
+thought the bazar was planned merely on its account, and not that
+the trip was planned on the bazar's account. Each of the little girls
+made a careful list of the things she meant to buy, and everyone was
+consulted about these lists; even Emma's advice was asked.
+
+They were to make an early start so as to have plenty of time for their
+own shopping and that which Mrs. Ramsey meant to do. So on the all
+important morning there was much bustling about and comparing of notes.
+
+"What are you going to wear, Edna?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"I thought I would put on my gray linen. What are you?"
+
+"White, of course."
+
+"Now why 'of course'? People don't always wear white when they are
+traveling."
+
+"But this isn't exactly traveling; it's just going to the city and
+we're not more than an hour on the train."
+
+"Well, I don't care. I am going to wear the linen. At least I am going
+to ask Jennie what she is going to put on, for of course I shouldn't
+want both of you to wear white and me not."
+
+"What are you going to wear, Jennie?" Dorothy called out to the next
+room.
+
+"My blue linen, the embroidered one."
+
+"There, what did I say?" exclaimed Edna in triumph.
+
+"Well, anyhow, it is much more dressy than yours; it is more colory,
+and it is embroidered. I wouldn't wear that plain thing if I were you."
+
+All this made doubts arise in Edna's own mind, and she sat
+disconsolately looking at the frock she had brought out to wear.
+
+"You'd better hurry and get dressed and not sit there dreaming,"
+Dorothy warned her.
+
+"I wasn't dreaming," Edna contradicted, "I was just making up my mind.
+I might wear my Peter Thompson, only it might be too warm. I think I'd
+better go and ask Mrs. Ramsey." Suiting the action to the word she went
+to Mrs. Ramsey's door and tapped gently. Mrs. Ramsey herself opened to
+look down on the little figure in its pink wrapper. "Well, dear, what
+is it?" she said.
+
+"I don't know just what to wear," Edna confessed. "You see mother
+always tells me. Dorothy thinks I ought to wear one of my white frocks
+and I think my gray linen would be better. I could wear the Peter
+Thompson, but it is flannel and is pretty warm."
+
+"Wear the linen by all means; it will be just the thing. You might take
+a little jacket of some kind and we can leave it at the station, in the
+package room, with my things. It may be cool coming back."
+
+So Edna went off in triumph, donned her gray linen and was ready quite
+in time. She was too excited to eat much breakfast, and when they were
+told that Mack was at the door with the automobile she clutched her
+little handbag very tightly, for it contained the precious dollar which
+was to buy so many things that day. It was but a short distance to the
+station, but they were none too soon, for the train had whistled at the
+next station, and it seemed but a moment before they were aboard and on
+their way. The train was filled with men on their way to business, with
+ladies on their way to the city for a day's shopping, and there were a
+few who were bound for further places, their holiday over.
+
+Edna, Jennie and Dorothy all sat together with Mrs. Ramsey a little
+further along in front. Edna wondered how the conductor would know who
+they were, for Mrs. Ramsey had a book of tickets. She thought maybe she
+would say, "I have the tickets for my little girl in the blue frock
+and the one sitting with her in gray, and there is another with fair
+hair dressed in white." Would the conductor think they were all named
+Ramsey? She looked around her to see if there were any other little
+girls dressed in blue or gray or white, who might be mistaken for the
+right ones. But there was no trouble at all, for the conductor seemed
+to know intuitively and passed them by without so much as a question.
+
+The big North station reached, the matter of shopping seemed very near,
+and there was some discussion as to where they should go first. Each
+little girl had determined to buy at least three dolls to dress; with
+the money that was left they would buy materials for fancy articles,
+for Mrs. Ramsey had promised them pieces enough for doll's clothes. The
+dolls being such a very important matter, it was decided to get these
+off their minds at once, and therefore to a big, though inexpensive
+shop they went.
+
+Such a bewildering array as was laid before them nearly distracted
+them. There was such a choice between blue eyes and black, brown hair
+and golden. Then, too, it was not every doll that had a pretty face,
+or there might be two whose claims to beauty were equally great, but
+at last the nine dolls of different types were picked out. To these
+Mrs. Ramsey added three more on her own account, and that purchase was
+declared to be satisfactorily made.
+
+Each little girl had decided to spend but half her money on dolls,
+though as Dorothy had but fifty cents to spend, her dolls did not make
+as much show as she would have liked, but the others comforted her by
+saying that the small dolls were just as pretty as the large ones, and
+would probably be sold at once.
+
+"I almost wish I had bought two little ones and two big ones," Edna
+said, "but I suppose it is too late now."
+
+"If you had done that," said Jennie, "you couldn't have had the three
+shades of hair, and you did like those three so much."
+
+"That is so," returned Edna, "I reckon I will let it go, but I don't
+see how I am going to give up any of them; they are all so pretty. I do
+love dolls."
+
+"They are perfectly sweet," agreed Dorothy, "while Jennie's are even
+lovelier."
+
+"They are bigger," said Edna, "but I don't think they are really any
+prettier, but Mrs. Ramsey's are perfectly magnificent. I wish I had
+Celia to help me dress mine; she does know how to make such pretty
+things."
+
+"So does Agnes, but I tell you who will help us out, and that is Miss
+Eloise." Dorothy thought of this.
+
+"So she will, though I expect she and Miss Newman will be busy making
+things themselves, for the bazar," replied Edna.
+
+"But she can give us hints," Dorothy continued. "Oh, Edna, do you know
+I have thought of something."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Why, we can write to our sisters and tell them about the bazar, and
+maybe they can make some things for it. We will ask them to. I know
+Agnes will."
+
+"And I know Celia will. That is a lovely idea, but do you know,
+Dorothy, I have thought of something else that isn't a bit nice, and
+that is we won't have a penny to spend at the bazar ourselves."
+
+"That is so. I never thought of it before. I shall hate to go and not
+buy a single thing, but it can't be helped and if we give the things we
+are getting to-day it will be the same as buying things."
+
+This view of the matter satisfied Edna, and they followed Mrs. Ramsey
+and Jennie, who were walking ahead, into the next shop where they were
+to get ribbons, gilt paint and a variety of things.
+
+By one o'clock they were quite tired out and were glad when Mrs. Ramsey
+proposed that they have some lunch before doing any more. So they were
+taken to a pleasant restaurant and ate with a relish the broiled steak,
+fried potatoes and salad which Mrs. Ramsey ordered. Then each chose her
+own dessert, Dorothy taking a chocolate eclair, Edna peach ice-cream
+and Jennie charlotte russe.
+
+Then they started out again, and with Mrs. Ramsey's help managed to
+spend every penny to the best advantage, and that quite early in the
+afternoon, but they were tired enough to be ready to go when Mrs.
+Ramsey said they could get the four o'clock train. "Some day," she said,
+"we must come down on a pleasure trip. We will have the motor-car, and
+can stay all night in town so you little girls can see something of the
+city. There is much that will interest you."
+
+"Oh, do take them to see the glass flowers at Cambridge," cried Jennie.
+
+"Yes, they shall see those, and we will go to old North Church which is
+made famous by Paul Revere's ride, and they shall see Lexington."
+
+"Oh, yes, and mother, they must go to Concord where Louisa Alcott
+lived."
+
+"That is a large order, as Ben would say, but I think we can manage it
+even if we have to stay two nights."
+
+"Aren't we having the loveliest time?" whispered Edna to Dorothy.
+
+Dorothy nodded, and took a peep at the three dolls which she had
+insisted upon carrying herself. The others were to be sent.
+
+"I wish I had kept out one of mine," said Edna enviously; "it would be
+so nice to have it on the train to play with."
+
+"I can't play with all three," said Dorothy generously, "so I can lend
+one to you and one to Jennie."
+
+This was a fine plan, and the three little girls crowded into one seat
+on the train that they might have the satisfaction of playing with the
+little dolls which they dressed up in handkerchiefs. Such a good time
+they had over them that Mrs. Ramsey had to call them twice when they
+reached their station. Then they hurried out, nearly tumbling over one
+another lest they be left in the train.
+
+Mrs. Ramsey had telephoned Mack to meet them, so the three little dolls
+had their first ride in a motor-car and were the first of their company
+to arrive at the sea-shore. The children were so eager to get them
+dressed that they could scarcely wait for Mrs. Ramsey to get out her
+pieces. "Do, Mother, let us have them right away," begged Jennie.
+
+"Don't you think you'd better wait till to-morrow when the other dolls
+will have come?"
+
+"Oh, no, there is lots of daylight left, and we can help Dorothy dress
+these and then she can help us dress ours; it will be ever so much
+nicer that way. We are going to take them out on the porch and sew
+there."
+
+"But, dearie, I think I ought to be with you, because these dolls for
+the bazar should be dressed very neatly, and not botchily as they might
+be if you were doing them merely for yourselves."
+
+"Indeed, indeed we will try to be very neat."
+
+"Can you cut out the things yourselves? To-morrow I thought I would let
+Emma help. She could do some of the work on the machine."
+
+"But these littlest dolls don't need a machine. It will be lovely to
+have Emma help with the bigger ones. Edna can cut out real nicely. Her
+Aunt Elizabeth taught her how to sew, and she is as neat, oh, just as
+neat as can be. I wish you could see."
+
+"Very well, go along, then. I don't suppose it will do any harm since
+you are so very eager, and if I find they don't look well enough I can
+see to it afterward."
+
+Jennie scouted the idea of their not looking well enough and bore off
+the bag of pieces in triumph, and a happy trio was soon established
+on the porch, work-bags in evidence and dolls carefully placed out
+of danger. Edna, who had been taught by her Aunt Elizabeth Horner to
+be very systematic, proposed that they first select their materials.
+"This white stuff will do for their underclothes," she told the others.
+"I'll put that aside and then you each choose what you want for frocks.
+Dorothy must choose first because they are her dolls."
+
+"Then you choose second because you are company," said Jennie.
+
+"We'll take turns, then," said Edna. "You can choose first when it
+comes to your dolls and Dorothy can be second, then when it comes to
+mine I will choose first, you can be second and Dorothy can be third."
+This was considered a very just arrangement and Dorothy began to turn
+over the pieces for her first choice.
+
+"I think I should like this pretty piece of blue silky stuff," she
+said, "and I will dress the doll with the middle colored hair; I think
+it will be becoming to her."
+
+"Then I will take this little speckly piece for the doll with the
+lightest hair. She can have a pink sash and will look too sweet."
+
+Jennie decided upon a thin bit of yellow for her doll of decidedly
+brunette type and they set to work.
+
+"I can cut out for mine and then you two can cut yours exactly the
+same," Edna told them, "for the dolls are all the same size and it
+will be very easy." But the cutting out had scarcely begun before it
+was time for dinner and the dolls had to be put away till later in the
+evening when all should gather around the big table in the living-room.
+
+However, after dinner it was found that the larger package had arrived,
+so of course this had to be opened, and what with talking over this and
+admiring that, it was bedtime before anyone knew it. But the dolls were
+all carried upstairs and were set a-row where the children could see
+them first thing in the morning. The bag of pieces was lugged along,
+too. "For we might want to get up early and work before breakfast,"
+said Jennie with industrious intent.
+
+But the breakfast hour arrived before the children were out of bed, so
+tired were they from their trip, and the row of staring dolls was given
+little attention in the haste to get dressed. After breakfast the piece
+bag was dragged out again. Emma's work was taken by one of the other
+servants and the morning long hands and tongues were busy, so that
+by lunch time the three little dolls appeared nicely clad, and one of
+Edna's and one of Jennie's were nearly ready. To dress nine children
+was quite a task even for three little girls, especially as the
+children increased in size as the work progressed and though a skirt
+for a doll six inches long required but few stitches, when it came to
+one twice the size the fingers grew very tired.
+
+"Suppose you don't do any more doll clothes to-day," said Mrs. Ramsey
+noticing the weary sighs. "You have done a fine morning's work, and
+to-morrow you can start in again. I think this afternoon you'd better
+take the pony and do some errands for me, and I will make a fair
+exchange by helping you with the dolls to-morrow."
+
+This was such a sensible and just arrangement that the little girls
+readily agreed and started off in high spirits to leave an order here,
+take a note there, and finally to wind up with a call upon Miss Eloise,
+who, they knew, would be interested to know about their trip to the
+city.
+
+"I was just thinking about you children," said Miss Eloise from the
+little porch of the bungalow, where she was sitting when they drove
+up. "I am going to have a sewing-bee to make things for the bazar, you
+know, and I want you all to come."
+
+"Oh, lovely," cried they. "Tell us about it, Miss Eloise."
+
+"Day after to-morrow, it is to be, and those that have dolls to dress
+can bring them, or you can bring anything else, fancy work or anything.
+I can't sew very long at a time, but I can try to entertain you and can
+come in strong with advice." She laughed, and the girls crowded around
+her.
+
+"Tell me about the trip to Boston," she went on. "How many dolls
+did you buy, and what else did you get? Sister and I have thought of
+several nice things to do for the bazar, and ever so many of the young
+people are going to help. Rudolph is going to donate some photographs
+and will take orders for others; then some of the boys are going into
+the woods for tiny little cedar and pine trees which we are going to
+plant in pots. Mrs. Morrison's sister has promised to make some paper
+dolls--I remember the beautiful one she made for Louis to send to you
+last year, Edna,--and, oh my, we are going to have a big time."
+
+She stopped to take breath and the children began to tell of their trip
+to the city, of their purchases, and all the rest of it.
+
+"If Ben were only here," said Miss Eloise when they had finished their
+account, "we might give the little play that the G. R. club gave at the
+close of the year, but we couldn't do it without him."
+
+"Besides," said Jennie, "we are the only ones of the club who are here,
+and there wouldn't be enough time to get it up."
+
+"Why couldn't we do it when we go back?" suggested Edna. "We might
+sell tickets, you see, and get ever so many to come, for there were
+quantities of people who wanted to come last time, but we could invite
+only so many."
+
+"Why, Edna, that is a great scheme," cried Miss Eloise. "It would be
+very little trouble, for those who took part before, as they all have
+their costumes and would only have to look over their parts. Let's tell
+sister." She called Miss Newman from the house and it was agreed that
+such a plan might easily be carried out. "And," said Miss Eloise, "it
+will be a true Golden Rule performance. Dear me, what wonderful things
+are happening all the time, now that I have come out of my shell."
+
+This new idea was talked of all the way home and the children were so
+eager to tell Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey of it, that the little pony was urged
+on at his smartest pace. Of course Mrs. Ramsey was charmed at the new
+plan for raising funds for Cap'n Si, and Edna felt much pleased that
+she had thought of it. "Although," she said when she was praised for
+her quick wit, "I might not have thought of it if Miss Eloise had not
+spoken of how nice it would be to have it here."
+
+"Then we'll give Miss Eloise her share of credit," said Mrs. Ramsey
+smiling at the child's honesty.
+
+That evening was given to the winding of worsteds, the marking of
+designs, and the cutting out of various bits of card-board for certain
+fancy articles. Four more dolls were dressed the next morning by
+the help of Mrs. Ramsey and Emma, and in the afternoon there was a
+sewing-bee on the bungalow porch, and more plans were made for the
+bazar. Mrs. Ramsey was present and organized an idea party to meet at
+her house the next day. Everyone was to bring an idea to be carried
+out at the bazar and so the ball was kept rolling and the work for the
+entertainment went forward in a way that promised a very successful
+affair. Dorothy and Edna did not fail to write home about the fire and
+the bazar and made their request for contributions of money or fancy
+articles. They watched eagerly for replies, and when these came in the
+shape of two letters apiece, they gave little squeals of delight, for
+both Mrs. Conway and Mrs. Evans wrote and enclosed a dollar to be spent
+at the bazar. "For," said the mothers, "we know you have taken all
+your spending money for the dolls and things, and will not have any to
+spend."
+
+"Now I am perfectly happy," cried Edna. "Is yours a dollar, too,
+Dorrie?"
+
+"Yes, a whole dollar. And Edna I think I shall buy back one of my own
+dolls. I love the one in blue so much that I just can't give her up."
+
+"Maybe I will buy my dear one with the light hair," returned Edna. "I
+don't suppose a dollar would be enough to buy one of Mrs. Ramsey's
+beauties, though I believe I would rather have one of those than
+anything in the world, even if I didn't have a cent to spend on
+anything else."
+
+"Oh, but I think it would be more fun to spend the money for different
+things, and not for just one."
+
+"But when the one is a doll like that exquisite creature in evening
+dress, with the cunning fan and the sweet little lace handkerchief, I
+think I'd be perfectly satisfied not to have another thing."
+
+"You mean the one with the golden hair? She is a darling but although I
+like her dress, I think I would rather have the dark-haired one."
+
+"That is because you have golden hair yourself; you always want
+dark-haired dolls, I notice." The two were sitting on the porch with
+Jennie just inside by the window busily working away at an embroidered
+centerpiece she was doing in outline. She did not join in the talk, but
+had long ago decided that her choice of the three handsome dolls would
+be the one with ruddy brown hair dressed in street costume with hat and
+feathers.
+
+Her father, in whose smoking-room she was sitting, looked up with a
+smile as Jennie arose to join her friends. "Bless their dear little
+hearts," he said to himself. "I think they are about the sweetest three
+it has ever been my lot to see, and my own girl is the dearest of them
+all, even if she isn't quite the beauty Dorothy is."
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER X
+
+      THE BAZAR
+
+
+So the days went by till the time came for the opening of the bazar.
+It was to be held in the little hall which served as a place of
+amusement for the community of summer visitors. Here concerts were
+given, dances took place, lecturers found a platform. On this occasion
+it was decorated with greens from the woods. Tea was served in a tent
+outside near a gypsy camp where pretended fortunes were told by a
+pretty girl with dark eyes, whose costume made one almost believe she
+really belonged to that wandering race. A bower of green in one corner
+of the hall sheltered the flower girls who offered all kinds of blooms,
+from a bunch of field flowers to a bouquet of American Beauty roses.
+Another table showed such an array of cakes and candies as made one's
+mouth water, while the articles of fancy work were so numerous that the
+children were afraid the half would not be sold. The dolls had a place
+of honor to themselves, the three donated by Mrs. Ramsey occupying the
+most conspicuous place.
+
+Dorothy and Edna made their way to this table first of all, and Dorothy
+was prompt in exchanging a quarter for her little doll in blue. "I was
+so afraid it would be sold first thing," she explained to Edna, "and I
+still have seventy-five cents to spend on other things."
+
+Edna was not so fortunate, for the doll of her choice was already sold,
+while the impossible one among Mrs. Ramsey's trio, was far beyond her
+pocket-book. "It is marked three dollars," she whispered to Dorothy.
+So she put this out of her mind, and decided that she would first buy
+something to take home to her mother and sister and then, if there were
+enough left, she might get one of the little dolls.
+
+The room was beginning to be thronged with people, although the
+children had arrived early, and it was noticed that sales were being
+made rapidly. Everyone was eager to buy, though the cheaper articles
+went first, and Edna had some difficulty in getting something very
+pretty for the amount she could afford. However, Miss Newman came to
+her rescue.
+
+"Here is a little girl," she said to one of the ladies behind the
+table, "who has worked very hard for this bazar, and who wants
+something very nice to take home for her mother. What is the very
+prettiest thing you have for twenty-five cents?"
+
+"Why, let me see," said the lady smiling down at Edna, and then casting
+her eye over the table, "there ought to be some of those nice little
+handkerchief cases. There were several on the table, but they went off
+like hot cakes. I will see if there are any more that haven't been
+put out." She rummaged around in the boxes at the back, and finally
+produced what she was looking for which pleased Edna greatly, and it
+was handed over to her. Next a pretty picture-frame was chosen for
+Celia and the most important purchases were made.
+
+Dorothy and Jennie were wandering around together, the doll in blue
+sitting up very stiffly where Dorothy carried it on her hand. Jennie's
+father had given her two dollars to spend, and she had already parted
+with most of it. The caramels and panuchee were not to be resisted, and
+there were so many pretty things that one's money did not last long.
+"I wish papa would come," she remarked to her two friends. "I know he
+would buy something for me when he knows I can't buy it for myself."
+
+"There he is now," cried Edna as a tall man was seen making his way
+toward them.
+
+Jennie wedged her way between ranks of small boys who were consuming
+peanuts and pop-corn, and reached her father's side. "Oh, Papa," she
+cried, "I am so glad you have come. There is such a lovely crocheted
+sacque over here that I want you to buy for me to give to Miss Eloise."
+
+"For you to give to Miss Eloise? Why shouldn't I be giving things to
+Miss Somebody-or-other?"
+
+"Because I think it would be nicer for me to. You can buy things for
+mother and me, if you want to."
+
+"And for no one else?"
+
+"Oh, yes, you can get anything you choose for Edna and Dorothy."
+
+"Thanks for your kind permission. I think I know exactly what those
+young ladies would like. Let's see about the worsted thingamabob
+first."
+
+Jennie led the way to the fancy table where the pretty light sacque
+changed hands, and with it under her arm, Jennie followed her father
+across the room to where the array of dolls, considerably lessened
+in numbers, was displayed. Mr. Ramsey halted before the three which
+his wife had donated, and regarded them closely. "Are those what your
+mother contributed?" he asked Jennie.
+
+"Yes," she told him, "and they are the very prettiest ones."
+
+"So they are," put in the lady in attendance, "but because they are the
+highest priced they have not been sold yet. Don't you want one for your
+little girl, Mr. Ramsey?"
+
+"I want three for three little girls," he said taking out a roll of
+bills. "Where are Edna and Dorothy, Jennie?"
+
+"Oh, they are over there at the candy table."
+
+"See if you can get them to come over here. I can't be seen carrying
+three dolls around with me."
+
+Jennie wormed her way through the crowd with surprising agility
+and reached her two friends who had just bought five cents worth of
+panuchee apiece. "Come over here," she said breathlessly; "papa wants
+to speak to you." Tall as he was Mr. Ramsey was easily discovered and
+the three little girls were not long in reaching him.
+
+"Here you are," he said. "Now, which one of you did I overhear
+expressing her admiration for this giddy creature in a ball dress?"
+
+"Oh, did you hear?" asked Edna. "I think it must have been I who liked
+it so much."
+
+Mr. Ramsey lifted down the doll and placed it in Edna's arms. "O!" she
+breathed rapturously, "do you really mean she is mine? I don't know how
+to thank you."
+
+"Then don't try," replied Mr. Ramsey laughing. "Now then, it seems
+to me I heard someone say that this one with the dark locks would be
+her choice. The voice sounded very much like Dorothy's if I am not
+mistaken. How is that, Dorothy?"
+
+"Oh, I did say I liked that one best."
+
+"Then yours she is." And Dorothy was made happy by receiving the
+dark-haired doll into her arms.
+
+"Now, Miss Jane," continued Mr. Ramsey, "there is but one left for you.
+Do you think you would like this smiling creature with the wonderful
+hat?"
+
+"Oh, Papa, of course I would. If I had had first choice I would have
+taken that one."
+
+"Then here you are, my lady Jane." And the third doll was embraced by
+her new mamma.
+
+"I think you are the loveliest father ever was," said Jennie. "Oh,
+girls, isn't it fine that we have all three? Do let's find mamma and
+tell her." Holding their dolls very carefully they made their way
+through the crowd to Mrs. Ramsey, who was serving as cashier at a
+little table near the door. "Oh, Mother," cried Jennie, "do see our
+dolls. Papa bought us each one."
+
+"Why it seems to me I recognize them as old friends," said Mrs. Ramsey.
+
+"Aren't you glad papa bought them?"
+
+"I am very glad if you are, and I should judge by your looks that you
+are not ill-pleased."
+
+"I would rather have mine than anything else in the whole room," said
+Edna fervently. "I was so in love with this one in her party dress."
+
+"And I did admire this dear child in her automobile coat and bonnet,"
+chimed in Dorothy.
+
+"And I am perfectly satisfied with mine," said Jennie. "Mother, what
+shall we name them?"
+
+"Suppose you wait till we get back home. Just now I am pretty busy, as
+you may see."
+
+"And have you taken in much money?"
+
+"Nearly two hundred dollars according to the last count."
+
+"Oh, that is a great deal, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it is really more than we hoped to get, and I am sure we shall
+have the full two hundred, if not more, though there is not much left
+except eatables."
+
+The little girls walked away proudly carrying their dolls. "Have you
+spent all your money?" Dorothy asked Jennie.
+
+"No, not quite. Have you?"
+
+"Nearly all. I think I have only about ten cents. Have you any, Edna?"
+
+"A little. What are you going to buy with yours, Jennie?"
+
+"I haven't decided, but I suppose something to eat or some flowers,
+for nearly all the cheap things are gone except those. I don't want my
+fortune told, do you?"
+
+"No, I would rather spend it at the fishpond."
+
+"Then let's go there. I think that will be more fun than anything else."
+
+The fishpond was out of doors and had been so greatly patronized that
+it was a very difficult matter to keep it stocked with fish of proper
+quality, and latterly there had been frequent raids upon the candy
+stand for such things as might serve for fish. The three little girls
+standing in a row waiting their turn noticed a small chap holding fast
+to his smaller sister's hand. Both were deeply interested at each draw
+from the pond, and watched eagerly as the small packages were opened.
+They were a quaint little pair, for the boy's trousers were very long
+for his short legs and his shirt sleeves were correspondingly short for
+his arms. The little curly-headed girl wore a very stiffly starched,
+very short frock which stood out all around and showed her chubby knees
+and bare legs. She kept her eyes fixed with admiring awe upon the three
+dolls, and lost all interest in the fish-pond as soon as the three
+friends arrived upon the scene.
+
+"What did you get from the pond?" asked Jennie who was standing nearest
+the boy.
+
+"Didn't get nawthin'." he answered.
+
+"Oh, didn't you? Why not?"
+
+"Didn't have no money."
+
+"Oh, that was too bad. Did you spend it all before you knew there was a
+fishpond?"
+
+"Naw. Didn't have none to spend."
+
+"Oh." Jennie looked at the pair and then she looked at her two friends.
+Edna interpreted the look and nodded understandingly, but Dorothy
+looked a little puzzled. The coast was not clear and Dorothy stepped
+up, but Edna gave her skirt a little twitch. "Wait," she whispered.
+
+"What for?"
+
+Then Edna said something in a low tone and Dorothy turned to look at
+the little boy and his sister who had crowded near to watch.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to try?" asked Jennie.
+
+"'Course I would," said the boy, but with no hope of such good luck.
+
+"All right," said Jennie, laying down his nickel and handing him the
+pole.
+
+The boy shot her one look of delight and surprise and let his line drop
+into the pond. When he drew it out with a package dangling from the
+hook, he turned to his little sister. "Come on, sis," he said, "you and
+me'll open it together."
+
+Curly-Head followed him with pleased expectancy, and when they opened
+the package to disclose several pieces of panuchee, it was share and
+share alike.
+
+"That's a nice generous boy," whispered Jennie to her companions. "I
+know what I am going to do; I am going to let him spend the rest of my
+money."
+
+"And I'll let the little girl spend mine," declared Edna.
+
+"Where do I come in?" asked Dorothy. "To be sure I have only ten cents
+and it wouldn't go a great way. I wonder if there are any more children
+who haven't had any money to spend."
+
+"I don't see how we can find out," said Jennie, "for they might pretend
+if we asked. This little fellow told without our asking, you see."
+
+"Oh, well, I know what I can do. I will buy him something to take home
+to his mother, and that will be just as good."
+
+During this time the two children had been devouring the candy, and
+soon had finished the last piece. "Do you want to fish in the pond?"
+Edna asked the little girl.
+
+"Yeth," she answered bashfully.
+
+"Then come on." She was given the pole and with a rapturous giggle drew
+forth another package which proved to contain two little cakes, which
+soon followed the way of the candy.
+
+"Now they must have some ice-cream," decided Jennie.
+
+"You don't suppose it will make them sick, do you?" said Dorothy.
+
+"Of course not. It hasn't made us sick, and why should it make them? We
+have eaten twice as much stuff as they have."
+
+This silenced Dorothy, and the children were made happy by being served
+with two saucers of ice-cream which they ate solemnly, aware that they
+were being watched by their benefactors.
+
+When the last drop had vanished Jennie and Edna each took her last
+nickel and gave it to the children. "Now," said they, "this is for you
+to spend anyway you like."
+
+"And this," said Dorothy, bringing forth her ten cents, "is for you
+to spend for your mother. Now don't forget," she charged the boy. "You
+understand it is to buy something for your mother."
+
+He nodded, and without a word started at once for the fish-pond, the
+money clutched safely in one hand and the other holding the fat little
+fingers of his sister. Evidently there was no joy in life equal to
+fishing, in the eyes of this son of a fisherman.
+
+"Do you suppose he is going to spend it all at the fish-pond?" said
+Dorothy as she watched him trudge off.
+
+"Oh, never mind if he does. No doubt his mother will be just as well
+pleased with what he brings from there as anything."
+
+By this time the tables in the hall were swept of nearly everything
+salable, and the tea had given out in the tea-tent. Only a few persons
+remained, and these were making ready to go. As they passed the
+fish-pond, they saw that the lines were taken in and the young lady in
+charge was preparing to shut up shop. Ahead of them Young Fisherman and
+Curly-Head were toddling home, each clutching a parcel.
+
+"I wonder what they have," said Jennie. "Let's run after them and see."
+
+They were not long in catching up with the toddlers. "What did you
+get?" asked Jennie.
+
+The boy slowly unwound a long piece of string from the package and
+brought to view a piece of soap. "That's for mother," he said.
+
+"Thith ith for muvver, too," said Curly-Head holding out a small paper
+bag. Jennie opened it to find therein a roll of tape.
+
+The little girls tried to keep from laughing, but hardly succeeded.
+"You'd better toddle home," said Jennie. "The bazar is over."
+
+The children did not stir, but watched their friends depart. When
+they were nearly out of hearing, came back to them these words: "The
+ice-cream was awful good." So did Young Fisherman make known his
+appreciation. Curly-Head echoed his words, but her little voice did not
+carry far enough for the girls to hear.
+
+"Where have you been?" asked Mrs. Ramsey when they at last returned to
+the hall.
+
+"We've been spending the last of our money," Jennie told her. "Did you
+make two hundred dollars, Mother?"
+
+"We think so, though it has not all been turned in yet. Your money
+seems to have lasted pretty well if you have just spent the last of
+it."
+
+Jennie laughed, and then told about the funny pair with their piece
+of soap and roll of tape. But somehow it didn't appear so funny to her
+mother as she expected it would, for instead of laughing she gathered
+the three children to her and kissed them all three, murmuring, "You
+dears."
+
+When all the returns were made it was found that a little over the two
+hundred dollars had been taken in, and this was expected to be quite
+enough to buy furniture for the new house when it should be built.
+Cap'n Si was quite overcome, but had few words. It was not like his
+kind to express many thanks. The house was to be begun at once that it
+might be ready before cold weather. Enough had been subscribed for a
+beginning to be made, and several gentlemen had pledged themselves to
+see it through in case there should be a lack.
+
+The dolls returned in state to the house from which they had been
+taken, and the matter of names was much discussed. Finally Edna
+decided that she would name hers after Mrs. Ramsey and so her doll was
+called Virginia. Dorothy wavered between Edna and Jennie, but finally
+concluded the latter would be more in keeping with the occasion. Jennie
+was not long in making up her mind that Eloise should be the name of
+her doll.
+
+"I have always thought it such a lovely name," she said, "and Miss
+Eloise will be so pleased, I know," as indeed she was.
+
+Mrs. Morrison and Louis had gone home just before the bazar came off,
+as they were to stop on the way to see Mrs. Morrison's sister, but
+Louis told Edna that his Uncle Justus had persuaded his mother to send
+him to boarding-school the next year, and strange to say he liked the
+idea, so it will be seen that Uncle Justus did have the talk he had
+in mind that evening of the sailing party. Edna was not allowed to go
+away without having the sail to Gosling Island, and this time there
+was no headache to interfere, but all went smoothly, and the sail home
+by moonlight was something to be remembered. It was decided that the
+Ramseys should go as far as Boston with the little girls when they were
+ready to go home, and that a stop of a couple days should be made. Miss
+Newman and Miss Eloise closed the little bungalow, but hoped to return
+to it another year.
+
+"I never dreamed of such a wonderful summer," Miss Eloise told her
+three little friends as they were taking that moonlight sail. "To think
+that I, poor invalid I, should actually have earned some money, and am
+so much better that I may be able to earn more. Oh, my dears, you don't
+know what it means to me to help sister who has sacrificed her life to
+me. I am going to tell you that she gave up her lover and all her dream
+of a happy home, such as other women have, because I must be her first
+care. I want you to know how dear and good she is, for I don't think
+people always appreciate her. I have found that out since I have been
+more in the world and have seen more people."
+
+This little group was to itself, Miss Eloise lying on a pile of rugs
+and the children around her. The others were in another part of the
+vessel.
+
+"I am glad you told us," said Edna, "for now we shall always remember
+how good she is, and we shall love her more than ever, but we can't
+help loving you best, Miss Eloise."
+
+"Oh, my dear, don't say that. I don't deserve half as much love as
+sister."
+
+However this might be, it was a fact that no one could help loving Miss
+Eloise the best, though the little girls said to one another that
+night, "We must try to be extra nice to Miss Newman next year, because
+Miss Eloise wants us to."
+
+It seemed quite as if it were time to go when the little bungalow was
+closed and the cottages, one after another, showed no sign of lights
+at night. There was a sound of hammers over on the point where the new
+house was going up for Cap'n Si, and it was expected the family would
+move in by Christmas. The children wondered what kind of furniture
+would be bought with the two hundred dollars, but this they could not
+know till next year. However, Amelia told Jennie that her ma rather
+guessed they'd have a parlor organ if they didn't have anything else,
+and Amelia was much set up in consequence.
+
+"Dear me," said Mrs. Ramsey when she was told this, "I was afraid of
+that. It is just like these people. But what is one to do?"
+
+The days were growing shorter and September was well on its way when
+the trunks were packed ready for the start for home. "I should feel
+dreadfully about your going if I didn't expect to see you so soon,"
+said Jennie the night before her friends were to leave.
+
+"We have had the loveliest time," Edna told her, "and we're such
+intimate friends now that I am sure we shall never be anything else,
+even when we are very old."
+
+But here Mrs. Ramsey appeared to say that if all three were to sleep in
+one bed, as they had begged to be allowed to do this last night, they
+must stop chattering and go to sleep. So there were only faint whispers
+for a little while after that and then these ceased.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER XI
+
+      OLD NORTH CHURCH
+
+
+"I am so mixed up in my feelings," said Edna in confidence to Dorothy
+when they were seated in the train. "I want awfully to see them all at
+home, but yet I hate to leave here."
+
+"I feel exactly that way myself," Dorothy confessed. "But even if we
+weren't going to-day we couldn't stay very long, for the house will be
+closed next week, and we shouldn't want to stay there alone."
+
+Edna admitted that this was true, and then Jennie came over to sit with
+them and they talked of the things they were to see and the places they
+were to go in the next two days.
+
+"I think we will go to the Old North Church first," said Mrs. Ramsey
+as they left the train. "We will send the baggage to the hotel, then we
+will not have to come to this part of the city again."
+
+"Oh, what a funny place," said Jennie, as they took their way through
+streets where queer-looking foreigners congregated.
+
+"I think the people are funnier than the place," remarked Edna.
+
+"They are mostly Polish or Russian Jews," Mrs. Ramsey told her. "It
+is not the neighborhood it was in Paul Revere's day. Here is the old
+church."
+
+The children looked with awe and reverence at the ancient edifice, and,
+going inside, were shown some of the Revolutionary relics which were
+there on exhibition. Just as they were coming out they met a young man
+coming in.
+
+"Hallo!" he cried in surprise.
+
+"Why if it isn't Ben," cried Edna delightedly. "Why Ben Barker how did
+you get here?"
+
+"I might ask you the same question," he replied.
+
+"We came by train."
+
+"And I came by boat. I thought it was a shame to be so near this city
+and not stop off to see a few things, so I got my friends to let me off
+and left the yacht to go on to New York while I should stop here for
+couple of days."
+
+"That is just what we are going to do."
+
+"Good! then maybe we can join forces."
+
+"That would suit me nicely," put in Mrs. Ramsey. "My husband will
+not be down till to-morrow evening in time to take the train for Fall
+River, and meantime I have these three little girls on my hands and no
+man to look after us, so if you will come along to see about tickets
+and things I should be pleased."
+
+So Ben fell into line to the great satisfaction of all. "Where were you
+going next?" he asked.
+
+"As long as it is such a pleasant day I thought we'd better make sure
+of Lexington and Concord, and leave the places nearer at hand till
+to-morrow. Of course you will want to visit Harvard, and the children
+have talked of the glass flowers so much that they must see them. While
+you are visiting other points more interesting to you, we will look at
+the flowers."
+
+"Then, ho, for Lexington! We must take a subway car, and seek the
+'rude bridge' where 'the embattled farmers stood to fire the shot heard
+'round the world.'"
+
+The little girls did not quite understand this till Emerson's poem was
+explained to them.
+
+"Oh, I do want to see the place where the British general said:
+'Disperse, ye rebels,'" cried Dorothy.
+
+"Then we'd better trot right along," said Ben. "You and I will go
+ahead, Mrs. Ramsey, and lead the way."
+
+But Jennie wanted to walk with her mother too, and so the other two
+little girls dropped behind to pursue their way through the crooked
+streets where odd sights met their eyes; queerly dressed women and
+children jostled them; at the doors of houses swarthy faces and strange
+forms appeared. The shop windows held many things the children had
+never seen before, and once or twice they stopped to see what these
+very unusual articles could be.
+
+"Do look here, Edna," said Dorothy as they were passing one
+particularly foreign looking place. "I must see what those funny things
+are," and she turned back, Edna following her.
+
+"We mustn't stop," said Edna, "for we might lose the others."
+
+"Oh, just for a second. They are right ahead and we can't miss them."
+But they could not decide what the funny things were and so went on.
+
+"Why, where are Ben and Mrs. Ramsey?" said Edna in alarm. "I saw them a
+minute ago."
+
+"They were right ahead of us when we stopped," said Dorothy, hastening
+her steps. "They must have turned the corner."
+
+They hurried along as fast as possible, turning the corner and looking
+around. But there was no sign of their friends, and after they had gone
+a short distance, "we'd better go back," Dorothy said.
+
+They tried to retrace their steps, but it was a very crooked street
+with others leading from it, and in their bewilderment they took the
+wrong turning, so that in a few minutes they were hopelessly beyond
+any possibility of finding their companions. They looked at one another
+confronted by a problem.
+
+"What shall we do?" at last said Edna in a weak voice.
+
+With one consent they stood still and looked around as if hoping to see
+a familiar face, but here was a denser crowd of foreigners and only the
+dark eyes of Russians and Poles met theirs.
+
+"I don't like it a bit here," said Dorothy as a hideous old woman
+leered down at them.
+
+"Neither do I," quavered Edna. "I think we'd better ask our way back to
+the church and start from there."
+
+They accosted the first person they saw, who happened to be a young
+girl, but at their question she shook her head. "No unnystan," she
+replied.
+
+The next one questioned nodded and began to jabber something in a
+foreign language, so it was the children's turn to say, "No unnystan."
+The next of whom they inquired the way spoke brokenly, but said he
+would put them on the right track, and under his guidance they managed
+to reach the church, and here they met a man in clerical dress who
+looked down at them with a smile. "Did you come to see the old church?"
+he asked. "I am going in, and perhaps you would like to come with me."
+
+"We have been here once this morning," Dorothy told him, "but we have
+lost our friends and don't know which way to go."
+
+"Where were they going?"
+
+"Why, I don't know, I think to the subway."
+
+"Oh, that is easy to find. I will call a policeman and he will take you
+along and show you." He looked up and down the street and finally saw a
+policeman in the distance, and he was coming toward them.
+
+"There he is," said the man. "Just wait till he comes up. I say, Mike,"
+he called to the policeman, "just show these little girls the way to
+the subway, won't you? They have turned the wrong way and are out of
+their bearings." He smiled down on the children, lifted his hat and
+passed into the church, leaving the children with the policeman.
+
+"Which way was you going?" asked the policeman pleasantly.
+
+"We were going to Lexington," Edna told him.
+
+"Then I'll go with you to the end of my beat and pass you along, so's
+you'll get on at the right place."
+
+They walked quietly along wondering a little, as passers-by looked at
+them curiously, if it was supposed they were under arrest. They felt a
+good deal worried, but had a vague idea that the others would wait for
+them at the subway, wherever that might be.
+
+True to his word the policeman turned them over to another of his order
+when they had reached the end of his beat, and this one piloted them
+safely to the entrance of the subway. They had said so confidently that
+they were going to Lexington that neither man questioned, but that they
+knew the way once they had reached the proper station.
+
+They descended the steps with some misgivings, for if Mrs. Ramsey
+and Ben were not there what was to be done next? They had never been
+in the subway before for Mrs. Ramsey had wanted them to see the city
+streets when they had visited the city in the summer, and had taken a
+taxicab to go up town. Mr. Ramsey had done the same when they arrived
+on their journey in his company. A most bewildering place they found
+this same subway to be, full of people rushing for trains, noisy from
+the whizzing of cars from out of cavernous dark places and departing
+into equally unknown darkness. It seemed terrible to the two little
+girls and they were on the verge of tears. Impossible to find anyone in
+such a place as this. Best to get out of it as speedily as they could.
+The roaring of passing trains was so confusing, the jostling of the
+crowd was so unpleasant that the children held fast to one another and
+hurried up the steps and into the open air.
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Edna.
+
+"Oh, dear," echoed Dorothy. "Wasn't it terrible? I felt as if I were
+having a dreadful nightmare."
+
+"I felt as if my head had been taken off and they were rolling it up
+and down the car tracks." This relieved the tension a little and they
+both laughed. "Now what are we going to do?" said Dorothy.
+
+They stood on the sidewalk looking this way and that, uncertain what
+would be the best move. Presently a lady who had just come out of the
+subway, paused and looked at them. "Have you lost anything, little
+girls?" she asked kindly.
+
+"We've lost our way and our friends," Edna told her.
+
+"My, my, that is a great deal to lose. Where do you want to go?"
+
+"We were going to Lexington, but it was so awful down there," Edna
+nodded toward the door through which they had just come, "and we would
+not go back for the world."
+
+The lady smiled. "But what about your friends? Do they live in
+Lexington?"
+
+"Oh, no, we are all staying at the Parker House. We went to see the
+Old North Church, and we were going to Lexington and Concord, all of
+us, but somehow we got separated from them, and we couldn't find them
+anywhere."
+
+"We knew they were coming to the subway, for Ben said so," Dorothy
+chimed in, "and we thought we might find them there. A policeman showed
+us the way."
+
+"That was like looking for a needle in a haystack," said the lady, "for
+you didn't know which of the subway stations they meant, did you? There
+are a great many, you know."
+
+"We didn't know, for we never went down there before. We thought the
+subway was just one station, like the one we came into from the shore."
+
+"Oh, I see. Well, I am a stranger in town too, that is, I don't live
+here, although I know Boston pretty well. I am staying at the Parker
+House, and as it isn't so very far from here, I think your best plan
+will be to go to the Parker House with me and wait there. I am sure
+your friends will think that is what you would be likely to do, and
+will make inquiries there before starting up an alarm for you."
+
+"Oh, do you think they would do that? Do you mean they would ring bells
+or anything?" Dorothy asked with a vague idea of what might be done in
+the case of lost children.
+
+"They mightn't ring bells," said their friend with a smile, "but they
+would notify all the police stations."
+
+Edna nodded. "That's what papa did when I was lost. I wasn't really
+lost, only I was afraid of the cattle and I went up the steps so fast I
+fell and Mrs. Porter lived there; she was a friend of mine, you know."
+Dorothy had heard all about this adventure before, and their new friend
+did not press inquiries. She felt sure the children would be anxiously
+looked for and that it was best to get them to their hotel as soon as
+could be.
+
+It gave the two little girls a great sense of security to enter the
+place from which they had departed that morning, and they were heartily
+glad to reach the building. They found out that their kind acquaintance
+was named Mrs. Cox, and that she was from Washington. She told the
+clerk, at the desk, that if Mrs. Ramsey or any of her party came in or
+telephoned inquiries, that they were to be told instantly the little
+girls were there.
+
+"I am always getting lost, it seems to me," said Edna plaintively, "and
+yet I am never really lost, or I wasn't before this time, only people
+will keep thinking I am. You know, Dorothy, I was perfectly safe at
+the bungalow when Louis thought I was lost, and I was perfectly safe at
+Mrs. Porter's when papa and mamma thought I was lost."
+
+"And you are perfectly safe now when Mrs. Ramsey thinks you are
+lost," added Dorothy in a somewhat aggrieved tone. She felt a little
+conscience-stricken, knowing she was to blame in this instance, for it
+was she who insisted upon stopping to look in at the shop window.
+
+They had not very long to wait, for from their place in the reception
+room, where Mrs. Cox told them it would be best to sit, they presently
+saw Ben hurrying along, a worried look on his face. The two children
+sprang out. "Here we are," they cried.
+
+Ben rushed over and grabbed them both. "You young lunatics," he
+exclaimed, "don't you know better than to get yourselves lost in a city
+like Boston?"
+
+"We didn't mean to, Ben," said Dorothy meekly.
+
+"You didn't mean to," mimicked Ben in a mocking voice. "Well, you have
+scared us nearly to death, if that is any consolation to you."
+
+"Where are Mrs. Ramsey and Jennie?" asked Edna, fearing one or
+the other might be in hysterics for Ben's manner was anything but
+reassuring.
+
+"They are in a cab trying to follow you up. Mrs. Ramsey said she would
+go over the ground we had just left when we missed you, and in the
+meantime I was to come here, if by any chance you had sense enough to
+come straight back to the hotel."
+
+The children looked at each other with rather abashed faces, for they
+had not had sense enough to do that, and might not have thought of it
+but for Mrs. Cox.
+
+"Before you give an account of yourselves," Ben went on, "I must
+telephone to Mrs. Ramsey and relieve her mind. We agreed that I was
+to do that and settled on a drug store where she would go to get any
+message I might have." He rushed off, leaving the little girls feeling
+very guilty. After all that Mrs. Ramsey had done for them to give her
+so much uneasiness, struck them both as being very heartless.
+
+"I wish that old window was in the bottom of the sea before I ever
+stopped to look in," presently said Dorothy vindictively.
+
+Edna made no reply. She knew that it was not the fault of the window,
+but of their own curiosity and heedlessness. They should have kept
+directly behind their friends, she well knew. Her mother had told her
+times enough that it was cowardly to blame inanimate objects for things
+which we were to blame for ourselves, and Aunt Elizabeth went further
+and said no one but a person without any wits would abuse a senseless
+thing for what was his own thoughtlessness or carelessness.
+
+But she was spared moralizing upon this to Dorothy, for Ben returned
+saying that Mrs. Ramsey would be here in a few moments and that the
+expedition to Lexington and Concord would be given up for the day, as
+it was too late now to undertake so long a trip. He was quite grumpy
+about it and the little girls were most unhappy at being under his
+displeasure, for Ben was usually the sunniest of persons and rarely
+gave them a cross look. He did not stay to talk to them now, but went
+to the door to meet Mrs. Ramsey when she should return and the children
+sat one at either end of the sofa, silent and downcast.
+
+Mrs. Cox had not waited for further developments once she had seen that
+her charges were safe, and had gone out again. After what was a long
+time to the two culprits they saw Mrs. Ramsey and Ben approaching with
+Jennie. At sight of them Edna could no longer restrain her tears, but
+burst into a noiseless fit of weeping, and Dorothy, seeing this, began
+to do the same.
+
+This was too much for Ben. He was very fond of his little cousin
+and hated to see her cry. "Here, here," he cried, "don't do that.
+Why, Ande, you are safe now. What's the use of crying when it's all
+over?" He sat down beside her and began to wipe away the tears. "I
+say, Mrs. Ramsey," he went on, looking up, "it is really my fault as
+much as theirs. In that thickly settled part of the city, among all
+those crooked streets, I ought to have kept a better lookout for these
+children, and we don't know yet how it happened, anyhow. I haven't even
+asked them. They may have been knocked down or anything else may have
+happened for all we know."
+
+The two felt that this was very generous of Ben, and their tears flowed
+less plentifully. Mrs. Ramsey drew up a chair and said in a pleasant,
+confidential tone, "Now tell us all about it. How did it happen?"
+
+The children faltered out an explanation in which the queer things
+in the shop-window, the hideous old woman, the man at the church and
+the subway all figured. Once or twice Mrs. Ramsey repressed a smile,
+though for the most part she listened very soberly. At the close of the
+narrative she turned to Ben. "It is just as you said; we ought to have
+kept better watch upon them. One of us should have walked with them
+instead of leaving them to follow alone."
+
+Ben nodded. "That's just what I think. Now, chicks, dry your eyes. We
+are going to have an early lunch and go somewhere, to see the glass
+flowers, very likely."
+
+"Yes," put in Jennie, "please don't cry any more, girls. It makes me
+so miserable to see you. I might have done the same thing if I had been
+with you."
+
+Thus comforted, the girls dried their eyes and followed Jennie and Mrs.
+Ramsey upstairs to bathe their faces and get ready for lunch. It was
+too bad to have lost a whole morning, but there could be a great deal
+crowded into an afternoon, and, by the time the glass flowers had been
+found, peace reigned and everyone was happy.
+
+There was a drive around the beautiful parkway that evening and a visit
+to the splendid library that night. "We shall have to leave Plymouth
+Rock till another year," Mrs. Ramsey remarked as they set out for their
+trip the next morning. "I think you will enjoy Lexington and Concord
+more than a rather longer journey by water as you have just come from
+the seashore." This time there was no delay and there was plenty of time
+to visit the old battle-field, to see the brown house where dear Louisa
+Alcott used to live, to hunt up Emerson's home and the spot endeared by
+memories of Hawthorne. Ben was intensely interested in it all and told
+the girls many things which made them understand much better what they
+were seeing.
+
+They must return in time to meet Mr. Ramsey at the Parker House, and
+to get ready for their journey home, but there was a chance to walk
+through the botanical gardens and the Commons, to look across at the
+gilded dome of the State House, and to see the church where the great
+Phillips Brooks had preached.
+
+It was hard to part with Jennie and her mother, but the thought of
+home and the dear ones there was too happy an anticipation to cause any
+tears to be shed, and the little girls went off with a memory of Boston
+marred only by that unfortunate shop window in the foreign quarter.
+
+
+
+
+      CHAPTER XII
+
+      HOME AGAIN
+
+
+"Are you going all the way home with us?" Edna asked Ben as they left
+the boat at the wharf.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Ramsey thinks he should stay in New York for the day, and has
+handed you over to my tender mercies, so if we can get a good train you
+will be at home in a very few hours."
+
+"Now that we are so near I'm just crazy to get there," said Dorothy.
+"Will they know exactly when we are coming, Ben?"
+
+"We can easily let them know either by telephone or telegraph."
+
+"I think I'd rather surprise them, wouldn't you, Edna?"
+
+"It won't be such a big surprise, for mother knows we are coming some
+time to-day."
+
+"Then there is no use in sending word ahead," decided Dorothy. "They
+will be looking for us anyway."
+
+Just here Mr. Ramsey came up. "Well, young ladies," he said, "so you
+are going to leave me. I think this young man can be trusted to take
+care of you the rest of the way, and I hope as soon as Jennie gets back
+you will come in to see her. We have all enjoyed having you with us,
+and I hope you will feel perfectly at home in our house always."
+
+The little girls thanked him and said they had had a very happy time
+and wouldn't he tell Jennie to come out to see them as soon as she
+returned. So they parted, and then there was the rush of getting to
+the train and the pleasant sense of knowing this was the last stage
+of their journey. Ben whiled away the time by asking them ridiculous
+conundrums which made them so hilarious that more than one fellow
+traveller smiled in sympathy with their merry laughs.
+
+The more absurd the conundrums the better the children liked them, and
+those that Ben made up as they went along pleased them best of all.
+"When is a fence not a fence?" asked Ben and the answer was, "when it's
+an advertisement." "What would you do if company came and there were no
+more tea in the teapot?" was the next question.
+
+"I'd send out for more tea," responded Dorothy.
+
+"What would you do, Ande?"
+
+"I don't know. What would you?"
+
+"I'd add hot water and serve just as the sign tells you to do."
+
+"But that means for soup."
+
+"Well, but it answers just as well for tea. Now, here is another one
+for you. Suppose you couldn't get tea, what would you do?
+
+"I'd go without."
+
+"I wouldn't; I'd use Horlick's malted milk."
+
+"Oh, that is the sign just over there, isn't it? Too late, Dorothy,
+we've passed it."
+
+"Make up another, Ben," urged Dorothy.
+
+"Well, here goes. If I wanted to be sure of an intellectual meal, what
+would I do?"
+
+They guessed several things, but Ben shook his head at each answer. "I
+think it is a very hard one," declared Edna. "Intellectual is a hard
+word anyhow. You will have to tell us, Ben."
+
+"Give it up?"
+
+"Yes, I do; don't you, Dorrie?"
+
+"Yes, it is too hard for me."
+
+"Then this is the answer: I'd put my roasts through a course of
+Browning. I think that's pretty good myself. I shall have to salt it
+down to ask your elders. I'll give you an easy one now. Why do they
+call the man who drives the locomotive an engineer?"
+
+Edna finally guessed this. "Because he is near the engine," she said.
+
+"Good girl; go up head," cried Ben. "You seem to be improving. Now each
+of you try to make up a limerick and I'll do the same."
+
+"Oh, we can't do that," objected Dorothy.
+
+"Yes, you can if you try. I will give you a model.
+
+          There was a young person named Dorrie
+          Who said to her comrade, 'I'm sorry
+          I came on the train,
+          But I'll do it again
+          When Ben isn't with us to worry.'"
+
+The girls laughed at this and set themselves to work to produce
+something of the same kind. After many attempts Edna gave this:
+
+          "There was a young man named Benny
+          Who said, 'Please give me a penny.
+          Some peanuts I'll buy
+          All nice and dry,'
+          But he didn't give us children any."
+
+"That's not bad at all," said Ben laughing. "Did you mean that for a
+hint, and do you think I'd buy peanuts and keep them all to myself?"
+
+"Oh, no." Edna was shocked that he should think she really intended a
+hint. "I just had to make up something and that was the best I could
+do."
+
+"Oh, dear, I can't get my last line," complained Dorothy. "I've tried
+and tried and I can't find a rhyme for Barker and Parker. This as far
+as I can get:
+
+          There was a young man named Barker
+          Who stayed at the Hotel Parker
+          And ate lots of rolls
+          And drank from the bowls--
+
+I had to say bowls to make it rhyme, though I really meant cups, and
+there I am stuck."
+
+Here Ben came to her rescue.
+
+          "And drank from the bowls
+          Until his complexion grew darker,"
+
+he added to the amusement of the girls.
+
+They kept up the limericks for some time, though Dorothy found it such
+hard work that she finally refused to try any more, and Ben looking
+at his watch decided it was time to go into the dining-car for dinner.
+This was a new experience and made a pleasant break in the monotony of
+the journey. By the time the meal was finished they were so near their
+own station that the rest of the way seemed nothing at all. At the
+station they had to change cars or else make the trip by the trolley.
+
+"Which shall we do?" asked Ben.
+
+"Which will get us there first?" asked Edna.
+
+"Let me see." Ben pulled out a time table. "There will be a train in
+half an hour. It is a pretty good one, and I think will get us there
+about five minutes ahead of the trolley. It's a choice between sitting
+in the station or going ahead on the trolley."
+
+"Which would you rather do?" Dorothy asked him.
+
+"I think perhaps the train will be better on account of the baggage
+which can go right through with us." So they sat down to wait till
+their train should be called and found enough to amuse them in watching
+the people go and come.
+
+"It does look so natural," remarked Dorothy, when the train began to
+move. "Just think, Edna, in a few days we shall be starting to school
+again, and be coming this way every day."
+
+"And we shall be seeing Uncle Justus and Aunt Elizabeth and all the
+girls. I wonder if we shall have as good times at the G. R. Club as
+we did last year. We must go to see Margaret and Nettie very soon,
+Dorothy, for we shall have such heaps to tell them."
+
+"We shall want to tell our own families first."
+
+"Oh, of course. I wonder if Uncle Justus is still with the others on
+the yacht. I never thought to ask Ben." She leaned over to speak to her
+cousin who was sitting directly in front and learned that Mr. Horner
+had left the yacht at Portland and had come home by rail from that
+city.
+
+"The old chap had a good time while he was with us," Ben told her, "and
+I think it limbered him up a lot."
+
+"Why, was he stiff from rheumatism like Cap'n Si?" asked Edna
+innocently.
+
+Ben laughed. "No, he was stiff from eating too many ramrods."
+
+Edna knew this wasn't true, but she didn't ask any more questions just
+then. The train was nearing the familiar station where they were to get
+off. She wondered if Celia and the boys, or Celia and Agnes would be
+there to meet them. She thought it very likely, as the family must know
+they would arrive about this time.
+
+But as the train moved off there was no sign of any of their friends.
+"They didn't come after all," said Edna to Dorothy. "I wonder if they
+know Ben is with us?"
+
+"Why, how could they know. Did you tell them on the post-card you wrote
+from Boston, or the one you sent Celia from Concord?"
+
+"No. Did you say anything about it?"
+
+"Not a word."
+
+"Then that will be a sort of surprise, for even if they expect us they
+won't expect Ben."
+
+It was not a very long walk from the station to the home of either
+little girl, though it had appeared long enough to Edna one evening the
+winter before when she had been caught in a snow-storm.
+
+"I won't stop," said Dorothy, when they had reached Edna's gate. "I can
+scarcely wait to see mother."
+
+"I feel just that way," said Edna. "Will you come over this evening?"
+
+"Maybe. I can't promise, for I shall hate to leave them all. You come
+over."
+
+"But I shan't want to leave them all either. I reckon we'd better wait
+till to-morrow."
+
+"All right. Good-bye till then." And Dorothy started off at a run while
+Edna and Ben turned in at the gate.
+
+How quiet it seemed! No one was on the porch, and the sound of their
+voices did not bring anyone down from upstairs. "I wonder where they
+all are. I'll go up very softly and s'prise them," whispered Edna to
+Ben, "and in a little while you come up and have another s'prise."
+Ben nodded understandingly and Edna crept softly up the stairs. There
+was no sound of voices anywhere. "They must all be asleep," the child
+murmured, but as it was just about lunch time, that seemed to be rather
+an unusual state of things. She went from room to room. Not a soul was
+to be seen.
+
+"That is the funniest thing," said Edna disappointedly. "I wonder where
+in the world everybody can be. Surely they could not be hiding," but to
+make sure she looked in closets and even under the beds, then she went
+slowly downstairs to Ben.
+
+"There isn't a soul anywhere," she told him. "Oh, Ben, I am so
+dreadfully disappointed. What do you suppose has become of everybody?"
+
+"Can't say, my dear. Have you interviewed the cook? I thought I heard
+sounds of life in the kitchen."
+
+"Why, of course I can ask her. I never thought of that." She flew to
+the kitchen. "Oh, Lizzie," she cried, "where is everybody?"
+
+"Saints above!" cried Lizzie, "and where did ye come from all of a
+suddint like this?"
+
+"Why, we came out on the train!"
+
+"Not by yerself?"
+
+"No, Dorothy and Cousin Ben came with me."
+
+"Hear to that now. And didn't ye see the mother nor none of thim that's
+gone to meet ye?"
+
+"Why, no! When did they go to meet us?"
+
+"This morning. Sure it was your mother that said, 'Thim children will
+be gettin' in fair and airly and I'll just be goin' in to Misther
+Ramsey's office and meet thim when they git there and bring thim right
+along with me.' Thin Miss Ceely speaks up and says, 'I'll be goin,'
+too.'"
+
+"But we didn't go to Mr. Ramsey's office. We left him in New York and
+Cousin Ben Barker brought us on from there."
+
+"Did ye ever hear the likes of that now? She'll be as disappinted as
+yerself when she gets there and doesn't find ye."
+
+"Where are the boys?"
+
+"They're off too. When they learns that their mother was going to town
+they says we'll go to one of the neighbors, I disremember which one
+it was, but they says they won't be back to lunch, bein' as they don't
+like to ate without the ithers. Have ye had any lunch yerself, child?"
+
+"No, and neither has Cousin Ben."
+
+"Then, jest you kape quiet and I'll have ye a bite in three shakes.
+Run along in and tell Mr. Barker not to be oneasy, that he shall have
+something right away."
+
+Edna returned to Ben with her tale of cross purposes. "Do you suppose
+mother will be worried when she gets to Mr. Ramsey's office and finds
+we haven't come?"
+
+"It is possible she might be. I reckon I'd better telephone in and tell
+them that we have arrived and if Mrs. Conway comes to tell her we are
+here. I'll call up your father, too."
+
+"Oh, that will be the very best thing to do."
+
+But Ben learned that Mrs. Conway had been to Mr. Ramsey's office, and
+not finding her daughter had gone at once to her husband's office. From
+this latter point it was learned that Mr. and Mrs. Conway and their
+daughter had just gone out to lunch. "Haven't been gone five minutes,"
+Ben was told. "Say to Mr. Conway when he comes in that his daughter
+Edna is at home," said Ben and then he hung up the receiver. "Can't get
+anyone of them," he told Edna, "but your father will hear where you are
+as soon as he gets back. In the meantime we'll have to make the best of
+it."
+
+They made the best of it by eating the very good lunch which Lizzie
+prepared, and then Edna's trunk having arrived she set to work to
+unpack it, being glad to release Virginia from her long confinement.
+Next it seemed a good plan to hunt up her old dolls and introduce them
+to this lovely new sister.
+
+Ben, who had grown tired of waiting for his aunt and cousin, went
+to the house of one of his friends, and after Edna had seen that all
+her children were in good condition she seated herself at one of the
+front windows to watch for her mother. It seemed very funny that it
+should be she who was watching for someone to come instead of someone
+watching for her. She would not go to Dorothy's for fear she should
+miss her mother and sister, and likewise for the reason that she felt
+it would be a very flat report she would have to make to Dorothy of her
+homecoming.
+
+She sat for what seemed a long time, but at last her patience was
+rewarded by seeing a group of four coming up the road, and as they
+drew near she saw that it was not only her own mother and sister, but
+Dorothy's likewise who had gone to town to meet the travelers.
+
+She could hardly wait to get down stairs, and she heard Celia's
+surprised voice say, "Why there she is now," and in another minute she
+was in her mother's arms.
+
+"Why, you little rogue," cried Mrs. Conway, when the hugging and
+kissing had ceased. "You have certainly stolen a march on us all. How
+did you get here?"
+
+"Is Dorothy with you?" asked Mrs. Evans anxiously.
+
+"She isn't here with me, but she is at home," Edna made reply.
+
+"Oh, then, we must hurry along," said Mrs. Evans, and without waiting
+to hear more particulars she and her daughter Agnes hastened away.
+
+Then Mrs. Conway sat down and gathered Edna to her. "It is so nice to
+have my baby again," she said. "I don't believe I can ever consent to
+let her stay so long away another time. Now tell me all about it. How
+did you happen to get here so early and why didn't I find you at Mr.
+Ramsey's office as I expected?"
+
+"Did you expect to find us there?"
+
+"Why, certainly, Mrs. Ramsey wrote that you would come back with her
+husband, and that you would arrive at about noon, so naturally I didn't
+expect Mr. Ramsey to bring you all the way out here, besides his clerks
+told me that he had not returned, but had telephoned from New York that
+he would arrive this evening. So of course I thought you would not get
+here till then."
+
+"And were you disappointed?"
+
+"Oh, I was indeed; but you haven't told me how you did get here."
+
+"Ben brought us."
+
+"Ben? Where is he?"
+
+"Oh, he was around a little while ago, but I reckon he got tired of
+waiting and went off somewhere; he will be back after a while."
+
+"But I don't understand yet. Where did you come across Ben?"
+
+"In Boston at the Old North Church; he was going in just as we were
+going out, and he stayed with us the rest of the time and we all came
+on together; then when Mr. Ramsey found that Ben could come with us he
+said he thought he might as well stay in New York and attend to some
+business and let us come on. Ben was going to telephone, but it was
+just as well he didn't."
+
+"It is all very clear now, and I can see that no one was to blame, for
+of course no one knew that we were going to meet you."
+
+"But, oh, Mother, it is so good to have you again," said Edna, giving
+her mother another squeeze. "I haven't kissed sister half enough
+either." There was another season of hugging and kissing, and then
+all went upstairs that Edna might show her new doll and present the
+little gifts she had bought at the bazar. Then Ben came in and there
+were more explanations, and next the boys came rushing upstairs to give
+boisterous bearlike hugs and to tell Edna she looked fine as silk, and
+so the hours went on till it was time for Mr. Conway to come and that
+gave a new excitement and questioning and explaining.
+
+After all had been smoothed out Mr. Conway made the remark, "I saw
+Uncle Justus this afternoon. He came into the office to ask if Edna had
+arrived. He certainly is fond of the child."
+
+Then Edna told of how Uncle Justus gave up the sailing party on her
+account and of how gentle and kind he was.
+
+"Gee!" cried Charlie, "I should think you'd rather he would have gone."
+For Uncle Justus had never shown the boys his gentler side and they
+stood in great awe of him, scuttling out of sight whenever they saw him
+coming.
+
+Everyone smiled at Charlie's speech, but Edna said gravely, "I loved to
+have him stay. He took me in his lap and rocked me and we had a lovely
+time."
+
+Charlie could scarcely believe this, but he said nothing and the talk
+went on to other things. Edna and Ben were the center of interest
+that evening, for when Edna was not telling something that went on at
+Ramsey's, Ben was relating some of his yachting experiences. He would
+leave for his own home the next day, but would return later to take up
+his studies at college, and, as last year, to spend the winter with his
+aunt and cousins.
+
+It seemed warm and murky after the sharp fresh from the sea, and Edna,
+for all her excitement, was ready for bed early. Just as she was going
+upstairs the telephone rang, and Celia answered. "Someone for you,
+Edna," she said, and Edna went to the 'phone.
+
+"Hallo, Edna," came Dorothy's familiar voice "I couldn't go to sleep
+without saying good-night to you. I thought I could but I couldn't. Are
+you all right?"
+
+"Yes. Are you? Wasn't it funny that we didn't find anyone home when we
+got here. Why didn't you come over?"
+
+"Why didn't you?" Then each heard a little giggle, for the same reason
+was in the mind of each.
+
+"Well, good-night. I kind of miss you, Edna," came Dorothy's final
+words.
+
+"And I kind of miss you. Good-night."
+
+There was no sound of murmuring waves on the beach, no Jennie in the
+next room, and no Dorothy as bed-fellow, but instead there was the
+murmur of leaves making a pleasant song, there was Celia playing softly
+on the piano, and best of all there was mother very near; so Edna
+turned over with a sigh of content, glad that she was in her own home.
+
+
+      THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+The following corrections have been made:
+
+p. 13: "mother take things so coolly." Period changed to question mark;
+
+p. 15: "Edna, "and I am" Removed the double quotation mark before and;
+"an she is just crazy" an changed to and;
+
+p. 24: "have another." A double quotation mark was added after another;
+
+p. 26: "At last the good-bys" good-bys changed to good-byes;
+
+p. 36: ""I didn't at first," she answered, but I do now. "Is it time to
+get up, Dorothy?"" Double quotation mark moved: "I didn't at first," she
+answered, "but I do now. Is it time to get up, Dorothy?";
+
+p. 47: "two. "Well, run along and" Double quotation mark removed before
+Well;
+
+p. 48: "ocean till now?" Question mark changed to period;
+
+p. 50: ""They soon found that" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 55: "have a bazaar for her" bazaar changed to bazar;
+
+p. 56: "I know that, "but the doctor" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 57: "with her two children a little girl" Comma added after children;
+
+p. 59: "remarked Dorothy;"I don't" Added space between comma and double
+quotation mark;
+
+p. 63: "Cape, any you can" any corrected to and;
+
+p. 64: "all the time'" Single quotation mark changed to double quotation
+mark;
+
+p. 65: "for a porch-party and let" Hyphen omitted;
+
+p. 69: ""However, they were" Omitted double quotation mark;
+
+p. 71: "she said. "House-hunting" Inserted paragraph break after said.;
+"until Mrs. Ramsey cried." Period changed to comma;
+
+p. 73: "myself, "Why shouldn't Miss" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 94: "boat belongs to, you know," Comma changed to period;
+
+p. 104: "It's body was reared" It's changed to Its;
+
+p. 108: "say. Why all this" Period changed to comma;
+
+p. 109: "for the sailing party?" Question mark changed to period;
+
+p. 111: "Please, dear Mr. Ramsey, go." Mr. changed to Mrs.;
+
+p. 112: "and one in a while" one changed to once;
+
+p. 118: "has something proper." Double quotation mark added after
+proper.; "heard Mr. Ramsey say." Period changed to comma;
+
+p. 125: "Pippin. Nobody knows how much" Added double quotation mark
+before Nobody;
+
+p. 131: ""show as she woul" woul changed to would;
+
+p. 133: "we are getting today" today changed to to-day; ""Some day," she
+said "" Added coma after said;
+
+p. 135: "Mrs Ramsey had telephoned" Added period after Mrs;
+
+p. 140: "thought of if if Miss" First if changed to it;
+
+p. 145: "give to Miss Eloise?" Why" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 148: ""Mother," what shall" Double quotation mark after the comma
+removed;
+
+p. 149: "The fish pond was" fish pond changed to fishpond;
+
+p. 153: "said Curley-Head holding" Curley changed to Curly;
+
+p. 154: "hundred dollars, Mother?'" Single quotation mark changed to
+double quotation mark; "not carry for enough" for changed to far;
+
+p. 157: "the the little girls said" removed superfluous the;
+
+p. 164: "reached the proper station."" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 172: "from the seashore." Double quotation mark added after period;
+
+p. 177: "with us to worry." Single and double quotation mark added after
+worry.;
+
+p. 180: "better wait till tomorrow" tomorrow changed to to-morrow;
+
+p. 186: "fine as silk, "" Double quotation mark removed;
+
+p. 187: "was not telling somthing" somthing changed to something; "Some
+of his yatching experiences" yatching changed to yachting;
+
+There are some words at line-breaks in the original where it is not
+clear if they should be hyphenated or not: woe-begone, vouchsafe,
+fireplace, lobster-pots, tip-toeing, homeless, haystack, homecoming;
+
+Everything else has been retained as printed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Dear Little Girl's Summer Holidays, by 
+Amy E. Blanchard
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41631 ***