[Pg 8]

[Pg 8]

"Why, she won't care. She gave me the money and told me to go get it and amuse myself. It's awfully dull up at the hotel. It's so early in the season that there's almost nobody else there,—only two old ladies and a few men that come down at night,—besides Mother and myself. I hate going to the country so early, before things start, only Mother has been sick and needed the change right away. So here we are—and I'm as dull as dishwater and so lonesome! What's your name?"

The other girl had been drinking in all this information with such greedy interest that she scarcely heard or heeded the question which ended it. Without further questioning she realized that this new acquaintance was a guest at "The Bluffs," the one exclusive and fashionable hotel on the river. She at once became guiltily conscious of her own bare brown toes, still wriggling in the warm sand. She blamed herself fiercely for not taking the trouble to put on her shoes and stockings that afternoon. Up till this moment it had scarcely seemed worth while.

[Pg 9]

[Pg 9]

"Tell me, what's your name?" the girl in white and pink reiterated.

"Sarah," she answered, "but most every one calls me Sally. What's yours?"

"Doris Craig," was the reply and the girl of the bare toes unconsciously noted that "Doris" was an entirely fitting name for so dainty a creature. And somehow she dreaded to answer the question as to her own.

"My name's horrid," she added, "and I always did hate it. But baby's is pretty,—Genevieve. Mother named her that, 'cause Father had insisted that mine must be 'Sarah,' after his mother. She said she was going to have one pretty name in the family, anyway. Genevieve, take your thumb out of your mouth!"

"Why do you tell her to do that?" demanded Doris, curiously.

"'Cause Mother says it'll make her mouth a bad shape if she keeps it up, and she told me it was up to me to stop it. You see I have Genevieve with me most of the time. Mother's so busy." But by this time, Doris's roving[Pg 10] eye had caught the sign forbidding children to play in the boats.

[Pg 10]

"Do you see that?" she asked. "Aren't you afraid to be sitting around in that boat?"

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