He kept our clothes all mended , and everything about the lighthouse was neat as wax . Of course I helped him lots . I like pottering round . He used to hear our lessons and tell us splendid stories and saw that we always said our prayers . Claude and I would n't have done anything to make him feel bad for the world . Father is just lovely . To be sure , he did n't seem to have any relations except us . This used to puzzle Claude and me . Everybody on the mainland had relations ; why had n't we ? Was it because we lived on an island ? We thought it would be so jolly to have an uncle and aunt and some cousins . Once we asked Father about it , but he looked so sorrowful all of a sudden that we wished we had n't . He said it was all his fault . I did n't see how that could be , but I never said anything more about it to Father . Still , I did wish we had some relations . It is always lovely out here on the Big Half Moon in summer . When it is fine the harbour is blue and calm , with little winds and ripples purring over it , and the mainland shores look like long blue lands where fairies dwell . Away out over the bar , where the big ships go , it is always hazy and pearl-tinted , like the inside of the mussel shells . Claude says he is going to sail out there when he grows up . I would like to too , but Claude says I ca n't because I 'm a girl .
It is dreadfully inconvenient XXXXX be a girl at times .
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