dsummer, when the days
are longest and the birds sing their loudest, is a gay place for the
young. Catherine Bertram stayed awake for quite an hour that night. An
hour was a long time for such young and bright eyes to remain wide open,
and she fancied with a wave of self-pity how wrinkled and old she would
look in the morning. Not a bit of it! She arose with the complexion of a
Hebe, and the buoyant and gladsome spirit of a lark.

As she dressed she sang, and when she ran downstairs she whistled a
plantation melody with such precision and clearness that Loftus
exclaimed, "Oh, how shocking!" and Mabel rolled up her eyes, and said
sagely, that no one ever could turn Kate into anything but a tom-boy.

"Girls, what are we to do after breakfast?" asked the brother.

"Have you any money at all in your pocket, Loftie?" demurely asked
Mabel, "for if so, if so--" her eyes danced, "I can undertake to provide
a pleasant day for us all."

"Well, puss, I don't suppose an officer in her Majesty's Royal
Artillery--is quite without some petty cash. How much do you want?"

"A few shillings will do. Let us pack up a picnic basket. Kate, you
needn't look at me. I have taken Mrs. Masters into confidence, and
there's a cold roast fowl downstairs--and--and--but I won't reveal
anything further. We can have a picnic--we can go away an hour after
breakfast, and saunter to that place known as the Long Quay, and hire
the very best boat to be had for money, and we can float about on this
lovely harbor, and land presently on the shore over there where the
ruins of the old Port are; and we can eat our dinners there and be
jolly. Remember that we have never but once been on the water since we
came. Think how we have pined for this simple pleasure, Loftie, and fork
out the tin."

"My dear Mabel, I must place my interdict on slang."

"Nonsense. When the cat's away. Oh, don't look shocked! Are we to go?"

"Go! of course we'll go. Is there no pretty girl who'll come with us?
It's rather slow to have only one's sisters."

"Very well, Loftus. We'll pay you out presently," said Kate.

"And there is a very pretty girl," continued Mabel, "At least Catherine
considers her very pretty--only--" her eyes danced with mischief.

"Only what?"

"The mother doesn't like her. There's a dear old Rector here, and he
introduced the girl to Kitty, and mother was wild. Mother sounded the
Rector the next day and heard something which made her wilder still, but