What Two Children Did | Page 4

had decided to go down on the beach; "and
I can do it all comfy and nice while you are gone."
So Ethelwyn and 'Vada went for a run on the beach, and mother
Elizabeth, with a look of happy care on her face, and her beloved six
dolls in her arms, came out on the porch, where she had already taken a
basin of water, soap, a tiny sponge, and towels.
Directly she became aware of some one near her, and looking up saw a
girl with dark eyes and short, straight hair watching the proceedings
with much interest, her hands clasped behind her back.
"My name is Nan," said the visitor as soon as she caught Elizabeth's
eye, "Who are you? Is this your house? We've just come, and mother is
in bed with a headache, and father's gone to church, so I'm roaming
around seeking something to devour--"
"Does that mean eat?" said Elizabeth, a scene in one of her picture
books of lions devouring their prey coming into her mind.
"I think it's what my father calls a figure of speech. He's a minister--a
clergyman, you know. We've come down here to board, and he's going
to have the services in the Chapel of the Heavenly Rest. Mother's sick
about always, so I have to roam around--Say, I know a game; let's
baptize your children."
"They don't need it; they're not born in sin--"
"Everything is," emphatically. "Don't try to teach a minister's child
things, for pity's sake. I'll do the baptizing. Come along."
The rainwater barrel, half sunken in the ground, was at one of the rear
corners of the house.
"We are not allowed to play in that, I think," said Elizabeth uneasily.
"That doesn't mean me, I'm older'n you. Here, give me the doll without
a wig."

Down went the beloved "bawheady" with a thud that carried desolation
to Beth's tender heart. Four others followed in quick succession before
Beth could protest. Then clinging to Arabella, she started to run. Nan
tried to run after her, but caught her foot on the barrel's brim and
straightway joined the five dolls. Elizabeth opened her mouth to shriek,
when in an opportune moment, a young man appeared on the scene,
and speedily fished out Miss Nan, who dripped and coughed and
choked; inarticulate, but evidently wrathy sounds wrestled for utterance
in her throat. At last she shook herself free.
"I'm perfectly degusted with this whole preformance," she said as she
went stalking off, dripping as she went.
Then the young man laughed and laughed, until he became aware of
Elizabeth wistfully staring at him.
"What is it?" he asked.
"My dolls. They're baptized clear to the bottom; please get 'em out."
"I'll do it, if you will take this note to Miss Dorothy Stevens," said the
young man, at once throwing off his coat and pushing up his shirt
sleeve. Beth, before she trotted off, saw that he had a blue anchor on his
arm. When she came back, the rescued five lay stretched on the grass in
a pathetic row, and she at once ran to her prostrate children.
"You are to go to the parlor and tell Miss Dorothy all about it," she said,
in passing, to their rescuer. "Your note made Miss Dorothy cry; and she
was all white 'round her mouth. Thank you for the dolls," she called as
an afterthought.
So busy was she drying her afflicted family that it was some time after
the others had reached home that 'Vada, wildly excited, came to find
Elizabeth and to tell her that Miss Dorothy's sweetheart had come back.
"From Paradise?" queried Beth, getting up at once and bristling all over
with questions she wanted to ask him about that interesting place.

"Mighty nigh," said 'Vada, rolling her eyes. "He was shipwrecked on
the raging main, and hit on de head wid somefin that done knock all de
sense out of him, so he's pick up by some folks dat didn't know 'im, an'
he went cruisin' aroun', till he come to, and, by 'me by, back to see his
sweetheart."
Elizabeth went into the parlor later on, and stared so insistently at the
young captain that her mother drew her gently to one side and
whispered to her.
"But I'm anxious to see a sweetheart that has been in Paradise, mother,"
she explained.

CHAPTER IV The Wedding
Bells ring, Birds sing, Every one is gay; Hearts beat, Chimes sweet, On
a bridal day.
It was one of the things for the children to remember always, that Miss
Dorothy was married while they were there to help.
They helped so much in the matter of scraping all the cake and icing
pans, stoning, and especially eating, raisins, that it was a wonder