Mr. Pellew put his hands up to his ears and screamed above the hubbub: “How can I tell whether it will be wonderful for Ellen and all right for you or even what Mabel wants if the bunch of you try to rival the builders of the tower of Babel?”
“Ellen,” suggested Jack, “you tell him; Jane gets too excited.”
Ellen put one hand over Jane’s mouth and told Mr. Pellew of the interesting trip Mabel and her father had planned for them.
Squirming away from Ellen, Jane flung her arms around her father’s neck and said, “But we don’t like leaving you when we have been home from school for only such a short while.”
“It never seems to enter your scatter-brained heads that I might oppose you in anything,” Mr. Pellew smiled at his daughter.
“You always are keen for us to have a good time,” Jack explained.
“And you went and had such clever good children that they know just exactly what to do and what is good for them and what is bad for them,” added Jane.
“Of course you can go and I’ll be mighty glad for my children to have such a wonderful summer. When do you expect to leave and from what point?” inquired Mr. Pellew.
“First of July, City Island!” came in chorus from the three.
“Henceforth all my conversation will be nautical. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of two per cent substitute. Jack, do you have to have a horn or a pipe for stage property when you want to execute a briny jig?” and Jane began to cavort around in what she considered a truly seafaring manner.