SUNNY SUMMER DAYS
"Washed and ironed Dot!" repeated Father Blossom. "Why, what
happened to Dot?"
The four little Blossoms explained, and then they had to tell the
story again to Mother Blossom when they went up to the bungalow.
Father and Mother Blossom were so glad and so grateful that the
accident had turned out so fortunately, when it might easily have
had serious consequences, that they scolded no one. Dot was sure
that she would not climb up on the rail of The Sarah another time,
and Father and Mother Blossom knew she would be careful.
Such fun as the children had in the days that followed! Mother
Blossom declared that they almost lived in their bathing suits,
and indeed, as the warm weather came on, a bathing suit for the
sunny hours of the morning was the most comfortable costume any
one could hope for. The little bathing beach was not too far from
the bungalow, and Father Blossom was an excellent swimmer. He
taught each child to swim and very cunning Twaddles and Dot looked
in the water. Dot wore a scarlet bathing cap on her dark hair and
her bathing suit was red, too, while Twaddles wore a navy and
white suit. Meg's suit was a lighter blue and her cap was white,
and Bobby had a brown suit like Father Blossom's. The children
thought that no one could look lovelier than their mother in her
black and white suit and cap to match, and indeed Mother Blossom
was growing prettier every day. She said she had not had a real
vacation in so long that she felt as the children did--as if she
must play outdoors every minute.
Sometimes they took their supper down to the beach and Father
Blossom and Bobby built a fire and they had toasted bread and
bacon; sometimes they went hunting for beach plums, that odd fruit
that grows on tall bushes and which make such delicious jam;
sometimes they all went fishing in the two rowboats, Mother
Blossom rowing one and Father Blossom the other.
"I caught the biggest fish," Dot wrote to Norah, "only it wasn't a
fish--it was somebody's old boot."
But Twaddles and Meg, oddly enough, had the best luck of any of
the fishermen. Meg rarely went fishing that she did not bring home
a nice little string of fish she had caught herself (though Bobby
had to bait her hooks), and as for Twaddles, he never paid much
attention to his line except to pull it in now and then to take a
fish off. One day the whim seized him to fish from the wharf, and
when Bobby was sent to call him to supper Twaddles calmly showed
him four fine fish he had caught in less than an hour.
"I'll take you on a fishing trip some day for a mascot," said
Captain Jenks, who continued to be a very good friend.
The four little Blossoms had gone over with him on The Sarah the
week after Dot's adventure in the water to get the wash from Mrs.
Clayton. Bobby and Meg had been a little fearful that Mother
Blossom would not trust them again to take care of the twins, but
that dear lady knew that accidents make wise little folk more
careful. She assured Bobby and Meg with a kiss that she was sure
they would look after Dot and Twaddles more closely this time.
They did; indeed, the twins rather resented the strict supervision
under which they made the trip to Greenpier, but when Dot appealed
to Captain Jenks, to her disappointment, he sided with Bobby and
Meg.
"I have an uneasy feelin' that I don't know what you might take
into your head to do next," the captain told the surprised little
girl. "If I was your sister and brother, I'd tie a string to you
and then I'd know where you were every minute."
However, of all their games and pastimes, the one of which the
four little Blossoms never tired, was to go and play around the
ruins of the Harley shack. The island was so safe a place, such an
ideal playground for little people, that Father and Mother Blossom
felt no uneasiness no matter where the children went. They must be
home punctually to meals and they must not go in the water
anywhere without asking permission and then only on the bathing
beach if no older person was with them. These few rules were all
they had to remember and it was small wonder that they often said
Apple Tree Island was the nicest place in the world! Aunt Polly
had sent Bobby a little watch and he could "tell time" nicely; so
no matter how far they wandered they had no excuse for not coming
back to the bungalow when Mother Blossom set them a time limit.
"Let's go to Mr. Harley's house," suggested Meg one bright
morning.
That was the way they always spoke of the forlorn shack--it was
"Mr. Harley's house."
"All right, let's," agreed Bobby. "I'll ask Mother if we can take
our lunch. We don't want the twins this time, do we?"
Bobby and Meg had been washing the breakfast dishes while Mother
Blossom, at the pretty desk in the large hall, was making out a
grocery list for Father Blossom to take to town on the morning
boat. Meg and Bobby were learning to be the best little helpers
one ever saw; in fact, this Summer all the children had learned a
great deal about housekeeping and they meant to astonish Norah
with their knowledge when they went home.
"I think it would be nice if we could play by ourselves," said Meg
gently, in answer to Bobby's question.
Meg and Bobby sometimes felt that they would like to play a game
without the aid of Dot and Twaddles. Not that they did not love
the small sister and brother dearly, but Meg and Bobby usually
liked to do the very same thing in the very same way, and Dot and
Twaddles were apt to want to do it six different ways and all at
once! That, as you may understand, occasionally led to disputes.
"Take your lunch and play at Mr. Harley's house?" said Mother
Blossom, laying down her pencil and smiling at the two earnest
faces. "I don't know why not. I'll put some sandwiches up for you
as soon as I finish this list."
"And may just Meg and I go, Mother?" added Bobby coaxingly.
"Oh, Bobby, you know the twins will be disappointed," Mother
Blossom replied. "They do love to poke around that shack and I'm
afraid they will feel hurt if they think you do not want them."
She tapped her pencil absently on the desk for a moment.
"I tell you, children," she cried, putting an arm around each.
"Suppose you and Meg, Bobby, go on to the shack and play by
yourselves this morning; then, at noon, I'll send the twins with
lunch for all of you and you stay an hour or two longer and play
with them. How will that be?"
Meg and Bobby thought this was a splendid plan, and, only stopping
to kiss Mother Blossom and to take an old rusty shovel which was
Bobby's chief treasure, they ran off. Dot and Twaddles were down
at the wharf waiting to see Captain Jenks and his motor-boat, a
daily habit which was encouraged by the captain, who usually
brought them some little treat.
"We'll go around the other side of the island, and they won't see
us," said Meg, the general. "It isn't much longer, really."
The other side of the island was rockier, though, and the bushes
were thicker. Still, Meg and Bobby managed to scramble though, and
half an hour's steady tramping brought them to the Harley shack.
"It keeps falling apart," mourned Meg; and indeed the place looked
worse every time they visited it.
"Apples!" shouted Bobby, running forward to look under the gnarled
trees. "Apples, Meg! Big ones!"
"They're not ripe," said Meg promptly. "'Sides, they're not ours--they
belong to Mr. Harley. Daddy says everything here belongs to
him."
"I guess they are green," admitted Bobby, who had tried in vain to
soften one in his fingers. "But apples belong to anybody, Meg."
"They do not!" contradicted Meg. "Why, Bobby Blossom! how can you
talk like that? Don't you remember when you and Twaddles were in
the fruit store with Daddy last Spring and Twaddles took a
strawberry from one of the boxes because he saw another boy do it?
You know Daddy made him put it back before he could eat it. If
strawberries don't belong to anybody, I guess apples don't."
Meg's honest blue eyes looked beseechingly at her brother.
"All right," surrendered Bobby. "I wasn't going to eat 'em,
anyway."
"I hope not," said Meg severely. "What'll we play?"
"Hunting for treasure," responded Bobby. "That's why I brought the
shovel. You want to pound first?"
Meg and Bobby had invented this game. They pretended that hundreds
of years ago fierce pirates had buried chests of gold and jewels
on this end of the island and that the Harley shack had been the
castle home of these wicked sea rovers. The pirates had died
without leaving directions to tell where they had buried the
treasure, and gradually the castle had crumbled away.
Then, one day, there came two brave sailors (some people called
them Meg and Bobby) and they set to work to dig up the great iron
chests. They meant to divide the money and jewels with the
descendants of those from whom the pirates had stolen it. And
their method of locating the buried treasure was to go about with
a shovel and tap here and there. Where the earth gave out a hollow
sound, there they would dig. These two sailors had not yet found
anything, but it was certainly an exciting game.
"Dig here, Bobby!" cried Meg, when she had rapped the earth around
the crazy chimney and persuaded herself that it sounded "hollow."
So Bobby dug. And presently his shovel struck something.
"Oh, Bobby, what is it?" shrieked Meg. "Is it an iron chest?"
She really half-believed that Bobby had found the pirate's buried
treasure.
The twins were scrambling over the rocks and they heard Meg's cry.
Mother Blossom had kept them as long as she could, but they had
insisted on setting out a half hour before noon and they had run
most of the way, the lunch basket bumping wildly in time to their
steps. Their faces red from the heat and streaming with
perspiration, they burst into the ruins of the Harley house just
as Bobby brushed the dirt from his find. "I don't know what it
is," said Bobby, trying to look closely at the odd-shaped little
thing in his hand, with three children insisting on seeing it at
the same time. "Look out, Dot, you nearly made me drop it."
None of the children could guess what it was Bobby had found, and
finally he slipped it into his pocket to take home and show Father
Blossom. Then he discovered that he was hungry, and the twins
proudly produced the basket.
"Have to wash first," announced Bobby firmly. "Did you bring a
towel?"
Mother Blossom had sent a towel, and Bobby pulled up a brimming
bucket of water from the Harley well and poured the old tin wash
basin full. The well had been thoroughly cleaned out that Spring
by the men whom the Winthrops sent up to put the bungalow in
order. They had wisely decided that it was better to have all the
water on the island fit to drink rather than to try to keep any
one from using an abandoned well.
"You and Dot wash," commanded Bobby, when his face was washed and
dried and his hands as neat as could be.
"I did wash my face 'fore breakfast," insisted Twaddles
indignantly. He thought that should last him a long time.
Bobby, however, was equally insistent, and Dot and Twaddles had to
bathe their hands and faces before he would let them share in the
contents of the lunch basket. Mother Blossom was used to
satisfying four good appetites, and the children ate every crumb
she had sent them.
Then they went back to their game, and Twaddles and Dot tried
their luck at locating buried treasure.
"Dig here, Bobby!" Twaddles cried. "This place sounds hollow,
honest it does."
"You don't tell me!" said another voice, a man's voice. "Why do
you suppose that is?"
Twaddles jumped, and Meg turned around, startled.