108 Make-Beleve

the Visitor. ‘They sit here every even-
ing, and they will be terribly disturbed in
their minds. We had better go.”

~“ Do you see that star out there?” said
Doris, changing the subject suddenly. “I
thought of a story about it the other day.”

As the child had shrewdly calculated,
her companion immediately arose out of
the stooping posture in which he had been
bending over the boat’s painter. ‘‘ One of
your own?” he asked.

‘A sort of thought that came to me!”
she answered. “I will tell it you if you
don’t mind vexing the cormorants.”

“Well, then, the cormorants must put
up with a little vexation for once,” said the
Visitor. ‘Put on this big coat of mine,
and I will sit and listen.”

He stepped into the boat and fetched an
overcoat in which Doris obediently wrapped
herself. With her permission he filled a
pipe and the two sat down together, just a
yard or two above the gentle rise and fall
q

of the water, ?

4