"No."
"That's Jack, the boy who threw stones at my kitten."
"At his kitten, you mean," said Sue.
"Why, the kitten that's mine now: a kitten belongs to the folks who can be kind to it."
This peculiar law regarding the ownership of kittens was new to Sue. She thought she would ask her father about it, but she made no reply to Julia.
"Oh! that's Jack, is it?" said Johnny. "I might almost have known it, by his saying he caught the fish just for the fun of it, and then threw them back into the water."
"That isn't so bad as about the kitten," replied Sue; "for, if I were a fish, I would rather be thrown back in the water, than fried in a spider."
"But it isn't right," said Johnny; and then he rode on a little ahead, to escape arguing the matter further with Sue, who was apt to get the best of him sometimes, even when she was on the wrong side.
After reaching the village, they crossed through it, according to Julia's directions, and came out into a country road bordered at intervals with farmhouses. Shortly they came in view of the ocean, and soon in full view of the surf. The road wound gradually nearer and nearer the shore, until they were almost at the lighthouse, and was separated from the white-sanded beach only by a narrow strip of land covered with the tall, rank grass which grew along the shore. A fresh wind was blowing from the sea, and the surf washed the rocks at the base of the lighthouse. The side of the keeper's house was almost upon the street; indeed, it was at a corner; as the road upon which Felix and Johnny had reached it was in front, running down to the shore.
"I wish there were lines here," remarked Johnny, "so we could come over and bathe in the surf. Oliver says there is such an undertow here, it would be unsafe without lines."