"Mort, where's her other shoe?"
"Lost it, I guess. They're awfully shipwrecked. Let's rescue 'em."
"Hush! Hear that fellow talk. She's telling him all about it."
There was very little to tell. She had taken her sister and niece and some little girls who were visiting them out for a boat ride on Pawg Lake. They all lived near the head of it. The girls danced about. The boat began to leak. She rowed to the islet because it was nearest. She tried to fix the loose board, and it came all the way off. They had been there for hours. Nobody on shore knew where they were.
"How many mothers are anxious?" asked the dandy fisherman.
"Three, and quite a number of aunts and uncles and fathers."
"We must put you ashore at once, then. I really can not doctor that boat. Boys, may I land them in the Ark?"
"Why, that's what we came for," said Quill Sanders, a little vaguely.
"What they came for?" said the young lady, with one foot a trifle behind the other.
"Exactly," said the fisherman. "All the way from I don't know where. I'm only a foremast hand. They are the captains and owners. Will you walk over? No, please, I'll bring the Ark around here."