Margaret Love Sanderson

“ Jane and Mabel could not help being amused to see the elegant persons who had been so superior not half an hour before and too refined even to bathe in the ocean with the common herd actually sitting down on the beach with them, whom they had so ignored, and sharing the crude luncheon with ill-concealed gusto.
“Excitement always makes me hungry,” sighed Mabel to one of the chinless youths who was daintily munching a long dill pickle. ”

“ Of course you can, Jane Pellew! Keep your mouth shut and breathe through your nose; don’t fight the waves but let them take you in. Think of the skates’ eggs that are thrown up on the sands, how fragile they are and still safe. Think of Breck! Think of Father and Jack and poor Aunt Min! Think of Lorna and what it will mean to Breck’s father to have his child safe. ”

“ Jane and Frances had learned really to love the sea and to have deep feeling for the ships. It actually hurt them to see these sturdy fishing boats so deserted.
“Why, do you know, Frances, it seems just as cruel to me as if I had given Atta Boy a hard run and turned him into his stall and left his saddle and bridle on and rushed off without rubbing him down and forgotten to feed him and everything. It doesn’t seem human,” Jane grew quite indignant. ”

“ The flatterers were forced to shout their compliments in loud tones so that the pretty Lorna could hear them above the noise of the breakers.
“Come in!” she commanded. The young men looked rather ruefully at the curling waves and the girls took tentative steps in the direction of their princess. But tentative steps are fatal on a beach like that with a heavy uncertain sea. The “boiling” that Mabel and Charlie had just undergone was nothing to the one that the timid young men and maidens now were subjected to. It was the fault of one young man who hesitated and was lost. ”

“ No matter what the sex, it is hard to come out from a real good “boiling” with much religion left. Ears leveled over with sand, shins, knees and elbows scraped sore from being dragged back and forth, besides the hurt feelings from being laughed at, is enough to make one doubt that “whatever is, is right.”
To the more secluded spot, sought by Jane and Breck, came Mabel and Charlie. They, too, found it difficult at times to pursue their love-making on the deck of the “Boojum” where, as Charlie put it, “somebody was always butting in.” ”

“ But Frederick Gray had beaten a hasty retreat when he saw how matters were going between his new-found friends and had disappeared around a boulder, but his little tow-headed brothers were not so nice in their behavior. Silently they had entered on the love scene and had stood hand in hand viewing with wonder and astonishment the surprising carryings on of the Hurricane Island interlopers.
“Ith that girl your thweetheart?” lisped the younger one.
“Yeth, and the thweeteth thweetheart ever,” declared Breck. “Come back!” he called to Frederick, whose figure he could see in the distance. ”

“ Charlie said as he landed the girls on the least perilous of the transoms.
“You certainly bruised us enough doing it. The last time Mabel slipped, you steadied yourself by grabbing my left ear,” said Frances ruefully.
“And my poor head,” laughed Ellen. “Charlie reminded me of the Bellman, don’t you remember?—
“‘Just the place for a Snark!’ the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.”
“You kids are certainly peaches,” and Mr. Wing literally beamed. ”

“ I feel that the two girls who carried my hundred and eighty pounds down that hill should have the reward of having saved a movie hero or the lost heir—anyone, in fact, except just plain Tim Reynolds, who is doing nothing more romantic than spending the summer with his family at Nantucket Island. ”

“ That’s what is so nice about you: we never seem to talk out,” and Breck slid his hand along the rail and covered Jane’s hand. “We don’t get much time alone, though, do we? I love the old ‘Boojum,’ love her like a sister or a nice comfortable maiden aunt, but I can’t say she offers a fellow many chances to tell a girl how much he thinks of her. Ummhum! Just think of Hurricane Island! I tell you that’s a great place for love making.” ”

“ Boiling is a terrible experience and one often had by the unwary who does not know the habits of the surf on a shelving beach with loose and shifting sand. The worst feature about being “boiled” is the jeering crowd that sits on the beach and screams with laughter as the poor victim is turned over and over and played with by the relentless waves like some gigantic cat worrying a poor little mouse. ”

“ Before the girls had got into their bunks, the rain Mr. Wing had foreseen was beating in through the open portholes and down the hatch.
Jack and Charlie went rushing about closing portholes and shutting the hatch. “It is going to be one stuffy night; I never can sleep without plenty of air,” observed Charlie.
“Stop putting on airs, Charlie; you could sleep if there wasn’t any air in the whole universe, and you know it,” Jack corrected him.
Jane and Frances, overcome by giggles as usual, were trying to twist the ventilators in their room so the rain didn’t trickle in on them. ”

“ But she found it quite a different thing saving Frances who inadvertently helped herself somewhat and saving this poor limp girl who flopped so piteously and whose head was so hard to keep above water.
“If Breck would only come!” her heart cried out.
Among the crowd that gathered on the beach there were many good swimmers but, as sometimes happens in a crowd, a strange panic had seized them. The run in the loose sand from the bathing beach proper had winded most of them too and men and women stood shuddering and watched the black-eyed girl make her fight.
“She will win! She will win!” ”

“ He looked at Breck with even more admiration than before. Any man who could win such a girl as Miss Jane Pellew was surely a hero in the eyes of the island boy. Fred was almost sorry he could not help being such a gentleman. When he saw how the wind lay, he felt it incumbent upon him to turn his back and walk off but he had a pardonable curiosity about how a man went to work to make love to a girl like Jane. ”

“ If I ever get to running a steamboat or a ferry to Jersey, I might change, but as long as I run the ‘Boojum’ she sails.”
“Well hush your fuss and run along now. You can sail backward if you want to,” giggled Mabel, who always had the attitude that her father was her kid brother.
“Honestly, Mabel, this is the most wonderful day of all, but then it seems that every day is better than the last,” said Jane.
“And won’t it be fun to see old Betty Wyndham? We ought to have some kind of Camp Fire [Pg 66] party. The only thing that I have against the ‘Boojum’ is that we can’t have a camp fire on her.” ”

“ Those gulls shouldn’t make me think of little half-starved children over on Avenue A. Heaven knows there is nothing white about them, except their little pinched faces, but they do all the same.”
“I know why you are thinking of them!” exclaimed Jane. “It is because this place would be such a corking one to bring the kids to. Let’s have our scheme be not just a money making one but one to help somebody besides ourselves. Oh Breck, let’s try to have some of those little creatures here with us every summer.” ”

“ Consequently, when the girls came in flanking a big policeman, Aunt Min, Jack, and Charlie rose simultaneously and advanced upon them.
Aunt Min cried: “Thank heavens, Charlie Preston knows law! Jane Pellew, what have you done now?”
Jack beside himself was squeezing Ellen’s hand and saying: “Ellen, I am so glad they didn’t take you to jail first. I just know Charlie and I can fix it up with the cop.”
Charlie looked at them in a ruminating manner and murmured: “Too happy-looking for anything to be really the matter. Wish they’d come on and go in to dinner.” ”

“ At Provincetown the cruisers had learned of the fishermen’s strike but they had not realized that it meant that the entire fishing fleet of Gloucester would be riding at anchor in the harbor.
“Gloucester’s sky line isn’t anything but masts, is it?”
“No, but look Jane! They just let the sails go any way and they are all spilling in the water and look at all those Irishman’s pennants,” and Frances pointed out innumerable ropes let to drag in the water. ”

“ Hearing a great splashing and screaming, Breck and Jane emerged from behind their friendly dune just in time to see Charlie being boiled to a king’s taste and Mabel, who ordinarily would have been much amused at the discomfiture of an unwary bather, was screaming shrilly and trying [Pg 185] to get in to come to the rescue of her beloved Charlie. But one must bide his time in trying to ride waves. Time and tide waits for no man, nor does it hurry, and getting back to shore was not as quick as Mabel would have liked. ”

“ TIM’S FATHER
The “Boojum” and the little “Sabrina” dropped anchor in the harbor at Nantucket Island almost at the same time. They found themselves in the midst of a fleet of trig catboats, yawls and splendid motor yachts. Every male in the island is said to have some sort of boat, and the catboat seemed to be the choice of the majority. There is a stretch of land-locked water reaching along one side of the island, and here, every day, are to be seen races between the many catboats.
Boat after boat slid in, found its mooring, and emptied itself of its gay-sweatered, picnicking crowd. ”

“ For a minute Jack looked at her blankly, then laughed as if what his sister said was a huge joke.
“I am serious, Jack dear, I intend to marry Breck when we get back to New York and will [Pg 138] write Daddy to that effect tonight,” Jane spoke calmly but with convincing assurance.
“It is preposterous,” Jack said hotly. “It is ridiculous to discuss it. Of course, Daddy will forbid it. If you insist, he won’t give you any money and, of course, you could hardly live on a deck hand’s salary. Besides, what would a deck hand do for a living in the winter?” ”

“ Jane said as she and Frances climbed up the wharf ladder from the dinghy.
These two girls and Mr. Wing had grown to be the closest of friends and it had become a habit for them to take the little dinghy when the party went ashore, leaving the tender for the others. Mr. Wing had proved himself a delightful companion. In fact, as Frances said: “He is every bit as crazy as we are.”
“You will love Plymouth, and then I want to sail you over to Provincetown, too. It is not nearly so charming as Plymouth, but it is interesting at that. ”

“ No doubt he and I are to have some argument at our next meeting, but I am nearly dead to see him all the same,” and Jane’s black eyes softened to velvet.
“But perhaps your father is different,” said Breck sadly.
“Different in some ways, but all fathers are more or less alike. I reckon your father loves you just as much as mine does me. He just doesn’t know you are grown-up, and you see my father had to let me grow up because my mother died when I was so young. He thinks I’ve got lots more judgment than Jack just because he can’t get in his head Jack is a man. ”

“ It always scares me to death to meet one [Pg 44] of those old tugs,” Mabel explained to Jane and Frances as she flopped down beside them. “They are absolutely unscrupulous—just like road hogs—always running into yachts on the sound. Whew! it’s good to see you kids again. Wouldn’t it be terrible if there would ever be a summer when some of us wouldn’t see each other?” she paused solemnly.
“You talk exactly as though you weren’t going to marry your fat Charlie in November,” teased Frances. “You will live in Lexington near Jane and that won’t be so bad, but how about me away out on the ranch? ”

“ Frances promptly replied, getting a sharp dig from Mabel’s elbow in reward for her truthfulness. “Wow! Mabel, I thought you were too well cushioned to hurt.”
“Push their noses in, Mabel,” advised Charlie, “and when you have finished, bring Jack and Ellen down to earth and tell them to go below and put on their bathing suits. Lloyd’s Harbor is just around that point and we will make it in about fifteen minutes. Soon as we drop anchor, we all want to go over the side. This harbor is a dandy place to swim.” ”

“ The four girls ran up the companion, the two newcomers giving their heads a terrific bump on the main boom.
“Mabel, you horrible creature, why didn’t you tell us to duck?” wailed Jane, holding her throbbing head.
“No use,” answered Mabel in cruel tones. “Daddy says that everybody has to butt their heads a certain number of times on the main boom of a yacht and the sooner they begin, the sooner [Pg 37] it is over.” Then relenting a bit, she added, “I’ll warn you to this extent; whenever we are at anchor and whenever the sails are down, that is just where the boom is going to be.” ”

“ Jane said to Frances. “But not as charming as Plymouth do you think, Betty?”
“I think that the Greenwich Villagers, who come here for the summer, leave their mark just as they do everywhere. It is really more attractive in the winter when just the natives themselves are here,” explained Betty.
Soon they were all in Betty’s neat room, lolling about on the bed, eating chocolates, and examining Betty’s new snapshots and possessions and exchanging adventures. After Betty had been duly told of the upset at Plymouth, they all began to plan how they were to hold their reunion. ”