Little ! Ah , that was just the trouble . Careful and steady and prudent as Mary Margaret might be , she was only twelve years old , after all , and there would not be another soul besides her and Nellie on the Little Dipper that whole day . Mrs. Campbell felt that she hardly dared to go away under such circumstances . And yet she must dare it . Oscar Bryan had sailed over from the mainland the evening before with word that her sister Nan -- her only sister , who lived in Cartonville -- was ill and about to undergo a serious operation . She must go to see her , and Uncle Martin was waiting with his boat to take her over to the mainland to catch the morning train for Cartonville . If five-year-old Nellie had been quite well Mrs. Campbell would have taken both her and Mary Margaret and locked up the house . But Nellie had a very bad cold and was quite unfit to go sailing across the harbour on a raw , chilly November day . So there was nothing to do but leave Mary Margaret in charge , and Mary Margaret was quite pleased at the prospect . `` You know , Mother Campbell , I 'm not afraid of anything except tramps . And no tramps ever come to the Dippers . You see what an advantage it is to live on an island ! There , Uncle Martin is waving . Run along , little mother . '' Mary Margaret watched the boat out of sight from the window and then betook herself to the doing of her tasks , singing blithely all the while . It was rather nice to be left in sole charge like this -- it made you feel so important and grown-up . She would do everything very nicely and Mother would see when she came back what a good housekeeper her daughter was . Mary Margaret and Nellie and Mrs. Campbell had been living on the Little Dipper ever since the preceding April . Before that they had always lived in their own cosy home at the Harbour Head .
But in April Captain XXXXX had sailed in the Two Sisters for a long voyage and , before he went , Mrs. Campbell 's brother , Martin Clowe , had come to them with a proposition .
Bryan Campbell Dipper Dippers Harbour Martin Mother Nellie betook day