ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT

ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT

BY JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE

AUTHOR OF “ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN,” “LINDA LANE,” “THE TWO LITTLE FELLOWS,” ETC.

ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN M. FOSTER

PUBLISHERS BARSE & CO. NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.

Copyright, 1929 BY BARSE & CO.

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ELIZABETH ANN’S HOUSEBOAT

CHAPTER I A LETTER

“I don’t see why we have to hurry,” protested Elizabeth Ann.

She wanted to get out and see what kind of a flower was growing in the middle of the large field on the right hand side of the road. Lex had declared that for once he couldn’t stop. Usually Lex did just as Elizabeth Ann asked him to—Cousin Nellie said that both Lex and Uncle Doctor always did as Elizabeth Ann asked.

“I promised your Cousin Nellie to come right back with the mail,” explained the patient Lex for the second time. “When I make a promise, I keep it.”

“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann. “I wonder why Cousin Nellie couldn’t wait for the mail man.”

Lex said he didn’t know, but he had his suspicions.

“I don’t think the mail man knows how to hurry,” said Lex. “Maybe he gets out and picks all the flowers he sees. He’s late enough most of the time, to pick a dozen bouquets.”

Elizabeth Ann giggled.

“I don’t think he picks bouquets,” she announced, “but he does read the magazines, and his horse forgets to go. I think the mail man likes the stories in magazines.”

Lex, driving Uncle Doctor’s big car as he always drove, carefully, but fast on an open road, nodded.

“Another week and we won’t care what the mail man does,” he suggested. “Mind going back to school, Elizabeth Ann?”

It was that small girl’s turn to shake her head.

“I don’t exactly mind going to school,” she explained. “I think I’ll be glad to see my Aunt Ida, too. And I know I’ll be glad to see Doris. But there is a great deal to learn, Lex.”

Lex laughed and looked down at the little figure beside him.

“Little Miss Anxious!” he teased. “You know you don’t study all the time, Elizabeth Ann. Part of the time you play. And when you are working away at those books with the great deal to learn in them, suppose you think of me, plugging away. I’ve a great deal to learn myself.”

Elizabeth Ann smiled a little. She knew when Lex was teasing her.

“I wouldn’t mind if I was learning to be a doctor—like you,” she said. “You like to study, because you want to hurry up and be a doctor.”

The car had come in sight of the house where Elizabeth Ann, her Uncle Doctor and Cousin Nellie had been spending the summer.

“When I was your age,” said Lex, driving across the dry and burned lawn straight toward the long, low windows, “when I was your age, I suspect I was studying just about the same lessons you’ll have this winter—arithmetic, and spelling and so forth.”