e I'm going to have all I can do
to manage myself. Goodness, what's that?"

It was merely the train stopping, but by the tone of Billie's voice one
might have thought it was the end of the world.

"Say, are you girls all ready?" asked Ferd, leaning over the back of
their seats.

The girls nodded nervously.

"Well, then let's go," Teddy chimed in, grabbing his suitcase and cap.
"Come on, pick up your hats, girls, and don't forget your feet."

"Oh, isn't he funny?" gibed Laura making a face at him. Then she grabbed
wildly at her bag as one of the excited girls seemed bent upon carrying
it off with her. "Say, come back with that," she cried. "Isn't one
enough for you?"

However, they did succeed at last in getting themselves safely on the
station platform. It was a pretty station, and this being their first
glimpse of the place where they were going to spend so much time, they
looked about them with interest.

Molata was the nearest town to Three Towers Hall and Boxton Military
Academy. Both of these schools were situated on Lake Molata, for which
the town had been named. Most of the inhabitants of Molata were wealthy,
and the estates in and about the town were magnificent. There was also
a large hotel, filled during the summer season.

Even the station was in keeping with the general air of prosperity. In
the minute the girls had to look about them, they saw a stone-built
waiting room with a red-tiled roof. A beautiful green velvety lawn
completely surrounded the station on three sides, while on one side a
beautiful fountain sent its sparkling spray high into the clear air. And
further back through the trees they caught glimpses of beautiful
estates.

They found themselves being hustled toward the other end of the station
where two conveyances, one from Three Towers Hall and the other from
Boxton Military Academy, were waiting to take the girls and boys to
their destination.

Two attendants tended to the trunks and deposited the luggage inside the
cabs, while the girls and boys said excited good-byes to each other on
the platform.

"We'll be only a little over a mile away from you," Chet called out.
"And when we get an afternoon off we'll row down the lake and get you
girls."

"Oh, won't that be fun!" cried Vi, her eyes dancing. "I'm just crazy to
get out on the lake."

"Goodness, we haven't even seen it yet," Laura reminded her.

"Yes, and if we're going to," Billie added, "I guess we'd better get
sta