A sailboat dipped across the horizon and headed for the landing not far from where the girls were sitting, but no one of them noticed it.
“Look ahoy! look ahoy!” a friendly voice cried out from across the water.
Phyllis closed her book with a snap, Lillian and Eleanor dropped their sewing, Tania ran to the water’s edge, and Madge sat up.
It was Captain Jules who had hailed them.
“Well, my hearties, is this a summer camp?” demanded the old sailor as his boat came near the land. “I have been all the way to the houseboat to find you. I have something to show you.” Captain Jules’s broad face shone with good humor. He was clad in his weather-beaten tarpaulins, and on his shoulder perched the monkey.
Madge covered the sides of her curly head with her hands. “Please don’t let the monkey pull my hair this morning,” she pleaded as the captain came up.
He tossed the monkey over to Tania, who cuddled it affectionately in her arms, and began talking softly to it.
Then Captain Jules seated himself on the grass and the houseboat girls gathered about him in a circle. He put one great hand in his pocket. “I’ve some presents for you,” he announced, trying to look very serious, but smiling in spite of himself.
“What are they?” asked Lillian eagerly.
“That’s telling,” returned the captain. “You must guess.”