In the mean time Mrs. Dinsmore, who from choice took most of the housekeeping cares, was ordering an early dinner and various baskets of provisions for the picnic.

As the family sat down to the table, these last were being conveyed on board a yacht lying at the little pier near the bathing-place below the cliffs; and almost immediately upon finishing their meal, all, old and young, trooped down the stairways, across the sandy beach, and were themselves soon aboard the vessel.

Others of the company were already seated in it, and the rest following a few minutes later, and the last basket of provisions being safely stowed away in some safe corner of the craft, they set sail, dragging at their stern a dory in which was a large quantity of clams in the shell.

It was a bright day, and a favorable breeze sent the yacht skimming over the water at an exhilarating rate of speed.  All hearts seemed light, every face was bright, not excepting Lulu’s, though she was attired in the plain colored dress recommended by Grandma Elsie.

There was no greater display of finery than a knot of bright ribbon, on the part of even the gayest young girl present.  Betty wore a black bunting—­one of her school dresses—­with a cardinal ribbon at the throat; Zoe the brown woollen that had for her such mingled associations of pain and pleasure, and looked wonderfully sweet and pretty in it, Edward thought.

They sat side by side, and Betty, watching them furtively, said to herself, “They are for all the world just like a pair of lovers yet, though they have been married over a year.”

Then turning her attention first to Violet and Captain Raymond, then upon her Aunt and Uncle Dinsmore, she came to the same conclusion in regard to them also.

“And it was just so with cousin Elsie and her husband,” she mused.  “I can remember how devoted they were to each other.  But she seems very happy now, and she well may be, with father, sons and daughters all so devoted to her.  And she’s so rich too; never has to consider how to make one dollar do the work of two; a problem I am so often called upon to solve.  In fact, it is to her and uncle, Bob and I owe our education, and pretty much everything we have.

“I don’t envy her her money, but I do the love that has surrounded her all her life.  She never knew her own mother, to be sure, but her father petted and fondled her as a child, and was father and mother both to her, I’ve often heard her say; while mine died before I was born, and mother lost her reason when I was a little thing.”

But Betty was not much given to melancholy musing, or indeed to musing of any kind; a passing sail presently attracted her attention and turned her thoughts into a new channel.

And soon, the wind and tide being favorable, the yacht drew near her destination.

There was no wharf, but the passengers were taken to the shore, a few at a time, in the dory.  It also landed provision baskets and the clams.