he saw how down-hearted
the girls seemed when she walked with them again along the gravel walk
that skirted the waterfront of Colonel Swayne's estate.

The girls' eight-oared shell was out and the crew were practicing. One
of the new girls caught an awful crab and the shell came near being
swamped.

"Mercy me!" ejaculated Aunt Dora. "Is that the best they can do without
you girls to help them?"

This rather amused the twins, despite their sore-heartedness; but their
aunt really began to "take up cudgels" for them. She objected to the
punishment Gee Gee had meted out to her nieces.

"I didn't like the looks of that four-eyed teacher, anyway," declared
the old lady, with some asperity. "I'm going to see about it. Your
father would just let you be driven from pillar to post--he's got no
spunk. What you Lockwoods need in this town is a woman in the family!"

Dora and Dorothy thought this was only a threat. But Aunt Dora actually
appeared at Central High the next morning and obtained an audience with
Mr. Sharp, the principal.

Whatever she said to him bore fruit in a quiet investigation on the
principal's part into the pros and cons of the canoe bumping that had
brought the Lockwood twins to grief. He heard the testimony of eye
witnesses of the collision--something that Miss Carrington had not done.

All that he said to the severe teacher will never be known; but Bobby
heard him say for one thing:

"Loyalty--even in school athletics--is a very good thing, Miss
Carrington. You will admit that, yourself. And these girls are loyal
students. I think they have been punished enough, don't you? Besides, I
fear the testimony you chanced to hear was prejudiced. This Hester
Grimes has been in trouble before for giving untruthful testimony
against a fellow-classmate. Am I not right?"

"And very honorably she admitted her fault afterward," Miss Carrington
declared.

"True. But let us not punish these two girls any longer; for Miss Grimes
may have a change of heart again--when it is too late."

It was with rather ill grace that Gee Gee ever owned up that she was
wrong, even on minor points. She therefore simply called the twins to
her desk after school, and said:

"It has been represented to me that you are needed in these rowing
contests for the good of the school. Personally I believe that athletics
is occupying the minds of all you girls too much. But as your conduct
during the past fortnight has been very good, I will