With fall, came the question of Mermaid and school. After a severe mental struggle Cap’n Smiley decided that this could go over for a year. He could teach the child her letters; as a matter of fact, she already knew most of them from the weekly practice at wigwagging with the red and white flags. The keeper knew of no one on “the mainland” to whom he felt willing to entrust the child; he was inclined to consider his sister out of the question; in another year some satisfactory arrangement might present itself. Besides, both he and the men, but he himself particularly, would be loath to part with Mermaid. She was a big thing in their lives, and in Cap’n Smiley’s the biggest. Mrs. Biggles had said lately that she and her Henry were getting along; they contemplated giving up life on the beach except for a short while in summer. They would take a house in Blue Port and live there ten months out of the twelve. Should they do this Mermaid would have a good home while she was getting her schooling; Cap’n Smiley and the crew would miss her sorely, but their minds would be easy, and every one of them on his twenty-four hours’ leave could look in on her and see how she was.... When the time should be ripe to carry this general scheme into execution it was Cap’n Smiley’s intention legally to adopt Mermaid, although, as he said to himself, Mermaid Smiley would _not_ do as a name. It had altogether too strong a flavour of the portraits on certain pages of the Sunday newspapers. He would adopt her as Mary Smiley ... though in all likelihood she would always be called Mermaid. The name well befitted her, dancing about down there on the beach and slipping in and out of the water in the bathing suit Mrs. Biggles had made for her from some old dress of pale green with silver edgings. Musing over the name Cap’n Smiley burst into such laughter that Ha Ha the Gloomy, peeling potatoes in the kitchen, gave a start and cut his finger. “I was just thinking of Henry Biggles’s father,” the keeper explained. “’Member him? Lived here on the beach. Eighteen children. Old Jacob Biggles hadn’t much education; in fact, he couldn’t read and write. Named most of the children after vessels that came ashore on the beach. One was Monarch Biggles--you’ve heard of Mon Biggles?--and another was Siamese Prince Biggles--that’s Si Biggles. Then along came a lot of boys and a lot of wrecks named the _Queen_, the _Merry Maid_, and other unsuitable things. Poor Jacob was in despair. Some of the boys had to wait eight years to get a handle.” “He could have got names out of the Bible,” Ha Ha pointed out. “He could get ’em but he couldn’t pronounce ’em.” VII In September Mermaid and Cap’n Smiley and Ho Ha went beach-plumming. As they wandered over the dunes picking the blue-red-purple berries there was much conversation, sometimes conducted in shouts, when the three were spread a little apart.