"You look like a skinny little patriotic barber pole," Lucy retorted.
The boys looked just as odd as they did, and so did Mr. Payton, whose suit, also vividly striped, was a relic of the same era.
Good-natured jeers and insults filled the air. So did an alien smell of moth balls. But not for long. Soon the children were popping into the water, happy as frogs.
It was cold! Cold and delicious, and so clear that they could see the carpet of drowned leaves lying far below them on the bottom.
At first they just swam and soaked and luxuriated. The midday sun blazed down on them. Mr. Payton swam the breast stroke holding his beard well out of the water and smiling benignly.
"Ah, by Jupiter, ah, by Jove," he purred contentedly.
"Let's stay here all day long, Uncle Pin, can we? Let's stay until it's suppertime."