Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/124

110 the engine continued to pound and hammer, no one minded this very much, since the “Balloon” would so soon  be reached.

“Oh! but she is a beauty!” exclaimed Fritz, and Amy echoed his words. You, too, would have been enthusiastic, had you seen the up-to-date twenty-five footer, with her  long, over-hanging ends, and low cabin-trunk, and her  fashionable, cross-cut sails outlined against the sky. From her mast-head floated the Club flag, with its triangular divisions of white, red, and blue,—a solitary blue star showing on the white field. Philip’s private signal, a kind of fish-tail flag, was also displayed.

“I thought you said that it ought not to fly when you are off the boat,” said Brenda.

“Oh! when I’m off for so short a time, it is n’t worth while to haul it down. Besides, I thought that Tom was to remain aboard, and he and I are one—so far as  the boat is concerned.”

“I should like to go all over her,” said Fritz, with a sigh, as if to do this were out of the question.

“Why, of course you must come aboard,” responded Philip hospitably. Fritz looked anxiously at Amy. He was very much afraid that she would decline the invitation. But for once she was ready to accept a pleasure when first offered her. Perhaps she felt that she had in this case earned the right to a little fun. Perhaps, too, the fact that she had never before been so near a regular yacht  influenced her, and therefore, when she heard Mrs. Barlow  second the cordial invitation, she accepted it.