The conversation was now quickly turned. The children found plenty of shells in the White Bay. Soon they were sitting on the sands picking them up and enjoying themselves as only children can.
“So,” said Pen, pushing back her hat and fixing her eyes on Harry’s face, “you comed here without leave?”
“Of course we did,” said Harry. “Won’t nurse be in a state when she finds we’ve gone! She will rush up and down in front of the house and cry, for father and mother have gone away for the whole day, and nurse is in sole charge. Oh, won’t she be in a state! She went off to walk with her young man, and we thought we’d play a joke on her, for she’s often told us not to come here. ‘If you go near that White Bay,’ she said, ‘you will be drowned as sure as sure.’ She daren’t tell father and mother because of her young man. Isn’t it fun?”
“Yes,” said Penelope, “it’s prime fun; but isn’t this fun, too? You won’t be able to go to that Zoo place any more.”
“Now what do you mean?”
“Why, this: the animals will eat you up. You are bad, same as me. You two won’t be able to go to any more Zoos;” and Pen rolled round and round in fiendish delight.
The other children looked at her with anything but approval.
“I don’t like her,” whispered Nellie to her brother.
“Of course you don’t like bad little girls,” replied Harry. “Let’s run away at once and leave her. Let’s.”
They scrambled to their feet. To love a new playmate and yet without an instant’s warning to desert her was quite in accordance with their childish ideas. In a moment they were running as fast as their legs would permit across the sands. The tide had been coming in fast for some time.