tale of the afternoon's experience by the
tempest at the other end of the table, turned toward the twins
impatiently. "Stop your eternal bickering, you two!" he ordered sharply.
"Then make Anthony stop teasing me!" sniffled Antha.
Just at that moment Gladys, who had been foraging desperately in the
"pantry," came forth with a box of crackers and a small jar of jam,
which Antha consented to eat in place of the spaghetti.
They retired soon after supper because it was too windy to light a camp
fire and it was no fun sitting around in the dark. Antha fell in the
path to the tents, bumping her head and skinning her arm, and cried all
the while she was being fixed up. Then she was afraid to go into the
tent because it might blow down; she was afraid of the dark, of spiders,
of everything. The girls were worn out by the time they had her in bed.
"Isn't she a prune?" whispered Sahwah to Hinpoha. "I didn't know a girl
could be such a fraidy cat."
"If she cries any more the tent will be flooded," whispered Hinpoha in
answer. "I never saw anybody cry so much."
"I don't want to seem inhospitable," breathed Gladys behind her hand,
"but I hope they won't have to stay long."
But morning brought no letting up of the wind. The dawn showed the waves
rolling as high as on the previous night. Breakfast was the same as
supper, spaghetti and black coffee, which Antha again refused to touch,
finishing the crackers and the jam.
Breakfast over they all raced down to see how the beloved war canoe was
faring. She was still safe and sound and looked as wonderful as she did
the day before. With pride the boys and girls displayed her to the
twins.
"Huh," said Anthony disdainfully, "that isn't much of a war canoe. Some
boys I know have one twice as big. And theirs has lockers in the ends.
Yours hasn't any lockers, has it?"
They were obliged to admit that the cherished _Nyoda_ carried no
lockers.
"You didn't get much of a war canoe, did you?" said Anthony
patronizingly.
"We got the best papa could afford," replied Gladys mildly.
"Then I guess you're not very rich, are you?" said Anthony pityingly.
"My papa, he's twice as rich as all of you put together. He's a judge,
and my mother has money in her own right and so have I and so has Antha.
And we'll get more yet when my grandfather dies. I could buy a dozen war
canoes if I wanted them, but I don't want them. I'm going to have a
yacht, a steam yacht, so all I have to do is
|