“The other day,” she said, musingly, “the Captain said he had been tramping the beach one awful night in a thunderstorm, when he was first on coast duty, and he felt troubled about all the boats that were in peril. Then all at once he thought of those words, ‘He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.’ And he felt strengthened all at once, so he wasn’t afraid any more.”
“How do you do, girls?” called Mrs. Vaughan’s pleasant voice behind them, and they turned to find her and the Doctor with Dorothy and Bess. The Doctor was to take dinner at the hotel with the Commodore’s family, but they all walked back through the pine grove together to the shore road.
“Wasn’t the sermon nice?” asked Bess, happily. “I love that parable about the merchant who sought pearls.”
The Doctor nodded his head.
“That simile is one of the finest in the Bible,” he responded. “I had the good fortune to attend the pearl harvest at Ceylon twice, and it sets one thinking, it certainly sets one thinking.”
“Oh, tell us about it, please, Doctor?” pleaded Polly, slipping her hand on his arm. “I’ve been wondering about it ever since we left the stadium. Are there any pearls around here?”
The Doctor was not a Yankee, but he usually answered one question by asking another, in Yankee fashion.
“What are you all going to do this afternoon?”
“Rest, and write letters home, and talk. Crullers and Aunty Welcome will take long naps. Sue and Ted will get out their book of class songs, and sing and play all of them over five times running. Isabel will read a book, and Ruth and I will write letters.”
“That’s all right; just as long as you had not planned to go sailing. About four, Dorothy and Bess and I will come over in the Natica and talk to you about pearls. I have some unset ones I will show you.”