Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/162

142 drink. Poor things, I hate to think of them off somewhere drooping and withering for a  whiff of fresh salt wind.”

“Captain Saulsby,” said Billy gravely, “I do believe you care a lot for those flowers of  yours. You are always saying you don’t, but I think I won’t believe you again. I can see by the very way you look at them that you  love them.”

“No, can you?” exclaimed the old sailor in genuine surprise. “Why—why—maybe I do now, I never thought of it.” He looked about  the garden as though suddenly seeing it in a  new light. “I hated the whole place bitterly enough when I first knew I must stop here all  the rest of my life, and my only wish was that  the time might not be long. But I’ve worked and tended and watched over it for five years  and—well, you are right. I have learned to love it and never knew. That’s a queer thing, now, isn’t it?”

“How glad you must be that it wasn’t sold,” Billy went on, “that all that trouble and worry  is over for good.”

“I’m not so sure of its being for good,” the old captain returned reflectively; “the fellow  got clear away, and as long as he’s still free