"What Mrs. Shannon will say when she sees her two washtubs floating off like that, I don't know," sighed Henrietta, after they were all ashore.
"One of 'em's sunk, so she can't see it," Micky Costello said calmly. "Maybe the other will go down. Don't you big girls say anything and maybe she won't find it out."
Jessie and Amy had headed for Dogtown in the first place without any expectation of playing a life-saving part. Jessie thought they ought to see Mrs. Foley, who was fleshy and easy of disposition, and ask her about Henrietta's visit. So they accompanied the freckle-faced little girl to the Foley house.
"I ain't telling 'em all they can come to visit my island, Miss Jessie," said the little girl. "But of course, the Foleys could come. Mrs. Blair and Bertha wouldn't mind just them, of course. There's only Mrs. Foley and Charlie and Billy and the baby and three more boys and—and—well, that's all, only Mr. Foley. He wouldn't want to come."
"You would better be sure of your island, and just how much you own of it, Hen," advised Amy Drew. "It may not be big enough to hold everybody you want to invite."
"Why, Miss Amy, it's a awful big island," declared little Henrietta. "It's got a whole golf link on it. I heard Mr. Blair say so."
The "bulgy" Mrs. Foley welcomed the Roselawn girls with her usual copiousness. Of course, she had the youngest Foley in her lap, and the housework was "at sixes and sevens," since little Henrietta had been at Stratfordtown for a week.
"How I'm going to git used, young ladies, to havin' that child away is more than I can say. 'Tis a great mistake I have all boys for childers. There is nothing like a smart girl around the house."
Jessie, very curious, asked the woman what she knew about Henrietta's wonderful story of wealth.
"Sure, I've always expected it would come to her some day," declared Mrs. Foley. "Her mother, who was a good neighbor of mine before we moved out here to the lake, said Hen's father come of rich folks. They used to drive their own carriage. That was before automobiles come in so plenteous."