she wished it more than
any one else.

"But, O dear! my mamma doesn't 'low me to sail."

This was spoken sorrowfully; but there was a little wavering in the
tone. Dotty had taken the first false step; she had listened to the
voice of temptation, and every persuasive word of Solly's left her
weaker than it had found her.

"My mamma doesn't _ever_ 'low me to sail."

"You _couldn't_ sail in a wherry if you were to try," said Johnny.
"Come, Sol, don't stop to bother: who wants girls? They just spoil the
fun."

"For shame!" said the more polite Solomon, drawing himself up and
looking very manly; "the girls shall go if they want to. Only just round
the curve."

Dotty liked Solly at that moment very much. She looked at her
ill-mannered little cousin with royal disdain, and walked slowly and
cautiously on towards the boat. Lina followed at a little distance.
_Her_ mother had also forbidden her to go on the water, and had declared
that Solomon was too young to manage a boat; but neither Lina nor her
brother had very tender consciences. If they did wrong things, and
nobody knew it, it was all very well; but if they were found out--ah!
then was the time to be sorry! Dotty's conscience had been much better
educated than theirs: it gave her plenty of warning, which she would not
heed, and tried to stifle by talking.

"It isn't a sail boat. When my mamma went in the scursion, then it was a
sail boat, and the wind whistled so the sails shook dreadfully. My mamma
never talked to me about wherries; she didn't ever say I mustn't go in a
wherry."

While Dotty was still talking, she entered the boat, the last of the
five. She seated herself, but was annoyed to find her dainty gaiters
sinking into a pool of dirty water. She lifted her feet, but could not
keep them up. Well, perhaps she shouldn't have the sore throat after
all; she couldn't help it now if she did have it. At any rate she was
determined not to complain, when Solly had been so very polite.

"Isn't this prime?" said Johnny, as they launched out upon the water.

The motion was certainly pleasant, and for a few moments Dotty was quite
delighted, thinking over and over again,--

"Mamma won't care; it's nothing but a wherry, and the wind doesn't
blow."

Then she suddenly remembered her promise to Prudy, not to go "anywhere
near the water."

"And I never thought I should. I never s'posed I should see Solly
Rosenberg. I didn't know he was in this city. Prudy'd like