a Gull." They were gliding down the Rappahannock toward the great
Chesapeake Bay. Moving gracefully behind the motor boat was the familiar
form of the "Merry Maid." A group of older people sat out on her deck,
gazing along the sun-lit shores of the river. The cruise of the
houseboat was almost over.

Tom Curtis hesitated at Phil's question. "I ought not to say it is
funny," he returned, "but I really think it is."

"Don't any of you dare to let Miss Betsey know you think so," warned
Madge.

Eleanor looked aggrieved. "I am sure I don't know what there is funny
about it," she protested. "I think it is lovely. Only it wasn't nice in
Miss Betsey not to let us be her bridesmaids." Eleanor gazed across the
little space of water to where Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph sat together
on the deck of the "Merry Maid" with the blind child, Alice.

Madge laughed softly. "Miss Betsey said she felt enough like a fool,
being married at her age, without having a lot of young girls standing
around to laugh at her. But John Randolph wouldn't let her take care of
him unless she did marry him, and she had no idea of separating him from
his grandchild," concluded Madge.

"What a lot of things have happened this summer," remarked Lillian. "Who
would have thought that we should leave David Brewster in Virginia! Mr.
Preston says that if David will work for him he will help him go to
college."

"David is a bully fellow!" declared Tom. "I don't think we understood
him just at first."

"Yes, and Tom Curtis is another," teased Madge; "only he won't blow his
own horn, unless it is his fog-horn. Tom offered to pay David's expenses
at college if he would come home with us, but David said he thought it
would be better for him to earn his own way."

Miss Jenny Ann waved frantically from the deck of the houseboat.

"Tie up along shore, Tom; it is growing late. Remember, this is our last
supper party together this summer," she called out.

It was the first week in September. The evening had grown unexpectedly
cool when Tom ran the two boats up by the river bank. In the morning
they were to put into shore at a nearby town, and the little company of
friends would disband to travel to their homes in various parts of the
country. So for to-night they had planned to have a wonderful feast on
land, and to make it their good-bye memory of their summer cruise.

Tom had selected a line of open shore, with a grove of chestnut trees
just back of it.

Each