"Much more fun!" cried Robert Gaston.
"And Happie, I won't allow you to stay here with me," said Aunt Keren decidedly.
"If it's coasting I couldn't, dear Auntie Keren. I haven't coasted since I was young," cried Happie.
"How can you remember it then?" inquired Ralph.
CHAPTER XVI
HAPPIE GRANTS AMNESTY
All night long the wind blew furiously. As it came sweeping down from the higher mountain points there was nothing to allay its force accumulating down the stretch to Crestville. Such small objects as presumptuously stood in its way—farmhouses and red barns—it buffeted, chastising them soundly for attempting to stay it, and sweeping on down to the Jersey plains which were to calm its wrath.
The old Ark shook almost as though it had been a veritable ark out on stormy waters. Blinds rattled, and even the beds trembled, but "the Archaics" slept through the tumult. Coasting is an excellent sedative, especially when followed by a hearty supper and an evening before a blazing log fire.
"It's rather like automobiling to spend the night in your front bedroom, Miss Bradbury," said Robert Gaston at breakfast.