“Sight o' folks,” said Bob Peet, nodding towards the after-deck, which seemed a solid mass of human beings.
“Yes,” said the child, speaking half to herself, in a low tone. “It's just like the Tower of Babel, isn't it? I should think they would be afraid. 'And the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.' And it's so _stupid_!” she added, after a moment's pause. “Why don't they stay at home? Haven't they any homes to stay at? Who takes care of their homes while they go sailing about like loons?”
“Folks likes to v'yage,” said Bob Peet, with mild toleration. “Heaps--nothin' t' do--hot spells--v'yages.” He added, with an approach to a twinkle in his meek and cow-like eyes, “Try it--some day--git tired of ol' Cap'n--ol' rock--pooty soon--take ye--v'yage--”
His speech was interrupted by a sudden and violent dash of water in his face.
“Take that!” cried Star, panting with fury, and flinging the water at him with all her small might. “I wish it was sharp stones, instead of just water. I wish it was needles, and jagged rocks, and quills upon the fretful porkypine, so I do! How dare you say such things to me, Bob Peet? How dare you?” She paused, breathless, but with flashing eyes and burning cheeks; while Bob meekly mopped his face and head with a red cotton handkerchief, and shook the water from his ears, eyeing her the while with humble and deprecatory looks.
“No offence,” he muttered, in apologetic thunder-rumble. “Poor ol' Bob--eh, Missy? Sorry, beg pardon! Never no more. Didn't mean it--nohow!”
The tempest subsided as suddenly as it rose, and Star, with a forgiving nod, took out her own little handkerchief and daintily wiped a few drops from her victim's forehead.
“You're so stupid, Bob,” she said, frankly, “that I suppose I ought not to get angry with you, any more than I would with Imogen, though even she provokes me sometimes. So I forgive you, Bob. But if you ever say such a thing again as my getting tired of Daddy, I'll kill you. So now you know!”
“Jes' so!” assented Bob. “Nat'rally! _To_ b' sure!”
The sudden splashing of the water had caught many eyes on the deck of the _Huntress_, and people admired the “playfulness” of the pretty child in the little boat. One pair of eyes, however, was sharper than the rest.