Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/259

Rh write to his mother. Near him, Fred was swinging in a hammock, holding beside him  the two-year-old daughter of the house. Little Alice had taken a violent fancy to the boy, who  amused himself with her by the hour at a time. Up-stairs, in the warm August morning, the two sisters were lounging and talking “like magpies,” as Jack had said when he left them.

And this is what Rob wrote:—

,—We got here all right. We came in a sleeping-car to Clayton, and there we took a boat  and came here. On the way we had a good time, only a woman was mean to Fred. I paid her up, though. I will tell you about it some day. I liked the porter on our car. I think I’d like to be one. All you have to do is to make beds and bring drinks to people and get them tables and black their boots, and most everybody gives you a dollar. We had ours, supper, I mean, on a table, and it was lots of fun. Have the rats eaten any more chickens? Island Den is a lovely house, very large, and it is right by the water. There isn’t any other house on the island, but on the next there is a great big hotel. There are lots of islands. To-morrow cousin Alice says I may go fishing at the end of the island. She isn’t as nice as cousin Bess, but she is pretty good. I don’t think Fred likes her much. They have a tennis court here and a boat. Has Phil come home? Puck