y," declared Archie cheerfully, when their
derision had spent itself. "And I'm going to again. I hired a lovely
scrub-lady to come to-morrow and make this spot look shipshape--"

"O, Archie!" cried the girls, "you beautiful boy!"

"Don't interrupt," said the beautiful boy sternly. "I am going to
vindicate myself. Polly Osgood, didn't that tennis game Friday morning
save you from collapse? How about that little canoe jaunt on the quiet
yesterday, Catherine? Bess needed a drive Thursday, and Winifred did
more good to the public by singing to me all that hot evening than the
rest of you did slaving away over some gooey job or other. Dorcas let me
reward her Sunday-school kids by a hay-rack ride, and she went along to
take care of us. Agnes and Bertha got interrupted on their way down here
one morning, and let themselves be persuaded to take a country walk
instead, to show me birds' nests for a course I'm not ever going to take
next year. And as for Dot,--O, Dot was shamelessly ready to go off any
old time with any old body. But you all would have been nervous wrecks
by now without me. And you call me names, like an ungrateful populace!"

It was a mirth-provoking series of revelations. "Archie has shown
himself a most artistic sly-boots," said Catherine. "I never had more
delicious conscience pangs than I did on that canoe-ride."

"So it was with me," declared Polly. "And I never dared say anything
sarcastic about the other girls not turning up every time, because I
felt so guilty myself."

"So did I!" cried Bertha and Agnes together.

"Well, so didn't I!" exclaimed Dot. "I was perfectly free to say all the
time that I didn't intend to spend my whole summer or even ten days of
it working harder than I do winters. I move that Archie be given a vote
of thanks for introducing the Rest Cure into the Boat Club, and also a
vote of admiration for the beauty of his dissimulation."

"I second the motion," said Archie himself, "and amend it to include
going home. Want any help in locking up, Al?"

"No, thanks," said Algernon, hearing for the first time a nickname that
any fellow might have had applied to himself. "Good night, all of you.
I'll take good care of things, you can count on that."

As the rest drifted in pairs and threes toward their homes, a
well-content young man set the reading-chairs in their places, put out
the low-burning lamps, turned the key in the lock, and walked briskly
away, happier than he had ever be