the safe keeping of Pauline. For if Pauline had the thimble Pen would
have very little to say against her. As long as she possessed the thimble
she felt that Pauline was in her power. She liked the sensation, and she
was honest enough to own as much.

The conversation was now quickly turned. The children found plenty of
shells in the White Bay. Soon they were sitting on the sands picking them
up and enjoying themselves as only children can.

"So," said Pen, pushing back her hat and fixing her eyes on Harry's face,
"you comed here without leave?"

"Of course we did," said Harry. "Won't nurse be in a state when she finds
we've gone! She will rush up and down in front of the house and cry, for
father and mother have gone away for the whole day, and nurse is in sole
charge. Oh, won't she be in a state! She went off to walk with her young
man, and we thought we'd play a joke on her, for she's often told us not
to come here. 'If you go near that White Bay,' she said, 'you will be
drowned as sure as sure.' She daren't tell father and mother because of
her young man. Isn't it fun?"

"Yes," said Penelope, "it's prime fun; but isn't this fun, too? You won't
be able to go to that Zoo place any more."

"Now what do you mean?"

"Why, this: the animals will eat you up. You are bad, same as me. You two
won't be able to go to any more Zoos;" and Pen rolled round and round in
fiendish delight.

The other children looked at her with anything but approval.

"I don't like her," whispered Nellie to her brother.

"Of course you don't like bad little girls," replied Harry. "Let's run
away at once and leave her. Let's."

They scrambled to their feet. To love a new playmate and yet without an
instant's warning to desert her was quite in accordance with their
childish ideas. In a moment they were running as fast as their legs would
permit across the sands. The tide had been coming in fast for some time.

For a moment Pen sat almost petrified; then she rushed after them. She
was wild with passion; she had never been so angry in all her life. There
were many times when the other children at The Dales treated her with
scant courtesy, but to be suddenly deserted in this fashion by strange
children was more than she could endure.

"Oh, how bad you have got! You are so bad--so dreadfully, horribly
bad--that the tide is certain to come in and drown you up," she cried.
"You can't go away from me; you can't. Oh, see! it has comed;" and Pen