hat was the little steamer that transported passengers from Centerport
to the amusement park at the west end of Cavern Island. Down at this end
of the island the land was hilly and wild; but around the boat landing a
park was laid out, with carrousels, a small menagerie, swings, and the
like.

"Lo--lo--look at Purt!" burst out Jess, unable to hold in her laughter
any longer. "What-what will his mo-mo-mother say when he gets home?"

Prettyman Sweet was, as Chet often declared, "the very niftiest dresser"
in Central High. And even when he went motor-boating he was the very
"glass of fashion." His fancy waistcoat would never be seen in its
pristine lustre again, and as for the gaudy striped shirt and cuffs he
had worn, the stripes were surely "fast" colors, in that they had
immediately run into the white ground-work of the garment!

"I--I do-do-don't care," chattered Purt. "What are clothes, anyway? I'm
dying of cold!"

"And in June," snorted Lance, with disgust.

"Let's build a campfire and warm him," suggested Laura.

"Haven't a dry match," declared her brother.

"I have. Don't catch me canoeing without a tightly corked bottle of
matches. I've been upset too many times," laughed Laura.

Chet and Lance gathered the wood; but Purt only lay and moaned and
shivered. The adventure was a serious matter for the exquisite.

"And I bet this settles Purt's motor-boating for all time," scoffed Jess
Morse. "Got enough, haven't you, Pretty?"

"Weally, Miss Morse, I am too exhausted to speak about it--weally!"
gasped Purt.

"And it was the only sport Purt would go into," grunted Chet. "He could
get somebody to run his boat for him, you see. All he had to do was to
sit tight and hold his ears on."

Purt felt affectionately for his ears--they stuck out like sails from
the side of his head, "trimmed flat across the masts"--and said nothing.
He could not retort in his present condition of mind and body. But his
schoolmates talked on, quite ignoring him.

"What were you two boys doing out in the _Duchess_ this afternoon,
anyway?" demanded Laura. "I thought you were going to see the game
between Lumberport and the East High team?"

"Why," said Chet, hesitating, looking at Lance, "if we tell you, you'll
keep still about it--all you girls?"

"Of course," said Jess.

"All of you, I mean," said Chet, earnestly. "No passing it around with
the usual platter of gossip on the athletic field this evening."

"How horrid of you, C