“It would be for me,” replied Miss Comfort softly. “I’d be living on a boat with the water all around me. And I could watch the steamers and the ships come and go. And there’d be the smell of the salt water all the time, too. Oh, my dears, I’d love it! It—it sounds far, far too good to be true, Mr. Laurie. Are you sure that—that everything can be arranged?”
Miss Comfort felt for a square of linen with a narrow black border and gently dabbed her eyes. Laurie felt it his duty to acknowledge that he wasn’t sure at all, but he did nothing of the sort. He scowled surreptitiously at Ned and answered firmly: “Absolutely, Miss Comfort. There isn’t a doubt!”
And then, to Laurie’s surprise, Ned said just as convincedly, “It’s as good as fixed right now, ma’am.”
Miss Comfort sighed happily and beamed about the circle. “Well, I just can’t believe it,” she said, laughing tremulously at her own emotion. “Why, I can’t think of anything that would make me happier than to live on a real boat right on the water! Just think of going to sleep with the lapping of the waves all about, and of waking up in the morning and seeing the blue, blue ocean—no, I should say river—stretching away and away! Oh, my dears, there’s romance about the sea that I’ve always longed to know. Maybe, at my time of life, I shouldn’t be talking about romance, but—”
“Fiddlesticks!” exclaimed Mrs. Deane vehemently. “Fiddlesticks, my dear! At your time of life, indeed!” It seemed to the others that the Widow might have borrowed Miss Comfort’s handkerchief and put it to good use. Laurie cleared his throat.
“That’s right,” he said gruffly. “I guess folks can enjoy things like that just as much at eight—sev—sixty as they can any time!” Aware of Polly’s horrified look, he subsided. Miss Comfort, though, was far too absorbed in the joyous prospect to heed.
“I must go and see it,” she went on animatedly. “Is it very far, Mr. Laurie? I suppose,” she concluded, with a sigh, “it’s too late to go to-day.”
“Yes’m,” assented Laurie. “I guess you’d better wait until to-morrow. It’s quite a walk for—er—for any one.”
“We’ll all go down to-morrow morning,” announced Polly, “every one of us. Yes, you will, too, mama. I’ll get Miss Billings to tend the store for an hour. If we start at eight I can get back in time for school.”