A little way up the road which led past the woods, and on the opposite side from the woods, a man was at work in a large vegetable garden which bordered a cornfield.
"There is Mr. Shepard," said Julia: "he is the lighthouse keeper. Shall we go and see him, and ask if we can go up in the lighthouse? Or shall we call at the house first, and ask to see Ruth?"
"Let's see Ruth first," replied Sue, "'cause that's what we came for; and we want to give our invitation to dinner, so she will have time to get ready while we are in the lighthouse."
"I don't believe we had better ask to see the lighthouse, until we come with some grown persons," said Johnny: "perhaps they won't want to take that trouble for all the children who come over."
"But we aren't all the children," replied Julia.
"We haven't any better right to ask than any other children have; and so, if they let us go, they might have to let others, or have them bother by asking," returned Johnny.
"Very well, if you and Sue don't care: I've been up there so many times, I don't care about climbing up again; and you can't see any thing when you get up there, because it's all full of the lamp."
Johnny laughed at this. "Why, the lamp is just what I should go to see. I've studied about that kind of lamp, and I want to see one very much: I want to notice the way the glass is formed and arranged to collect and refract the rays, so as to make the most of them in sending the light out to sea. But I think I would rather go up with Pierre or my father, who can help me understand it better; and besides, if there is some grown person with me, I can stay longer, and Mr. Shepard will take more pains to tell all he knows about it. Nobody takes pains to explain things to boys."
"There is a good enough reason for that," said Julia: "how much would such a boy as Felix or Jack listen to explanations? I think you are a kind of a man, Johnny: you only look like a boy. And you don't look so very much like a boy when you have your glasses on. I think I shall call you Professor, as Sue and Felix do."
"It's great if a boy must be called a man and a professor just because he likes to understand about matters! But you just wait till I'm as tall as my father, and wear a stove-pipe: then see if you don't notice a difference."