She recaptured the turtle and held him for awhile. By this time the other Brownies were having fun exploring along shore. Vevi would have liked to join them, but was afraid to leave the turtle for fear of losing him.
She decided to put Lightning in the boat for awhile. But the fisherman already had overturned it on shore. As he started to leave the pond, he warned the girls never to use the boat in his absence.
“We won’t,” Vevi promised. “Brownie Scouts are honor bright. They never take property that doesn’t belong to them.”
Sunny, who had come up behind Vevi, heard her remark.
“Why, we didn’t even try to get into the little ship cottage,” she added earnestly. “And we wanted to dreadfully.”
The fisherman did not know what the children meant, so they told him about the cottage built to resemble a ship.
“Oh, you mean Captain Tarwell’s place!” he exclaimed.
The name took Vevi by surprise. “Is that who owns it?” she asked quickly.
“Yes,” replied the fisherman. “He’s a retired sea captain. These days he doesn’t do much except act as a caretaker and guard at the Yacht Club docks. One occasionally sees him walking along the shore or through the hills—always by himself.”
“Connie and I met him in the fog,” Vevi said. “He didn’t tell us though, that he owned the cute little house.”