Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/40

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22
SILVER SHOAL LIGHT

with Caller Lilly painted boldly across her stern."

"Caller Herring would be more appropriate," said Mrs. Pemberley. "Do have another biscuit, Miss Kirkland."

"By the way, Elspeth," said Jim, "we saw a launch named Psyche the other day, and first Garth called it the Fizzy, and then the Pish, and then the Seech, and finally gave it up altogether. It did look rather queer; it was divided by the stern-post, like this: Psy—Che." He sketched it in the air with his finger. "But my own boat is the Ailouros, and at least that's better than some of 'em."

"Why—" said Joan. "Ailouros; that's Greek. Doesn't it mean 'a cat'?"

"Well," said Pemberley, with a twinkle, "it's a cat-boat, you see. And we call the skiff Cymba, because it's just a 'little boat.'"

Joan, leaning back in the settle after supper, announced that she was perfectly happy.

"And you've been so good to me, coming to my rescue like this," she said.

Pemberley, who stood looking into the night, closed the outer door and returned to the fire.

"The Rules and Regulations say, in part," he observed, "that it shall be the duty of light-