tes galore. Even pirating wasn't such good fun. Claude would go
around to the other side of the Big Half Moon and we would play
shipwrecked mariners signalling to each other with kites. Oh, it was
very exciting.

We had one kite that was a dandy. It was as big as we could make it
and covered with lovely red paper; we had pasted gold tinsel stars all
over it and written our names out in full on it--Claude Martin Leete
and Philippa Brewster Leete, Big Half Moon Lighthouse. That kite had
the most magnificent tail, too.

It used to scare the gulls nearly to death when we sent up our kites.
They didn't know what to make of them. And the Big Half Moon is such a
place for gulls--there are hundreds of them here.

One day there was a grand wind for kite-flying, and Claude and I were
having a splendid time. We used our smaller kites for signalling, and
when we got tired of that Claude sent me to the house for the big
one. I'm sure I don't know how it happened, but when I was coming back
over the rocks I tripped and fell, and my elbow went clear through
that lovely kite. You would never have believed that one small elbow
could make such a big hole. Claude said it was just like a girl to
fall and stick her elbow through a kite, but I don't see why it should
be any more like a girl than a boy. Do you?

We had to hurry to fix the kite if we wanted to send it up before the
wind fell, so we rushed into the lighthouse to get some paper. We knew
there was no more red paper, and the looks of the kite were spoiled,
anyhow, so we just took the first thing that came handy--an old letter
that was lying on the bookcase in the sitting-room. I suppose we
shouldn't have taken it, although, as matters turned out, it was the
best thing we could have done; but Father was away to the mainland to
buy things, and we never thought it could make any difference about an
old yellow letter. It was one Father had taken from a drawer in the
bookcase which he had cleaned out the night before. We patched the
kite up with the letter, a sheet on each side, and dried it by the
fire. Then we started out, and up went the kite like a bird. The wind
was glorious, and it soared and strained like something alive. All at
once--snap! And there was Claude, standing with a bit of cord in his
hand, looking as foolish as a flatfish, and our kite sailing along at
a fearful rate of speed over to the mainland.

I might have said to Claude, So like a boy! but I didn't. Inste