"A pretty handsome result, I should say," remarked Mr. Ramsey much pleased. "At this rate we shall be able to put up as good a house as need be. Please thank the Pippin in the name of myself and the family of Cap'n Si."
"I'll do it, sir. The boys were glad to come up to scratch."
"I think it is very lucky the fire was last night instead of to-night," remarked Edna gravely.
"And why?" asked Ben.
[126] "Because if it hadn't been till to-night you all would be gone and then you wouldn't have passed around the hat."
Both Mr. Ramsey and Ben laughed at this subtle reasoning, and then Ben said he must say good-bye to Mrs. Ramsey, so they went out leaving Mr. Ramsey to other matters.
"I wish you would tell me why the yacht is called Pippin," said Edna.
"My dearest child, I see you do not make yourself acquainted with slang, and far be it from me to intrude it upon your youthful attention. If you were to ask Clem McAllister why he named it that he would say, 'Because she is such a pippin,' meaning a beauty, and that is all there is of it."
Edna understood by this that a pippin was another name for a beauty and was quite satisfied. She had two brothers of her own, and cousin Ben had passed the previous year at her home; therefore she was not at all unfamiliar with boyish slang.
The good-byes to Mrs. Ramsey and the other two little girls being made Ben took his departure, telling Edna she would see him early in the fall, and as Uncle Justus would not on any account leave without learning how Edna was, his was the next call. It was not a long one, for the yacht was to leave the harbor early and there was not much time left though Edna managed to tell about the fire and the bazar, and to send a great many messages to [127]all at home whom Uncle Justus would see before she herself would.