"Yes, I remember," answered Rick. "But the lemons and cocoanuts were washed overboard off a ship that sank, and some of the cocoanuts were spoiled sour."
"A dog wouldn't spoil sour if he was in the ocean; would he?" Mazie wanted to know.
"Course not!" laughed Rick. "But dogs couldn't come up out the ocean, and be washed on the beach like the lemons and cocoanuts."
"A dog could, if he was washed overboard off a ship," went on Mazie, for, having lived all her life near the sea, she knew what being washed overboard meant. "If a dog fell off a ship and come on shore then you could have him; couldn't you, Ricky?" she asked.
"Yes," answered her brother, slowly, "but I don't guess that will happen. But oh! I do want a dog!"
It was after supper that night, when Rick was playing ball in the vacant lots back of his house, and Mazie and the little girl from next door were sitting on the side steps, talking about the play-party for their dolls next day, that Mrs. Dalton said to her husband:
"I don't know what to do about Rick!"
"Why, he hasn't been bad; has he?" asked Mr. Dalton.
"Oh, no, Rick is a very good boy," his mother answered. "But he does tease so for a dog!"
"A dog!" exclaimed Mr. Dalton. "Hum, yes, a dog! Well, I s'pose it's natural for a boy to want a dog. I had one when I was a lad."