He wanted to talk to
her and was purposely clumsy in tacking; then she scolded him as if he
were a cabin boy, which amused him immensely.
"Why didn't you bring the baby with you?" he asked her teasingly.
"Where should I have put it to sleep?"
"In the long boat, of course?"
She smiled at him in a way which filled his heart with happiness.
"Well, and what did the proprietress say this morning?"
"What should she say?"
"Did she sleep well last night?"
"Why shouldn't she sleep well?"
"I don't know; she might have been kept awake by rats, or perhaps by
the rattling of a window; who can tell what might not disturb the gentle
sleep of an old maid!"
"If you don't stop talking nonsense, I shall make the sheet fast and
sail you to the bottom of the sea."
They landed at a small island and ate their luncheon which they had
brought with them in a little basket. After lunch they shot at a
target with a revolver. Then they pretended to fish with rods, but
they caught nothing and sailed out again into the open sea where the
eidergeese were, through a strait where they watched the carp playing
about the rushes. He never tired of looking at her, talking to her,
kissing her.
In this manner they met for six summers, and always they were just as
young, just as mad and just as happy as before.
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