"Not necessarily. I only brought them down in case I should want to."
"Well, I do want to."
"If you had rubber boots and warm stockings under them--"
"Get me some rubber boots."
I sighed and laughed. "I will," I said, "but I can't get them this
minute. Will nothing less satisfy you? You sit here, and I'll go and see
how the clams are getting on. I will bring you one."
She was on the verge of tears. "I was going to see how the clams were
myself. Dig 'em with a stick. I can find 'em. I've found lots."
"What do you do with them when you've found them?"
"We play with 'em, and we had a clambake once."
"Were the clams good?"
"Pretty good. There were six of 'em, one apiece and two for Ann. But
she didn't eat hers. She said they weren't done, and that she wasn't a
fish to eat raw clams. Oh, look, daddy!"
Old Goodwin's ocean steamer was lying at her anchor, but I could see
nothing unusual about her.
"No," said Tidda, "not grandpa's, but out that way. Is it coming in
here? It comes fast, doesn't it?"
Set right by Tidda's pointing finger, I saw the steamer, but I could not
make out what she was, whether yacht or war vessel. She had the lines of
a torpedo boat, and was painted gray, with lines of bull's-eyes along
her sides, and no deck to speak of, where one could sit in comfort; but
plainly she was no torpedo boat, and as plainly she was not a steam
yacht of the common type. She was nearly two hundred feet long, I
judged, and of great speed.
"It is coming here," cried Tidda in some excitement. "See! It's going
close to grandpa's."
As she spoke the vessel rounded to an anchorage at a safe distance from
Old Goodwin's. She came at very nearly full speed, then there was a
tremendous commotion under her stern which seemed to stop her short, her
chain rattled out, and she lay quiet, the only evidence of her effort
being the white water, which spread on either side of her and for a long
distance ahead. A motor launch was lowered before her anchor touched
bottom, several men got in, and it made for Old Goodwin's landing.
We had not heard the step behind us.
"So here's my little girl," said Eve. "Oh! What boat is that, Adam?"
"That is a little boat of Tidda's. She found it. But I'm glad you have
come, Eve."
Eve laughed and sat beside me, and she began to pull Tidda's stockings
into place. But she said nothing about it, and Tidda did not notice it.
And when she had the stockings smooth on the little legs she stood her
daughter on her feet and straightened her dress with a touch. Then she
got up.
"Come, Adam," she said, "let's go up to father's. He wants to see you.
He told me as I came down."
And I got up without a word, and I took one of my daughter's hands in
mine, and Eve took the other, and Tidda danced along between us on the
path all the way up through the grove to the great house. And I looked
at Eve, and I smiled a smile of content, and she smiled back at me. Then
her smile changed to one of amusement as she saw what was in my other
hand, and I looked, and I was carrying my old battered boots and my clam
hoe. But Old Goodwin would not mind.