he ice
boat?"

"It will be just the proper caper," said Will. "We can take you all up
in one load, and your suit cases, too. Trunks can go by express. Then we
can stay a week or so with you in the cabin, and----"

"You can stay--you boys--who said so?" demanded Grace a bit defiantly.

"Dad. I asked him. There are several furnished cabins there, and we can
use one, he said. Oh, don't worry, we won't bother you," and he glared
at his sister. Grace and Will did not get along any better than the
average brother and sister, it will be noted.

"I think it would be nice," spoke gentle Amy, hastening to pour oil on
troubled waters. "It wouldn't be quite so lonesome--with the boys
there."

"Bless you for saying that!" exclaimed Will, with mock heroics. "You
shall be doubly repaid. We'll see that you are never alone, Amy."

She blushed, but did not seem displeased.

"And as we boys are going anyhow," went on Will, "you girls can come in
the ice boat, or not, just as you choose. I only thought I'd offer it."

"It's kind of you," declared Mollie.

"I think ice boating would be lovely," vouchsafed Betty.

Seeing her chums thus in favor Grace capitulated.

"All right," she said. "We'll go, with you boys."

"And you needn't think you are doing us a favor, either!" asserted Will
a bit truculently. "We can get other girls. There is Kittie Rossmore,
Alice----"

"Stop it!" commanded Grace, and Will subsided. He knew better than to
keep on in that strain.

"The boat is a dandy, though," he went on. "We can pile the cockpit full
of fur robes, and when the wind is right we can scoot up the lake to
beat the band!"

"Such slang!" cried Grace.

"Well, I only meant hat band--or rubber band. That isn't slang."

And so it was decided. Will went on to describe the boat from the rudder
and runners, to the sails and tackle, most of it being as Greek to the
girls. But they made up their minds to soon learn how to run a craft on
the ice.

"And if things go right I'll soon have a better one than the _Spider_,"
declared Will, as he prepared to take his leave.

"You mean you are going to buy another?" asked Grace.

"No, not buy--make one--and it will be a surprise, too, let me tell
you!"

"How?" asked Betty, interested.

"Oh, you'll see when the time comes. It's a secret."

This naturally roused the curiosity of the girls, but Will, having
accomplished his purpose in doing that, refused to talk further and left
in a hurry, F