“Just try it,” challenged Ruth. Wriggling free of Jane’s hold, she sat up in the sand, arms rigid, braced to withstand assault.
“Don’t be so demonstrative, young ladies.” Rising lazily to a sitting posture, Emmy delivered her rebuke in exact imitation of Miss Melby, the prim instructor in mathematics at Miss Belaire’s.
“Let’s duck Miss Melby in effigy,” proposed naughty Frances. “You shall be the effigy, Emmy. Come on, Sarah.”
Amid shrieks of protest from the luckless effigy, she was hustled or rather dragged across the sand and bundled into the water, where the trio participated in a lively tussle. Ruth laughed so immoderately as to relax her own grip on terra firma, and all but shared Emmy’s fate. Jane, realizing her opportunity, promptly seized it, and a friendly conflict ensued between the two that brought them to the water’s edge, breathless and laughing.
“Just as I told you, Ruth,” declared Emmy, as she emerged dripping from the shallows and proceeded to wring the water from her bathing suit. “We were down here basking in a glorious sunshiny world of our own when—I hate to be so brutally frank. Still, I believe I’d rather be brutally frank than frankly brutal.”
“I wonder what she means,” giggled Sarah, in appreciation of Emmy’s word-play.
“Her mind is evidently wandering. It’s not safe for us to go near her. Let’s go swimming. When we come back she may be more rational.”
With a gay laugh, Frances ran into the water, Jane and Sarah following.
“I’ve thought of a lovely name for you,” announced Emmy, when, a little later, the trio emerged from the lake and flung themselves down on the sand. “Ruth, I call you to bear witness that we have with us this morning the Terrible Three.”
“That’s a fine name,” shamelessly applauded Frances. “Come on, Janie and Sarey, let’s go up to the cottage and introduce ourselves to the rest of the crowd. Isn’t true appreciation a lovely thing?”