for mother that made the father seem so near?
The roaring waves seemed to call out:
“Nellie—Nellie dear! I’m coming—coming home to you!”
And while the little girl was thus dreaming upstairs, Mr. Minturn down in the library was telling about his visit to Nellie’s mother.
“There is no doubt about it,” he told Mrs. Bobbsey. “It was Nellie’s father who went away with George Bingham, and it was certainly that schooner that was sighted some days ago.”
The ladies, of course, were overjoyed at the prospect of the best of luck for Nellie—her father’s possible return,—and then it was decided that Uncle William should again go to Mrs. McLaughlin, this time to take her the prize money, and that Mrs. Bobbsey should go along with him, as it was such an important errand.
“And you remember that little pearl that Nellie found on the beach? Well, I’m having it set in a ring for her. It is a real pearl, but not very valuable, yet I thought it would be a souvenir of her visit at the Cliffs,” said Mr. Minturn.
“That will be very nice,” declared Mrs. Bobbsey. “I am sure no one deserves to be made happy more than that child does, for just fancy, how she worked in that store as cash girl until her health gave way. And now she is anxious to go back to the store again. Of course she is worried about her mother, but the prize money ought to help Mrs. McLaughlin so that Nellie would not need to cut her vacation short.”
“What kind of treasure was it that these men went to sea after?” Aunt Emily asked Uncle William.
“A cargo of mahogany,” Mr. Minturn replied. “You see, that wood is scarce now, a cargo is worth a fortune, and a shipload was being brought from the West Indies to New York when a storm blew the vessel out to a very dangerous point. Of course, the vessel was wrecked, and so were two others that later attempted to reach the valuable cargo. You see the wind always blows the one way there, and it is impossible to get the mahogany out of its trap. Now, George Bingham was offered fifty thousand dollars to bring that wood to port, and he decided that he could do it by towing each log around the reef by canoes. The logs are very heavy, each one is worth between eighty and one hundred dollars, but the risk meant such a reward, in case of success, that they went at it. Of course the real danger is around the wreck. Once free from that point and the remainder of the voyage would be only subject to the usual ocean storms.”
“And those men were to go through the dangerous waters in little canoes!” exclaimed Aunt Emily.
“But the danger was mostly from winds to the sails of vessels,” explained Uncle William. “Small craft are safest in such waters.”
“And if they succeeded in bringing the mahogany in?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Nellie would be comparatively rich, for her father went as George Bingham’s partner,” finished Mr. Minturn.
So, the evening went into night, and Nellie, the Fisherman’s Daughter, slept on, to dream that the song of the waves came true.
CHAPTER XV
Lost on an Island
The calm that always follows a storm settled down upon the Cliffs the day after the carnival. The talk of the entire summer settlement was Nellie and her prize, and naturally, the little girl herself thought of home and the lonely mother, who was going to receive such a surprise—fifty dollars!
It was a pleasant morning, and Freddie and Flossie were out watching Downy trying to get through the fence that the boys had built to keep him out of the ocean. Freddie had a pretty little boat Uncle William had brought down from the city. It had sails, that really caught the wind, and carried the boat along.
Of course Freddie had a long cord tied to it, so it could not get out of his reach, and while Flossie tried to steer the vessel with a long whip, Freddie made believe he was a canal man, and walked along the tow path with the cord in hand.
“I think I would have got a prize in the boat parade if I had this steamer,” said Freddie, feeling his craft was really as fine as any that had taken part in the carnival.
“Maybe you would,” agreed Flossie. “Now let me sail it a little.”
“All right,” said Freddie, and he offered the cord to his twin sister.
“Oh,” she exclaimed, “I dropped it!”
The next minute the little boat made a turn with the breeze, and before Flossie could get hold of the string it was all in the water!
“Oh, my boat!” cried Freddie. “Get it quick!”
“I can’t!” declared Flossie. “It is out too far! Oh, what shall we do!”
“Now you just get it! You let it go,” went on the brother, without realizing that his sister could not reach the boat, nor the string either, for that matter.
“Oh, it’s going far away!” cried Flossie; almost in tears.
The little boat was certainly making its way out into the lake, and it sailed along so proudly, it must have been very glad to be free.
“There’s Hal Bingham’s boat,” ventured Flossie. “Maybe I could go out a little ways in that.”
“Of course you can,” promptly answered Freddie. “I can row.”
“I don’t know, we might upset!” Flossie said, hesitating.
“But it isn’t deep. Why, Downy walks around out here,” went on the brother.
This assurance gave the little girl courage, and slipping the rope off the peg that secured the boat to the shore, very carefully she put Freddie on one seat, while she sat herself on the other.
The oars were so big she did not attempt to handle them, but just depended on the boat to do its own sailing.
“Isn’t this lovely!” declared Freddie, as the boat drifted quietly along.
“Yes, but how can we get back?” asked Flossie, beginning to realize their predicament.
“Oh, easy!” replied Freddie, who suddenly seemed to have become a man, he was so brave. “The tide comes down pretty soon, and then our boat will go back to shore.”
Freddie had heard so much about the tide he felt he understood it perfectly. Of course, there was no tide on the lake, although the waters ran lazily toward the ocean at times.
“But we are not getting near my boat,” Freddie complained, for indeed the toy sailboat was drifting just opposite their way.
“Well, I can’t help it, I’m sure,” cried Flossie. “And I just wish I could get back. I’m going to call somebody.”
“Nobody can hear you,” said her brother. “They are all down by the ocean, and there’s so much noise there you can’t even hear thunder.”
Where the deep woods joined the lake there was a little island. This was just around the turn, and entirely out of view of either the Minturn or the Bingham boat landing. Toward this little island the children’s boat was now drifting.
