"We didn't have any hills to climb on shipboard, and in all these months we did get out of practice," said Miss Holmes. "I was tired as well. And now the rainy season has begun, and Mr. Dawson has been saying that in a week or two the country will look like spring."
"And won't there be any winter? Though I don't like winter very much," she added naïvely. "Only the sledding and skating."
"I shouldn't care to live in Maine," and Miss Gaines gave a little shiver. "All my life I have longed for a warm winter climate. And if this doesn't suit, I shall go further south."
"You women without husbands are very independent," laughed Mrs. Dawson.
"You certainly can go where you like if you have money enough to take you there," was the reply. "Verne, come sit here and tell me if you like San Francisco as well as the ship and the voyage."
"It's queer and such lots of queer people, and how they can understand each other I can't see, for they all seem to talk different. I'd rather not live on a ship all my life."
"Then do not marry a sea captain. But your uncle may take a fancy to go to China or Japan. It is not so far from here. Grace, have you written any letters this afternoon?"
"No," replied Miss Alwood. "I think my friends will not be immediately alarmed."
"And this little girl has left no relatives behind, I heard her uncle say. Haven't you any cousins?"
"My mother had no brothers or sisters." Then she remembered how little she had ever heard about her father.