Free Perdita by Hilary Scharper

I am always so glad to see him, though I wonder if the birds are quite so sanguine about his return, especially as the nets appear. But he does them no harm and is very conscientious about checking the nets. He has brought a young man with him, Mr. Thompson, who is to help him. I am relieved I will not have to do all the assisting this summer, as I found it quite taxing last year—though Allan and I always profit from Dr. McTavish’s commentary on the birds. He says he will finish his book this year, but I have heard that for three summers atleast.
    Allan is quite awful—he can do such an imitation of Dr. McTavish and will pull at a beard just in his manner and drop all his h’s and roll his r’s and wave an imaginary grrreebe about in his hand. I shouldn’t laugh, but I cannot help it; it is so like Dr. McTavish, and Allan looks at me with such triumph when he gets me to laugh in spite of myself. In a way I am responsible, since I was the one to imitate Dr. McT. first one afternoon last summer—indeed, what was I thinking, knowing how impressionable Allan is and his penchant for mischief? Now it is a kind of secret joke between us. Allan still teases me about it. He says I am a bad influence and that I have not set the proper tone of behavior appropriate to the teaching and guidance of a young boy’s mind, and that I encourage all his bad ways, and that as a result he is not responsible for his actions. And then I am laughing again. Honestly, he is becoming quite ahandful.
    Mr. Thompson is a most peculiar-looking person. He is quite bald (Allan says that he shaves his head; he has seen him do it) and is very tall and very thin. He is an ornithologist and is extremely polite and a little taciturn. He seems to seek out George’s company. I saw him standing near George’s easel, and George was explaining something about his painting to him. I think he is doing a picture of the two buoys that mark the entrance to the Basin. Allan says he is calling it Good and Evil, and I am curious to see it, though I dare notask.
    May 30
    We have had a most tumultuous week. Mr. Thompson was lost on the escarpment for three days and two nights, and the men had to search and search for him. It turned out he was only a mile or so away, but the forest is so thick that I can easily understand how he might get lost. He is covered in terrible bites from being in the bush, and Dr. McTavish is furious with him. I am sorry for him. I took him one of Auntie Alis’s ointments and told him about the time that Dr. McTavish was lost for a week and how we had given him up for dead. He seemed a little comforted. But oh, his poor bald head with all thosebites!
    And then the government inspectors came! We had to feed them for three whole days, and all at Tad’s expense. I do not see why they had to stay with us and did not remain aboard their ship. I have had to sleep in Mother’s room, and she has been terribly agitated by all the commotion. And they looked at everything—everything! Tad had to wind and unwind the cranks, and Uncle Gilbert stood to attention like a soldier while they checked the stores, and then in their sly way implied that he had secretly been selling the supplies. I was so afraid that Uncle G. would strike the man—and he would have deserved it! And then one of them pored over the log for ever so long that I thought he must have found something amiss. They were not at all like the previous inspectors—those men were quite jolly and not the least interested in thelighthouse.
    But I think we are finally returning tocalm.
    We have been invited to tea tomorrow with Mrs. Stewart, and Auntie Alis and I will go. She has almost completed my dress, and I have promised to do all the housework if she will only finish it. I think it suits me. Auntie A. says it sets off my hair and eyes, and she has made it so cleverly, just like the picture I gave her. She did not even object to