Grace instinctively looked at her dress.
"Oh, you're all right!" cried Betty. Then she threw open the parlor
door. "Here they are, Uncle Amos!" she cried, gaily, and the girls
beheld a rather grizzled, elderly man, with tanned face and hands, and
wrinkled cheeks, like an apple that has kept all winter, with the
merriest blue eyes imaginable, and when he spoke there sounded the
heartiest voice that could well fit into the rather small parlor.
"Avast there!" he cried, as he saw the girls. "So these are your
consorts; eh, Bet? They do you proud! May I be keel-hauled if I've
seen a prettier set of sails on a craft in a long while. It's good
rigging-- good rigging," and he glanced particularly at the dresses.
Betty presented her friends in turn, and Mr. Martin had something odd
to say to each as he shook hands heartily.
"Uncle Amos has brought the-- surprise," said Betty. "But even yet he
won't tell me what it is."
"If I did it wouldn't be a surprise!" he protested. "But I'm all
prepared to pilot you down to where she is. She's in the offing, all
fitted for a cruise. All she needs is a captain and crew, and I think
Bet here will be the one, and you girls the other.
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