The wind had risen, the homeward voyage was rough. They reached Romney to find little Jack ill; before morning he was struggling with an attack of croup.
VI.
“CICELY, what did you say to those people, that they stared at us so when they passed?”
“Oh, they asked me if you were the man who went round with the panorama—to explain it, you know. So I told them that you were the celebrated Jessamine family—you and Miss Leontine; and that you were going to give a concert in Gary Hundred to-night; I advised them to go.”
“Bless my soul!—the celebrated Jessamine family? What possessed you?”
“Well, they saw the wagon, and they thought it looked like a panorama. They seemed to want something, so I told them that.”
Eve broke into a laugh.
But the judge put on his spectacles, and walked round the wagon with indignant step. “It is an infernal color,” he declared, angrily.
“Our good Dickson had that paint on hand—he told me about it,” explained Miss Leontine. “It was left over”—here she paused. “I don’t know what you will think, but I believe it really was left over after a circus—or was it a menagerie? At any rate, the last thing that was exhibited here before the war.”