"We walked, after the omnibus set us down at Charing Cross, because
we hadn't any more money," said Armine. "I'm so tired." And he
nestled into her lap, seeming to quell the beating of her aching
heart by his pressure.

"This is it, mother," said Jock, pulling her other arm round him.
"We two went down to the beach yesterday, and we saw a little boat—-
Peter Lary's pretty little boat, you know, that is so light—-and we
got in to rock in her, and then I thought I would pull about in her
a little."

"Oh! Jock, Jock, how could you?"

"I'd often done it with Allen and Young Pete," said Jock,
defensively.

"But by yourselves!" she said in horror.

"Nobody told us not," said Jock rather defiantly; and Armine, who,
with his little sister Barbara, always seemed to live where dreamland
and reality bordered on each other, looked up in her face and
innocently said—-

"Mrs. Acton read us about the Rocky Island, and she said father and
granny had brought their boats to the beautiful country, and that we
ought to go after them, and there was the bright path along the sea,
and I thought we would go too, and that it would be nicer if Jock
went with me."