Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/181

Rh came again a little louder, and looking around, the girls saw Fritz at some distance leading a bicycle.

“I knew his call,” said Amy, “but I did not expect to see him over here.”

As Fritz drew near the four girls, he looked rather sheepish. He did not know Amy’s friends very well, and he soon came to a sudden halt.

“I’d better go and speak to him,” said Amy, “perhaps he has a message.”

After a few moments’ conversation, she returned to her place on the bench, with Fritz closely following.

“He has a new bicycle,” she said, her face beaming with pleasure. “His uncle surprised him with it to-day, and he rode over here to show it to me.”

Now Fritz, after acknowledging the greetings of the other girls, whom he had met once or twice, accepted  their congratulations for the new bicycle, and displayed  its beauties with great earnestness. As he described it, its weight, its finish, its gear, it seemed as if no other  bicycle had ever been built that was quite its equal.

When he accepted the invitation given him by Julia to sit down, he flung himself on the grassy slope, in front  of a bench against which he stood his wheel, and he kept  one hand affectionately on a pedal.

“Come, do tell us some more about Marblehead, something romantic; if there were not more witches here, there were probably pirates?”—Nora looked eagerly at  Amy.

“I don’t exactly know,” she began.