Part 15 (1/2)
”But what about the treasure?” demanded Doris, her eyes beginning to sparkle.
”If you refer to the trunks and chests full of articles that Miss Camilla insisted that we continue to excavate from that interesting hole in her garden, you do well to speak of it as 'treasure'!” answered her father laughingly. ”For beside some valuable old family silver and quite rare articles of antique jewelry, she had there a collection of china and porcelain that would send a specialist on that subject into an absolute spasm of joy. I really would not care to predict what it would be worth to any one interested in the subject.
”And you can tell your friend, Sally, of the adventurous spirit, that she's got 'Treasure Island' licked a mile (to use a very inelegant expression) and right here on her own native territory, too. I take off my hat to you both. You've done better than a couple of boys who have been playing at and hunting for pirates all their youthful days.
Henceforth, when I yearn for blood-curdling adventures and hair-breadth escapes, I'll come to you two to lead the way!”
But, under all his banter, Doris knew that her father was serious in the deep interest he entertained in her strange adventure and all that it had led to.
CHAPTER XV
THE SUMMER'S END
[Ill.u.s.tration: They sat together in the canoe]
They sat together in the canoe, each facing the other, Doris in the bow and Sally in the stern. A full, mid-September moon painted its rippling path on the water and picked out in silver every detail of sh.o.r.e and river. The air was full of the heavy scent of the pines, and the only sound was the ceaseless lap-lap of the lazy ripples at the water's edge.
Doris had laid aside her paddle. Chin in hands, she was drinking in the radiance of the lovely scene.
”I simply cannot realize I am going home tomorrow and must leave all this!” she sighed at last.
Sally dipped her paddle disconsolately and answered with almost a groan:
”If it bothers _you_, how do you suppose it makes _me_ feel?”
”We have grown close to each other, haven't we?” mused Doris, ”Do you know, I never dreamed I could make so dear a friend in so short a time.
I have plenty of acquaintances and good comrades, but usually it takes me years to make a real _friend_. How did you manage to make me care so much for you, Sally?”
”'Just because you're you'!” laughed Sally, quoting a popular song. ”But do you realize, Doris Craig, what a different girl I've become since I knew and cared for _you_?”
She was indeed a different girl, as Doris had to admit. To begin with, she _looked_ different. The clothes she wore were neat, dainty and appropriate, indicating taste and care both in choosing and wearing them. Her parents were comparatively well-to-do people in the village and could afford to dress her well and give her all that was necessary, within reason. It had been mainly lack of proper care, and the absence of any incentive to seem her best, that was to blame for the original careless Sally. And not only her looks, but her manners and English were now as irreproachable as they had once been provincial and faulty.
”Why, even my thoughts are different!” she suddenly exclaimed, following aloud the line of thought they had both been unconsciously pursuing.
”You've given me more that's worth while to think about, Doris, in these three months, than I ever had before in all my life.”
”I'm sure it wasn't _I_ that did it,” modestly disclaimed Doris, ”but the books I happened to bring along and that you wanted to read. If you hadn't _wanted_ different things yourself, Sally, I don't believe you would have changed any, so the credit is all yours.”
”Do you remember the day you first quoted 'The Ancient Mariner' to me?”
laughed Doris. ”I was so astonished I nearly tumbled out of the boat. It was the lines, 'We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea,'
wasn't it?”
”Yes, they are my favorite lines in it,” replied Sally. ”And with all the poems I've read and learned since, I love that best, after all.”
”My favorite is that part, 'The moving moon went up the sky and nowhere did abide,'” said Doris, ”and I guess I love the thing as much as you do.”
”And Miss Camilla,” added Sally, ”says her favorite in it is,
”'The selfsame moment I could pray, And from my neck so free, The Albatross fell off and sank Like lead into the sea.'
”She says that's just the way she felt when we girls made that discovery about her brother's letter. Her 'Albatross' had been the supposed weight of disgrace she had been carrying about all these fifty years.”