“You’re a man all at once; that’s all. I s’pose now we can’t have any more fun with stilts and tar-barrels. Nor fly kites, nor run races, nor--nor do anything we used to do! I hate the scheme,--I do!” Ben laughed. “Come on,” he said; “I’ll race you.” Off they went, flying along the beach until they came up, breathless, against the wooded slopes of Black Point. They climbed up the bank until they reached the ramparts. “That was fine!” Beth said, seating herself on the grassy slope. “Now, you can tell me some more about your plan. I don’t hate it any more.” Spread before them was the bay, dotted with craft. Across the channel the Marin County hills rose abruptly from the water’s edge. At Fort Point, which jutted out beyond the promontory on which they were sitting, some experiments in a new explosive were being made. They watched the flash and report and the little cloud of dust the charge made when it struck the opposite shore. Above them, on a higher embankment, a sentry paced to and fro, his bayonet glistening in the sunlight. “So, Dame Trot scolds a good deal, does she?” Ben remarked, ignoring the invitation to expatiate on the scheme. “I must stop calling her that. Her name’s Mrs. Hodges.” “Yes, she does. I don’t think she means to, though,” she added. “I think she’s been disappointed in so many things that it’s made her cross with everything. If it wasn’t for poor little Sue I couldn’t stand it.” “Sue would miss you--if you should go away.” “I know she would--terribly.” “You’ve thought of going, then?” “O, sometimes I think of it; but when Sue turns her poor little face and looks at me, I can’t bear to think any more about it.” “Doesn’t she look so at her mother, too?” “Yes; but her mother always seems to want to get her out of her sight. She wouldn’t hurt her, of course; but it seems as if she held a grudge against God and Sue for her being so deformed. Somehow, she acts as if she held both of them responsible for the child’s misery.” “Most mothers would be more tender to such a child.” “I know it,--just cuddle it up in their arms, away from all the rest of the world! But she doesn’t. I guess it’s because she’s so selfish. She wants everything of hers to be the best. Of course it isn’t, and so she’s always complaining.” “I know. And I say, Beth, do you know that ill-humor’s catching? I don’t like to hear you say that you ‘hate’ things.” “You know I don’t mean it.” “Then, don’t say it. But how are the boys? Are they good to Sue?” “O, yes; how could they help it? Even Hodges is different to her.” “How’s Syd? Somehow, I’ve got sort of turned against him lately.” “He’s just the same old Syd. You say you’ve turned against him lately; but you know, Ben Ralston, that you never liked him.” Ben laughed. “I can’t fool you, can I, Beth? I think I was trying to fool myself the most. Tell me about him.”