Part 26 (2/2)
CHAPTER XVII.
HILDA ARRIVES.
Of course, Cricket went with Auntie Jean to the station on Friday afternoon to meet Hilda.
Hilda had never stayed at the seash.o.r.e before, for her mother was very fond of the mountains, and went every summer to the Catskills.
Therefore, there was everything to show her. Think of it. She had never even been in bathing in the ocean! This fact interested Cricket more than anything else, and so the very first morning she got Hilda up early to get a dip before breakfast.
”Ouch!” squealed Hilda, shrinking back, as the cold waves touched her bare toes. ”Why, Cricket! it's cold!”
”It won't be as soon as you're fairly in,” urged Cricket. ”Just make a dash, and go in all over. Wade out to the raft, and dive off. You don't know what fun it is to go slap-dash into the water and get all gurgled,”
which was Cricket for choked.
”But I'll get all _wet_,” objected Hilda, ”besides, it's _so_ cold, Cricket,” and she drew back further up on the beach, and stood poking her toes into the warm sand.
”Get wet?” said Archie, politely. ”No, you wouldn't. We keep dry water for any one making a first attempt.”
”And if you _should_ get wet, what would it matter? A bathing-suit isn't a party dress, Hilda,” urged Cricket. ”We usually expect to get wet when we go into the water, anyway.”
”Mother, may I go out to swim?” sang Archie, teasingly.
”Come on, Hilda. Just go right forward, ker-chunk,” and Cricket made a run and threw herself full length in the shallow water. She rolled over and over, and came up sputtering, and laughing. ”Don't be afraid, you goosey girl.”
”I'm not a goosey girl. Suppose I should go out there and get drowned?”
”You _can't_ drown. Archie, and Will, and I, all can swim, and we'll save you. Will taught me this summer. It's lovely,” and Cricket led Hilda, hanging back and protesting, into the water, ankle deep.
The truth really was, that Hilda did not want to wet her pretty new bathing-suit. She was such a careful, orderly little person, that she did not like the idea of doing anything so untidy. Besides, Cricket's dripping, clinging skirt looked very uncomfortable.
Just then, Will and Archie, at a private signal, threw themselves, splash, into the water on each side of her, spattering her well, and Cricket, seizing the opportunity, cried out:
”Now, you're a little wet, you must go under right away, or else you'll take cold,” and Hilda yielded very unwillingly, and protesting that she was freezing to death. She squealed and choked as the boys ducked her under the water, and she really thought for one dreadful minute that her last hour had come.
”If _this_ is bathing, I think it's _awful_,” she said, with emphasis, as soon as she could speak. The boys had piloted her as far as the swimming raft, and, imitating Cricket's example, she climbed up on it, trying to rub off her wet face with her wetter sleeve, and looking perfectly miserable. ”Archie, I've got to have a handkerchief, or a towel, or something, to dry my face. Please bring me one.”
The boys both laughed at her. ”Oh, certainly,” said Archie. ”I'll telephone to the laundry to send down a cartload right away. We usually have Luke put a supply of clean ones on the raft, all ready for us. He must have forgotten it this morning.”
”You needn't laugh at me. I do hate to have my face stay wet.”
”Dive again, then,” advised Will, setting the example. ”Come, Cricket, race me to the rock and back again.”
Cricket promptly dived, but Hilda could not be coaxed off her perch till the others were ready to go in. So, altogether, the first bath was not a great success, and Hilda almost made up her mind that she would never try it again, for it was, by no means, such fun as it was reported to be. But over Sunday she had time to forget her sensations, and when Cricket sprang up early Monday morning, as usual, Hilda finally concluded she would try it again. To her great surprise--perhaps it was partly because the first newness was worn off her bathing-suit--she found that she enjoyed it a great deal more than the first time. She actually waded around with the water nearly up to her shoulders, and half learned to float, with Will supporting her. The next morning completed the lesson, and she began to feel very independent.
On Monday morning Auntie Jean drove the four girls over to Plymouth, to see the sights there. Hilda was full of eagerness and curiosity to see the famous Rock on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed.
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