Deep silence.
“The umbrella blew away, Mother, and the boat is lost, too.”
“Tell me all about it.”
“The waves were too high, you see—that’s the way it all came; and the umbrella was too frightfully heavy; but we landed head first, if you’ll believe it. This is the way we fell over each other.” And Johnny Blossom demonstrated on the veranda floor how they had been cast ashore.
“You got wet then?”
“Oh, yes. You may know we were wet, sopping wet. We were almost upset in the sea, you understand; we were nearly drowned.”
“Oh, John! My dear little John!” Mother was so frightened that she drew him into her arms.
“Yes, but you see we didn’t drown; and my blouse got dry as tinder at the fireplace in Tellef’s house. Just feel how dry it is!”
“But isn’t your shirt wet?”
“Yes, that’s wet,” admitted Johnny Blossom.