anemones! Why didn't I bring a pail.
I shall make an aquarium for you on the piazza, and we'll have
anemones, and undistinguished urchins who will never be in a cabinet or
hold candles, and starfish, and barnacles. Oh, there's a baby, John.
Quick, _there_! Oh, I can get it myself." She reached down in a flash
and drew forth a tiny urchin.

"You startled me so," said John plaintively. "You said a baby, and I
couldn't see even a bulrush."

"Oh, I shall educate you in time," returned Edna. "There, Sylvia, that
will be the infant member of your cabinet."

"It seems pretty low down to kidnap a fellow of that size," remarked
Dunham.

"But she's going to have a complete set of urchins,--from a little
green pea to a personage."

"When you reach the personage class, remember me, Miss Sylvia. I have
other references than this scoffing maiden."

Sylvia smiled. "But perhaps you wouldn't care to carry candles."

"Not care to burn candles before you? Of course I should."

"He's at it again, Sylvia," sighed Edna. "It's dreadful to have a
starved man on our hands."

"Starved. That reminds me. Pardon me, ladies, if I look at my watch.
Ah, half an hour's grace. I am going to ask you both to dine with me
to-day. The procession moves at one sharp. If there are any signs of
reluctance on the part of the hostess and her guest, I am to take one
in each hand, with whatever fishy impedimenta cannot be lost, and
repair with you to your cot. Miss Martha has spoken."

Edna laughed. "I'd forgotten, John, just what a shy flower you were!"
she said.

CHAPTER XXI

A SWIMMING LESSON

That afternoon Sylvia had her first swimming lesson. She had gone
bathing several times with Minty Foster, but had never ventured beyond
her depth. There was a flight of steps leading down to the water at the
left of Edna's cottage to a little natural harbor behind the rock
masses. No sandy beach was there. One dropped into sea green depths
where only the amphibious could feel at home; but Edna was amphibious,
and even Miss Lacey's shade hat, firmly tied beneath the chin, was
sometimes seen to ride upon the wave as its owner indulged in a stately
swim from one point of rock to another. Her mouth and nose on these
occasions were lifted from the waters in a scornful grimace. Twice
across the pool Miss Martha swam with systematic deliberation, then,
her hat and hair as dry as when she went in, she ascended upon a sunny
rock, and assuming a large wool