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"It doesn't seem possible; but then things are so queer up here that you can believe almost anything." "Really it is a lake. It's all right in the winter, and swells tremendously then; but this is a dry year, you know, and it's all dried up." Kyzie forgave the lake for drying up, but pitied the fishes. Edith thought Castle Cliff was "a funny place anyway." "What little bits of houses!
Lucy stooped all of a sudden and picked up a dead fish. "Ugh! I never caught a fish before!" But next moment she threw it away in disgust. "How did dead fishes ever get into this mud-puddle?" queried Edith. "Well, they used to live in it before it dried up," replied Nate. "Fact is, this is a lake!" Everybody exclaimed in surprise; and Kyzie said:
"But she has an older brother; and sometimes older brothers are kind enough to help their little sisters," remarked Kyzie, with a meaning smile toward Jimmy; but Jimmy was looking another way. "Uncle James told a funny story about that air-castle," went on Kyzie. "Did you hear him tell of sitting up there one day and seeing a little toad help another toad a lame one up the trunk of the tree?"
Only four hours anyway, two in the forenoon and two in the afternoon. Time enough left for play." "H'm, if that's all, let's go," cried Jimmy. "We can leave off any time we get tired of it." Kyzie heard this as she was crossing the hall. "Why, boys," she said, "you don't live in Castle Cliff! It's the Castle Cliff children I'm going to teach the little ones, you know."
"Well, Miss Dunlee," Kyzie liked extremely to be called Miss Dunlee, "well, Miss Dunlee, you see, the boys keep a-plaguing me. And when they plague me I have to cry." "Oh, fie, don't you do it! If I were a little black-eyed boy about your age I'd laugh, and I'd say to those boys: 'You needn't try to plague me; you just can't do it. The more you try, the more I'll laugh."
O laissez les tranquille! Ils se retournerons, Chacun sa queue apres lui." Mrs. Dunlee and Kyzie were just behind the children, and while Bab was repeating the verse Kyzie said in a low tone: "Oh, mamma, let me walk with you all the way, please. There's something I want to talk about." She looked so earnest that Mrs. Dunlee wondered not a little what it was her eldest daughter had to say.
Uncle James would wear a gray wig and "small clothes" and personate "Grandsir Whalen"; Kyzie Dunlee, Grandsir's old wife, in white cap, "short gown," and petticoat, was to be "Granny Whalen" of course. A grandson and granddaughter were needed for this aged couple. Edith would make a lovely granddaughter and pretend to spin flax. Who would play the grandson and shell the corn?
"Good evening, Grandmother Graymouse," said Uncle James, as they were all seated on the veranda after dinner, "do I understand that you are hunting for a watch?" "I'm hunting for it, oh, yes," replied Kyzie, trying not to look too triumphant; "but I haven't found it yet. Just wait till to-morrow, Uncle James." "I don't believe we'll wait another minute!" declared Mr.
So they all said they would try to give him up, and he bounded away with Aunt Vi, his dear little face beaming with proud satisfaction. The other children strolled leisurely along toward a place that looked like a long strip of sand. "A sand beach," said Kyzie. "No," said Nate; "it isn't a beach and it isn't sand." "What can you mean? What else is it, pray?"
As the tallyho rattled along, the older people in it fell to talking; and the children looked at the country they were passing, sang snatches of songs, and gave little exclamations of delight. Edith threw one arm around her older sister Katharine, saying: "O Kyzie, aren't you glad you live in California? How sweet the air is, and how high the mountains look all around!
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