AFTER Kenneth recovered from the scarlet¹ fever and Rose came back to the city, the Thornton family went away for the summer to their island down in Maine, which the children loved better than any other place in the whole world.

 

It was a very wonderful island, and though Kenneth and Rose had gone down there as many years as they could remember, they were continually finding something new which they had never seen before. They liked to play that it was a desert island and that they were Robinson Crusoes who were exploring to see what they might find. And they were always hoping to come upon a mysterious footprint, or something like that.

 

One particular day they were scrambling² about on the rocks, a long way from the foot[87] of the cliff on which perched their summer home. They had never before happened to climb down to this particular spot, because it was such a steep scramble³. From the top of the cliff it did not look interesting at all. I dare say nobody had ever before been on that part of the island, except perhaps the Prout children, who lived not far away all the year round. It was a bad landing-place; no boat could ever come in from the sea on account of the big waves that dashed up on the sharp rocks. And nobody would ever have thought of scrambling down the cliff and over those rough boulders⁴ unless, like Columbus, he was an adventurous⁵ explorer looking to see what he might find. But you see, that is just what Kenneth and Rose were. They were explorers, and they had their eyes wide open to see what there might be in this new place.

 

They hopped⁶ over the little rocks and climbed over the big ones; they crawled over some and slid down others which were very slippery. For the tide had gone out, and here[88] and there the rocks held little pools which the sun had not dried.

 

There were shells and seaweed and starfish in these pools, but the children did not stop to gather them, for they had seen others just like them often before. They

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