Lifting the bed upon her back and shoulders she proceeded to the beach, after procuring two of the granite plates for paddles. Far down near the water’s edge she could see Joe busy dressing birds for dinner. She soon had her craft safely launched and was paddling about with great glee. Its motion was susceptible to the slightest stroke of the paddles, and try as she would she could not make it tip.
“Oh, it’s such fun! I wish little ‘Peter Pan’ were here, too, to enjoy it,” she said aloud as she circled and splashed about in the water. Now she would sit on one corner and dangle her feet in the water, now slide completely in while clinging firmly to the float.
An unceremonious barking from the tent caused her to scramble quickly onto the bobbing craft and look to see what or who might be the intruder.
“Goodness!” she exclaimed, as she saw Dave Davis leap from his horse and fasten the reins about a tree. He was just about to proceed toward the tent when she called loudly to him, that he might not awake the sleeping child. At first he did not locate the direction of the call, then soon discovered the voyager and her ship.
“Ship ahoy!” he called, as he made hurried strides over the round pebbles and larger stones on the beach.
“I am proxene in camp today; but I must confess no visitors were expected,” said Bess, slipping into the water to cover her confusion, as she remembered too late her dishabille.
“What are you to be next, I wonder! One day I find a squaw and another a mermaid!”
“Come on in—the water’s fine,” said Bess, making foaming eddies.
“It’s rather dangerous—”
“Oh, no!” interrupted the girl. “See, she can’t tip,” as she tried to convince him by her varied maneuvers.