In the morning he remembered and jumped out of bed to find Daddy and love him a little more before he should hurry away to catch his train.
“He’s gone, precious,” was Mrs. Horton’s greeting when he pushed back the curtain that hung between the two rooms. “Come and get into bed with me a minute. Daddy was off at five o’clock this morning. Breakfast? Yes, I made him nice hot coffee and toast. And now I smell Harriet’s bacon. You and I had better hurry.”
While they were eating breakfast, a small nose was flattened against the dining-room screen door.
“Is Sunny Boy there?” asked a voice. “Can he come out and play? My cousin from Fenner is visiting us an’ we want to build a fort.”
“It’s Ellen,” said Sunny Boy. “Could I be ’scused, Mother? I ate all my oatmeal an’ everything.”
“Where are you going to be?” asked Mrs. Horton, smiling at Ellen. “When we come down on the beach a little later we want to be able to find you. And Sunny Boy mustn’t go in the water unless an older person is around.”
“No’m,” agreed Ellen obediently. “We can’t go in either, not till to-morrow. Not even wading. We’ll play down at the edge of the old pier. My mother is coming, too, by and by and she doesn’t like to hunt for us, so we promised to stay right there.”
“All right then,” said Mrs. Horton. “Run along, Son. I’m sorry you haven’t a shovel, but a clam shell answers very well. The first time I go into town I’ll get you a pail and shovel.”
Sunny Boy found Ellen and Ralph and the cousin from Fenner awaiting him on the sidewalk. The cousin was another boy, a freckle-faced youngster with merry blue eyes and red hair.
“I’m going to help build it,” Ellen said, as the four walked down toward the beach. “Always an’ always I just have to carry things and sit on things to keep ’em from blowing away, and this time I want to build.”