"Why not Semiramis, after the happy mother of the puppies?" suggested Margaret.
"The whole puppies!" echoed Gerald. "Don't half name them, Margaret!"
"Why isn't that the name for the boat?" cried Phil.
"It is! it is!" cried all the rest. "The Whole Puppy, it is!" And Peggy laughing, submitted.
"I never was so teased in all my life!" she said; "but I feel it doing me good."
"That is our one object, my charming child!" said Gerald, gravely. "We invited you here in the hope that our united efforts might counteract the pernicious influences of Fernley House."
"Nobody will ever explain to me what a Come-at-a-Body is!" said Margaret. "Whenever I ask, you all say, 'Oh, hush! it might come!' Mrs. Merryweather, won't you tell me?"
"I will read you the description of it in the Log," said Mrs. Merryweather, smiling; "that is the best I can do for you."
She turned over the pages of the book that lay open in her lap. "Here it is!" she said. "Now mark and learn, Margaret.
"'The Come-at-a-Body is found only in its native habitat, where it may be observed at the proper season, indulging in the peculiar actions that characterize it. It has more arms than legs, and more hair than either. It moves with great rapidity, its gait being something between a wallop and a waddle; and as it comes (one of its peculiarities is that it always comes, and never goes), it utters loud screams, and gnashes its teeth in time with its movements.'