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 to be a girl at times . When it storms it is grand to see the great waves come crashing up against the Big Half Moon as if they meant to swallow it right down . You ca n't see the Little Half Moon at all then ; it is hidden by the mist and spume . We had our pirate cave away up among the rocks , where we kept an old pistol with the lock broken , a rusty cutlass , a pair of knee boots , and Claude 's jute beard and wig .
Down on the shore , around one XXXXX the horns of the Half Moon , was the Mermaid 's Pool , where we sailed our toy boats and watched for sea kelpies .
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