Meet on the piazza. And can't you make the hour
four o'clock to suit us old ladies, that like a nap after luncheon?"

"Of course we will. I'm president, and I'll appoint the meeting at four.
Can we be excused now, auntie? We will be round somewhere when you're
ready to go to ride. I've got to do a little work on the 'Echo' yet. It
isn't quite finished."

Even the long scamper on the ponies, of two or three hours, failed to
exhaust Cricket's energy, and when they returned she wanted Hilda to go
for a row with her. Hilda flatly refused.

"You _are_ the most untiresome creature," she said. "I should think
you'd be ready to drop. I am, I know. I'm going to get into the hammock,
and I'm not going to stir till dinner-time. Do come and sit down
yourself, and rest."

"Sit down and rest," repeated Cricket, with much scorn. "As if a little
ride like that tired me. Well, if you won't go to row, come to walk!"

"I'm going to sit still, I say," returned Hilda, firmly, seating
herself comfortably in the hammock. "I'll row this afternoon, perhaps,
if it isn't too hot. Here come Eunice and Edna. Do sit down, Cricket,
and be sensible."

"If I sat down I'd be insensible," answered Cricket, trying to sit
cross-legged on the piazza-rail. "There's old Billy! I'll take him for a
row," and Cricket, tipping herself sideways, alighted on her feet on the
ground below, and ran off.

"Such a child," sighed Hilda, with the air of forty years. "She is
reprehensible!" aiming at irrepressible.

Eunice and Edna joined her on the piazza.

"Where is Cricket?" Eunice asked.

"She's rampaging off," said Hilda. "I'm so hot that I don't know what to
do, and there's Cricket calmly going out on that scorching water. Look
at her, now!"

The girls followed Hilda's indignant finger, which pointed to where
Cricket, having adjusted old Billy to her satisfaction in the stern, was
pushing off the boat. The tide was nearly out, and in another half-hour
the flats would be bare.

[Illustration: "CRICKET SAT DOWN ON THE BEACH WITH THE CHILDREN"]

"I wonder if she'll get stuck again," said Edna, with interest,
shading her eyes to look. "Cricket! Cricket! don't--forget--the--tide!"
she called, making a speaking-tube of her hands.

"No," called Cricket, in reply, "I'm only going a little distance, just
for exercise."

"For exercise!" groaned Hilda, sinking down in her hammock.

"For exercise!" echoed Edna, subsiding at full length in a
steamer-chair.