their sister, who often wandered up to the dunes back of the house.

She had watched them often enough to know that their names were Manuel
and Joseph and Rosa. They were beautiful children, such as some of the
old masters delighted to paint, but they fought and quarreled and--Tippy
said--used "shocking language." That is why Georgina was not allowed to
play with them, but she often stood at the back gate watching them,
envying their good times together and hoping to hear a sample of their
shocking language.

One day when they strolled by dragging a young puppy in a rusty saucepan
by a string tied to the handle, the temptation to join them overcame her.
Inch by inch her hand moved up nearer the forbidden gate latch and she
was just slipping through when old Jeremy, hidden behind a hedge where he
was weeding the borders, rose up like an all-seeing dragon and roared at
her, "Coom away, lass! Ye maun't do that!"

She had not known that he was anywhere around, and the voice coming
suddenly out of the unseen startled her so that her heart seemed to jump
up into her throat. It made her angry, too. Only the moment before she
had heard Rosa scream at Manuel, "You ain't my boss; shut your big
mouth!"

It was on the tip of her tongue to scream the same thing at old Jeremy
and see what would happen. She felt, instinctively, that this was
shocking language. But she had not yet outgrown the lurking fear which
always seized her in his presence that either her teeth or his might fly
out if she wasn't careful, so she made no answer. But compelled to vent
her inward rebellion in some way, she turned her back on the hedge that
screened him and shook the gate till the latch rattled.