“Yes,” he said, “that will be the very thing. The Rover is the very name for a pirate ship, you know. Let’s be up in good time on Monday morning, Harry, and be down here for a first venture by ourselves, in case it doesn’t work right just at the very first, you know, and people might laugh.”
So the two boys chatted and planned while Mr. and Mrs. Leslie and the rest sallied on in front. But Harry was not sorry when his mother gave the order for everybody to go home and get to bed, so as to have a good wash—it being Saturday night—and a good sound sleep before Sunday; for Mrs. Leslie was a good mother, and loved to teach her children to observe the Lord’s day rightly, and to enjoy it in a way worthy of its sacred rest. The Leslies all liked going with their parents to church. It was never thought a weariness or a punishment even by the youngest. They could not, of course, understand all that was said and done there, but they learned to sit quietly and reverently while their elders listened, which was in itself a valuable training for after life; and there were many portions of the service which they could appreciate for themselves. Mr. Leslie
always liked them to say over the text and the psalms and hymns they had heard, and this was looked forward to by the youngsters as quite a pleasant exercise.
But we must go on with the story.
“What are you thinking about, Harry?” said his mother as she bustled about, getting Bobby and Frank, Lucy and Janey, washed and dried and put to bed in the tiny nursery at Briery Cottage, which indeed was very different from the one they had left at Rosehampton, though, with the usual happy taste of children, Lucy and Janey thought their narrow cribs ever so much nicer than the home ones; while Bobby and Frank considered the two skylights here infinitely preferable to the large bow-window they were accustomed to.
Harry was sitting in a contemplative manner upon a trunk on the landing below, Walter having preceded him upstairs.
“Run after Walter and see that you two boys have a good scrub. The bath is ready for you; and see you don’t hang about after it to catch cold, but get into Blanket Bay as fast as you can. I’m sure I feel quite ready for it myself after all that trudging about over sands and rocks.”
Thus admonished, Harry made his way upstairs to the back attic, where Walter and he and the Rover were moored.
III. “BLANKET BAY.”
Early next morning Walter Hammond knocked at Mrs. Leslie’s door.