"The woods down here are full of them."
"Well, I guess I haven't been into the woods very much."
"Elizabeth ain't a tomboy, like you, into everybody else's business, all day long. She stays at home with me and Gra'ma, and minds her p's and q's."
"Well, we'll change all that. Attractive as you and Grandmummy are, you can't expect to monopolize her forever. Now it's my turn."
Elizabeth saw that both her grandfather and grandmother were beaming at this tall girl's impulsive chattering. She felt her own stiffness relaxing under the sunny influence of the stranger's smile.
"I adopted Grandmummy and Granddaddy three years ago, when I came over to this ducky old house, on my very first day on the Cape, to beg a pint of milk and a pail of water for my hungry, unkempt family. I saw that they were just the grandparents I was looking for, and so I took them on, and I've been the plague of their existence every summer since. Haven't I, Granddaddy? Isn't he a lamb? You know, my one ambition is to squeeze him to pieces, but he's so woolly and scratchy and cantankerous, that it's almost impossible to get your arms around him, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," Elizabeth said, crimsoning, with a quick glance at her grandfather.
To her surprise, he took no notice of her discomfiture. Both he and Grandmother seemed unaware of the delicate ground upon which Miss Peggy Farraday had set her enthusiastic little heels.
"I'm fifteen," that young lady continued, with very little pause either between her mouthfuls of food or of conversation—"You're fourteen, aren't you? I had more fun the year I was fourteen than I ever had before, or ever expect to have again."
"I'll be fourteen next Thursday," Elizabeth said.