"I should have been in there too, mamma, if it hadn't been for you!"
"What do you mean, my son? In that cave? I never knew the boys were trying to make a cave. I did not forbid your digging in the sand, did I?"
"No, mamma; but I knew you wouldn't want me to do it in these clothes—after all my actions! And I had promised to be more careful."
Mrs. Dunlee smiled, but there were tears in her eyes.
"How glad I am that my little boy respected his mother's wishes," said she, stooping to kiss his earnest face.
She dared not think what might have happened if he had disregarded her wishes!
It was a time of rejoicing. Mr. Templeton ordered out the brass band and the Hindoo tam tam. The horse Thistleblow seemed to think he must be wanted too, and came and danced in circles before the groups of happy people.
"I could believe I was in some foreign country," said Mrs. McQuilken, smiling under her East Indian puggaree, as she had not been seen to smile before, and dropping a kiss on the cheek of her favorite Edith.
After dinner the Dunlees met in Aunt Vi's room, and Aunt Vi observed that Mrs. Dunlee kept Jimmy close by her side, looking at him in the way mothers look at good little sons, her eyes shining with happy love and pride.
They were talking over "Jimmy's play," which had not been played. The money must all be given back to the people who had sat and looked so long at that calico curtain.