"And they are quite right," said the colonel. "I should not like you to do it, if you were my little girls. But I do not mean that I will give _you_ the money, only that I will give it away for any purpose you may choose. Your father and mother can have no objection to that. There were fifty dollars in the pocket-book. Half of that is twenty-five. Now, shall I give it all to the shipwrecked people, or shall I give part to something else?"