Weeks told Addie. "She has an idea she can get work
in some cannery up the coast. I told her there were some unoccupied
tents in our settlement, and I wished she and the children would
come and sleep in the tents, while she's here. But she won't come. I
was sorry they slept on the beach last night, but she says they are
used to sleeping in the wagon, and it is warm weather, you know."
The wagon did not drive on that day, though the woman and the
children kept away from the little summer settlement.
It was the custom of the people of this small settlement to go down
on the beach, after dark at evening, and have a camp-fire. Some old
stump would be lit, and the, people would, sit, on, logs or on the
sand about the fire, and talk and sing. The last thing, every night,
hymns were sung.
To-night, Addie and her, mother went down to the beach as usual.
After sitting by the fire awhile, Addie rose and wandered up the
beach, as persons sometimes did, to watch the waves. At a distance
from the camp-fire, where the darkness, covered the beach, Addie
turned to go back. She was startled by a movement in the darkness.
"Don't be afraid," said the voice of the woman who, with her
children, had spent that day in the nook farther up the beach. "The
little girls were asleep, and I came here to listen to the folks
sing. That's the reason I haven't driven on to-day, because I hoped
the folks would sing again to-night, the way they did last night.
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