d, answered, with decision, "Up, of course.
Don't we always pull to the bridge?"

"Not when the girls are going down," laughed Jack, who had recognized
Juliet's scarlet boating-suit as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Mind what you are about, and don't gabble," commanded Captain Frank, as
the crew bent to their oars and the slender boat cut through the water
leaving a long furrow trembling behind.

"Oh, ah! I see! There is a blue jacket as well as a red one, so it's all
right.

"Lady Queen Anne, she sits in the sun,
As white as a lily, as brown as a bun,"

sung Jack, recovering his spirits, and wishing Jill was there too.

"Do you want a ducking?" sternly demanded Gus, anxious to preserve
discipline.

"Shouldn't mind, its so warm."

But Jack said no more, and soon the "Rhodora" was alongside the "Water
Witch," exchanging greetings in the most amiable manner.

"Pity this boat won't hold four. We'd put Jack in yours, and take you
girls a nice spin up to the Hemlocks," said Frank, whose idea of bliss
was floating down the river with Annette as coxswain.

"You'd better come in here, this will hold four, and we are tired of
rowing," returned the "Water Witch," so invitingly that Gus could not
resist.

"I don't think it is safe to put four in there. You'd better change
places with Annette, Gus, and then we shall be ship-shape," said Frank,
answering a telegram from the eyes that matched the blue jacket.

"Wouldn't it be _more_ ship-shape still if you put me ashore at Grif's
landing? I can take his boat, or wait till you come back. Don't care
what I do," said Jack, feeling himself sadly in the way.

The good-natured offer being accepted with thanks, the changes were
made, and, leaving him behind, the two boats went gayly up the river. He
really did not care what he did, so sat in Grif's boat awhile watching
the red sky, the shining stream, and the low green meadows, where the
blackbirds were singing as if they too had met their little sweethearts
and were happy.

Jack remembered that quiet half-hour long afterward, because what
followed seemed to impress it on his memory. As he sat enjoying the
scene, he very naturally thought about Ed; for the face of the sister
whom he saw was very anxious, and the word "fever" recalled the hard
times when Frank was ill, particularly the night it was thought the boy
would not live till dawn, and Jack cried himself to sleep, wondering how
he ever could get on without his