“That will be the last one this season,” he told her. “My father said yesterday he’s going to give up his job and go west.”
“You’ll leave with him, Jamie?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Vevi could not understand the boy’s strange attitude toward his father. Because he didn’t seem to care to talk about it, she spoke again of the turtle pond.
“Want me to take you there?” the boy offered. “I’ll catch you a dandy turtle.”
Vevi knew that Miss Gordon would not want her to go to the pond without an older person along. She realized too, that the other Brownies would not favor an outing there, for they were enjoying their swimming lesson.
“I guess I can’t go,” she said, her face downcast.
Just then, old Captain Tarwell strolled up to talk to the children. Hearing mention of the pond, he offered to take Jamie and Vevi.
“I want to stop at the cottage on the way,” he remarked. “I’ll be glad to have company. That is, if you’ll promise not to walk too fast.”
Miss Gordon said that Vevi might go. So off the three went, idling along so that the old seaman would not tire himself.