Three Little Cousins

"Yes, I know, that is what made me think of it. He showed me the island where there used to be a smuggler's cave."

"I remember it; we saw it when we were out sailing one day."

"We must build a birch bark ship for the Hips family," said Polly, changing the subject. "Your Applebys can live on my island and if they don't want to associate with the Roseberries they can have a cave to themselves."

"Roseberry is such a nice pleasant name for wicked people," remarked Mary. "Why don't you call them something else?"

"Nobody ever does call them that," returned Polly readily. "The father is the leader of the gang, and he is Bold Ben. His three sons are One-eyed Peter, Crooked Tom, and Sly Sam. They call his wife Old Mag, and then there are two cousins, twins; they are Smiling Steve and Grinning Jim."

"Oh, Polly, how do you think of such names?" said Molly delightedly. "What does Old Mag do?"

"She pulls in things from the wreck and she cooks the meals. Then, when the men are all away smuggling, she sits in the cave and spends her time looking at the jewels and letting them drip through her fingers."

"Jewels can't drip," observed Mary in a matter-of-fact way.

"Well, they look as if they could," returned Polly. "The diamonds are like drops of water, the pearls like milk and the rubies like blood."

"I know where you found that," said Molly; "in the fairy tale we were reading the other day."

Polly admitted the fact and the ship being now ready to launch, they proceeded to the shore where Polly pointed out the island. This was a large rock, nearly covered at high tide, but now showing quite a surface above the water. Its rugged sides held caves quite large enough for persons of such size as the Roseberry family, and they were presently hidden behind their barnacled barriers. In a little pool the Hips family were set afloat while the Applebys contented themselves with gathering stores of supposed precious stones from the little beach.

The Hips family had hardly set sail before Polly invoked a storm and stirred to monster waves the waters in their pool, so they were in great danger. "Oh, dear, the youngest Hips is floating away and I can't save him," cried Mary.

"Never mind, let him go; there are plenty more of them," returned Polly heartlessly banging her stick up and down in the water so the ship would rock more violently. "They've got to be wrecked, you know," she added. "I'll drive them on that rock, then you can grab them before they sink and get them on the raft."

Mary managed to rescue all but one more of the family, and these were set adrift on a piece of birch bark to which Polly tied a string that they might not go beyond return. She also allowed the storm to cease, but this was because the gang of wreckers had to haul up the ship and gather in their plunder. She kept up so lively an account of their doings that Molly left the Applebys to their own devices and Mary drew the Hipses to shore that she might listen to Polly's blood-curdling account of Bold Ben and the rest. Polly did not have to draw altogether from her imagination, for her brothers had been too often her playmates for her not to be ready with tales of plunder and adventure.

Time passed very quickly and the children became so absorbed in the manoeuvres of the gang that they did not notice the stealthy rise of the tide till Mary exclaimed, "Oh, the Hipses have floated off and they were quite high on the beach!"

Polly looked around her. "No wonder," she said; "the tide is rising. We'd better start back." Leaving Bold Ben and his comrades to their fate, she ran to the further side of the rock, but here she hesitated. The sea was steadily making in, sending little cascades over the weed-covered ledges each time it retreated.

"Can't you get across?" asked Molly, as she came up with her Applebys, and saw Polly standing still.

"I'm almost afraid to jump," said Polly, "for if a big wave should come in suddenly it might wash in over my feet and the sea-weed is so slippery I'm afraid to trust to it, where it is shallower." Molly looked up at the rocky shelf jutting out above her. "If we could only get up there," she said.

"But we can't; it is too far to climb to that first jutty-out place, and we can't crawl under and then up, like flies."

Mary bearing the sole survivor of the unfortunate Hips family now came up. "I had to let the rest go," she said. "They were beyond reach. I fished this one out of the water just in time. What is the matter? Why don't you go on, Polly?"

For answer Polly pointed silently to the creeping waves at her feet.

"What are we going to do?" asked Mary in alarm.

"Stay here till the tide goes down, I suppose. This rock is never covered," said Molly.

"But we may get dreadfully splashed," returned Mary.

"I hadn't thought of that," said Polly dubiously. She looked at the rock above her, and then at her two cousins. "Which of you two could stand on my shoulders and get hold of that rock so as to draw herself up and go for help?"

"Oh, I never could do it in the world," said Mary, shrinking back.

Polly turned to Molly. "Could you?"

"I'm afraid I couldn't pull myself up so far, but I could stand and let you get on my shoulders, if you could do the pulling up part."

"I could do that easily enough," Polly told her. "I've often practiced it with the boys, and we have swung ourselves up the rocks in the mountains out home. Are you sure you can bear my weight, Molly?"

"I can try."

"We'll both do it," Mary offered. "You can put one foot on my shoulder and one on Molly's, then you won't be so heavy for either one."

"All right. Steady yourselves. Here goes." And in a moment Polly had clambered to the supporting shoulders, had caught hold of the jutting rock and had drawn herself up. As she gained her feet and sped away crying: "I'll be right back," Molly breathed a sigh of relief. "I was so afraid a piece of the rock would split off and she'd fall," she confessed to Mary.

It took but a little time to bring Uncle Dick and one of his friends who swung themselves down easily and set the two stranded children upon a safe spot, none too soon, for a big wave almost immediately sent a shower of salt spray over the rock where they had been standing.

"You would have been drenched to the skin," said Uncle Dick as he led the way to the house, while, left to their fate, the wicked Roseberries perished miserably.

CHAPTER XII

East and West

By the middle of September the cottages on the Point were nearly all deserted, though the Reids lingered on, to the children's satisfaction.

"Oh, dear, I don't want to go back to school, to horrid old examples and things, although I do want to see my dear Miss Isabel," said Molly, one morning just before the close of their stay.

"I don't want to see Miss Sharp, I can tell you that, but I do want to see mother and Reggie and Gwen," said Mary.

"I hate to leave you all," Polly put in, "though I shall be glad to see mamma and papa and the boys. I'll like to see the ponies too, and the mountains and everything, but I do wish you girls were going with me." She really had fewer regrets than her cousins for Polly loved the freedom of the west, and the miles between seemed very long to the little girl who had seen neither father, mother nor brothers for three months. To Mary the delights of unlimited supplies of sweet potatoes and corn, bountiful plates of ice-cream, freedom from the vigilance of a strict governess, and the range of fields and woods, where one need not fear of trespassing, and which were not enclosed by high walls, all these compensated much for her separation from her family.

The time for her leave-taking of America was drawing near, however, for her father wrote that they would probably sail about the first of October, and Uncle Dick would take Polly home about the same time. Aunt Ada, too, had promised to go to Colorado for a visit so Polly felt that she had anticipations the others did not have.

"I wish we could all go to Polly's; that's what I wish," declared Molly. "I wish my father and mother and Mary and Miss Ainslee were all going."

"I speak for Miss Ainslee to sit with me," said Uncle Dick coming up with an open letter in his hand. He handed a second letter to Molly. "Can you read it?" he asked.

"Of course I can," returned Molly indignantly. Then she added, "Mamma always writes to me on papa's typewriter."

Her uncle laughed, though Molly could not see why.

"You'd better read every word in it," he remarked, "for there is big news there for a young woman of your size."

Molly hastily tore open the envelope and began to read. She had not finished the page, however, before she cried out: "News! News! I should think it was news. What do you think, Mary? What do you think, Polly?"

"Can't imagine," said Polly. Then as a second thought occurred to her, "Oh, is your mother going to let you go home with me? I know my mother has asked to have you, for I wrote to her to beg that you could come."

Molly shook her head. "No, it's east instead of west, Polly. Mother and I are going to England with Mary and Uncle Arthur."

"Oh!" Mary jumped to her feet and clasped her hand ecstatically. "Oh, Molly, I am so glad. Aren't you?"