Elsa as suddenly bent and kissed her, and even the other matter-of-fact girls grew thoughtful.
“It’s like a church, isn’t it? Only more beautiful,” whispered the lame girl.
“Yes, isn’t it? Makes all the petty hatefulness of things seem not worth while. What matter if the storm did break the engine—that stranded us right here and gave us this. If we’d kept on down the bay we’d have missed it. That’s like dear Uncle Seth says—that things are meant. So I believe that it was ‘meant’ you should come here to-day and have your first taste of the woods. You’ll never be afraid of them again, I reckon.”
“Never—never! I’m glad you made me come. I didn’t want to. I wanted to read, but this is better than any book could be, because like you said—God made it.”
Aurora and Mabel had already turned back toward the Lily and now called that it was time to go. Though the little outing had meant less to them than it had to Elsa and Dorothy, it had still given them a pleasure that was simple and did them good. Aurora had gathered a big bunch of purple asters for the table, thinking how well they would harmonize with the dainty lavender of her hostess’s gown; and Mabel had plucked a lot of “boneset” for her mother, remembering how much that lady valued it as a preventive of “malary”—the disease she had been sure she would contract, cruising in shallow streams.
“Come on, girls! Something’s happened! The boys are waving to us like all possessed!” shouted Mabel, when they had neared the wharf and the boat which already seemed like home to them.
Indeed, Gerald and Melvin were dancing about on the little pier beckoning and calling: “Hurry up, hurry up!” and the girls did hurry, even Elsa moving faster than she had ever done before. Already she felt stronger for her one visit to that wonderful forest and she was hoping that the Water Lily might remain just where it was, so that she might go again and again.
Then Gerald came to meet them, balancing a water-melon on his head, trying to imitate the ease with which the colored folks did that same trick. But he had to use his hands to keep it in place and even so it slipped from his grasp and fell, broken to pieces at Elsa’s feet.
“Oh! What a pity!” she cried, then dropped her eyes because she had been surprised into speaking to this boy who had never noticed her before.
“Not a bit! Here, my lady, taste!”