“Oh, Jimmie!” exclaimed the little girl, “what are you doing down on the shore in the night?”
“Night! Why, it’s not much after dark,” answered the boy. “Father has been out fishing all day, and I have just pulled the dory up, and was going home when I heard you. What do you want to go out to the sloop for?”
“Jimmie, my father is in Boston and I do want to see him,” said Anne. “Captain Enos is going to sail early to-morrow morning for Boston, and I want to go out and sleep in the cabin to-night. Then I will keep as quiet as I can till he is nearly in Boston, and then I will tell him all about it, and he will take me to see my father.”
Jimmie shook his head.
“Doesn’t Captain Enos want you to go?” he asked.
“He says I may go next spring,” answered Anne, “but if you row me out to the sloop, Jimmie, ’twould be no harm. You could tell Aunt Martha to-morrow, and I would soon be home. But ’Tis a long time since I saw my father. You see yours every day.”
There was a little sob in Anne’s throat and Jimmie wondered if she was going to cry. He hoped she wouldn’t.
“Jump into the dory,” he said. “I’ll get a good lesson from my father, I’ll warrant, for this; but jump in. And mind you tell Captain Enos that I told you to go home, but that you would not.”
“Yes, Jimmie,” said Anne, putting her shoes and stockings into the boat, and then climbing in herself. The boy sprang in after her, pushed off the dory, and in a short time had reached the sloop.
“Now go straight to the cabin and shut the door,” cautioned Jimmie, and Anne obeyed, creeping into the top bunk and pulling a rough blanket over her.