"But we deserve it and Anne doesn"t. And that"s the difference," said Judy, wisely.
"Aw--don"t preach."
"Couldn"t if I tried," and Judy clasped her hands around her knees and gazed out on the dark waters, and again there was a long silence.
"Well, what are we going to do?" demanded Tommy as the night wind blew cold against his wet garments and made him shiver.
"Do?"
"Yes. We can"t sit like this all night."
"Guess we shall have to."
Another silence.
"Gee, I"m hungry."
"So am I."
"But there isn"t anything to eat."
"No."
Silence again.
"Gee--I"m sleepy."
"Find some place out of the wind and go to sleep. I"ll watch."
"All night?"
"Perhaps. You go to sleep, Tommy."
"Won"t you be lonesome?"
Judy smiled wearily. "No," she said, "you go to sleep, Tommy."
And Tommy went.
But it was not until the cold light of dawn touched the face of the waters, that the sentinel-like figure on the beach relaxed from its strained position, and then the dark head dropped, and with a sigh Judy stretched her slender body on the hard sand, and she, too, slept.
CHAPTER XXIII
IN A SILVER BOAT
The tide coming in the next morning brought with it on the blue surface of the waves two bobbing lemons. Many times the golden globes rolled up the beach only to be carried back by the under-wash of the waters, but finally one wave rolling farther than the rest left them high and dry on the sand, and the same wave splashing over an inert and huddled up figure waked it to consciousness.
Judy sat up stiffly and stared around her. "Oh," she sighed, as she remembered all that had happened in the darkness of the night.
She clasped her hands around her knees and gazed out forlornly over the empty waters. Not a sail, not a trail of smoke broke the blueness of the bay. With another sigh, this time of disappointment, she turned her gaze landward, and beheld there nothing but lank marsh gra.s.s and sand and driftwood.
And then at her feet she spied the lemons. She picked them up--they were the only salvage from the sunken boat. She looked around for Tommy. On the other side of a mound of sand, she could just see the top of his head, and as he did not move she decided that he was still asleep.
Her eyes twinkled, as with stealthy steps she crept up the beach until she reached a low bush with scrubby sage-green foliage. On its spiky branches she stuck the lemons, and then ran swiftly back.
Tommy was still sleeping, so she dipped her hands into the cold water, took off her stiffened shoes and bathed her swollen feet. Her dress had dried in the night winds, and when she had combed her hair she looked fairly presentable.
Barefooted she tripped over the cool wet sands, glorying in the broad expanse of blue, with white gulls dipping to it from a bluer sky.
"Tommy," she called, "Tommy."
A towsled head appeared over the top of the mound.
"Oh, dear," said Tommy, lugubriously, as he saw her sparkling face, "you act as if being shipwrecked was a good joke, Judy."
"The sun is shining and it is perfectly fine."
"It"s perfectly horrid," said Tommy.
Judy looked at him for a moment, and a lump came in her throat.
"Well, it seems so much better to laugh over our troubles than to cry.
Don"t you think so, Tommy?" she said, wistfully, and tears welled up into her brave eyes.
"Oh, don"t cry, Judy," begged Tommy, who felt that all the world would grow dark if Judy"s staunch heart should fail. "Don"t cry, Judy." She brushed away her tears and smiled at him. "Well, get up, lazy boy,"
she said.
"I"m hungry."
"Well, go and hunt for something to eat."
"Don"t know where to look."
"Neither did Robinson Crusoe."
"Oh, well, what are you going to do?"
"Watch for some one to come and take us off."
It began to be exciting. If Tommy had not been so hungry, he really believed that he might have appreciated the adventure. But his soul yearned for hot cakes and maple syrup, or beefsteak and waffles--or at least for plain bread and b.u.t.ter.
"Gee, but it would taste good," he said aloud.
"What?"