treme edge of the group.

"Listen, ye babblers," called Elfreda, "to the voice of the oracle.
Let's leave old Father Ocean to himself and get into our everyday
clothes. If we are going on a picnic, we'd better start. We can be on
our way in an hour from now, if we hurry. To-night after dinner we'll
all take a last melancholy stroll down here to find out what the wild
waves are saying."

"Wild waves," jeered Emma Dean. "Did you ever see the ocean smile more
sweetly, the deceitful old thing. When one stops to think of the ships
and people it gobbles up every year one feels like cutting its
acquaintance."

"It is the greatest of all mysteries," said Arline Thayer, her eyes
fixed dreamily on the limitless expanse of water.

"And I, in my Sphinx costume, am next," reminded Emma modestly.

Emma's placid manner of classing together the ocean and a fancy costume
she had worn at a Semper Fidelis bazaar was received with the delight
that always attended her astonishing sallies.

"Come on, children," Grace rose from the sand, looking slim, almost
immature, in her dark blue bathing suit. With her fair skin, which
neither tanned nor sunburned, and her radiant gray eyes, she fully
carried out that look of extreme youth which her friends were wont
frequently to comment on. In obedience to her call the girls scrambled
to their feet and strolled toward the Briggs' cottage, which was within
a very short distance of the beach.

On their way they came face to face with a trio of girls who had
approached from the opposite direction. One of them, a particularly
pretty girl, with auburn curls and a sweet, laughing face, cried out in
surprise, "Why, J. Elfreda Briggs, where did _you_ come from?"

"Madge Morton!" exclaimed Elfreda, holding out her hand delightedly. "I
didn't know you were in this part of the country. Mr. Curtis told me you
had found your father and gone on a trip around the world, but that was
ages ago. And if here isn't Phyllis Alden and Lillian Selden. Will
wonders never cease? But where is Eleanor?"

"She and Mrs. Curtis went out sailing with Tom," answered Phyllis Alden,
an attractive girl with honest, dark eyes.

"Oh, excuse me, girls." Elfreda turned to her party and a general
introducing followed.

"Where are you staying, Madge?" asked Elfreda when the two groups of
girls had finished exchanging bows and smiles.

"Mrs. Curtis has taken a cottage at Wildwood for the rest of the summer.
She only arrived ther