Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/24

8 “You’re Miss Mattie Pearson’s nephew, now I’ll be bound,” remarked the old man,  surveying Billy carefully from head to foot as  he came closer. “She told me all about you, where you had meant to go this summer and  how you came here instead and maybe weren’t  going to like us here on Appledore Island. Johann, look at that frown on his face; I don’t think he has sized us up very fair so  far, do you? Well, he’ll learn, he’ll learn!”

Billy frowned more deeply than ever, partly because he had no taste for being made sport  of by a stranger and partly because the memory of his recent disappointments came back  to him with a fresh pang. His plan for this summer had been to camp out in the Rockies,  to climb mountains, to ride horseback, fish in  the roaring, ice-cold little trout streams and  to shoot grouse when the season came around. His father and mother had promised him just such a program; they were all three to carry  it out together, being the three most congenial  camping comrades that ever lived. However, sudden developments of business, due to the war in Europe and the necessity of turning  in other directions for trade, had called his  father to South America at just the season