"But I can wade, can"t I? I want to build so many things that the water runs up into."
"Certainly, you can take off your shoes and stockings when it"s warm enough, as it is this morning, if your mother is willing you should drabble your skirts; but keep your dress on and then you won"t forget yourself."
Jewel leaned toward the speaker affectionately. "Grandpa, you know I"m a pretty big girl. I"ll be nine the first of September."
"Yes, I know that."
"Beside, you"re going to be with me all the time," she went on.
"H"m. Well, now see these sand-fleas race."
"Oh, are they sand-fleas? Just wait for Anna Belle." The child reached over to where the doll was gazing, fascinated, at the advancing, roaring breakers.
Her boa and plumed hat had evidently been put away from the moths. She wore a most becoming bathing costume of blue and white, and a coquettish silk handkerchief was knotted around her head. It was evident that, in common with some other summer girls, she did not intend to wet her fetching bathing-suit, and certainly it would be a risk to go into the water wearing the necklace that now sparkled in the summer sun.
"Come here, dearie, and see the baby lobsters," said Jewel, holding her child carefully away from her own glistening wetness, and seating her against Mrs. Evringham"s knee.
"If lobsters could hop like this," said Mr. Evringham, "they would be shooting out of the ocean like dolphins. Now you choose one, Jewel, and we"ll see which wins the race. We"re going to place them in the middle of the ring, and watch which hops first outside the circle."
Jewel chuckled gleefully as she caught one. "Oh, mother, aren"t his eyes funny! He looks as _surprised_ all the time. Now hop, dearie," she added, as she placed him beside the one Mr. Evringham had set down. "Which do you guess, Anna Belle? She guesses grandpa"s will beat."
"Well, I guess yours, Jewel," said her mother; but scarcely were the words spoken when Anna Belle"s prophecy was proved correct by the airy bound with which one of the fleas cleared the barrier while Jewel"s choice still remained transfixed. They all laughed except Anna Belle, who only smiled complacently.
Jewel leaned over her staring protegee. "If I only knew _what_ you were so surprised at, dearie, I"d explain it to you," she said. Then she gently pushed the creature, and it sped, tardily, over the border.
They pursued this game until the bathing-suit was dry; then Mr. Evringham yawned. "Ah, this bright air makes me sleepy. Haven"t you something you can read to us, Julia?"
"Yes, yes," cried Jewel, "she brought the story-book."
"But I didn"t realize it would be so noisy. I could never read aloud against this roaring."
"Oh, we"ll go back among the dunes. That"s easy," returned Mr. Evringham.
"You don"t want to hear one of these little tales, father," said Julia, flushing.
"Why, he just loves them," replied Jewel earnestly. "I"ve told them all to him, and he"s just as _interested_."
Mrs. Evringham did not doubt this, and she and the broker exchanged a look of understanding, but he smiled.
"I"ll be very good if you"ll let me come," he said. "I forgot the ribbon bows, but perhaps you"d let me qualify by holding Anna Belle. Run and get into your clothes, Jewel, and I"ll find a nice place by that dune over yonder."
Fifteen minutes afterward the little party were comfortably ensconced in the shade of the sand hill whose spa.r.s.e gra.s.ses grew tall about them.
Jewel began pulling on them. "You"ll never pull those up," remarked Mr.
Evringham. "I believe their roots go down to China. I"ve heard so."
"Anna Belle and I will dig sometime and see," replied Jewel, much interested.
"There are only two stories left," said Mrs. Evringham, who was running over the pages of the book.
"And let grandpa choose, won"t you?" said Jewel.
"Oh, yes," and the somewhat embarra.s.sed author read the remaining t.i.tles.
"I choose Robinson Crusoe, of course," announced Mr. Evringham. "This is an appropriate place to read that. I dare say by stretching our necks a little we could see his island."
"Well, this story is a true one," said Julia. "It happened to the children of some friends of mine, who live about fifty miles from Chicago." Then she began to read as follows:--
ROBINSON CRUSOE
"I guess I shall like Robinson Crusoe, mamma!" exclaimed Johnnie Ford, rushing into his mother"s room after school one day.
"You would be an odd kind of boy if you did not," replied Mrs. Ford, "and yet you didn"t seem much pleased when your father gave you the book on your birthday."
"Well, I didn"t care much about it then, but Fred King says it is the best story that ever was, and he ought to know; he rides to school in an automobile. Say, when"ll you read it to me? Do it now, won"t you?"
"If what?" corrected Mrs. Ford.
"Oh, if you please. You know I always mean it."
"No, dear, I don"t think I will. A boy nine years old ought to be able to read Robinson Crusoe for himself."
Johnnie looked startled, and stood on one leg while he twisted the other around it.
"If you have a pleasant object to work for, it will make it so much the easier to study," continued Mrs. Ford, as she handed Johnnie the blue book with a gold picture pressed into its side.
Johnnie pouted and looked very cross. "It"s a regular old trap," he said.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TRUDGING ALONG BEFORE HIM]
"Yes, dear, a trap to catch a student;" and pretty Mrs. Ford"s low laugh was so contagious that Johnnie marched out of the room, fearing he might smile in sympathy; but he soon found that leaving the room was not escaping from the fascinating Crusoe. Up to this time Johnnie had never taken much interest in school-books beyond scribbling on their blank margins. Was it really worth while, he wondered, "to buckle down" and learn to read? He knew just enough about the famous Crusoe to make him wish to learn more, so he finally decided that it was worth while, if only to impress Chips Wood, his next-door neighbor and playmate, a boy a year younger than himself, whom Johnnie patronized out of school hours. So he worked away until at last there came a proud day when he carried the blue and gold wonder book into Chips" yard, and, seated beside his friend on the piazza step, began to read aloud the story of Robinson Crusoe. It would be hard to tell which pair of eyes grew widest and roundest as the tale unfolded, and when Johnnie, one day, laid the book down, finished, two sighs of admiration floated away over Mrs. Wood"s crocus bed.
"Chips, I"d rather be Robinson Crusoe than a king!" exclaimed Johnnie.
"So would I," responded Chips. "Let"s play it."
"But we can"t both be Crusoes. Wouldn"t you like to be Friday?" asked Johnnie insinuatingly, "he was so nice and black."
"Ye-yes," hesitated Chips, who had great confidence in Johnnie"s judgment, but whose fancy had been taken by the high cap and leggings in the golden picture.
"Then I"ve got a plan," and Johnnie leaned toward his friend"s ear and whispered something under cover of his hand, that opened the younger boy"s eyes wider than ever.
"Now you mustn"t tell," added Johnnie aloud, ""cause that wouldn"t he like men a hit. Promise not to, deed and double!"
"Deed and double!" echoed Chips solemnly, for that was a very binding expression between him and Johnnie.
For several days following this, Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Ford were besieged by the boys to permit them to earn money; and Mrs. Ford, especially, was astonished at the way Johnnie worked at clearing up the yard, and such other jobs as were not beyond his strength; but, inquire as she might into the motive of all this labor, she could only discover that Chips and Johnnie wished to buy a hen.