"Eden!" called Renny. "We're going in swimming. Better come."
They stared up at him as he scrambled to his feet and began to descend the steep path down the side of the bluff. He still limped from the effects of his fall.
"Won't it be pretty cold?" he asked.
"We might have Meggie boil a kettle of water to warm a spot for you," said Piers.
"Where's Finch?" asked Renny. "Finch will want to come."
Wakefield answered: "He's in the little cove already, lying on the sand."
The four made toward the cove.
"Don't let Uncle Ernest come," said Eden. "He's sure to hurt me."
"Uncle Ernest!" shouted Renny. "Eden says you're not to come. You're too rough."
"Eden, Eden," cried Ernest, but with a certain pride, "I wish you would let me forget that."
Grandmother's voice came from the phaeton, sharp with the anguish of hunger; "When are we going to have tea? I told Piers to fetch me tea!"
"I am bringing you a molasses scone to stay you, Mamma," said Augusta. She was carefully making her way across the shingle, the buttered scone in her hand.
When the four brothers reached the little willow-fringed cove, they found Finch lying face downward, his head propped on his arms. "Still sulking?" asked Piers. "Did you know, Renny, that the poor youth is obsessed by the idea that we make more of Wake's birthday than his? Isn't it heart-rending, Wake?"
Wakefield, smiling and self-conscious, stared down at Finch's prostrate form.
"If I get this leg chilled," observed Eden, "I might have rheumatism."
