“I live not far from here. If you don’t mind walking a little, you could wait at my home until I come back with the motor.”
“And then we could see the mocking bird,” put in Elinor.
The boy’s face lit up.
“Yes.”
“It would be very, very kind of your—of you to take such a crowd of us in, Edward,” said Miss Campbell. “We should appreciate your hospitality. I don’t seem to fancy stopping in this lonely spot all that long time, especially after dark.”
Once more they landed and formed a silent procession along an old wagon road from the beach through a great grove of trees. It was a gloomy place in the late afternoon. The branches draped in gray Spanish moss made a mournful picture.
“We look like a troop of spirits,” whispered Mary to Billie.
The two girls had lingered a little behind the others.
“What spirit was it, do you think, that sprung a leak in our boat?” whispered Billie.
“It was the spirit of mischief. And it might have been very serious mischief, too, if it had not been for our wise little engineer.”