"And in a night of rain--then I have to skip again, but you will understand the story," braved Margaret. "The sailors saw something, I just have to insert that clause," she contributed, "then it goes:
"So far from any coast, we thought it was a ghost, And lowers a boat to see what it might be, Where on its mother's breast a little one did rest, The mother dead--the babe alive and well!"
"Oh, just like Kitty's story," interrupted Cleo in spite of orders.
"Certainly, that's the reason I'm suffering so to tell it," admitted Margaret.
"Does the song say what they did with the little one?" asked Julia, always intensely sympathetic.
"Yes, listen," again ordered Margaret. "The story tells:
"Now we're a rough old set, some are fathers, don't forget,"
"But--but I can't think of that line, I should have told you 'Our skipper seized the boy, and kisses him with joy----'"
This was almost the end for Margaret, if not the end of the song, for they all seized the girl and smothered her with kisses.
"But it was a lovely story, Margy, if bald in spots," commented Cleo. "What's the chorus?"
Again Margaret started, this time in tune:
"Singing eylie--heevie ho! Eylie heevie ho! Send the wheel around say we! While gayly blows the breeze, That takes us o'er the seas! Singing eylie, heevie, eylie heevie ho!"
"Hurrah! Hurray! Hurroo!" called Louise. "That's all right for a sea story, Margaret, and we'll have to make a line of it in our Log. But poor little Kitty didn't fare so well. See it was a boy, 'they kissed him with joy,'" she explained. "Being a girl poor Kitty was just dumped."
"Oh, yes, one more line," persisted Margaret:
"Then we names him Little Jack, and kissing he don't lack!"
Needless to say what happened to Margaret at that!
Then, to give the Westbrook girls the full benefit of their information, the story of Kitty was told in detail, and even these young ladies confessed to a keen interest in the mystery of Luna Land.
"We must make a landing, and spend an hour in the woods before returning," suggested Eugenia as they skirted the shore.
"There's a beautiful rocky point, Mae. We can easily sail in the cove, and let the girls scamper around there."
And this was the plan immediately decided upon.