"Oh, good!" she exclaimed, when she caught sight of Alec's wireless instruments, packed away in the box. "If you ever happened to be out over-night, we could talk to each other in the evening and I could know how the work progresses."
"I expect to be out all the time until I get my work done," replied Alec. "There is so much to be done and so little time to do it in."
"Won't I see you all this summer?" cried Elsa, and the look of real disappointment on her face made Alec happy.
"Yes. I shall come home at the end of each week. Perhaps it won't take me as long to do this work as I had expected. Why, do you know, I've found out a tremendous lot about the currents and eddies and tides, just from talking to Captain Bagley. And I had expected to have all that to learn by myself. And I've been studying the captain's map of the oyster-beds, and that has made my work easier, too. So much of the bottom is already leased, that there isn't any use fooling around to try to find out much about the grounds already staked out. What I've got to do is to find out the best spots in the areas not yet staked."
"I don't agree with you at all," said Elsa. "What you want to know is the whole truth, not part of the truth."
"But I can never hope to own land that is already staked out. Why, a good bed costs thousands and thousands of dollars."
"Alec Cunningham," protested Elsa, trying to look severe, "you make me so mad I could beat you. For a boy with so much energy and brains, you say and do the most foolish things I ever heard. Now think over what you've just been saying. Here you are working like a steam-engine, day and night, to become an oyster-planter. You ought to know that if you keep on this way, you'll get there sure. Everybody else knows it. And yet you turn around and say you'll have to take the leavings, instead of planning to take your pick. And you're going to find out half the truth instead of the whole truth, and so cripple yourself. Isn't that enough to make anybody mad at you?"
"But," expostulated Alec, "even if I do become a planter, I've got to take what I can get."
"Of course you do. But there are more ways than one of getting a thing done, aren't there? You've got this boat now, haven't you? You don't own her, but, for the time being, she's yours. It might be the same with an oyster-bed. My father often rents other men's beds, or works them on shares, or buys the oysters in them. Some day you may want to do the same thing. What you need to do is to know all the truth about these oyster grounds. It isn't worth while to do half of a job. And that isn't the kind of work you do, either. I know something about you, Alec Cunningham. You've got no end of brains and energy, but your judgment isn't always good. You need a guardian."
Both Elsa and Alec laughed heartily at the idea; then Alec's face grew sober. "I'm beginning to realize that that isn't any joke," he said. "I think it's because I haven't had any one to talk things over with. It's pretty hard for a fellow to decide things right all by himself every time." Then he smiled again, as he added, "I think it will be all right hereafter, for now I do seem to have a guardian."