turned firmly to bed for an hour and so gave
Pollyooly time to make a leisurely and complete breakfast before grilling
his bacon. He had explained to Mrs. Wilson that it was necessary to his
happiness that it should be grilled by Pollyooly, and she had raised no
objection. She observed the process with interest, but not with approval.

"All that time spent over cooking a few slices of bacon!" she said with
the womanly air of one sniffing, when it was transferred from the
frying-pan to the dish.

Pollyooly's brow puckered in a thoughtful frown; and she said gravely:

"But that's the only way to get it right."

Mrs. Wilson sniffed outright.

After his breakfast the Honourable John Ruffin departed to Littlestone to
golf; and Pollyooly and the Lump went down to the sands. There are no
niggers, pierrots, or bands at Pyechurch, only a few donkeys and a
cocoanut-shy. But at low tide there are a thousand acres of firm sand, a
children's paradise. Pollyooly enjoyed it beyond words: not only the
sands and the sea but also the freedom from care. Food, excellent food
and plenty of it, awaited them, paid for, at Mrs. Wilson's.

The Lump was the cause of Pollyooly's first introduction to
fellow-sojourners in this delectable land. A little girl of four, with
very large brown eyes, who was playing near them, was quite suddenly
attracted by him, and without further ado took possession of him.
Pollyooly was pleased that he should have a playmate of his own age; the
little girl's nurse, observing that they were dressed as other children
and that Pollyooly spoke "prettily," and was inclined to be uncommonly
haughty with her, assented to the acquaintance. The little brown-eyed
girl's blue-eyed sister, Kathleen, who was seven, mothered her little
sister, whose name was Mary. Also now and again she mothered the Lump;
but Pollyooly was not jealous.

At first the Lump was somewhat taken aback by this sudden acquisition of
a female friend; but his remarkable placidity stood him in good stead,
and he endured it with an even mind. Presently indeed he seemed to be
taking pleasure in it, for he began to bully her in the manliest fashion.

Then the mother of the little girls joined them and was at once charmed
by the Lump. Pollyooly found no need to display the airs of a red
Deeping, with which she had been treating the nurse, to her; and
presently they were chatting in the friendliest way. Mrs. Gibson, as the
nurse called her, se