a very
slow-going place to put you through your business-college term, so I
am sure you are the man I'm looking for. I believe in helping those
who have 'gumption' enough to help themselves, so we'll call it a
bargain, Ned."

Our Runaway Kite

Of course there was nobody for us to play with on the Big Half Moon,
but then, as Claude says, you can't have everything. We just had to
make the most of each other, and we did.

The Big Half Moon is miles from anywhere, except the Little Half Moon.
But nobody lives there, so that doesn't count.

We live on the Big Half Moon. "We" are Father and Claude and I and
Aunt Esther and Mimi and Dick. It used to be only Father and Claude
and I. It is all on account of the kite that there are more of us.
This is what I want to tell you about.

Father is the keeper of the Big Half Moon lighthouse. He has always
been the keeper ever since I can remember, although that isn't very
long. I am only eleven years old. Claude is twelve.

In winter, when the harbour is frozen over, there isn't any need of a
light on the Big Half Moon, and we all move over to the mainland, and
Claude and Mimi and Dick and I go to school. But as soon as spring
comes, back we sail to our own dear island, so glad that we don't know
what to do with ourselves.

The funny part used to be that people always pitied us when the time
came for us to return. They said we must be so lonesome over there,
with no other children near us, and not even a woman to look after us.

Why, Claude and I were never lonesome. There was always so much to do,
and Claude is splendid at making believe. He makes the very best
pirate chief I ever saw. Dick is pretty good, but he can never roar
out his orders in the bloodcurdling tones that Claude can.

Of course Claude and I would have liked to have someone to play with
us, because it is hard to run pirate caves and things like that with
only two. But we used to quarrel a good deal with the mainland
children in winter, so perhaps it was just as well that there were
none of them on the Big Half Moon. Claude and I never quarrelled. We
used to argue sometimes and get excited, but that was as far as it
ever went. When I saw Claude getting too excited I gave in to him. He
is a boy, you know, and they have to be humoured; they are not like
girls.

As for having a woman to look after us, I thought that just too silly,
and so did Claude. What did we need with a woman when we had Father?