“We’ll surprise them,” declared Mr. Horton, leading the way to the garage. “I have a package they don’t know about and you and I will take it down to the beach and then we’ll see what Mother and the aunties say.”
This mysterious bundle Mr. Horton had spoken of was long and thin and rather heavy. They found it on the floor of the automobile where it had not been noticed because of the many other bundles and luggage they had carried with them.
“What is it, Daddy?” asked Sunny Boy as he took one end and Mr. Horton the other, and they headed for the beach.
“It’s a secret,” was all Daddy would say.
Down on the beach, he laid it in the sand, and, taking out his strong pocket knife, cut the heavy string.
“Why, it’s only umbrellas!” Sunny’s voice sounded disappointed.
Mr. Horton chuckled.
“Yes, but you wait,” he advised. “I open the umbrella so, and I stand it up this way; then I open the other, and I stand it up so, in the sand. And now when Mother and Aunt Bessie and Aunt Betty come down with their fancy-work, they have a fine, shady place to sit and sew.”
“Oh,” said Sunny Boy.
Secretly, he didn’t think those large white canvas umbrellas were very much fun, but when, a little later, his mother and aunts came down to the beach, they were delighted. And before the summer was over Sunny himself had spent many a hot afternoon under their comfortable shade while his mother or Harriet read aloud to him.