"Then I really was just about drowned, was I not?" questioned Harriet, her eyes growing large.

   "You were."

   Harriet Burrell pondered a moment, then lifted a pair of serious brown eyes to her companions.

   "I am glad I had the experience," she said, "but I am sorry I made so much trouble. I feel all right now, and strong enough for almost anything. When do we start for the Cove?"

   "At once. I hear the boy coming. Do you think you are really ready?"

   "I know I am. But I believe I will have another cup of coffee before we start. Did we rescue all of our equipment?"

   "Some of it has been lost, but that doesn't matter so long as we have you safe and sound, yes, there is the boy. Hoo-e-e-e!" called the guardian.

   "Ye-o-o-w!" answered the boy promptly. They saw him turn into the byway. The horse he was driving was so thin that every rib stood out plainly. The democrat wagon was all squeaks and groans, its wheels being so crooked that the girls thought they were going to come off.

   "You must help us to get our things aboard," said Miss Elting. "Will your wagon hold them all?"

   "If it doesn't break down," was the reply.

   "Well, some of us can walk."

   The boy backed his rickety wagon down near where the belongings of the Meadow-Brook Girls lay in a tumbled heap. Jane assisted him in loading the equipment, amazing the country boy by her strength and quickness.

   "You going to camp, eh?" he questioned.

   "We don't know what we are going to do," replied Jane. "We're likely to do almost any

   thing that happens to enter our minds as well as some things that don't enter our minds. Stow that package under the seat forward; yes, that way. There. Do you think of anything else, Miss Elting!"

   "Nothing except the automobile. I hardly think we shall be able to take that with us."

   "Indeed, no," answered Jane with a broad grin. "We'll let Dad do that. Who is going to ride?"

   "Let's see. Harriet, of 

 Prev. P 27/134 next