"Now, Miss Katherine," said Hinpoha, "was it so terribly silly after all to think that mark meant something?"
And Katherine cheerfully admitted that it wasn"t.
Hinpoha went on. "Captain," she said, "didn"t you say you dreamed about water when you were fasting?"
"That"s what I did," said the Captain.
"There!" said Hinpoha triumphantly. "You had a "token" after all!"
And n.o.body could deny the fact.
"But if you"re not going to sell the land, as, of course, you won"t, there won"t be any use in burying Eeny-Meeny," said Katherine in comical dismay.
"Eeny-Meeny wasn"t born to be buried in the ground," said Gladys. "Once more she has been rescued on the brink of death. If she wants to stay with us as badly as all that, I think we might take her home and put her in the House of the Open Door."
"_I_ think," said Nyoda with twinkling eyes, "that Eeny-Meeny obstinately refuses to be disposed of because she wants to stay with Katherine. Don"t you want to take her home with you, Katherine, for a good luck omen? She seems to bring good fortune to whoever has her. And she"ll keep you from getting lonely."
So it was decided that Eeny-Meeny was to go home with Katherine to Spencer, Arkansas, "to live with her and be her love," as Katherine poetically expressed it.
With fetes and feasts and celebrations of all kinds the last week pa.s.sed, and almost before they knew it that time had actually come to pack up. Full of surprises as the summer had been, there was yet one more on the program. It came on the second last day. Going down to the beach in the morning for the bathing hour they saw, anch.o.r.ed out in the lake near the island, a good-sized steam yacht, splendid with the morning sun shining on her white sides and fluttering flags.
"Where did it come from?"
The twins were falling all over themselves with joy and pride. "It"s our yacht, the _Sea Gull_," they shouted. "Did you have it come to take us home, Papa?"
"Not only you, but all these folks," said the judge.
"Oh, not really," protested Mr. Evans, "think of the distance!"
"Nothing at all, nothing at all," the judge replied. "I would be most happy to make some slight return for your gracious hospitality."
The Winnebagos and Sandwiches were delighted beyond measure at the thought of going home in such grand style, and much as they had dreaded the moment of leaving before, they could hardly wait for it now.
"I"ve been sent home in people"s automobiles lots of times," said Hinpoha, "but just fancy being taken home hundreds of miles in a yacht!
Doesn"t it make you dizzy, though?"
In spite of the delight of steaming away on the spick and span yacht, there was heartfelt regret in every wave of the hand that bade farewell to Ellen"s Isle, when the hour of leaving came, and never had it seemed fairer than when they looked upon its wooded height for the last time.
Out in the channel they pa.s.sed the lighthouse where the Hares had put their heads into the noose, and there was much laughter as they recounted the story for Nyoda"s benefit. Still farther on was the reef where the _Huronic_ had met her fate; the salvage crews were still at work on her. In the clear sunshine and with the calm waters dimpling around them it seemed impossible to believe that this was the same lake that had worked itself into such an ungovernable fury but a short time before.
The _Sea Gull_ was as swift as her white namesake, and flew over the sparkling lake like a real gull. So taken up were the Winnebagos and Sandwiches with the appointments of the yacht and such fun they had going anywhere they pleased on board by day or night, that before they knew it they were in the harbor of Detroit where Katherine and Nyoda and Sherry were to be set ash.o.r.e to finish their respective journeys by train.
With Katherine went Eeny-Meeny, nicely crated, to be a companion for her loneliness, as well as Sandhelo, who, by vote of council, was awarded to her because the others would no longer be able to take care of him, and because he had always had more of an affinity for Katherine than for any of the others. It was the fun they had over Eeny-Meeny and Sandhelo that made the parting less difficult. Katherine was the most hilarious of any. Grasping her umbrella by the bottom, she recited a husky poem to the effect that
"Their parting was sad, but not tearful, It happened at four by the clock, The sail-aways tried to be cheerful, And the stay-ash.o.r.es tried to be keerful, So"s not to get shoved off the dock!"
"We"ll all be together again some time, I feel it in my bones," said Hinpoha cheerily. "You just can"t separate us Winnebagos."
Farewells were being said on all sides. "Good-bye, Nyoda! Remember the visit you"re going to make us next summer!"
"Good-bye, Sandhelo!" "Good-bye, Eeny-Meeny!" "Good-bye, Uncle Teddy!"
Antha clung to Katherine, sobbing. "Good-bye, little sister of all the Winnebagos!" said Katherine, gently loosening the child"s hands from her neck.
Then somebody touched her on the shoulder, and, turning, she saw Slim beside her. He put something into her hands. It was a big bag of peanuts. "Eat them on the way," he said.
"You"re a sport!" said Katherine, laughing, and holding out her free hand to be shaken for the last time.
The good-byes were all said and the yacht began to back away from the dock. Katherine looked after it with hungry eyes as it steamed away into the sunset, carrying with it the friends that had meant to her all that was bright and happy about her school days. She looked until the waving handkerchiefs were a blur in the distance, and the white form of the _Sea Gull_ itself faded from view.
Then she squared her shoulders, held up her head, and grasping the umbrella as if it were the sword Excalibur, turned and followed Nyoda across the dock toward the railway station.
THE END