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Page 42
"Take the butter-dish," said Bell. "That will do just as well."
"I pledge the assembled company in this rich butter," Gerald
continued with dignity, "though it is not so comfortable to drink,
and I propose, first, the confusion of Ferguson, who is a
pettifogger and an armadillo, and, secondly, the health of our
captain, Roger, the Codger, who saved the Cheemaun. Three cheers
for the well-bred captain of the--"
"Thank you so much!" said Roger, looking in through the window.
"Empty compliments are all very well, but I think I might have
been asked to supper."
He was hailed with a chorus of shouts, and stepping in through the
window, drew up a stool and sat down by Hildegarde.
"What HAVE you been doing, children?" he asked, looking round at
the four, who had now arrived at the smoking stage of dampness,
each sending up his little pillar of cloud.
Four eager voices told him of the search and the finding, and he
smiled quietly as he helped himself to jam.
"I wonder what you took me for!" he said, "I truly wonder. The
boat went to bed at nine o'clock, with the rest of the children. I
beg your pardon, Miss Grahame," he added, turning to Hildegarde
with his kind, grave smile, "for naming you in company with this
lawless crew of mine."
"Oh, please," cried Hildegarde, "I like to--I wish I were--" She
stammered, and felt herself blushing in the furious way that makes
a girl the most helpless creature in the world. She would have
given her hand, she thought, to keep back the tide that surged up
over throat and cheek and brow. "When there is nothing earthly to
blush about, ninny!" she almost cried aloud.
But Bell came to the rescue. "She wishes she were much wiser than
the rest of us, Roger, but she doesn't think she is, and I am
really not so sure about it myself. That is the best part of her:
she's just a girl."
"Just a girl!" said Roger, looking at Hildegarde; and he looked so
kindly that poor Hildegarde blushed again.
CHAPTER XII.
A-SAILING WE WILL GO.
"Friends," said Mrs. Merryweather, "the day is before us. What is
the plan of action?"
"I go a-fishing," said Roger; "and with me Willy, to take his
first lesson in bass-fishing."
"I tinker the wharf," said Phil; "and with me Obadiah, to take his
first lesson in useful occupation."
"Verily and in good sooth," put in Gerald, "the most useful
occupation I can think of, my peripatetic food-absorber, would be
to heave thee into the glassy deep."
"Like to see you try it!" said Ferguson.
"Anything to oblige!" replied Obadiah, rising with, alacrity.
"Don't booby, boys!" said Roger, with quiet authority. "Let other
people have a chance to speak."
"Hilda and I will make a pie!" said Bell; "'which is werse,' said
Mr. Peggotty, 'though sich were not my intentions.'"
"And I have gingerbread to make, and raspberries to pick," said
Gertrude, "so Kitty must help me."
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