“Form in line!” he ordered; “forward,—­march!”

He led the line, and the two children followed.

Being a good cornet player, Cousin Jack made fine martial music, and King and Midget had sufficient sense of rhythm to accompany him on the drum and tambourine.  After marching round the house once, Cousin Jack went up the steps and in at the front door.  Upstairs and through the halls, and down again.

Nurse Nannie and Rosamond appeared at the nursery door, and were instructed to fall in line behind the others.  Then Sarah, the waitress, was discovered, looking on from the dining-room, and she, too, was told to march.

At last Mr. and Mrs. Maynard appeared, laughing at this invasion of their morning nap.

They sat in state in the veranda-chairs, as on a reviewing-stand, while the grand parade marched and countermarched on the lawn in front of them.

“All over!” cried Cousin Jack, at last.  “Break ranks!”

The company dispersed, and Sarah returned, giggling, to her duties.

“Such a foine man as Misther Bryant do be!” she said to the cook.  “Shure, he’s just like wan of the childher.”

And so he was.  Full of patriotic enthusiasm, Cousin Jack set off bombs and firecrackers, until the elder Maynards declared that their ears ached, and the roisterers must come in to breakfast.

“I must go home,” announced their guest.  “I have a wife and six small children dependent on me for support.”

As a matter of fact, the Bryants had no children, and Mrs. Maynard declared she should telephone for Cousin Ethel to come to breakfast, too, so Cousin Jack consented to stay.

The breakfast party was an unexpected addition to the day’s festivities, but Mrs. Maynard was equal to the occasion.  She scurried around and found flags to decorate the table, and tied a red, white, and blue balloon to the back of each chair, which gave the room a gay appearance.

The vigorous exercise had produced good appetites, and full justice was done to Ellen’s creamed chicken and hot rolls and coffee.

“Who’s for a dip in the ocean?” asked Cousin Jack, when breakfast was over.

All were included in this pleasing suggestion, and soon a bathing-suited party threw themselves into the dashing whitecaps.

Cousin Jack tried to teach Marjorie to swim, but it is not easy to learn to swim in the surf, and she made no very great progress.  But Mr. Maynard and Mr. Bryant swam out to a good distance, and King was allowed to accompany them, as he already was a fair swimmer.

Marjorie held fast to the rope, and jumped about, now almost carried away by a big wave, and now thrown back toward the beach by another.

It was rather rough bathing, so the ladies of the party and Midget left the water before the others.

“Aren’t we having fun!” exclaimed Marjorie, as she trudged, dripping, through the sand, to the bath-house.  “Oh, Cousin Ethel, I’m so glad you came down here.”