Calverts. Enjoying their
morning's mail in the pleasant library of old Bellvieu, they are both
astonished by the contents of one letter which offers for Dorothy's
acceptance the magnificent gift of a "House-Boat." What follows the
receipt of this letter is now to be told.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

FOREWORD 9

I. A BIG GIFT FOR A SMALL MAID 11

II. INVITATIONS TO A CRUISE OF LOVING KINDNESS 25

III. THE DIFFICULTIES OF GETTING UNDER WAY 44

IV. MATTERS ARE SETTLED 62

V. THE STORM AND WHAT FOLLOWED 76

VI. A MULE AND MELON TRANSACTION 92

VII. VISITORS 105

VIII. THE COLONEL'S REVELATION 121

IX. FISH AND MONKEYS 138

X. A MERE ANNE ARUNDEL GUST 154

XI. A MORNING CALL OF MONKEYS 165

XII. UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE 180

XIII. WHAT LAY UNDER THE WALKING FERN 195

XIV. THE REDEMPTION OF A PROMISE 213

XV. IN THE HEART OF AN ANCIENT WOOD 229

XVI. WHEN THE MONKEYS' CAGE WAS CLEANED 243

XVII. CONCLUSION 254

CHAPTER I

A BIG GIFT FOR A SMALL MAID.

"Well, of all things!" exclaimed Mrs. Betty Calvert, shaking her white
head and tossing her hands in a gesture of amazement. Then, as the
letter she had held fell to the floor, her dark eyes twinkled with
amusement and she smilingly demanded: "Dorothy, do you want an
elephant?"

The girl had been reading her own letters, just come in the morning's
mail, but she paused to stare at her great-aunt and to ask in turn:

"Aunt Betty, what do you mean?"

"Because if you do here's the chance of your life to get one!"
answered the old lady, motioning toward the fallen letter.

Dolly understood that she was to pick it up and read it, and, having
done so, remarked:

"Auntie dear, this doesn't say anything about an elephant, as I can
see."

"Amounts to the same thing. The idea of a house-boat as a gift to a
girl like you! My cousin Seth Winters must b