“Only five of us are going to race, though,” said Connie Evans. “This is my first year at the seashore. We always go up to the Adirondacks. Father has a lodge up there, and it seems so strange not to be closed in by the mountains. I never sailed a yacht until this season, and mine is just a ‘cat’ with one sail.”
“Most of us have catboats,” replied Polly, reassuringly. “Mine is a ‘cat,’ too, and it is our first season with boats, so you need not be afraid of racing against experts. I think it will be lots of fun. Can you all swim?”
“No, we can’t, not one,” Bess declared. “We’ve been sand bathers this summer, mamma says, and haven’t been in at all above our shoulders. But I don’t think anything will happen, do you, Polly?”
“Polly believes that prevention is earth’s first law,” laughed Kate, as she saw Polly shake her head doubtfully. “You had best put a lot of buoys and life preservers in your boats.”
“What time would they have to put them on,” demanded Sue, “if they just dropped into the water? I think it would be a good idea if we wore belts like acrobats when they are training, with a ring in the back, and a rope fastened to it. Then if we fell over all we would have to do would be to hold on to the rope and be hauled in.”
“They say one of the men from the Station is to be on guard at the pier all day, and they will watch from the Point too.”
“That’s all right,” Crullers broke in, wistfully, “but if you fall overboard, you’ll swallow salt water enough to drown ten cats, before they have time to get to you; I know from experience.”
“Let’s not even think it may happen,” said Polly, happily. “Dorothy, couldn’t we have the Cup on the table just as a reminder?”
Dorothy thought perhaps they might, and after a consultation with the steward the Junior Cup was borne in state into the room, and set in the place of honor at the head of the table between Dorothy and Polly, the two commodores.
“Day after to-morrow,” said Sue, thoughtfully regarding it, “I shall go home with that under my arm.”