drowned, so that when the rescuers appeared quite a crowd was
assembled on the beach to welcome her. But Jill felt so used up
with her own share of the excitement that she was glad to be
carried to the house by Frank and Jack, and laid upon her bed,
where Mrs. Hammond soon restored her with sugar-coated pills,
and words even sweeter and more soothing.
Other people, busied with their own pleasures, forgot all about it
by the next day; but Jill remembered that hour long afterward, both
awake and asleep, for her dreams were troubled, and she often
started up imploring someone to save her. Then she would recall
the moment when, feeling most helpless, she had asked for help,
and it had come as quickly as if that tearful little cry had been
heard and answered, though her voice had been drowned by the
dash of the waves that seemed ready to devour her. This made
a deep impression on her, and a sense of childlike faith in the
Father of all began to grow up within her; for in that lonely
voyage, short as it was, she had found a very precious treasure to
keep for ever, to lean on, and to love during the longer voyage
which all must take before we reach our home.
Chapter 22 A Happy Day
“Oh dear! Only a week more, and then we must go back. Don’t you
hate the thoughts of it?” said Jack, as he was giving Jill her early
walk on the beach one August morning.
“Yes, it will be dreadful to leave Gerty and Mamie and all the nice
people. But I’m so much better I won’t have to be shut up again,
even if I don’t go to school. How I long to see Merry and Molly.
Dear things, if it wasn’t for them I should hate going home more
than you do,” answered Jill, stepping along quite briskly, and
finding it very hard to resist breaking into a skip or a run, she felt
so well and gay.
“Wish they could be here to-day to see the fun,” said Jack, for it
was the anniversary of the founding of the place, and the people
celebrated it by all sorts of festivity.
“I’d id want to ask Molly, but your mother is so good to me I
couldn’t find courage to do it. Mammy told me not to ask for a
thing, and I’m sure I don’t get a chance. I feel just as if I was your
truly born sister, Jack.”
“That’s all right, I’m glad you do,” answered Jack, comfortably,
though his mind seemed a little absent and his eyes twinkled when
she spoke of Molly. “Now, you sit in the cubby-house, and keep
quiet till the boat comes in. Then the fun will begin, and you must
be fresh and ready to enjoy it. Don’t run off, now, I shall want to
know where to find you by and by.”
“No more running off, thank you. I’ll stay here till you come, and
finish this box for Molly; she has a birthday this week, and I’ve
written to ask what day, so I can send it right up and surprise her.
Jack’s eyes twinkled more than ever as he helped Jill settle herself
in the boat, and then with a whoop he tore over the beach, as if
practising for the race which was to come off in the afternoon.
Jill was so busy with her work that time went quickly, and th~
early boat came in just as the last pink shell was stuck in its place.
Putting the box in the sun to dry, she leaned out of her nook to
watch the gay parties land, and go streaming up the pier along the
road that went behind the bank that sheltered her. Flocks of
children were running about on the sand, and presently strangers
appeared, eager to see and enjoy all the delights of this gala-day.
“There’s a fat little boy who looks ever so much like Boo,” said Jill
to herself, watching the people and hoping they would not come
and find her, since she had promised to stay till Jack returned.