"And I'll tell a bit of news. I sent my prize right straight to the 'Mermaid's Cave,'" said Sprite, "and pa put it in the Cliffmore bank for me."
"Why, Sprite Seaford!" cried Rose. "How did you dare to send fifty dollars in gold?"
"Because," said Sprite, "I didn't send it by mail. I gave it to one of the very best men in this world, and that is Uncle John, to take it to pa for me, and he did. He rode over to Cliffmore last Saturday. That's a week ago, and don't you know it was a stormy day? Well, that's why we didn't go with him."
Sprite nodded her head wisely as she spoke, and the sunbeams danced on her rippling hair.
"And I'll tell you something I've thought of," she said. "It was Friday after school that I asked him about sending it, and he said we'd all take the trip to Cliffmore. And when Saturday came it was so stormy we couldn't go. I didn't say a thing, but I must have looked disappointed, for he said: 'Cheer up, little Sprite, for your prize shall reach Cliffmore to-day. I'm going over there, and I'll take it with me.'
"Now I believe he wouldn't have gone so far on such a day for himself. I think he went for me."
"It would be just like Uncle John to do that," Rose said. "He's always doing something to make people happy."
As if to prove that his little niece spoke truly, he now appeared on the road in his big motor car, laughing when he espied the three playmates, and gaily calling:
"Has anyone seen a small girl straying around this part of Avondale?
Girl with brown curls, and rosy cheeks, answers to the name of Rose?"
"You needn't laugh, Uncle John, for truly I was afraid Great Aunt Rose would try to make you say that I must spend, at least, a part of my time with her, and oh, I didn't want to."