"Are those the papers that send Morland to the war?" asked Landry suddenly.
"Don't you worry your head about them," answered Claudia soothingly. "They're nothing to do with you, Landry."
"I don't want Morland to fight!" persisted the boy. "Morland shan't go to the war!"
"I'll be off some day, old sport!" laughed Morland.
"To-morrow?"
"No, no, not to-morrow; but before so very long, I hope."
"Will the Germans shoot at you?"
"You jolly well bet they will!"
"Don't excite him, Morland," interfered Claudia; for when Landry once woke out of his usual stolid calm and began to trouble his poor dull brains with questions, he was apt to get peevish and troublesome. "No, no, Landry dear; Morland is quite safe at present, and we won't let the Germans get him. Take this basket down to the beach and find me some more shells. I want some yellow ones to finish the pattern I was making on the ledge here."
Claudia was an adept at managing Landry, and could keep the boy quiet and change the current of his impulses when others only irritated him. She put a basket in his hand and a yellow shell for a pattern, led him by the arm to the mouth of the grotto, and showed him the spot on the beach where he would be likely to find more. To her relief, he departed quite happily on the errand. She had been afraid he was on the verge of a burst of temper. She turned to her other brother.