“Oh, I guess mine are not any too soft,” Lottie retorted, a bit abashed that she should have fallen into the trap.
“Where are you going, Lottie?” asked Marita. “You know it is only safe to canoe near the shore. The water can be very rough sometimes.”
“I don’t think you ought to go in a canoe until you can swim,” said Cora. “You know a canoe is the most uncertain of craft, except that it is absolutely certain to upset if you draw a breath in, when you should send a breath out. Jack says a canoe is more than human, but I won’t shock your ears by saying what he thinks it is.”
“I am sure there is no danger when one sits still,” Lottie insisted, “but if you don’t want me to go, Cora——”
“Of course I want you to go, and have a nice time,” Cora explained, “but I don’t want you to upset. You should wear a bathing suit and be ready to swim in case of a spill.”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that!” exclaimed Lottie, rather shocked. “I am going with Clem.”
“Well, I hope Clem will put you in the very bottom of the boat, and not trust to a seat. Even a big cushion is wobbly,” finished Cora. “Now, young ladies, are you ready for a tramp? We have to walk to the old village this morning to shop, unless you want to go to the dock and take Frank’s ferry. He will take us across for ten cents each, and we need things to eat.”
“Oh, do let us walk,” begged Bess. “I haven’t seen half the things that grow around here.”
“Do you grow around here?” asked Belle, maliciously, inferring that the desired walk was needed to “reduce.” A withering look was the answer she received from her twin sister. Just the same the walk was decided upon, and a little later the wintergreen path was alive with voices. It was one of the delights of Summer to tramp and ramble; and in spite of the joys of motor boating the girls were not slow to appreciate the pleasures of dry land decked in various shades of foliage green and floral tints.
The mountain laurel was at its best—that little tasselled thing we call “pfingster,” but which looks quite aristocratic enough to belong to the orchid family, made bouquets of itself in every appropriate spot, while the glorious rhododendrons put forth a display sufficiently beautiful and courageous to last all Summer.