Part 26 (1/2)
That had been an eventful day at Ocean Cliff, and the happy ending of it, with a boat and its crew saved, was, as some of the children said, just like a story in a book, only the pictures were all alive!
The largest hotel at Sunset Beach was thrown open to the sailors that night, and here Captain Bingham and Mate McLaughlin, together with the rest of the crew, took up comfortable lodgings.
It was very late, long after the little party had scattered from Minturn's piazza, that the sailors finished dancing their hornpipe for the big company a.s.sembled to greet them in the hotel.
Never had they danced to such fine music before, for the hotel orchestra played the familiar tune and the sailors danced it nimbly, hitching up first one side then the other--crossing first one leg then the other, and wheeling around in that jolly fas.h.i.+on.
How rugged and handsome the men looked! The rough ocean winds had tanned them like bronze, and their muscles were as firm and strong almost as the cables that swing out with the buoys. The wonderful fresh air that these men lived in, night and day, had brightened their eyes too, so that even the plainest face, and the most awkward man among them, was as nimble as an athlete, from his perfect exercise.
”And last night what an awful experience they had!” remarked one of the spectators. ”It is no wonder that they are all so happy to-night.”
”Besides,” added someone else, ”they are all going to receive extra good pay, for the captain and mate will be very rich when the cargo is landed.”
So the sailors danced until they were tired, and then after a splendid meal they went to sleep, in as comfortable beds as might be found in any hotel on Sunset Beach.
CHAPTER XXI
GOOD-BY
”I don't know how to say good-by to you,” Nellie told Dorothy and Nan next morning. ”To think how kind you have been to me, and how splendidly it has all turned out! Now father is home again, I can hardly believe it! Mother told me last night she was going to put back what money she had to use out of my prize, the fifty dollars you know, and I am to make it a gift to the Fresh Air Fund.”
”Oh, that will be splendid!” declared Nan. ”Perhaps they will buy another tent with it, for they need more room out at Meadow Brook.”
”You are quite rich now, aren't you?” remarked Dorothy. ”I suppose your father will buy a big house, and maybe next time we meet you, you will put on airs and walk like this?” and Dorothy went up and down the room like the pictures of Cinderella's proud sisters.
”No danger,” replied Nellie, whose possible tears at parting had been quickly chased away by the merry Dorothy. ”But I hope we will have a nice home, for mother deserves it, besides I am just proud enough to want to entertain a few young ladies, among them Miss Nan Bobbsey and Miss Dorothy Minturn.”
”And we will be on hand, thank you,” replied the joking Dorothy. ”Be sure to have ice cream and chocolates--I want some good fresh chocolates. Those we get down here always seem soft and salty, like the spray.”
”Come, Nellie,” called Mrs. McLaughlin, ”I am ready. Where is your hat?”
”Oh, yes, mother, I'm coming!” replied Nellie.
Bert had the donkey cart hitched and there was now no time to spare.
Nellie kissed Freddie and Flossie affectionately, and promised to bring the little boy all through a big city, real fire-engine house when he came to see her.
”And can I ring the bell and make the horses jump?” he asked.