Part 8 (1/2)

”It was naughty for _us_ to come,” thought she, anxious to divide the sin with her companions; ”_we_ ought to have minded our mothers.”

If the sky had continued fair, it may be Dotty would not have felt so guilty, though you and I know the weather had nothing to do with the sin; disobedience is disobedience always, whether it rains or s.h.i.+nes.

The little Jewess grew very pale, said she was dizzy, and wished to change places with Dotty.

”Keep still, can't you, girls?” cried Johnny; ”if you fuss round so the boat'll be sure to upset.”

Johnny looked as dignified as if he had navigated s.h.i.+ps across the Atlantic Ocean over and over again; but then, alas! his arms were so little! I suppose his paddle had nearly as much effect as if it had been an iron spoon; and he probably knew as much about boating as he did about the dead languages. Solly and Freddy were several years older, and considerably wiser; but the wisdom of all these five children, if it had been compounded together, would not have amounted to the wisdom of the three wise men of Gotham who went to sea in a bowl.

”O, dear!” screamed Dotty.

”O, dear! dear! _dear!_” cried Lina; ”the water rolls in over the top!”

”Can't you steer for the sh.o.r.e, Solly Rosenbug?” said Dotty.

”You hadn't oughter made us come,” sobbed Lina.

Johnny joined the mournful chorus.

”There goes my hat! You were in pretty business knocking it off my head, Dot Dimple!”

”I never; and I didn't mean to,” replied Dotty, too much subdued to retort with her usual spirit.

”Fish it out with the paddle,” remarked Solly, coolly.

This was intended as a joke, for the hat was already bounding far, far away over the waste of waters. Dotty knew she should always be accused of losing it, though in her secret soul she was sure the wind had blown it off. But a new hat, as we all know, is a mere trifle when we have gone to sea in a bowl! The first thing we think of is how to get home.

”Ahem!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Solly, at last, ”if you are really afraid, Lina, I suppose we'd better go ash.o.r.e!”

Lina clapped her hands. ”O, do! do! do!”

”Yes, indeed,” said Dotty; ”and, Solly, don't you b.u.mp _too_ hard against the sh.o.r.e, 'cause 'twould spill us out.”

It was very easy to talk about touching the sh.o.r.e: all the difficulty lay in being able to do it. Not that it was so very distant; indeed, it was in full sight, ”so near, and yet so far!” If the wind had only been quiet, instead of ”cracking its cheeks!” But, as it was, the boat rocked fearfully, and seemed to be blowing directly away from the land.

Solly and the deaf and dumb boy looked at each other with eyes which seemed to say,--

”The thing is coming to a pretty pa.s.s! Only you and I to manage this craft, and we neither of us know what we are about! But we'll keep a stiff upper lip, and make believe we do!”

”Why, Solly Rosenbug!” said Dotty, catching her breath, ”you're going just the other way!”

”O, Solly Rosenberg,” echoed Lina, ”you're going the wrong way! There's the sh.o.r.e, off there!”

”Well, well,” said Solly, his ”stiff upper lip” very white, ”we're coming round to it after a while: you just sit still.”

”Yes,” said Johnny, puffing very hard, and churning the foam with his paddle, as if he were whipping eggs with a beater, ”yes, girls, _we_ shall row round to it after a while, _if_ you'll only keep still!”

I dare say Johnny thought the most of this commotion was made by his paddle. He was quite as consequential, in his way, as the fly who sat on a wagon-wheel, and said to the wagon, as it rattled down hill, ”What a noise we make!”

”We wouldn't put for the sh.o.r.e at all,” continued Johnny, ”if it wasn't for you girls.”