Janet | Page 9

Though she had
sailed to it many times there was always the chance of discovery, and
that added zest to the adventure.
The point of land toward which she was heading was quite a distance
off, and looked to be a rather desolate island. It was, in reality, however,
a part of the mainland, for the bay came in, and the land around it was
shaped like a big hook. There were a few fishing huts along the shore,
and farther inland low farms nestled into the hills.
Janet chose a certain cove to land in and pulled her boat safely up on
shore, and then she started off at a brisk walk. At this particular point of
the beach the sand dunes were very high, and she was screened from
sight except from the water front. She walked for about a quarter of a
mile and then began to climb. Up above her on a rising knoll of ground
a little way beyond the sand dunes was an old gray house. It was large
and very rambling, but it was tumbling down. The roof sagged at one
end, and the two big chimneys were crumbling to ruin. There was not a
sign of life anywhere about it or in the many ramshackle farm buildings
that evidently belonged to it. All the windows were boarded up but one,
a very small one that led into the cellar. Janet pushed it open gently and

slid down as far as she could and then dropped. It was very dark and
very musty. She groped her way to the rickety stairs as quickly as she
could. The door at the top opened with a groan as she pushed, and she
was in a long, low-ceilinged kitchen. Rain had come down through the
leaky roof and rusted the stove, the furniture was covered with dust,
and a forlorn china cup with its handle broken lay dejectedly on one
corner of the table.
Janet glanced hurriedly about her, to make sure that no one had been in
the room since she had, and then hurried into the front hall. Some
heavy pieces of furniture were partly covered by torn and dirty sheets;
they looked like ghosts in the dim light that filtered in through the
boarded windows. Janet, in spite of the many times that she had passed
them, could not repress a shiver. and she gave a sigh of relief as she
closed the door of another room behind her. She was in her kingdom at
last, and she surveyed it with sparkling eyes. It was a long room with a
low ceiling that ran the length of the house. In the center along one side
was a huge fireplace. Each one of the six windows had a broad window
seat. There was very little furniture, and none of it was covered by dust
sheets. In consequence, the stuffing was coming out of several of the
chairs and a puddle of water had sopped into the big horsehair sofa.
The only human looking thing was a pair of gloves on one end of the
table. They were badly mildewed and they looked very limp and
lifeless, but they had belonged to some one of the mysterious owners of
the house, and Janet always nodded to them with mock respect. It was
the books that made the room a kingdom. Rows and rows of them lined
the walls from floor to ceiling. Some were damp and moldy but they
were all readable, and that was all that mattered to Janet, though she
sometimes cried over a broken binding, and patted it quite as she would
have stroked a hurt puppy.
"Well, my darlings, I have come back to you," she said as she slipped
to her knees before a corner bookcase, "and I want you to be very kind
to me and take me far, far away to --" She let her hand wander over the
backs of the books until it rested on one, "Greece," she finished, as she
read the title.

She made herself as comfortable as possible in one o f the window
seats, and for an hour she was so engrossed in the old fables and the
stirring tales of the gods that she forgot the time. It was only when the
light through the chinks of the boarding grew too dim to see that she
realized with a start that it was getting late.
"And I never looked up about Roy's paw in that animal book!" she
exclaimed. Had Mrs. Page heard her, she might have understood where
she had learned so much about the care of dogs.
Janet hurriedly put her book back and went to the bookcase across the
room to find what she wanted.
"That's funny," she said. "I