"This beats all!" he said. "I wouldn't have had such a fright for a hundred dollars! But there's one thing to be thankful for,—my wife escaped it: if she had known beforehand, it would have made her down sick. Yes! let the boys go to bed! There they are, laughing still, the scamps! and never will know, until they have children of their own, what I have suffered since eight o'clock last night!"
"It's the greatest cheat of a time I ever heard of," said Pierre, sitting down on the steps, and beginning to laugh as only those can whose laughter has been long pent up. "I didn't want to let the boys know I thought it was amusing, they were so inclined to treat it lightly themselves: but, ha, ha, ha!—to think of all the racing and talking and surmising, and scouring the country, and dead boys in ponds, and those youngsters all the time reposing peacefully right out here in the barn! Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho!"
Pierre then told Mr. Le Bras of his dreadful surmise about the pond by the lighthouse.
"I am thankful I was spared the knowledge of there being a pond about here!" replied Mr. Le Bras fervently.
"You see, why they didn't see the house was because Mary had put all the lamps she could muster on the west side to help guide me on my way back from the Point," said Pierre. "So they must have gone into the barn while I was off up that way; for, after that, there were lights in the kitchen, which they couldn't help but have seen."
CHAPTER XI.
GOING FOR RUTH.
The penalty, added to the morning's imprisonment; for Felix was that he should read to Pierre an hour after breakfast every morning, he having nothing to say as to what he should read, but Pierre making all the selections. Felix tried to get the sentence commuted to half an hour, but his uncle was inexorable: he said the prevarication about the time was a very serious matter, and besides that, as the evening readings had been given up for the summer on account of the unpleasantness of having lamps lighted during the warm weather, Felix would lose all the progress he had made in reading, if he did not practise regularly for some time to come. As Pierre began by selecting easy and interesting stories, however; Felix found, on trial, that he rather enjoyed his daily penalty than otherwise. The readings were carried on in Felix's room, where there was nothing to divert his attention.
Sue was very anxious to go over in the dog-cart to see Ruth. Julia had promised to accompany her. Julia had been to the lighthouse in her father's carriage quite often with friends from the city, and she was to show Sue the way around by the village, which, although the longer way, was much the pleasanter and smoother road; since, for some time before reaching the lighthouse, it was within view of the ocean and of the surf, which dashed high upon the shore. Mrs. Le Bras said, if the next Thursday were pleasant, Sue might go over to the lighthouse in the morning, and she should like very much to have her bring Ruth home to dinner, if her uncle and aunt were willing. Mrs. Le Bras also said, that, if Ruth could stay until toward night, she would carry her back herself in the carriage, as she would like to see the lighthouse and the ocean-side herself.
Thursday proved to be a very pleasant day, much to Sue's delight; and Oliver harnessed the pony into the dog-cart immediately after breakfast. Felix and Johnny had planned to accompany the girls on their bicycles, and Felix was rather vexed when he found they were going before his hour with Pierre was over. He went to his uncle, and tried to get off for that morning; but Mr. Le Bras said it was a bad plan to make any break in what ought to be a regular custom, unless it were either very advisable or absolutely necessary, neither of which was the case in this instance. Felix then tried to get the girls to change their plans; but they argued, that, if they waited, it would bring them back in the heat of the day, which both Mrs. Le Bras and Julia's mother wished them to avoid. As a last resource, Felix asked Johnny not to go until his hour was up. Johnny would have assented to this good-naturedly, although he rather wanted to go with the girls, but Julia opposed it strongly: she said she wanted Johnny to go with them very much; and she added, naughtily, to Sue, and so loudly that Felix could hear her, "I think it will be nicer to have Johnny alone than to have Felix too. Felix will be with us when we come home, and that is enough."