Every summer we had some hobby . The last summer before Dick and Mimi came we were crazy about kites . A winter boy on the mainland showed Claude how to make them , and when we went back to the Big Half Moon we made kites galore . Even pirating was n't such good fun . Claude would go around to the other side of the Big Half Moon and we would play shipwrecked mariners signalling to each other with kites . Oh , it was very exciting . We had one kite that was a dandy . It was as big as we could make it and covered with lovely red paper ; we had pasted gold tinsel stars all over it and written our names out in full on it -- Claude Martin Leete and Philippa Brewster Leete , Big Half Moon Lighthouse . That kite had the most magnificent tail , too . It used to scare the gulls nearly to death when we sent up our kites . They did n't know what to make of them . And the Big Half Moon is such a place for gulls -- there are hundreds of them here . One day there was a grand wind for kite-flying , and Claude and I were having a splendid time . We used our smaller kites for signalling , and when we got tired of that Claude sent me to the house for the big one . I 'm sure I do n't know how it happened , but when I was coming back over the rocks I tripped and fell , and my elbow went clear through that lovely kite . You would never have believed that one small elbow could make such a big hole . Claude said it was just like a girl to fall and stick her elbow through a kite , but I do n't see why it should be any more like a girl than a boy . Do you ? We had to hurry to fix the kite if we wanted to send it up before the wind fell , so we rushed into the lighthouse to get some paper . We knew there was no more red paper , and the looks of the kite were spoiled , anyhow , so we just took the first thing that came handy -- an old letter that was lying on the bookcase in the sitting-room .
I suppose we should n't have taken it , although , XXXXX matters turned out , it was the best thing we could have done ; but Father was away to the mainland to buy things , and we never thought it could make any difference about an old yellow letter .
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