"Mary, how would you like to go down to the seashore for a week?"
"And take us?" exclaimed Beth.
Mr. Davenport was in a teasing mood.
"I will take Marian because she has been good, but as to you, I must find out first from mamma if any bad girl has been around here lately. We can't take bad girls with us."
Beth held her breath for her mother's answer.
"Well, James, for a wonder we have had an unusually good girl here for the past week. If we go, she may go too."
Beth danced a jig in the intensity of her joy.
"Where are we going, papa?"
"Down to Fort George Island, which is at the mouth of the St. Johns. We will leave to-morrow morning. Can you be ready by that time, Mary?"
"I guess so."