“There’s a sand bar outside the cove, and it’s grown so that it really makes another beach, outside. And on that there is real surf. So we can have whichever sort of bathing we like best, or both kinds on the same day, if we want.”
“Maybe I’ll like it better when I see it, then. Because I do love to swim, and I don’t believe I’d enjoy just letting the surf bang me around.”
“Why, Bessie, you say you may like it better when you see it? Haven’t you ever been to the seashore?”
“I certainly never have, Dolly! You seem to forget that I’ve spent all the time I can remember in Hedgeville.”
“I do forget it, all the time. And do you know why? It’s because you seem to know such an awful lot about other places and things you never saw there. I suppose they made you read books.”
“Made me! That was one of the things Maw Hoover used to get mad at me for doing. Whenever she saw me reading a book it seemed to make her mad, and she’d say I was loafing, and find something for me to do, even if I’d hurried through all the chores I had so that I could get at the book sooner.”
“Then you used to like to read?”
“Oh, yes, I always did. The Sunday School had a sort of library, and I used to be able to get books from there. I love to read, and you would, too, Dolly, if you only knew how much fun you have out of books.”
Dolly made a face.
“Not the sort of books my Aunt Mabel wants me to read,” she said decidedly. “Stupid old things they are! It’s just like going to school all over again. I get enough studying at school, thanks!”