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Cricket at the Seashore

Cricket at the Seashore

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Chapter 1 OLD BILLY.

Word Count: 1916    |    Released on: 01/12/2017

eeing the Europe-bound party off for New York, the Ward child

ter their arrival, Cricket

oing to do to-day? and I'm going

ice, sleepily. "Don't tumble rou

ier build. "It's six o'clock, for the clock just struck. Now I'll tell you what I want to do. Let's dig in the

e turquoise ring you lost two years ago, in bathing,"

I'm going to do it anyway, and I'm going to find it. I feel it in my bones, as 'Liza says, and I'm going to begi

t to. I won't tell. Wonder if they've sai

you remember? Prob'ly they're just getting up

of bed and ran to th

all ready the night before, and flew down-stairs to join the boys in their morning plunge in the sea, her bare arms gleaming fr

almost learned to swim the last time that she had been at Marbury in the summer-time, two years before, and she

t; "I almost got away from the place where I was, then." She turned over on he

tracted thinking of my hands, that I always forget

en you throw them out. Go just like a frog. That's fine. Now again. Draw up, kick out, draw up, kick out-fine!" and Cricket

bathing-suits were almost dry. There were bathing-houses down there, but for this early mo

ng and rosy, she found Eunice only partly dresse

ng behind the screen. "You don't know how f

ing out her long, dark hair, and braiding it. "I like to sleep in the

ssed already. "I mean to find it. You'll see." But she inwa

mer home at Kayuna, in East Wellsboro. They had often been there for short visits, however, as mam

d rendering the harbour a very safe one for sailing. Will and Archie Somers were capital sailors, inheriting their grandfather's love of the sea. Back of the house, over a short, steep hill, lay the beginning of the sand-banks, where mamma and auntie had

the summer's amusement! Mrs. Somers and her children had spent most of the warm weather at Marbury, for years, so

e. "Think of it, grandma! all summer! whoop!" with a shout, as he vanished, that

n to think that we've undertaken a great deal, to keep this horde in order for a whole season

ly. "The boys go to their camp for a month, you

twins, Eliza manages them really beautifully, and Kenneth is no more trouble than a kitten. Eunice and Cricket

ur, popping up from behind the vines. "I'll chu

ghing. "See him now, poor old fellow! he doesn't know whether he'

lowed aunti

bringing out his music-box, and that's

, bent old man he was, not much over fifty, in reality, though he looked seventy. A shock of rough gray hair stood out all over his head, and a gray, tousled-looking beard covered half his face. A p

y faithful and responsible, and soon became a fixture on the place. Then poor Billy one day got a terrible fall in the barn, and was taken up for dead. However, he w

quite right again. Everybody thought they ought to send him to the poorhouse, as he had no home to be sent to, but Captain Maxwell refused to do thi

denly a lawyer's letter was received, stating that William Ruggles was heir to a large amount of money from a brother who ha

, and he was entirely unable to take care of himself. Captain Maxwell had been appointed his guardian, and trustee of his property. There chanced to be a small unused building, once an office, on the grounds, and this was easily changed into a suitable abode for

ance had to be a small one, for it was soon found that generous Billy emptied his pockets on all occasions to any one asking. So his allowance was limited to twenty-five cents a week in his own hands

l through their childhood he had been their devoted slave, for the poor soul was patience and fidelit

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