"Betty," Frank said, turning to that young person who was gazing dreamily out over the water, "what did they put in that basket when we stopped at the hotel this afternoon?"
"What?" she said, bringing her mind down to every-day things with an effort. "Oh, the basket! I wouldn't dare tell you that," she added, with sudden animation. "Boys, boys, if you could only see inside--if you only could--oh, how your mouths would water!"
"Just think," said Grace, tragically. "Here we have everything that goes to make up a romantic sail----"
"What, for instance?" Roy demanded. "If you call a leaky old ferryboat with the weather so damp that you can't touch the rail without feeling as if you have had a dip in the briny--if that's what you call romantic, then give me a good open fire and plenty of chicken bones to gnaw."
"Oh," said Betty in sorrow, shaking her head at the depths to which the boys had fallen. "Frank, I would never have thought it of you. Just the same," she added, in a stage whisper, "I wouldn't mind having a couple of them myself."
"Betty, Betty," Allen reproved her. "I thought----"
"Oh, Mollie, look there," cried Betty, pulling her friend towards her and indicating an indistinct shadowy bulk looming eerily before them. "Mollie, dear, that's the island, isn't it? I can't wait until I put my two feet on it."
"Oh, I wish we could see an inch before our noses!" said Grace impatiently. "I can't make out a single blessed thing."
"Probably going to rain some more," said Frank consolingly. "Never mind, Grace, whenever your heart begins to fail you, just think of--what, fellows?"
"You don't know you are going to get any, yet," Betty declared. "If I remember rightly, Frank is the only one who said anything about it, and he doesn't know what he is talking about."
"Betty, don't be heartless," Allen implored. "Is there or is there not a fowl in that basket?"
"There is!" she answered in solemn tones.
"Hoorah!" shouted Will. "Three cheers for the good old bird!"
As he spoke the little steamer scraped against the dock that was almost invisible to those on deck, then came to a full stop. The shrill whistle which Roy contemptuously characterized as a joke, broke the misty stillness with a shriek, that echoed and re-echoed, thrown back upon itself by some distant cave or hillside on the island.