“Neither have I,” said Betty.
“We have good weather,” said Mrs. Van Buskirk, “and it will be moonlight.”
Moonlight it was, as they all sat well forward on the deck to watch the moon, the clouds, and the shores of the Kennebec. Then at last they reached the ocean. Hilary caught her breath a little as they first felt the ocean swell, but it was calm “on the deep,” and the ship fairly steady.
“Are you all right?” Campbell inquired with concern, as he drew up his chair next to Hilary.
“O, yes. I felt a little funny at first, but I love it!”
There was much to tell Mrs. Van Buskirk. Campbell told the most amusing tales of doings at the boys’ camp and the girls described the grand finale of the last week in Merrymeeting Camp, the banquet, the prizes, the last trips and fun, which had not been included in any of Cathalina’s letters home.
“Probably your last letter is waiting for me at home, Cathalina,” said Mrs. Van Buskirk. “When I left Boston for this little trip with your father I left word for the mail to be forwarded to New York. Our visit to the White Mountains was unexpected, you know, but Mr. Van Buskirk needed a cooler place to rest than Boston. Your Aunt Ann, Cathalina, was so disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped, and I had been there long enough anyway. By the way, what do you girls want to see in Boston?”
“Speak up, Hilary,” said Cathalina, smiling, as there was a slight hesitation on the part of the girls addressed.
“Oh, your mother will know where we ought to go. Of course I’d like to see the Bunker Hill Monument, and the place where the Boston Tea Party was, and if it isn’t too much trouble to drive there, Lexington and Concord—and the Harvard buildings are in Cambridge, aren’t they? And, Oh, I do want to see the place where Miss Alcott wrote ‘Little Women’!”
“You have chosen well, Hilary. Of course we shall drive out through Cambridge, Lexington and Concord. I think that I shall rest in the hotel in the morning and let the boys take you girls around the city. But after lunch we shall start early, and I believe I can tell you many interesting things about the different places. Nearly everything is historic or has literary associations. I love Concord myself, Hilary, and the Alcott home will delight you girls.”