somewhere and she can come
back by the next steamboat. She is calling you now."

Mary slipped away to join Polly and Molly. "We are going to look for
wild strawberries," they said; "Aunt Ada said we might."

"I'm going barefoot," Polly informed her, "but Molly won't; she is
afraid of taking cold; you aren't, are you, Mary?"

Mary was most decided in her refusal to take off her shoes and
stockings, declaring that her mother would certainly disapprove, but
her heart leaped within her when told that they were to look for
strawberries. She would then have an excuse to continue her search for
the lost pin, and therefore she set for herself the bounds which
included the path to the landing. But it must be confessed that she
found few strawberries and was crowed over by the others.

"You might have known you couldn't find near so many there along the
path," Polly told her. "Why, they are as thick as can be over there
where nobody walks."

Mary made no excuse for her choice, and indeed made no reply.

"You aren't mad, are you?" asked Polly after looking at her for a
moment.

Mary shook her head.

"Tell me, are you homesick, Mary? I won't tell any one if that is what
is the matter."

Again only a shake of the head in reply.

"Well, you needn't tell if you don't want to," said Polly, walking off.
She was a quick-tempered little soul, easily offended, and when Mary
decided that she would rather stay at home with Luella that afternoon,
than run the risk of being seasick, Polly made up her mind that either
Mary really was homesick, or that she did not care for the society of
her American cousins.

"I'm not going to insist on playing with her. She needn't think I'm so
crazy about it that I can't keep away from her," she confided to Molly
after they had set sail.

"Oh, but maybe she really is homesick," said Molly, "and maybe we ought
not to have gone away and left her."

"But Uncle Dick and Aunt Ada said we should."

"That was because Mary was so determined not to go. She was seasick
nearly all the way coming from England, and Aunt Ada thinks that is why
she was afraid to go to-day."

"Oh, nonsense! Nobody could be seasick on this smooth water," said
Polly, looking over the side of the boat at the blue waves. "Isn't it
jolly, Molly?"

"Jolly Molly sounds funny," laughed Molly.

"So does jolly Polly," returned Polly. Then, fumbling in her uncle's
pocket, she found a bit of paper and a pencil; in a mo