world of good.

The train was made up and they got aboard. Just below Cheslow was the
Y where this train branched off the main line, and took its way by a
single-track, winding branch, through the hills to the shore of Lake
Osago. But the young folks did not have to trouble about their baggage
after leaving Cheslow, for that was checked through--Tom's grip and box
to Seven Oaks, and the girls' over another road, after crossing Lake
Osago, to Lumberton, on Triton Lake.

Lake Osago was a beautiful body of water, some thirty miles long, and
wide in proportion; island-dotted and bordered by a rolling country.
There were several large towns upon its shores, and, in one place, a
great summer camp of an educational society. Steamboats plied the
lake, and up and down the rivers which either emptied into the Osago,
or flowed out of it, as far as the dams.

The trio of school-bound young folk left the train very demurely and
walked down the long wharf to the puffy little steamboat that was to
take them the length of the lake to Portageton. Tom had been adjured
by his father to take good care of his sister and Ruth, and he felt the
burden of this responsibility. Helen declared, in a whisper to Ruth,
that she had never known her twin brother to be so overpoweringly
polite and thoughtful.

Nevertheless, the fact that they were for the very first time traveling
alone (at least, the Camerons had never traveled alone before) did not
spoil their enjoyment of the journey. The trip down the lake on the
little side-wheel steamer was very interesting to all three. First the
Camerons and Ruth Fielding went about to see if they could find any
other girl or boy who appeared to be bound to school like themselves.
But Tom said he was alone in that intention among the few boys aboard;
and there were no girls upon the _Lanawaxa_, as the little steamboat
was named, save Ruth and Helen.

Tom did not neglect the comfort of the girls, but he really could not
keep away from the engine-room of the _Lanawaxa_. Tom was mightily
interested in all things mechanical, and in engines especially. So the
girls were left to themselves for a while upon the upper deck of the
steamboat. They were very comfortable under the awning, and had books,
and their luncheon, and a box of candy that Tom had bought and given to
Ruth, and altogether they enjoyed the trip quite as much as anybody.

The breeze was quite fresh and there were not many passengers on