“We’ll do it!” cried Anne, with a firm nod of her head—like her grandfather’s—that meant business.
“Heia! Hoia!” shouted the girls on the steamer, as the engine bell rang. “Good-bye, Nelly! Good-bye, Anne! See you soon! Together! Round Robin!”
“Heia! Hoia!” answered the cousins on the pier. “We’ll bring you all a branch of trailing yew and a cedar tree from Round Robin when we come down.”
“And a bunch of fresh catnip for Patsy, and some ripe cranberries! Together! Round Robin!”
The people lingering on the pier grinned good-naturedly at the two girls as they climbed down into the Captain’s boat, when the steamer was out of sight. Whatever belonged to the Captain they accepted without question.
“Ye’re havin’ two little lassies now instead of the one, ain’t ye, Cap’n?” chuckled Lonny Maguire, leaning over the railing for the customary parting shots between him and his neighbor.
“Wal, I dunno!” said the Captain with a twinkle. “Accordin’ to ’rithmetic, two gals for half a year ought to be about the same as one gal for a whole year. Ain’t that so?” Lonny retired with a guffaw, to spread this joke abroad.
“Two girls for always, Grandfather!” Anne corrected him. “Wherever we are, even if it is far from here, it’s home by the sea where you are.”
“Yes,” said Nelly, taking an oar and handing another to Anne, “wherever we are, we shall be in one boat, pulling Together!”
THE END