“Isn’t she brave? What do you think of my Polly Jolly now? Can you blame me for being proud of her?”
“I tell you wh–what she is!” gasped Bessie. “She’s the bravest and smartest girl I ever heard of.”
“Good for you, Bess!” shouted Frank Cameron, helping the castaways ashore. “You’re coming to your senses.”
“And–and I’m sorry,” blurted out Bess, “that I ever treated her so—”
Polly shoved off the catboat and proceeded to get under way again.
“Oh, do come ashore, Polly!” begged Grace.
“I want to hug you, Miss Jarley!” cried Percy.
“What? All wet as I am now?” returned the boatman’s daughter, laughing–although the laugh was not a pleasant one. “You make too much of this matter. We’re used to oversets on the lake. It is nothing.”
“You do not call saving two girls’ lives nothing, my dear–surely?” proposed Mrs. Havel.
“If I saved them, I am very, very glad of it,” returned Polly, gravely. “Anybody would be glad of that, of course, But you are making too much of it—”