George exploded. “Anne! How can you talk like that! We’ve had some smashing adventures, and we’ve enjoyed every one of them. If you feel like that we’ll leave you out of the next one.”

Anne laughed. “You won’t! An adventure comes up all of a sudden, like a wind blowing up in the sky, and we’re all in it, whether we like it or not. And you know that I like sharing things with you. I say — isn’t it time we got up?”

“Yes,” said George, looking at the clock on the mantelpiece. “Unless Berta wants to have her breakfast in bed? I bet she always does at home.”

“No, I don’t. I hate meals in bed,” said Berta. “I’m going to get up.”

She leapt out of bed and went to the window. Immediately she saw the wide sweep of the bay, sparkling in the morning sun, as blue as cornflowers. The sea-sparkle was reflected into the bedroom, and made it very bright indeed.

“Oh! I wondered why our room was so full of brilliant light,” said Berta. “Now I know! What a view! Oh, how lovely the sea looks this morning! And what’s that little island out there? What a lovely place it looks.”

“That’s Kirrin Island,” said George, proudly. “It belongs to me.”

Berta laughed, thinking that George was joking. “Belongs to you! I bet you wish it did. It’s really wunnerful!”

“Wunnerful!” said George, imitating her. “Can’t you say ‘wonderful?’ It’s got a D in the middle, you know.”

“Yes. I’m always being told things like that,” said Berta, still staring out of the window. “I had an English governess and she tried to make me speak like you do. I do try, because I’ve got to go to an English school. My, my — I wish that island belonged to me. I wonder if my Pops could buy it.”

George exploded again. “Buy it! You donkey, I told you it was mine, didn’t I?”

Berta turned round in surprise. “But — you didn’t mean it, did you?” she said. “Yours? But how could it be?”

“It is George’s,” said Anne. “It has always belonged to the Kirrin family. That’s Kirrin Island. George’s father gave it to her, after an adventure we once had.”

Berta stared at George in awe. “Great snakes! So it is yours! Aren’t you the lucky one! Will you take me to visit it?”

“I’ll see,” said George, gruffly, glad to have impressed this American girl so much. Getting her “Pops” to buy the island indeed! George snorted to herself. What next!

A shout came from the next room. It was Julian. “Hey, you girls! Are you getting up? We’re all too late for a bathe before breakfast this morning. Dick and I have only just woken up.”

“Berta’s here!” shouted back Anne. “We’ll get dressed, all of us, and then we’ll introduce Berta to you.”

“Are they your brothers?” asked Berta, pulling on her vest. “I haven’t got any. Or sisters either. I shall be pretty scared of them.”