f we didn't."

"Of course. And aint I glad about him? Could we get ready and go
to-morrow?"

"Guess not so quick as that. We might by the day after, if the weather's
all right."

Exactly. There is always a large sized "if" to be put in where anything
depends on the weather. Mrs. Kinzer took the matter up with enthusiasm,
and so did the girls, Miranda included, and Ford Foster was right about
his own part of the company.

But the weather!

It looked well enough to unpracticed eyes, but Ham Morris shook his head
and went to consult his fishermen friends. Every human barometer among
them warned him to wait a day or so.

"Such warm, nice weather," remonstrated Ford Foster, "and there isn't
any wind to speak of."

"There's too much of it coming," was Ham's response, and there was no
help for it. Not even when the mail brought word from "Aunt Maria" that
her two boys would arrive in a day or so.

"Our last chance is gone, Annie," said Ford, when the news came.

"O, mother, what shall we do?"

"Have your sail, just the same, and invite your cousins."

"But the Kinzers--"

"Why, Annie! Mrs. Kinzer will not think of neglecting them. She's as
kind as kind can be."

"And we are to pay her with Joe and Fuz," said Ford. "Well, I wish Ham
Morris's storm would come along."

He only had to wait till next day for it, and he was quite contented to
be on shore while it lasted. There was no use in laughing at the
prophecies of the fishermen after it began to blow. Still, it was not a
long one, and Ham Morris remarked: "This is only an outside edge of it.
It's a good deal worse at sea. Glad we're not out in it."

Ford Foster thought the worst of it was when the afternoon train came
in, and he had to show a pair of tired, moist and altogether unpleasant
cousins to the room set apart for them. Just after tea a note came over
from Mrs. Kinzer, asking the Hart boys to join the yachting party next
morning.

"The storm may not be over," growled Ford.

"Oh," said Annie, "Mrs. Kinzer adds that the weather will surely be fine
after such a blow, and the bay will be quite safe and smooth."

"Does she know the clerk of the weather," asked Joe Hart.

"Got one of her own," said Ford.

Fuz Hart laughed but said nothing. Both he and his brother felt a little
"strange" as yet, and were almost inclined to try and behave themselves.

When morning came, however, sea and earth and sky seemed to be the
better for what they had just be