He ran to the chair where his clothes were, and began to dress himself with the greatest haste. Then leaving a few buttons to fasten as he went along, he stole out of the room on tip-toe, and running down the pier, reached it just in time to seize the painter that old Andrew threw him. And in another moment he was aboard; and the first thing that his father saw when he looked out of the window was Hal sitting on the Speedwell, and swinging his hat above him for joy.
While they were eating breakfast Andrew and another man carried down the trunks and stowed them away, and by nine o’clock all the luggage was on board. Meanwhile the children were impatient to be off. But much as they longed to be at their summer home they would never have left Oldport without first seeing Thalassa. Thalassa was the adopted daughter of the innkeeper, and was always called Lassie. The children were very much interested in her, for she had a strange history. It was this:
One night, about thirteen years before, there was a great storm. All at once came word that a ship was on the bar. The people crowded to the beach to watch, and to see if they could help those on board. But it was of no use. Of all that ship’s company only one came ashore alive, and that was a baby girl. How she lived in that wild sea no one could tell. The innkeeper who saw her floating just outside the surf, made fast a line around his waist, and at the risk of his life swam out and brought her in. And ever since that day when he rescued her half drowned from the sea, and declared that the friendless little baby should be as his own child, Lassie, his little mermaid as he called her, had been very dear to him. As for Lassie, she loved her adopted father better than all the world beside.