Part 18 (2/2)
”Horsumpphat!” Tommy said again. ”Horsumpphat! Horsumpphat!”
Amaryllis clenched her teeth and managed to turn her back on Tommy and said to Djuna, ”Would you like to walk up the beach and go sh.e.l.ling with me?” She lifted the cloth bag she was carrying and rattled the sh.e.l.ls in it.
”Well, I guess not,” Djuna said. ”We've got a lot of things to do and-”
”I'll take you over to our house afterwards,” Amaryllis interrupted to say.
”Horsumpphat!” Tommy whispered in her ear.
Amaryllis jumped and then she swung the bag of sh.e.l.ls at Tommy's head. Tommy ducked and said, ”Horsumpphat!” as she swung it again. He danced out of the way.
”Oh, you!” Amaryllis spluttered. She was shaking with fury as she turned her back and walked away as fast as she could walk.
”Horsumpphat!” Tommy called after her and she broke into a run.
Djuna and Tommy both threw themselves on the beach and rolled with laughter. When he could speak Djuna said, ”What does that word mean that you kept saying to her?”
”It doesn't mean anything, but she thinks it does,” Tommy said. ”One day when she was telling me about all the things she and her father have I didn't know what to say so I made up that word and just kept saying it until she got so mad she couldn't talk any more.”
Djuna giggled and said, ”Who is she?”
”Pop says she's Mr. Hamilton's worst mistake,” Tommy told him.
”Oh, her father is the man in the bank?”
”Yeah,” Tommy said. ”She's awful!”
”She is pretty bad,” Djuna agreed. ”Does her father really have a yacht?”
”It's a cruiser, about the size of that one we saw going up the Inland Waterway yesterday,” Tommy said. ”He keeps it over in Captain Andy Jackson's boat yard when it isn't in the yacht basin. Captain Andy is painting it right now.”
”Could we go see it?” Djuna asked.
”Sure,” Tommy said. Then he made a condition. ”But if she's there, I won't go near it!”
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Copyright 1950 by Little, Brown and Company.
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