"Like yesterday, Mrs. Somers," said Hilda, "when Archie asked us a
conundrum, 'How does a sculptor die?' do you know it? The answer is, 'He
makes faces and _busts_.' And he got so mad when Edna only told him that
_busts_ wasn't correct. He ought to say, 'He makes faces and _bursts_.'"

"Well, he ought, oughtn't he, mamma? Nobody says busts."

"Edna, you're hopeless," answered her mother. "And here we are at home
again."

At the supper-table Will announced that he and Archie and the _Gentle
Jane_ were all ready to take a sailing party to the Gurnet Lights the
next day, if the party so desired. By the clapping of hands it was
judged that the party did so desire.

"But about grandma?" asked Mrs. Somers, when she could make herself
heard. "I can't go and leave her for all day when she is so helpless."

Cricket coloured at the allusion, but she instantly said, bravely:

"If you will go with the others, auntie, I'll stay with grandma."

"If you stay, Cricket, I'll stay, too," said Hilda, quickly.

"But you _can't_, Hilda. You're the party, don't you see? We've all
been to the Gurnet, and we're going to get up this picnic on purpose for
you. You've got to go."

"Yes, you've got to go," struck in Archie. "It's like the man who was on
his way to be executed. He saw people all running along the street, and
he called out to some one, 'No hurry, friend. It can't go on till I get
there. I'm the man to be hung.'"

"Then, since Hilda is the man to be hung she'll have to go. That's
certain. And besides, children, you can't go to-morrow, for we must give
cook a day's notice if she is to provide luncheon enough to last you
entirely hollow young people for a whole day. Then I'll see Mrs. Emmons,
and perhaps she will come and spend the day with grandma on Wednesday,
and we'll set sail then for the Gurnet Lights. Will that do? I'll go
over directly after supper and see her, so you can put your minds at
rest."

Mrs. Emmons would be delighted to come and spend the day with grandma,
it proved, so the plans for Wednesday instantly began, as if they did
not have a whole day before them. The hour of the start must be settled
at once. As it would be low tide at eleven, they must be off at eight
in the morning, to get well over the mud-flats before they were exposed.
They would go outside the point for a little cruise, if it was not too
rough, and then come back and land at the Gurnet, and show all the
sights there to Hilda, and eat