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Page 14
"She isn't a dream, she's a peach," was the prompt retort.
"I'm glad you like her," smiled Madge in a winning fashion that caused
the lad to smile in return. "Why are you up so early in the morning?"
"Driving home the cows," was the laconic answer.
"I don't see any cows," teased Madge. "Wait a minute. I have
something for you to do. Would you like to earn a quarter? If you
would, then come back here about nine o'clock. We are going to load
our boat with some furniture and provisions, and we would like to have
you help us."
"All right, I'll be here," promised the boy, and ran off into the
bushes with a derisive grin which Madge did not see.
A few moments later Madge went back to Eleanor to have breakfast at the
little boarding house where she and her cousin had spent the night.
Miss Jones, Lillian and Phil had not yet arrived, but they were
expected by the early train that came from Baltimore. The little
village from which they intended to go aboard their houseboat was only
about half an hour's ride from the city, and was situated on one of the
quiet inlets of the bay.
Fifteen minutes before the train was due Eleanor and Madge were
impatiently waiting at the station. The newcomers were so surrounded
by bags, suit cases and mysterious packages that it took all the men
about the depot to land them safely on the platform. Madge gave the
order to the expressman to bring all their luggage to the houseboat
landing near the willow tree. Then the party started out to find the
boat, without losing a minute by the way.
Madge slipped her arm through that of Miss Jones and walked beside her
dutifully, though she secretly longed to be with her chums. Lillian,
Phil and Eleanor joined hands and ran ahead, without being in the least
degree affected by the idea that they were no longer children. Madge,
however, was the only one who knew the way. She hurried Miss Jones
along until that young woman was almost out of breath. When they were
within a short distance of the place where she had found her boat
waiting for her in the early morning, she could bear it no longer.
With a murmured excuse she broke away from Miss Jones and started on a
run toward the willow tree. Her three chums were close behind her.
The branches of the willow tree seemed more impenetrable in the bright
sunlight. It was not so easy to see through them. Madge ran straight
past the tree, then uttered a shrill cry. She stopped short, her
cheeks turning first red, then white.
"What is it?" cried Phil, springing to her friend's side.
Madge pointed dumbly toward the water.
"Tell us!" said Eleanor, running up to Madge and lightly grasping her
arm.
"Our houseboat is gone!" gasped Madge. "It was right there, tied to
that very post along the shore early this morning! The man who brought
it down from Baltimore left a note for me describing the landing place.
He said he had to go back to Baltimore, but that he would come here
this afternoon to tow us. Now the boat has gone! O, girls, what shall
we do?"
The girls stared at the water in silence. Disappointment rendered them
speechless for the moment. "Let us look up and down the shore,"
suggested Phil comfortingly. "I suppose it is just barely possible
that the rope broke away from the stake, and the boat has floated off
somewhere."
The four girls ran up and down the bank, straining their eyes in
anxious glances out over the wide stretch of water. There was no
houseboat in sight. It had vanished as completely as though it had
really been a "Ship of Dreams."
"Perhaps you have made a mistake in the place, Madge," was the
chaperon's first remark as she joined the excited party.
Madge compressed her red lips. Miss Jones was so provoking. She was
utterly without tact. But now that she was to be one of the party it
would be wrong to say a single impolite thing to their chaperon the
whole six weeks of their holiday, no matter how provoking or tactless
she might he. Madge sighed impatiently, then turned to the teacher.
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