“Oh, she—she’s just a make-believe,” said Hal softly, and his cheeks turned red. “I make up stories about her you know,” he went on. “I pretend that she likes me, and I like her and—and some day maybe she is going to change my crooked foot into a straight one. Anyhow, if she doesn’t maybe Dr. Wade will. But I’ll tell you more about Princess Blue Eyes some day.”
“I wish you would,” half whispered Jan. “I love fairy stories.”
“But what made you think of the salt?” asked Ted.
“Oh, when I started across my field and saw the sheep eating some of the crown jewels of the Princess Blue Eyes,” answered Hal with a laugh, “I thought of the salt I’d seen in that other field, so I went back for some. Then I saw you all penned in by the sheep, and I was glad I had it.”
“So are we!” laughed Jan.
She could laugh now, for the sheep were so busy licking up the salt Hal had scattered that they paid no more attention to the Curlytops. Trouble was lifted over to the other side of the fence, where Nicknack was still eating grass. Jan, Ted and Hal followed, and then the three children and Baby William sat down in the shade of a big elm tree and talked.
It was two or three days after this, and Hal had been given several rides in the goat wagon, that, one afternoon when he was about to go back to the Home to supper, he said:
“Don’t you ever go fishing?”
“Fishing? Where?” asked Ted.
“In Clover Lake. There are some boats on it that belong to the Home. Sometimes the nurses or the doctors take the boys and girls out for a row. I can row myself, and they let me once in a while. But they never let me go fishing, and I’d just love to! I was thinking maybe if you went fishing I could go with you.”