A Dear Little Girl's Summer Holidays Part 12

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 n.o.body 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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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 ash.o.r.e.

"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."