“Better not promise, Mr. John. What if de fishes don’t bite?”
“I promise,” said Mr. Darling more firmly, “that I won’t go into the water until I get enough fish for dinner.”
Here Betsey slowed up the train, and called out in a conductor’s loud voice, “Beachwood! Beachwood!”
“Here we are,” cried Mr. Delight. “What a lovely cottage!”
But Betsey couldn’t wait for them all to exclaim over the new cottage, having four grown-up people to dress in new bathing-suits, so she began directly with Mr. Delight. She put on his cunning blue bath-robe over his bathing-suit and tied the tiny cord carefully, because Mr. Delight was cold-blooded, like Father. Mrs. Delight had a round rubber cap (not really rubber, though), and Betsey tied Mrs. Darling’s hair up in a white silk bandana with a funny knot in front, like Cousin Margaret’s. As for Mr. Darling, he had a scarlet suit, just the color of a boiled lobster. And Betsey slung the fish-pole over his shoulder, and gave the new camera to Mrs. Darling.
[Illustration: “REMEMBER DE FISH, MR. JOHN,” CALLED DINAH]
“Remember de fish, Mister John,” called Dinah. “Nebber tech de water twell you catches enough fo’ dinner!”
“I’ll bring you the fish, sure!” promised Mr. Darling.
“Here’s the wharf,” said Betsey, putting the big shingle across the bowl. “Mr. Darling can fish while the others try the water.”
“You know the best way to go in, Prudence, I suppose?” said Betsey for Mrs. Delight, settling herself before the table that held the ocean.
“Yes, you wet your forehead first, like this,” said Mrs. Darling, “and then you just plunge in all over like this! O-o-eee!” And Betsey laughed and sputtered just as everyone does at the seashore, giving a monstrous shout for Mr. Delight when he went in.
“Don’t stir up the water so much down there!” called Mr. Darling from the wharf. “Scared away a big cod, then.”
“I wonder if I could make Mr. Delight swim,” thought Betsey. She bent out his tiny arms and lowered him into the water and tried to make him strike out. But she forgot that she had very carelessly left Mrs. Darling standing in the water, and Mr. Delight was so very awkward and made such a huge wave, that the water in the small ocean struck her full in the face and over she went.