Elsie at Nantucket | Page 8

all go off to Nantucket. I do hope he'll be able
to find somebody to take his place; but if he isn't I shall stay here with
him."
"That is quite right, dear child; I am very glad you love him so dearly,"
Elsie said, with a very pleased look; "but I hope your affection will not
be put to so severe a test; we have heard of a very suitable person,
though it is still uncertain whether his services can be secured. We shall
probably know to-morrow."

"Perhaps sooner than that," Mr. Dinsmore said, approaching them just
in time to hear his daughter's last sentence; "Edward has gone to have
an interview with him, and hopes for a definite reply to his proposition.
Ah, here he comes now!" as Edward was seen to turn in at the great
gates and come up the avenue at a gentle trot. It was too warm for a
gallop.
As he drew near he took off his hat and waved it in triumph round his
head. "Success, good friends!" he cried, reining in his steed at the
veranda steps. Then, as he threw the reins to a servant and sprang to the
ground, "Zoe, my darling, you can go on with your packing; we may
confidently expect to be able to sail with the rest."
"Oh delightful!" she exclaimed, dancing about as gleefully as if she had
been a maiden of eight or ten instead of a woman just closing the first
year of her married life.
Everybody sympathized in her joy; everybody was glad that she and
Edward were to be of their party.
All the older ones were very busy for the next few days, no one finding
time for rest and quiet chat except the captain and Violet, who keenly
enjoyed a monopoly of each other's society during not a few hours of
every day; Mrs. Dinsmore and Elsie having undertaken to attend to all
that would naturally have fallen to Violet's share in making ready for
the summer's jaunt had she been in robust health. Bob and Betty
Johnson, to whom the Oaks had been home for many years, and who
had just graduated from school, came home in the midst of the bustle of
preparation, and were highly delighted by an invitation to join the
Nantucket party.
No untoward event occurred to cause disappointment or delay; all were
ready in due season, and the yacht set sail at the appointed time, with a
full list of passengers, carrying plenty of luggage, and with fair winds
and sunny skies.
They were favored with exceptionally fine weather all the way, and
seas so smooth that scarce a touch of sea-sickness was felt by any, from

the oldest to the youngest.
They entered Nantucket harbor one lovely summer morning, with a
delicious breeze blowing from the sea, the waves rippling and dancing
in the sunlight, and the pretty town seated like a queen on the
surrounding heights that slope gently up from the water.
They were all gathered on deck, eager for a first glimpse of the place.
Most of them spoke admiringly of it, but Zoe said, "It's pretty enough,
but too much of a town for me. I'm glad we are not to stay in it.
'Sconset is a smaller place, isn't it, captain?"
"Much smaller," he answered; "quite small enough to suit even so great
a lover of solitude as yourself, Mrs. Travilla."
"Oh, you needn't laugh at me," she retorted; "one needn't be a great
lover of solitude to care for no more society than is afforded by this
crowd. But I want to be close by the bounding sea, and this town is shut
off from that by its harbor."
"Where is the harbor, papa?" asked little Grace.
"All around us, my child; we are in it."
"Are we?" she asked, "I think it looks just like the sea; what's the
matter with it, Aunt Zoe?"
"Nothing, only it's too quiet; the great waves don't come rolling in and
breaking along the shore. I heard your father say so; it's here they have
the still bathing."
"Oh, yes, and papa is going to teach us to swim!" exclaimed Lulu; "I'm
so glad, for I like to learn how to do everything."
"That's right," her father said, with an approving smile; "learn all you
can, for 'knowledge is power.'"
They landed, the gentlemen presently secured a sufficient number of

hacks to comfortably accommodate the entire party, and after a cursory
view of the town, in a drive through several of its more important
streets, they started on the road to 'Sconset.
They found it, though a lonely, by no means an unpleasant, drive--a
road marked out only by rows of parallel ruts across wild moorlands,
where the ground was level