“Oh yes, I remember now.”
“—When Fleuriss came, and—”
“Oh yes, it all comes back to me now. They were making a great effort to find her and entice her back home by telling her about her baby sister.”
“Yes.”
“Why, father,” said Toby, “Eepersip—” He suddenly saw her in his mind, kneeling in front of him, begging him not to tell—and he said no more. Nobody noticed his remark.
A moment Mrs. Carrenda gazed at her husband astounded. Then she said: “I believe it is so. Let us send word to them right off.”
“No,” said Mr. Carrenda, bluntly. “Supposing they came all the way down here. Supposing the plan failed. Mrs. Eigleen would only be unhappier than ever. We’ll just have to let them alone for a while. Supposing we try it. Supposing it fails. Mrs. Eigleen will never know. Supposing it succeeds. They will be much happier, and we shall have made some staunch and grateful friends.”
“Oh, let’s try it!” agreed Mrs. Carrenda.
“I bet Eepersip—Ee-serpip, Eeserpip, Eepersip, Eeserpip, Eepersip—funny name!—I bet she’ll go home fast when she finds out.”
“Perhaps—but she is like a sea-nymph now. How strange it is! Well, it’s worth trying, at any rate.”
Eepersip had listened with growing amazement—fascinated, entranced. But when they paused in their conversation, the charm was broken that had held her there. She sped away into the woods. She came to a place that she knew well, a glade surrounded by ferns and a few wild-rose-bushes now in bloom.
She had a little sister!—it was too much. And that little sister haunted her dreams and her imagination, making everything seem less joyful than before. She felt a strange longing—the longing to see her. She might be several years old now. Eepersip had forgotten what a “year” meant, but she had a vague feeling that Fleuriss had been living some time already. Why had no one told her? She felt a sort of angry resentment, but it cooled immediately when she remembered that her parents had been trying desperately to tell her. Yes, a plan was certainly shaping itself in Eepersip’s mind—but not the plan of letting herself be caught, tamed, and carried home. No indeed. She dreamed of some day going home by stealth, seeing Fleuriss, and playing with her as she now played with Toby. She wondered silently if she would be anything like the fair-haired little boy. She wondered whether Fleuriss, too, would play with her secretly. If Fleuriss were like Toby, how wonderful it would be!
But the problem of getting back home to see her did not appear so serious to her now while she had Toby to play with.
She continued her beloved explorations, discovering islands, beaches, peninsulas, and rocks out of sight of land, which she charted down in her mind, so that she could almost always find them.
One day Toby came to her and told her that they were going off on a tramp, rowing over across the bay to the woods near a little cottage that Mr. Carrenda knew about. They had always been interested in the cottage; they wanted to see who was living there. And they had heard about some beautiful hills behind it, which Mr. Carrenda wanted very much to see. And if it was pleasant they were going to start the next day. Eepersip was curious. She wondered if it could possibly be her cottage and her hills—the cottage she had discovered, and the hills that she had climbed about in. She decided to follow and see where it was that the Carrendas were going.
When the boat started she let it get some way off, then she plunged into the sea and followed it. The waves came up behind, and she gained fast, but when she got dangerously near she stopped for a while, waiting for the boat to get farther off. They landed just where she thought they might—by the little cottage.
Near it they set up their tent, and soon they were exploring the peninsula. They climbed the beautiful hill which Eepersip had climbed. Once they saw her as she darted behind a tree, and wondered how she had got there so quickly. And they fell to talking about her again. She heard them talking over their plan of capturing her, telling her about Fleuriss, and, when she had been smoothed down a bit, letting her go back to the Eigleens to make them happy. If only they could have foreseen!
They tried only once, and never had the chance again. It was a golden day in October. Eepersip was sitting on a rock repairing some tears in her seaweed dress. The waves were high, and every once in a while a little spray would splash up on to the rock where she was sitting. Mr. Carrenda discovered her sitting there, and, tiptoeing forward he caught her by the shoulders. She gnashed her little white teeth at him and struggled to get away, but he held her fast, and was about to pick her up in his arms. She shouted: “O waves, help me!” And, magically, a great wave rushed up, whirled itself into the air, and broke in Mr. Carrenda’s face. He dropped her, and with a lightning manoeuvre she dived down from the rock into the sea, and was far out before he recovered from the surprise. After this she remained far from the cottage and made her home on a deserted island. This island was a lovely place. It had a beach of fine sand on one side and was entirely surrounded with rocks on the other sides—rocks and, in places, even high cliffs. There was a grove of yellow pines there, where Eepersip danced when she wished to turn nymph again. There was a spring of fresh water on a small hill behind the grove. The hill was still covered with blueberries and raspberries; also there was a multitude of the plants with the sweet white roots that Eepersip was so fond of. There were asters,
