She shrugged her shoulders, and shook her fair head, her blue eyes gleaming mischievously.
"I told how the donkey kicked me off his back," she remarked. "Lionel said it served me right for being a tomboy; and mother said she didn't know, she was sure, how her daughter could be such a hoyden, and she wondered I hadn't been killed; and grandfather said what was no good never came to harm—I don't think he quite meant that!"
"Then grandfather wasn't angry?"
"Not a bit. He told mother the scratches on my face were only skin deep, and she needn't worry. She was fussy, you know; it's her way!"
Dick was fondling Nero, who was standing by his side, smiling up into his face with watchful amber eyes. The great dog was wagging his tail good-humouredly; perhaps he, as well as the children, anticipated an enjoyable afternoon.
"Did you have any difficulty in getting away?" Ruth enquired.
"Oh, no! Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Theophilus let me go wherever I please now, alone!"
"That's the best of being a boy! Just because I'm a girl mother's always telling me not to do this, and not to do that, and not to tear my clothes, or get untidy! She even grumbles about the freckles on the bridge of my nose—as though they mattered! Really it's too bad! What are you going to do first this afternoon?"
"Suppose we walk along the beach towards where the cliff was washed away?" Dick suggested.
"Very well. I'm cooler now, and ready to start."