"Oh, no!" said her father. "Our boat is not sinking, but we are going to take a look at the inside of the island. The Overall Boys saw the inside of a glacier up in Switzerland, you know."
"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Molly. "See, there is a man who wants to take us in his boat. Please, can't we hurry?"
They had to keep their heads low to slip through the opening
A few moments later they were being rowed straight toward a low hole in the steep shore. The hole was not more than three feet high and three feet wide above the surface of the water. It led into a narrow passage about fifteen feet long, which was just large enough for a rowboat to slip through if heads were kept very low.
"Oh, my! Where are we going?" whispered May, as she lay very still in the bottom of the boat. "This is more dangerous than going inside of a glacier. I know it is! I wish the Overall Boys were here!"
"Heads up!" called the boatman. "You are now in the beautiful Blue Grotto, the most wonderful chamber in Italy."
The next few moments no one spoke. The Sunbonnet Babies were sure they were dreaming, or that they had fallen asleep while lying in the bottom of the boat and had wakened in the land of the water nymphs.
Molly peeped gently over the edge of the boat, hoping to see a pretty nymph swimming about in the wonderful greenish-blue water. Just then a slender figure sprang from a narrow ledge at the farther side of the cave.
"Look, Molly!" whispered May. "It is a nymph—a really, truly nymph! It has gone way down under the water. The water is so clear and light we can see everything in it. It looks as deep as the sky."