II
Old Goodwin saw us coming from afar, Eve and me and our daughter, and he ambled down to meet us. He gave me his old slow smile of peace.
"You see," I said, holding up my boots and my clam hoe, "I'm getting flustered. I didn't know I had them. I should have left them at the shore."
"I see," he said. "Let me take them, Adam. You will need these. But perhaps you had better take them with you. You might forget again."
"I'll hang them on my watch chain. But Tidda ran away again."
"I know," he said. Tidda had run to him, and was clinging to his hand. He stooped and swung her up to his shoulder. She has got to be a heavy load for a man's shoulder, and he an old man. But Old Goodwin did not look like an old man. "I wish Pukkie were here," he said, "to balance."
"We wish he were—to balance. It is less than two months now, and he will be."
"Put her down, father," said Eve. "She is heavy."
"I like her up here," he said, "where she is near. I'll put her down if she gets too heavy."
And he led the way to the house, and up the steps, and through various sections of piazza, each with its tables and chairs and cushions, to that ample section on the water side, with its telescope and its view of the bay. There, before us, were the ocean steamer of Old Goodwin and the new arrival, as yet unknown to me; and beside us was Mrs. Goodwin, and as I turned to greet her I saw a girl sitting beside her, but a little withdrawn and in the deeper shadows. In the glance I gave, I saw only that she was of pleasing countenance, and quiet eye that seemed to take in all that passed, and mouth with little curves of humor about the corners, and she had hair of the colors of Eve's great beaver muff. There are beautiful colors in that beaver muff. Introductions followed. I missed her name, as I always miss new names; and before the introductions were well over, there trooped in Jimmy Wales, and Bobby Leverett, and a young fellow whom I did not know, all in uniform of one sort or another, and Tom Ellis, whom I did know. He lives almost across the road from me.