“There’s the Bonnie Susie!” announced Uncle Hiram suddenly.
Both little girls stood up then, because they were most anxious to see Uncle Hiram’s house.
“Why,” said Elizabeth Ann, in amazement, “why, it really is a ship!”
CHAPTER VI
THE BONNIE SUSIE
Anyone, seeing the Bonnie Susie for the first time, would have stared. Elizabeth Ann found out afterward that plenty of people, driving past the house, stopped and stared, just as she and Doris were doing now.
For there, in the center of a beautiful green lawn, surrounded by trees, stood a ship. A real ship, if you please, with masts and a deck and everything just as you see on ships in pictures. To be sure there were windows and doors cut in the hull of this ship, but they didn’t make it seem like a house. Nothing could make it seem like a house. It was a ship. And the name was painted up on what Uncle Hiram told them was the bow—“B-O-N-N-I-E S-U-S-I-E” in large black letters.
“Isn’t it lovely!” cried Elizabeth Ann, clapping her hands. “I never lived in a ship before.”
“I told you it was a ship,” Doris insisted, and Elizabeth Ann had to admit that she had.
The front door opened as they went up the neat gravel path and a tall, thin woman stood in the doorway. She reminded Elizabeth Ann a little of the woman who had struck her with the ruler, but she had a pleasanter face. And her hair, though it was gray, fluffed out around her face prettily.