Of course they went. Mrs. Josephine had a way of getting her will of other people, and this time it was a relief even to hospitable Aunt Betty to have only her own family about her. When the rumble of wheels had died away she called Mr. Winters from his inspection of the Water Lily and bade him:
“Give an account of yourself, please. Why haven’t you come before and why have you come now? Come everybody, come and listen. Let dinner wait till we learn what news this man has in his budget.”
So they gathered about him while he explained:
“I wanted to come at the very beginning of the trip but, also, I wanted to see what my Dorothy would do with her ‘elephant’ of a house-boat. Engineer Stinson, here, wrote me about the breaking of the engine and your plans for a simpler outing because of it. I tried to get him to come back to you and take the job in hand but he had other engagements and couldn’t then. So I reasoned that it wouldn’t do any of you a bit of harm to live thus quietly for a few weeks, till he was at liberty. He is now and has come, bringing all the necessary stuff to work with as far as Jimpson’s.
“To make a long story short: I propose; ‘everybody willing and nobody saying no,’ as Dolly used to premise in making her plans, to pole back there; to get the engine into first-class order; and then to take a real cruise in this beautiful Water Lily all down this side the Bay and up along the Eastern Sho’. Cousin Betty shall visit her beloved Severn; we’ll see the middies at Annapolis; touch here and there at the historic points; do anything, in fact, that anybody most desires. For, by and by, these idle days must give place to days of discipline, when our small hostess, here, will resume her education in the faraway northland of Canada. What will befall her there? Ah! well. That we must wait to learn from time, and from the forthcoming story of [‘Dorothy at Oak Knowe.’]
“Meanwhile, the autumn is at its best. October on the old Chesapeake is just glorious, with occasional storms thrown in to make us grateful for this safe, snug little craft. Mr. Stinson says he wouldn’t be afraid to trust it on the Atlantic, even, but we’ll not do that. We’ll just simply fill these remaining days of Dorothy’s vacation with the—time of our lives! All in favor, say Aye. Contrary—no.”
As he finished the “Learned Blacksmith” drew his beloved ward to his side and looked into her sparkling eyes, asking:
“Well, Dolly Doodles, what say?”
“Aye, aye, aye!”