"You know," said Mr. Burke, "it wouldn't take me long to get her ready for sea. I could soon coal her and put her stores aboard, and as to a crew, I can get one in no time. We could leave port in a week just as well as not!"
"Let's go!" said Willy, seizing the hand of her friend. "It need only be a little trip, just to see how it would all feel."
Mrs. Cliff smiled. "Very good," said she, "we'll take a little trial trip just as soon as you are ready, Captain Burke! That is, if you have not made any plans which will prevent you from accepting the position."
"Madam," said Burke, springing to his feet and standing proudly before Mrs. Cliff, "I'd throw up the command of the finest liner on the Atlantic to be captain of the Summer Shelter for this summer! I see far more fun ahead in the cruises that you're going to make than in any voyage I've looked forward to yet; and when people have a chance to mix fun and charity as we're goin' to mix them, I say such people ought to call themselves lucky! This is Wednesday! Well now, madam, by next Wednesday the Summer Shelter will be all fitted out for the cruise, and she'll be ready to sail out of the harbor at whatever hour you name, for the tide won't make any difference to her!"
"There is only one thing I don't like about the arrangement," said Mrs. Cliff, when the Captain had left them, "and that is, that we will have to take this trip by ourselves. It seems a pity for three people to go sailing around in a big vessel like that with most of the state-rooms empty; but, of course, people are not prepared yet for country weeks at sea! And it will take some time to make my plans known in the proper quarters."
"I don't suppose," said Willy, "that there's anybody in Plainton that we could send for on short notice. People there want so much time to get ready to do anything!"
"But there is nobody in the town that I would care to take on a first voyage," said Mrs. Cliff. "You know, something might go wrong and we would have to come back, and if it is found necessary to do that, I don't want any Plainton people on board!"
"No indeed!" exclaimed Willy, her mind involuntarily running towards Nancy Shott, to whom a voyage to the West Indies would doubtless be of great service. "Don't let's bother about anything of that kind! Let's make the first trip by ourselves! I think that will be glorious!"