AT THE SHORE
Three days had passed, and Uncle John Atherton had filled them full of
pleasure.
They had bathed in the surf, they had taken long tramps along the beach
when the tide was out, they had sailed in his yacht, "The Dolphin," they
had been up at the great hotel, where a fine hop was enjoyed.
Was there any pleasure that he had not given them?
One morning he looked into the two bright little faces, as they sat at
breakfast, and wondered what he would best choose for the day's chief
event.
"I believe I'll ask you two little friends to choose your amusement for
to-day. What shall we do first?" he asked.
"'The Dolphin!' A sail on 'The Dolphin!'" they cried without a moment's
hesitation.
"Then get on those sailor frocks that you wore yesterday, and your big
sailor hats, and we'll sail on the 'briny deep,' right after breakfast,"
was the quick reply.
He was well pleased, for they had chosen just that which he so loved to
do.
They hurriedly finished their breakfast and ran up to their room to put
on the pretty sailor suits that he had so admired.
"Rose!" called Uncle John.
"I'm almost ready," she answered.
"No hurry," he replied, "only when you, and Polly are ready, run right
down to the boat. I've told Donald to take you for a row, and just as
soon as I have finished some letters, I'll go with you for a sail."
"Oh, that will be fine!" cried Rose, "because while we are waiting for
you we'll be on the water."
Uncle John returned to his letters, and soon Rose and Polly hurried down
to the piazza and out onto the driveway.
It was a short run to the beach, where they found Donald, the little
Scotch lad, waiting for them.
With a new knife he was whittling a bit of wood into the rude semblance
of a boat.
He had intended to go fishing with another boy, and he was not pleased
to be rowing two small girls, so much younger than himself; therefore he
was sullen. True, he was well paid for rowing them, and he was glad of
the money, but, ungrateful little lad that he was, he most unwillingly
waited for Rose and Polly.
"I'd 'nough rather be fishing," he grumbled, but aloud he said:
"Come on!"
They followed him, clambered into the boat, and soon were out on the
water, singing a pretty boating song that Uncle John had taught them:
"Floating, floating over the sea,
Blithe of heart and gay are we.
Riding lightly over the foam,
O'er the sea 'tis joy to roam."
"I b'lieve I could row," said Rose.
"Huh! Girls can't do much," said Donald roughly.
"Girls CAN!" cried Polly, vexed that the boy should annoy Rose.
"Huh! Not MUCH!" he replied.
He was not in the least interested in their merry chatter. He felt sure
that small girls were of no use.
He talked very loudly of lines, spars, windlass and davits. To be sure,
he did not know one from the other, but then he knew that the little
girls did not know, and he hoped to impress them.
"What ARE those things?" Polly asked, when he had been talking for some
time, and constantly using names that they did not know.
"Oh, a man couldn't tell girls so they'd understand," said Donald,
squaring his shoulders and trying to look as large as possible.
"A MAN!" cried Polly, and although neither had meant to do it, both
laughed merrily.
Donald was angry, too angry to reply, but under his breath he muttered:
"Laugh if ye want ter, but I'll get even!"
It was in vain that Rose and Polly tried to talk with him.
He only glowered, and was too sullen to answer the questions that they
asked, and for a time they were silent. Rose spoke first.
"Why are you rowing us back?" she cried. "We don't want to go back yet!"
"Got ter go back a minute," said the boy, "just for a arrant."
He rowed close to a short pile that was near the shore and in very
shallow water. There was a huge iron ring attached to the pile, used for
mooring small boats.
Donald, who had been watching the shore very closely, now, to hide his
interest, bent all his energy in fastening the chain of the boat to the
ring.
"There!" he said, "that's fast, an' you girls are safe if you sit still
till I come back."
He sprang from the boat, and waded through the shallow water, then ran
up on the beach, shouting:
"Jock! Jock! Wait a minute!"
"Donald! Don't stay long!" cried Rose, and Polly echoed her words, but
Donald either did not, or would not hear!
They watched the two boys as they stood for a moment talking, then ran
down the beach.
"I don't think he was very nice to go off and leave us here while he
does errands," said Polly.
"He wasn't nice at all," said Rose, "and I'll tell Uncle John, if he
gets here first."
"Is this chain VERY long?" Polly asked a moment later.
"I don't know," said Rose, looking over the side of the boat and down
into the water.
"I don't see it," she said a moment later, "why did you ask that,
Polly?"
"Oh, I was only wondering how far we could float before the chain would
look tight. We've gone ever so far, and the boat doesn't tug at it yet!"
Polly said.
"It will, though!" said Rose.
Still they floated, and for a time they were silent, contented to be out
in the sunshine.
Then suddenly Rose looked up at Polly, quick terror in her eyes.
"Polly, Princess Polly!" she cried, "is there ANY chain on this boat?"
"Why of course!" said Polly, "didn't you see Donald fasten it to that
big iron ring on the post?"
Rose leaned forward and looked into Polly's eyes.
"I saw him fasten ONE END of it, Polly, and so did you, but was the
OTHER end fastened to this boat?'
"Why, yes, I--oh, Rose, you DON'T think we're--DRIFTING?" gasped Polly.
"You can't get up, and turn round," said Rose, "because Uncle John told
us always to keep our seats in a boat, but can't you just twist round
enough to see?"
With great care Polly turned, and saw just what she feared--the ring on
the boat and NO CHAIN CONNECTED!
With a white little face Polly turned, and with parted lips looked at
Rose.
"We ARE drifting--JUST DRIFTING!" she whispered hoarsely.
"Drifting!" cried Rose. "Oh, Polly, what SHALL we do?"
"Sit still," whispered Polly, "and wait--just WAIT!"
"What WILL Uncle John do? And where will he think we are?" said Rose.
"Oh, I don't know!" wailed Polly, "but I'm SURE we ought to do
something. Just look how far we are from the shore, and we're going all
the time!"
They looked in despair toward the beach. No one was in sight, and the
dancing waves glistened in the sunlight, as if they laughed, feeling no
pity for the two frightened children in the boat.
"Do you s'pose we could row?" questioned Polly.
"I don't know how," said Rose, "but it didn't look hard when Donald did
it."
They reached for the oars, but found that neither was strong enough to
lift one, and Rose's eyes filled with tears when she looked at Polly,
while Polly's brave effort to cheer Rose with a smile failed, because
her own lips were quivering.
"Let's sit down in the bottom of the boat, it seems safer," said Rose.
They slipped from their seats, and each clung to the other.
"If only Uncle John knew!" wailed Rose.
"If only he knew!" echoed Polly, with a sob.
Still the little boat rocked lightly on the waves, and now they no
longer tried to hide their fear, but cried, because they could not help
it.
Out on a high bluff a tall, square-shouldered man leveled a powerful
glass and looked out across the waves.
Evidently he saw what he was looking for, and hastily slinging the
leather strap that held the glass over his shoulder, he strode down to
the shore.
Completely tired, the two children lay sobbing and clinging to each
other, no longer looking toward the shore, because now they were too far
out to clearly see it.
A white gull circled near them, and the whirring of its wings made Polly
open her eyes.
"A great gull!" she whispered, then, oh, the joy in her cry:
"'The Dolphin!' 'The Dolphin!'"
Rose scrambled to her knees.
"Oh, it is! It is! DEAR Uncle John!" she cried.
It was a quick turn from terror in the little boat to joy and safety in
the big yacht, with Uncle John, big, brave Uncle John, to care for them.
"You must tell me all about this," he said, when they were once aboard
the yacht, "but not a word until after we've had a wee lunch."
The steward brought dainty sandwiches, cakes, fruit and hot chocolate,
and the happy little trio enjoyed it heartily, partly because it was a
delicious spread, but far more because of their feeling of safety after
their terror.
The children had been frightened, but bright, cheery Uncle John had
suffered more than he would have admitted when, through his powerful
glass, he had seen the two little occupants of the rowboat crouching
close together, rocked at the will of the waves and going steadily out
to the open sea.
He knew that it would take but a short time to reach them, but would
they remember what he had so often told them?
If they should change places in the boat and thus capsize it, no yacht
could reach them in time to save them!
Now, with Polly and Rose beside him, safe and sound, he felt as if a
heavy cloud had lifted.
After the lunch had been enjoyed, Uncle John asked for the story of
their plight, and together they told it, telling of the start with
Donald, of his sullenness, his anger, and his muttered threat.
"I don't know SURELY, TRULY, what he said, but I thought he said:
"'I'll get even with them,' and Polly thought so, too," concluded Rose.
"And after he'd said that, he wouldn't talk at all," said Polly.
"And we thought he'd fastened the boat when we saw him hitching one end
of the chain to the big ring," said Rose, "and he waded out to the
shore, and ran off up the beach with another boy."
"We shouted to him, and told him not to stay long, but he didn't answer,
and didn't look back, but just kept on running until he met another boy,
and then they ran away together," said Polly.
"The other boy had a fishing pole," added Rose.
"Oh, he did, did he?" said Uncle John, "well, I wouldn't be surprised if
young Donald had a fishing outfit tucked snugly away in some cranny in
the rocks, where he doubtless found it after he left you."
"What WOULD have happened to us if you hadn't found us?" said Rose.
Uncle John Atherton's brown eyes were not twinkling as he turned to
reply, and Polly thought she saw a tear on his lashes.
His arm tightened about Rose, and he drew her closer.
"I don't like to think what MIGHT have happened to you two little
friends, alone on the open sea. I shall settle with Donald later," he
said.
"What will you do?" questioned Rose, looking up into his face with
eager, yet anxious eyes.
"Why do you ask?" he questioned.
"I wouldn't think to ask if you were smiling," said Rose, "but you look
so stern--oh, I don't care if you scold him some, but 'tho he was mean,
and naughty, don't make him feel TOO bad."
"You've a loving heart," was the quick reply, "and like all the
Athertons, you are generous."
"Generous?" said Rose, in quick surprise, "I didn't say give him
anything. I only said: 'Don't make him feel TOO bad!'"
"My dear little girl, there are other ways of being generous beside
bestowing gifts. It is VERY generous of you, when Donald has treated you
so cruelly, to ask mercy for him. I'll remember your tender pleading in
his behalf, but Donald must be made to know, and fully understand that
what he did was far worse than merely naughty, it was wicked!
"And now, for the time, we'll talk no more about Donald. You and Polly
are safe and sound, the little boat is floating just behind us, all the
sky is blue and cloudless. We are bounding over the sparkling waves,
without a thought or care.
"I am master of the Dolphin, and you and Polly are two lovely little sea
fairies that I have invited aboard to keep me company."