Mrs. Evringham did not doubt this, and she and the broker exchanged a look of understanding, but he smiled.
"I'll be very good if you'll let me come," he said. "I forgot the ribbon bows, but perhaps you'd let me qualify by holding Anna Belle. Run and get into your clothes, Jewel, and I'll find a nice place by that dune over yonder."
Fifteen minutes afterward the little party were comfortably ensconced in the shade of the sand hill whose sparse grasses grew tall about them.
Jewel began pulling on them. "You'll never pull those up," remarked Mr. Evringham. "I believe their roots go down to China. I've heard so."
"Anna Belle and I will dig sometime and see," replied Jewel, much interested.
"There are only two stories left," said Mrs. Evringham, who was running over the pages of the book.
"And let grandpa choose, won't you?" said Jewel.
"Oh, yes," and the somewhat embarrassed author read the remaining titles.
"I choose Robinson Crusoe, of course," announced Mr. Evringham. "This is an appropriate place to read that. I dare say by stretching our necks a little we could see his island."
"Well, this story is a true one," said Julia. "It happened to the children of some friends of mine, who live about fifty miles from Chicago." Then she began to read as follows:--
"I guess I shall like Robinson Crusoe, mamma!" exclaimed Johnnie Ford, rushing into his mother's room after school one day.
"You would be an odd kind of boy if you did not," replied Mrs. Ford, "and yet you didn't seem much pleased when your father gave you the book on your birthday."
"Well, I didn't care much about it then, but Fred King says it is the best story that ever was, and he ought to know; he rides to school in an automobile. Say, when'll you read it to me? Do it now, won't you?"
"Oh, if you please. You know I always mean it."
"No, dear, I don't think I will. A boy nine years old ought to be able to read Robinson Crusoe for himself."
Johnnie looked startled, and stood on one leg while he twisted the other around it.
"If you have a pleasant object to work for, it will make it so much the easier to study," continued Mrs. Ford, as she handed Johnnie the blue book with a gold picture pressed into its side.
Johnnie pouted and looked very cross. "It's a regular old trap," he said.