."

"_What?_" demanded Chet, suddenly shaking Short and Long by the
collar.

"Don't, Chetwood," begged Billy. "I'm not strong. I'm sea-sick. That
thing yonder has queered me----"

"What thing?" asked Laura. "We don't see the joke, Billy."

"There you go again--calling a serious thing like that a joke," cried
the small boy. "Look at it--at the wheel of the _Duchess_! How ever
did it crawl aboard? I bet a cent it's been living in the bottom of
the lake for years and years, and has come up to the light of day for
the first time now."

"You ridiculous thing!" snapped Lily Pendleton. "Do you mean Prettyman
Sweet?"

"My goodness gracious Agnes!" gasped Billy. "That's never Purt Sweet?
_Don't_ tell me he's disguised himself for a nigger minstrel show in
that fashion?"

They were all laughing at the unconscious Purt by now--all save Lily;
and Chet said, gravely:

"There is something the matter with your eyesight, Short and Long.
That's Purt in a brand new outing suit."

"He didn't dress like that to go camping?" murmured Billy. "Say not
so! Somebody dared him to do it!"

It was a fact that the exquisite of Central High had decked himself
out in most astonishing array--considering that he was expected to
"rough it" in the woods instead of appear at a lawn party on the
"Hill."

"His tailor put him up to that suit," chuckled Lance. "He told me so.
As he expects to live in the sylvan forest, as did the 'merrie, merrie
men' of Robin Hood, Purt is dolled up accordingly."

"Gee!" breathed Bobby. "Do you suppose Robin Hood ever looked like
that?"

"That's Lincoln green," announced Lance, trying to keep his face
straight. "You notice that the pants are short--knickerbockers, in
fact. They are tied just below the knee with 'ribbands' in approved
outlaw style."

"Oh, my!" giggled Dora Lockwood. "Do you suppose they hurt him?"

"What hurts him most is the leather belt at which is slung a
long-bladed hunting knife so dull that it wouldn't cut cheese! But the
knife handle gets in his way every time he stoops."

"Oh! he's so funny!" gasped Dorothy Lockwood. "You boys are certainly
going to have a great time with Pretty Sweet on this trip."

"I don't think it is funny at all," muttered Lily Pendleton. "That
rude little thing, Billy Long, tries to be too smart."

"But look at the cap!" gasped Laura, who was herself too much amused
to ignore the queer get-up of their classmate. "Where did he get the
idea of _that_?"