To bark and bite,”
said Hester; “ ’tisn’t my nature to. I’m enjoying it all just as much as you are, but I don’t make such a fuss about it.”
“Well, I don’t see how any one can look at that great, boiling blue ocean, and those jolly big waves coming up ker-smash! and not feel like yelling. I shall have to burst into song. ‘Columbia the gem of the o-shun!’ ”
“Betty, you haven’t a speck of romance in your nature,” said Hester, laughing. “Now if Daisy were here she’d quote an appropriate ditty instead of howling a national air.”
“Pooh! I’d rather have real patriotism than all Daisy’s make-believe romantic notions. She puts on all that, but she can’t fool me.”
“Oh, I don’t think she pretends always.”
“Yes, she does; she’s never sincere; and that’s the one thing I can’t stand. I’d rather be honest and say what I mean than to be the petted favorite of everybody, as she is.”
“Marguerite has so many talents,” put in Hester; “she does everything so well that people can’t help praising her.”
“She doesn’t do things well,” went on Betty; “she pretends to. But she’s lazy, and she thinks whenever she gets half a chance—”
“Oh, dear!” said Hester. “Don’t let’s be so hard on poor Daisy, especially when she’s hard at work getting our breakfast. Let’s take a run to the end of the board walk and back, and then go up to the house, for even a snail would have breakfast ready by that time.”