parties until the family can go along," Amy said promptly.
"Jess and I, even, haven't been aboard the _Marigold_."

"Oh, you children!" scoffed Belle. "I shouldn't think that Darry and
Burd Alling and that Mark Stratford would want little girls tagging
them. Why, they are in college."

Belle really was a year older than the chums; but she acted, and
seemed to feel, as though she were grown up. Amy stared at her with
wide eyes.

"Well, I like your nerve!" said she. "Darry's my brother. And I've
known Burd Alling since he and Darry went to primary school. And so
has Jess. I guess they are not likely to take strangers off on that
yacht with them before they take Jess and me."

Belle tossed her head and laughed just as though she considered Amy's
heated reply quite childish.

"Oh, dear me," she proclaimed. "To hear you, one would think you were
still playmates, all making mud pies together. I don't know that you
and Jess, Amy Drew, ever will be grown up."

"Hope not, if we have to grow into anything that looks and acts like
you," grumbled Amy.

But Jessie tried to pour oil on the troubled waters. "Just what did
you come for, Belle?" she asked. After all, she must play hostess. "Is
it anything I can do for you?"

"Some of us older girls are going to have a box party down at the
Carter Landing on Lake Monenset the first moonlight night. Sally and I
are on the committee of arrangements. We want to talk it over with
Darrington and Burd and get them to invite Mark Stratford."

"Humph! You'll have to use long distance or radio," chuckled Amy.

"Now, don't interfere, Amy!" said Belle sharply.

"Wait," Jessie said, in her quiet way. "Don't let us argue over
nothing. The boys really are off on their boat. We do not know just
when they are coming back. Why don't you write Darry a note and leave
it at the house?"

"Humph! I wonder if he'd get it?" snapped Belle, with her face screwed
up as though she had bitten into something awfully sour.

"Well! I like her impudence," muttered Amy, as Belle and Sally
disappeared. "I don't see how her mother ever let her grow up."

"It is not as bad as all that," her chum said gravely. "But it is
awfully silly for Belle and those girls who go with her to be thinking
of the boys all the time, and trying to get the older boys to show an
interest in them. That is perfectly ridiculous."

"You're right," said Amy, bluntly. "And Darry and Burd think that
Belle is foolish."

"Now, let's