“Thank you just the same,” said Brenda, “but I don’t care to think of such disagreeable things. Besides the only poor family that I know much about has been moved to a comfortable country place, and as to the rest of them, I mean the poor people in Boston, why I believe that the most of them are out on the Common, or in the Park, amusing themselves.”
“You ’re more than half right, Brenda,” said Nora, “the Fourth of July is really the poor people’s holiday in town. I ’ve been in town on the Fourth, and they seem to own the whole place.”
“Do you suppose that that is the ‘Crusoe’?” asked Julia, looking eagerly at a yacht still so far ahead of them as to look but a small boat.
“If it is, she ’ll soon hear from us,” said Philip, “for we ’re going to overtake her sure.”
Now for some reason or other the wind seemed to favor the “Balloon,” or perhaps, as the boys modestly suggested, it was because they and their skipper showed superior seamanship. Whatever the cause, after tacking about for some time, to the great edification of Fritz, they met the “Crusoe,” just as she began to turn about.
“That was n’t bad for a small boat,” cried Tom, “now you can have an idea of what we might do, if we really should try to accomplish anything.”
Hats and handkerchiefs were waved on both boats, as they passed, not near enough for actual speaking. On the home stretch, however, the “Crusoe” made the better time, and she rounded the Point with the lighthouse some minutes ahead of the “Balloon.”
