Free The Strange Proposal by Grace Livingston Hill Page B

traffic and onto a lovely country road. “I should think he would be good company in the woods. Tell me about it.”
    The boy’s eyes grew dreamy, too, and he stared off into a maple grove and saw live oak trees and palms instead. His thoughts were back in Florida with his idol.
    “I don’t know as it’ll tell,” he murmured. “You’d have to be there.”
    “I’ll try,” said Mary Elizabeth. “How does it look, the morning we start, or do we start at all? Do we just be there?”
    Sam grinned.
    “We start!” he said, entering into the game that his cousin was making. “We get up very early, before it’s light.”
    “I see,” said the girl, her eyes half closed. “It gets light all of a sudden in Florida, just as it gets dark all of a sudden at night. I know. I’ve been there. I only wish I could have been along with you. We wear old clothes, don’t we, and don’t take along a trunk, or even a suitcase?”
    The boy chuckled again.
    “That’s right. Just a pack. And we meet on the beach when the sky and the sea are all together and look like Mother’s big opal.”
    “But that’s very pretty,” said Mary Elizabeth looking at him appreciatively. “Did anybody else notice it?”
    “Aw, no, I don’t even know as I did, but it was there if you wanted ta notice it. Mr. Saxon looked off at it a good deal. But he didn’t say anything much. He doesn’t. He only talks when it’s necessary, except sometimes.”
    “What times?”
    “Well, at night when we’re sitting round the fire.”
    Mary Elizabeth thought that over while they were passing a series of trucks carrying a lot of new automobiles fresh from the factory.
    “Well,” she said, “what comes next? We don’t just walk by the sea all the time.”
    Sam grinned.
    “Next we have lunch. We boys rustle a fire. We were divided into squads, you know, and each man had his duty. Jeff cut the bread and handed out butter. Mr. Saxon did most of the cooking at first, but afterward we boys learned how.”
    Mary Elizabeth took in the picture.
    “I certainly would have liked to be there. So Jeff was along, too. That must have been grand.”
    “He was, all right,” boasted the proud brother. “He took care of the little kids. You know, Mother had him go along because she didn’t know Mr. Saxon, and I don’t think Mr. Saxon liked it much at first, but afterward they got to be buddies. And Jeff was fine, especially when the kids got scared of the snakes and things. There was one little kid hadn’t any father and mother, or at least they didn’t have any home together, and he was scared of snakes something awful. He just froze on to Jeff for a while till he got more brave.”
    “Snakes?” said Mary Elizabeth. “I don’t know that I should care for them myself. You weren’t afraid of them, of course?”
    “Naw, I don’t mind snakes. There’s nothing in snakes! Mr. Saxon told us a lot about their habits and things. He knows a lot about them. He isn’t afraid of them. When he was a boy he used to have them for pets sometimes. His mother let him. He’s got a swell mother! Mine would never stand for that! And once on the way we found a big red moccasin as big around as his arm and more than two yards long, and Mr. Saxon just picked him up by the tail quick and swung him around his head several times and flung him off, just like that!” Sam demonstrated the manner vividly with his arms. “And Mister Snake, he just lay still for a second, and then he wabbled off all crooked, as if he was drunk. Mr. Saxon said it made him dizzy.”
    Mary Elizabeth considered this phase of her new friend several minutes. At last she said, “He’s not afraid of anything, is he?”
    “I’ll say he isn’t!” said Sam.
    “And what was it like when you got there?” she asked. “You finally got somewhere, didn’t you?”
    “Sure thing!” said the boy, his eyes gleaming at the memory. “And were we tired! And hungry! We could have eaten nails. Sure, we got