“If that isn’t just like him!” she scolded. “He wouldn’t let me carry it down to the boat for him and then he goes off and forgets it himself. He must have thought he had it when he carried down that case of film plates. Won’t he be in a fine stew when he finds out he’s left it behind and has no boat to come back in? And I’ve got all the stuff ready to start making that new Indian pudding, and if I take the time to row over to the Point of Pines 221 I won’t get it done for dinner and the boys and girls will be so disappointed! And poor Mrs. Evans has just fallen asleep after being up all night with a jumping tooth; I can’t ask her to go.” Then her eye fell on Antha, swinging in the hammock. “I don’t suppose I could send Antha over with it,” she said to herself, remembering how Antha always clung to the others, and had never been out in a boat by herself. “I might as well make up my mind to give up the Indian pudding and go over myself.” But the materials were all out and some half prepared and it seemed such a shame not to be able to finish it. “Gracious!” she thought to herself, looking in Antha’s direction again, “that girl ought to be able to take that camera over there. The lake is as smooth as glass. I just won’t take the time.”
“Antha,” she said, approaching her with the camera, and speaking in the same matter-of-fact tone she used toward the older girls, “will you row across the lake and give this to Uncle Teddy?”
Antha shrank back and looked uncertain, but Aunt Clara went on quickly, “He’ll be wild when he finds he’s forgotten it. Be careful that you don’t get it wet going over.” And she handed her the expensive instrument with an air of perfect confidence in her ability to take care of it.
“May I stay over there with Uncle Teddy and watch them take pictures?” asked Antha, for whom 222 the time was beginning to lag now that the others were not on the island.
“Yes, certainly,” said Aunt Clara. “I gave them plenty of lunch for three.”
She started Antha out in the rowboat and then went back to her task of concocting a new and delightful Indian pudding. When the boys and girls came home to dinner she was glad she had stayed and made it, for their delight and appreciation amply repaid her for the trouble.
At four o’clock the Captain went for the mail and came home with Uncle Teddy and Mr. Evans. Uncle Teddy wore an expression of deepest disgust. “Of all the boneheaded things I ever did,” he exclaimed as he stepped out on the dock, “today’s job was the worst. Here I went off and left the camera behind, and not having any boat couldn’t come back, so we just had to sit there all day and wait to be called for.”
“But,” gasped Aunt Clara, “I sent Antha after you with it just as soon as I found you had forgotten it. Didn’t she bring it to you?”
“No,” said Uncle Teddy. “We never saw a sign of her.”
“Something must have happened to her!” cried Aunt Clara, starting up in dismay. “She went over before dinner. The lake was so smooth I thought it was perfectly safe. What could have happened?”