you layin’ abed till afternoon! You oughter be ashamed of yourself.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Ann spoke bravely into the unsmiling face. “We delayed him. He promised to take us out in the boat with him this morning and he had to wait for us. We’re the lazy ones, not Jo.”

“Oho!” The big foghorn voice boomed out and Ann was sure he could be heard in the village. “So it was you, young lady, he was waiting for. Wal, now, I don’t blame him.”

“Hush your noise,” ordered Jo, laughing. “This is Ann Seymour and Ben Seymour who are staying87 up at the homestead this summer. They don’t know that you’re pestering them just for fun.”

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“Why, o’ course she knows I was only a-funnin’. This young lady has good sense, I can see that.” Pete clapped one huge hand down on Ann’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t go for to hurt her feelings.” He looked into Ann’s eyes. “Jo’s a good boy and a first-class skipper. You couldn’t have picked a better captain among us.”

Jo visibly swelled under the compliment after Pete had left them, and Ann was happy to see him so pleased.

“It was nice of Pete to say that about you,” she said softly.

“You bet it was,” said Jo. “He is a close-mouthed old fellow but he sure knows how to handle a boat. And his bark is a good deal worse than his bite. He has been awfully kind to me. He taught me just about everything I know, what with father being so busy often when I needed help. But Pete never said anything to make me think he was pleased with the way I was sailing the boat. I can remember when I was very small and came down here to watch the men; Pete used to pull a pair of oars in his boat and make a straight trip of over twenty miles a day and think nothing of it.”

“You said twenty miles?” asked Ben incredulously.

“All of that,” asserted Jo. “He was the first fisherman to buy a motor for his dory, when everybody thought he was a fool to do it. He used to sit88 here on the beach for hours reading over the book of instructions that came with the engine, and finally he put the parts together and made the thing work without any help from anybody. It has made a heap of difference, having engines in the boats. A man can take care of pretty nigh eighty pots if he has a motor boat, when he used to be held down to twenty, pulling oars.”

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