“Why,” says Frank, looking down, “we never got there.”
“Never got there!” gasps Mrs. Sallie. “Didn't you go down on the afternoon boat?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you get to the beach, then?”
“We didn't go ashore.”
“Well, that's like you, Frank.”
“It's a great deal more like Aunt Melissa,” answers Frank. “The air felt so raw and chilly by the time we reached the pier, that she declared the baby would perish if it was taken to the beach. Besides, nothing would persuade her that Nantasket Beach was at all different from Liverpool Wharf.”
“Never mind, never mind!” says Mrs. Sallie. “I don't wish to hear anything more. That's your idea of a day's pleasure, is it? I call it a day's disgrace, a day's miserable giving-up. There, go in, go in; I'm ashamed of you all. Don't let the neighbors see you, for pity's sake.—We keep him in the kitchen,” she continues, recurring to Frank's long-unanswered question concerning the lost child, “because he prefers it as being the room nearest to the closet where the cookies are. He's taken advantage of our sympathies to refuse everything but cookies.”
“I suppose that's one of the rights of lost childhood,” comments Frank, languidly; “there's no law that can compel him to touch even cracker.”
“Well, you'd better go down and see what you can make of him. He's driven us all wild.”