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Page 12
The girl was smiling a wistful, far-away smile that was very touching.
Her hair was the color of copper that has been burnished by the sun,
and her eyes were the deep blue of the midsummer sky. The wind and sun
had tanned the girl's cheeks, but her skin was still fine and delicate.
There was a strange, vacant expression in her eyes and a pathetic droop
to her whole figure.
"Git you back in there, Moll," the owner of the shanty boat called out
roughly. The girl started and quivered, as though she expected a blow.
Jack's face turned hot with anger. But what could he do? The man was
talking to his own daughter.
"Why did you speak to the poor girl like that?" asked Madge sharply.
"She ain't all right in the top story," the man answered. "She is kind
of foolish. I have to keep a close watch on her."
Madge turned pitying eyes on the demented girl, then as they stepped
aboard the other canal boat, for the time she forgot the lovely
apparition she had just seen.
"How much will the owner rent this boat for?" Madge asked at last,
trying hard to conceal her enthusiasm. The boat was dirty and needed
renovating, but it was well built of good, strong timbers.
"My friend is willing to sell this here boat for a hundred dollars,"
said the fisherman, Mike Muldoon, hesitating as he mentioned the sum.
It was all Madge could do to keep from clapping her hands for joy. One
hundred dollars for the boat--that left another hundred for painting
and remodeling and for other necessary expenses.
Just as Madge was about to close with the man's offer a look from Jack
Bolling interrupted her.
"The boat is not worth a hundred dollars," he declared decisively.
"The young lady will give you fifty dollars for it, and not a cent
more."
The man laughed contemptuously. "I can't do it," he said. "That boat
is cheap at a hundred dollars."
"At fifty, you mean," retorted Jack stubbornly.
The girls stood back quietly and allowed Jack to drive the bargain,
which he did with so much spirit that the coveted boat was at last made
over to him at his price, fifty dollars.
For the rest of the day the four girls spent their time interviewing
carpenters and painters. At last they found a man who promised to
deliver the boat, rebuilt according to Madge's idea, at a little town
several miles farther down the bay. The man owned a motor boat. He
was to take the houseboat to a landing, where the girls could load it
with the necessary supplies, and then to tow them farther down the bay,
until they found the ideal place for their summer holiday.
"I declare, Madge, dear, I was never so tired, nor so happy in my
life," declared Eleanor Butler late that afternoon, as the quartette
were on their way back to their school at Harborpoint. "I can see our
houseboat, now, as plainly as anything. At first, Lillian and I
couldn't quite believe in your idea."
Madge had heard Eleanor's comments but vaguely. She was doing a sum in
mental arithmetic. "Fifty dollars for the old shanty boat,
seventy-five for remodeling it, fifteen to the man for towing." Here
she became confused. But she still knew there was quite a large sum of
money left for buying the little furniture they needed and their store
of provisions.
Phyllis Alden, too, had been busy calculating. "I think we can do it,
Madge," she said, leaning over from the back seat to speak to her
friend.
"Of course we can. We shall have whole lots of money," announced Madge
triumphantly.
Phil shook her head. "I am afraid we won't. There is one thing we
must buy that will be expensive."
Lillian straightened up. She had been leaning against the back of the
seat, utterly worn out. The three girls gazed at Phil in
consternation. What was this new item of expense that threatened to
eat up their little capital?
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