Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/28

12 over a stone. “I find it takes me a pretty long time to stoop my old back over the rows  and some folks would rather not wait.”

“Indeed I don’t mind,” replied Billy with cordial agreement to the plan. He had no reluctance in owning to himself that, however discontented he was with things in general,  here was one person at least whom he was  going to like.

“Now,” said Captain Saulsby as they reached the strawberry patch at the foot of  the garden, “eat as many as you can and fill  the boxes as full as you can carry them away. That is what berries are made for, so go to it.”

This invitation was no difficult one to accept. The berries were big and ripe and sweet, and warm with the warmth of the pleasant June day. It was still and hot there in the sun, with no sound except the booming of the  surf along the shore, and the shrill call of a  katydid in the hedge at Billy’s elbow.

The glittering sea stretched out on each side of them, for Captain Saulsby’s garden lay  along the point that formed the northernmost end of Appledore Island. A coasting schooner, her decks piled high with new, yel-