Bert. “Maybe Uncle William would come, and perhaps my Cousin Harry, from Meadow Brook. He loves that sort of sport. By the way, we expect him down for a few days; perhaps next week.”
“Good!” cried Hal. “The boat carnival is on next week. I’m sure he would enjoy that.”
The boys were back at the boathouse now, and Bert gathered up his pond lilies.
“There’ll be a scramble for them when the girls see them,” he said. “Nellie McLaughlin, next to Dorothy, is out for fun. She is not a bit like a sick girl.”
“Perhaps she isn’t sick now,” said Hal, “but has to be careful. She seems quite thin.”
“Mother says she wants fun, more than medicine,” went on Bert. “I guess she had to go to work because her father is away at sea. He’s been gone a year and he only expected to be away six months.”
“So is my Uncle George,” remarked Hal. “He went to the West Indies to bring back a valuable cargo of wood. He had only a small vessel, and a few men. Say, did you say her name was McLaughlin?” exclaimed Hal, suddenly.
“Yes; they call him Mack for short, but his name is McLaughlin.”
“Why, that was the name of the man who went with Uncle George!” declared Hal. “Maybe it was her father.”
“Sounds like it,” Bert said. “Tell Uncle William about it sometime. I wouldn’t mention it to Nellie, she cut up so, they said, the first time she saw the ocean. Poor thing! I suppose she just imagined her father was tossing about in the waves.”
The boys had tied the canoe to its post, and now made their way up over the hill toward the house.
“Here they come,” said Bert, as Nan, Nellie, and Dorothy came racing down the hill.
“Oh!” cried Dorothy, “give me some!”
“Oh, you know me, Bert?” pleaded Nellie.
“Hal, I wound up your kite string, didn’t I?” insisted Nan, by way of showing that she surely deserved some of Hal’s pond lilies.
“And I found your ball in the bushes, Bert,” urged Dorothy.
“They’re not for little girls,” Hal said, waving his hand comically, like a duke in a comic opera. “Run along, little girls, run along,” he said, rolling his r’s in real stage fashion, and holding the pond lilies against his heart.
“But if we get them, may we have them sir knight?” asked Dorothy, keeping up the joke.
“You surely can!” replied Hal, running short on his stage words.
At this Nellie dashed into the path ahead of Hal, and Dorothy turned toward Bert. Nan crowded in close to Dorothy, and the boys had some dodging to get a start. Finally Hal shot out back of the big bush, and Nellie darted after him. Of course, the boys were better runners than the girls, but somehow, girls always expect something wonderful to happen, when they start on a race like that. Hal had tennis slippers on, and he went like a deer. But just as he was about to call “home free” and as he reached the donkey barn, he turned on his ankle.
Nellie had her hands on the pond lilies instantly, for Hal was obliged to stop and nurse his ankle.
“They’re yours,” he gave in, handing her the beautiful bunch of blooms.
“Oh, aren’t they lovely!” exclaimed the little cash girl, but no one knew that was the first time she ever, in all her life, held a pond lily in her hand.
“I’m going to give them to Mrs. Bobbsey,” she decided, starting at once to the house with the fragrant prize in her arms. Neither Dorothy nor Nan had caught Bert, but he handed his flowers to his cousin.
“Give them to Aunt Emily,” he said gallantly, while Dorothy took the bouquet and declared she could have caught Bert, anyhow, if she “only had a few more feet,” whatever that meant.
CHAPTER IX
Fun on the Sands
“How many shells did you get in your hunt?” Bert asked the girls, when the excitement over the pond lilies had died away.
“We never went,” replied Dorothy. “First, Freddie fell down and had to cry awhile, then he had to stop to see the gutter band, next he had a ride on the five-cent donkey, and by that time there were so many people out, mother said there would not be a pretty shell left, so we decided to go to-morrow morning.”
“Then Hal and I will go along,” said Bert. “I want to look for nets, to put in my den at home.”
“We are going for a swim now,” went on Dorothy; “we only came back for our suits.”
“There seems so much to do down here, it will take a week to have a try at everything,” said Bert. “I’ve only been in the water once, but I’m going for a good swim now. Come along, Hal.”
“Yes, we always go before lunch,” said Hal starting off for his suit.
Soon Dorothy, Nan, Nellie, and Flossie appeared with their suits done up in the neat little rubber bags that Aunt Emily had bought at a hospital fair. Then Freddie came with Mrs. Bobbsey, and Dorothy, with her bag on a stick over her shoulder, led the procession to the beach.
As Dorothy told Nan, they had a comfortable bathhouse rented for the season, with plenty of hooks to hang things on, besides a mirror, to see how one’s hair looked, after the waves had done it up mermaid fashion.
It did not take the girls long to get ready, and presently all appeared on the beach in pretty blue and white suits, with the large white sailor collars, that always make bathing suits look just right, because real sailors wear that shape of collar.
Flossie wore a white flannel suit, and with her pretty yellow curls, she “looked like a doll,” so Nellie said. Freddie’s suit was white too, as he always had things as near like his twin sister’s as a boy’s clothes could be. Altogether the party made a pretty summer picture, as they ran down to the waves, and promptly dipped in.
“Put your head under or you’ll take cold,” called Dorothy, as she emerged from a big wave that had completely covered her up.
Nellie and Nan “ducked” under, but Flossie was a little timid, and held her mother’s right hand even tighter than Freddie clung to her left.
“We must get hold of the ropes,” declared Mrs. Bobbsey, seeing a big wave coming.
They just reached the ropes when the wave caught them. Nellie and Nan were out farther, and the billow struck Nellie with such force it actually washed her up on shore.
“Ha! ha!” laughed Dorothy, “Nellie got the first tumble.” And then the waves kept dashing in so quickly that there was no more chance for conversation. Freddie ducked under as every wave came, but Flossie was not always quick enough, and it was very hard for her to keep hold of the ropes when a big splasher dashed against her. Dorothy had not permission to swim out as far as she wanted to go, for her mother did not allow her outside the lines, excepting when Mr. Minturn was swimming near her, so she had to be content with floating around near where the other girls bounced up and down, like the bubbles on the billows.
“Look out, Nan!” called Dorothy, suddenly, as Nan stood for a moment fixing her belt. But the warning came too late, for the next minute a wave picked Nan up and tossed her with such force against a pier, that everybody thought she must be hurt. Mrs. Bobbsey was quite frightened, and ran out on the beach, putting Freddie and Flossie at a safe distance from the water, while she made her way to where Nan had been tossed.
For a minute or so, it seemed, Nan disappeared, but presently she bobbed up, out of breath, but laughing, for Hal had her by the hand, and was helping her to shore. The boys had been swimming around by themselves near by, and Hal saw the wave making for Nan just in time to get there first.
“I had to swim that time,” laughed Nan, “whether I knew how or not.”
“You