But in this instance it was very dull business, for the reason that there were no sh.e.l.ls to be found. They had all become weary of groping about in the sand, when Johnny looked at the bay, and observed a boy coming towards them, rowing a boat.
"Hilloa, there!" shouted the boy.
"Hilloa!" responded Johnny. "If that isn"t Sol Rosenberg!" (This was Mandoline"s brother.) "Where you going, Sol?"
"Nowhere particular. Get in and go too?"
"Yes," said Johnny, "Fred Jackson and I. Fred can steer as straight"s a needle. I"ll paddle, you know."
"Girls too," added Solomon, gallantly.
With one accord the children walked eagerly towards the boat, which, by this time, Solomon had moored against the beach. All but Dotty.
"Are you old enough, Solly Rosenberg, old enough and know enough not to drown us all to pieces?"
Young Solomon laughed.
"If I can"t manage a small concern like this!"
"But four, and one more, make _five_, Solly!"
"You don"t say so! Well, I could carry sixteen, if they were all such little snips as you are!"
"Dot Parlin thinks she weighs as much as two tons," said Johnny, in an irritating tone.
"I"m dreadful "fraid," murmured the little Jewess, shaking the wayward hair out of her magnificent eyes; "but I"ll go if you will, Dotty Dimple."
Dotty shoved her feet into the sand and reflected.
"My mamma is afraid of the water; but then she was upset in a scursion, and that"s why she"s afraid."
"What kind of thing is a _scursion_?" asked Johnny.
"A Sabbath school picnic. And she wasn"t upset either, only she "xpected to be."
"Come on!" called Solly. "All aboard!"
"But my mamma said it wasn"t safe!"
"No, she didn"t. She never saw this boat; she doesn"t know whether it"s safe or not."
"Doesn"t it leak a single speck, Solly Rosenberg? It looks wet."
"Pshaw! That"s where the waves come in; it"s as tight as the bark to a tree."
Dotty was becoming very eager to go. It sometimes did seem, when she really wished to do any particular thing, that she wished it more than any one else.
"But, O dear! my mamma doesn"t "low me to sail."
This was spoken sorrowfully; but there was a little wavering in the tone. Dotty had taken the first false step; she had listened to the voice of temptation, and every persuasive word of Solly"s left her weaker than it had found her.
"My mamma doesn"t _ever_ "low me to sail."
"You _couldn"t_ sail in a wherry if you were to try," said Johnny.
"Come, Sol, don"t stop to bother: who wants girls? They just spoil the fun."
"For shame!" said the more polite Solomon, drawing himself up and looking very manly; "the girls shall go if they want to. Only just round the curve."
Dotty liked Solly at that moment very much. She looked at her ill-mannered little cousin with royal disdain, and walked slowly and cautiously on towards the boat. Lina followed at a little distance.
_Her_ mother had also forbidden her to go on the water, and had declared that Solomon was too young to manage a boat; but neither Lina nor her brother had very tender consciences. If they did wrong things, and n.o.body knew it, it was all very well; but if they were found out--ah!
then was the time to be sorry! Dotty"s conscience had been much better educated than theirs: it gave her plenty of warning, which she would not heed, and tried to stifle by talking.
"It isn"t a sail boat. When my mamma went in the scursion, then it was a sail boat, and the wind whistled so the sails shook dreadfully. My mamma never talked to me about wherries; she didn"t ever say I mustn"t go in a wherry."
While Dotty was still talking, she entered the boat, the last of the five. She seated herself, but was annoyed to find her dainty gaiters sinking into a pool of dirty water. She lifted her feet, but could not keep them up. Well, perhaps she shouldn"t have the sore throat after all; she couldn"t help it now if she did have it. At any rate she was determined not to complain, when Solly had been so very polite.
"Isn"t this prime?" said Johnny, as they launched out upon the water.
The motion was certainly pleasant, and for a few moments Dotty was quite delighted, thinking over and over again,--
"Mamma won"t care; it"s nothing but a wherry, and the wind doesn"t blow."
Then she suddenly remembered her promise to Prudy, not to go "anywhere near the water."
"And I never thought I should. I never s"posed I should see Solly Rosenberg. I didn"t know he was in this city. Prudy"d like it just as well as I do, if she was in here, and knew "twas a wherry."
CHAPTER VI.
HOW IT ENDED.
Yes, no doubt Prudy would have liked it if her mother had approved; for then she could have gone with a clear conscience, and also without fear.
But Prudy had suffered in her short life a great deal of what we call "discipline," and had learned pretty thoroughly the lesson of obedience.
She knew it is never of the least use for little girls, or any one else, to expect to be happy in the wrong way.
"Straight is the line of duty, Curved is the line of beauty; Follow one, and thou shalt see The other ever following thee."
This means, when put into child"s English, that if we try above everything else to have a good time, we never have it; but if we try first of all to do right, then the good time will come of itself. Dotty certainly had not tried to do right: now we will see if that beautiful "curved line" of happiness followed her.
She was very young, or she would have known better than to trust herself on the ocean with a little boy like Solly Rosenberg, even if her mother had not forbidden it: but Dotty was rash; her bold spirit never feared danger.
If she, or any of the rest of the party, had only looked at the sky! But if they had, I dare say they would have made nothing of it. There were clouds scudding about up there like shadowy sail-boats, and the sun had to fight his way through them, till by and by he gave it up entirely, and never so much as peeped out. By that time it was decidedly bad weather; the light had to be sifted through heavy gray curtains.
This made such a difference with the appearance of everything! The world, which had looked, an hour ago, so gay and light-hearted, was now rather gloomy. The waves, instead of sparkling, only foamed and bubbled; indeed they grew larger every moment, for the wind was blowing a gale.
The white sea-gulls hovered over the bay, flapping their wings; and Dotty had never liked sea-gulls. She began to grow a very little uneasy.