Instinctively the girl knew what was in the thought of the old man. Little Sol was eager to return to the mainland that he might display to his mother the first silver dollar that he had ever earned and so the happy girl climbed to the little room over the kitchen and put on what her grand-dad called her “Sunday riggin’s.” She hesitated just a moment between the red hair ribbon and the green, then choosing the latter, she peered into the broken bit of mirror to tie it as best she could on her red-brown hair. Then seizing her flower-wreathed hat by its strings, down the stairs she skipped. Shags, sensing the holiday spirit that was in the air, barked joyfully when she appeared and was quite crestfallen when he was told that he must stay and help grand-dad guard the light.
The old man stood at the top of the steps and swung his cap when Muriel, sitting in the stern of the Water Rat, turned at the first buoy and waved to him.
In the heart of Captain Ezra, for the second time in many years, there was a prayer that the One at the helm might guide his “gal” aright.
CHAPTER XI.
A PARTY FOR TWO.
Brazilla Mullet, the elderly spinster sister of Jabez Mullet, who drove the stage, had been the doctor’s housekeeper for many years. She and her brother occupied the neat little cottage just beyond the hedge, and Jabez, when he was not driving, was gardener for both places.
Half an hour after Gene Beavers had sent the note to Windy Island by little sol from the glassed-in end of Doctor Winslow’s veranda he had been eagerly watching the road.
Miss Brazilla busied herself in the rooms adjoining that she might hear the boy’s slightest movement. Doctor Winslow had cautioned her that Gene, who was restless because of his prolonged inactivity, must not be permitted to leave the couch, where he was comfortably propped to a position that was half reclining by many pillows.
The doctor himself, after having written the note to Captain Ezra, had been suddenly called on an emergency case out at the Life Saving Station on The Point, and that was why Gene had been the one to give instructions concerning the delivery of the message.
“What time is it now, Miss Brazilla?” the boy asked.
“It’s nigh to eleven, Master Gene,” the housekeeper appeared in the doorway to remark, “an’ I’m hopin’ the pore gal will get here in time for a bite with yo’. In all the years I’ve heerd tell about that child she’s never tuk a meal off Windy Island. ’Twill be a reg’lar party for Rilla, that it will—if she’s let to come. I don’t want to be disappointin’, Master Gene, yo’ and doctor settin’ so much store on her comin’, but I know Cap’n Ezra purty well and a man more sot in his opinion don’t live—not in Tunkett anyhow, an’ many’s the time I’ve heerd him say that his gal should never ever set eyes on city folks, if he could be helpin’ it.”