Now she was fairly in the line of having her own way, Claire was radiant.
"The idea of finding fault with this day!" she taunted laughingly. "Why, I couldn't have made it better, myself!"
"Why don't those birds fly up in the sky, mother?" asked Francie. "What makes 'em fly so low down, right over the water?"
"They are gulls," Mrs. Ronald answered, as if that explained the mystery.
It was a tremendous surprise to find the blue heron a bird instead of "a delicatessen."
For a couple of hours after her first introduction to the new acquaintance Martha kept exclaiming at intervals. "Well, what do you think o' that!" as a sort of gentle indication of her amazement.
"Say, mother, the way the herring walks, it'd make you think o' folks goin' up the church-aisle to get married—steppin' as slow, as slow. Bridesmaids an' things."
Martha winked solemnly across at Claire.
"Nothin' interests Cora so much these days, as the loverin' business. She's got it on the brain."
"Dear me! But there are no lovers around here, I'm sure," Claire said, amused.