outh
started out from the stalled motor boat, and so drifted in the other
direction.

In the rapid time that bad news always flies, the report became
circulated that a sailing party was lost. Hazel and Paul Hastings, two
friends of the motor girls, heard the report at their cottage, and
hurried down to the little wharf, where they found Nettie in the
deepest distress.

Just as Paul was about to set out himself, the launch chugged in, with
the party laughing and singing, Cora playing that same tune, and with
our friends was the little lady from the bungalow, she who had rescued
Walter, and who went with him to the succor of the stranded ones on the
sand bar.

It was a wonderful evening, and when Cora, with Bess, Belle and Miss
Robbins, the new girl, stepped ashore, they evidently did not regret
the length of time spent upon the water.

Miss Robbins, it developed, was a young doctor, stopping up the river
in a bungalow with her mother. Her boat was towed by the launch when
they came in, and, although she wanted to row back, the others would
not listen to such a proposition.

"It won't take half an hour to get to the garage and bring my car right
down here," insisted Walter, "unless you prefer walking up to the
cottage with the young ladies, and I can run over there for you. I
will have you back in your bungalow in ten minutes more."

Miss Robbins was one of those rare young women who always did what was
proposed for her, and she now promptly agreed to go to the cottage, and
there await Walter and his car.

As they entered the little parlor Bess drew Cora aside and demanded:

"How ever did Walter find out that she'd just love to go to the
Berkshires? And he wants to know if she is _homely_ enough to be our
chaperon," she added, with a laugh.

"She is," replied Jack's sister promptly, and in a tone of voice
remarkably decisive for Cora, considering.

"But she's nice," objected Bess.

"Very," confirmed Cora, "and we should conform to the rules--homely,
experienced and wise."

"She's a lot of those," went on Bess, who seemed taken with the idea of
going to the hills with Miss Robbins as chaperon. "Besides, I like
her."

"That's a lot more," said Cora, with a laugh. "I like her, too. It
seems to me almost providential. We are going to the Berkshires, she
wants to go, we can't get a mother to take us, so a young doctor ought
to be the----"

"Very thing," finished Bess, and she joined the others indoo