“Oh, say, Pete,” began Grace in her direct way. “Who’s that girl they call Peg?”
“Peg?” repeated the captain. “You mean the gallopin’ girl that scares all the chickens and runs down all the auto-mo-beels?”
“Yes, the one that’s always on horseback,” agreed Grace.
“That’s Peg—hasn’t got no other name as I know of, but they allus calls her ‘Peg of Tamarack Hills,’ ’count o’ the place she lives, over in yon hills.”
“Is she queer?” put in Julia, making sure of another cushion. (What would summer be without cushions?)
“Depends upon what you mean by queer,” returned the boatman, and the girls laughed at the trouble that little word seemed prone to make.
“She’s so fly-away,” ventured Louise.
“Yes, she’s that, all of it,” answered Pete. “But she’s a right smart girl, I’ll tell ye. She does many a good turn for us men who have to stick by our boats. Why, I’ve known the day last winter——”
“Does she stay here all winter?” inquired Cleo.
“Sure does, every day o’ the year finds Peg over in them hills. An’ she rides away to school like a girl in a picture book,” described the man. He was obviously a good friend of Peg’s.