ians, and the fishing ship on the Zuyder Zee.

Alan gazed about at these with quick, appreciative interest. His
quality of instantly noticing and appreciating anything unusual was,
Constance thought, one of his pleasantest and best characteristics.

"I like those too; I selected them myself in Holland," she observed.

She took her place beside the coffee pot, and when he remained
standing--"Mother always has her breakfast in bed; that's your place,"
she said.

He took the chair opposite her. There was fruit upon the table;
Constance took an orange and passed the little silver basket across.

"This is such a little table; we never use it if there's more than two
or three of us; and we like to help ourselves here."

"I like it very much," Alan said.

"Coffee right away or later?"

"Whenever you do. You see," he explained, smiling in a way that
pleased her, "I haven't the slightest idea what else is coming or
whether anything more at all is coming." A servant entered, bringing
cereal and cream; he removed the fruit plates, put the cereal dish and
two bowls before Constance, and went out. "And if any one in Blue
Rapids," Alan went on, "had a man waiting in the dining-room and at
least one other in the kitchen, they would not speak of our activities
here as 'helping ourselves.' I'm not sure just how they would speak of
them; we--the people I was with in Kansas--had a maidservant at one
time when we were on the farm, and when we engaged her, she asked, 'Do
you do your own stretching?' That meant serving from the stove to the
table, usually."

He was silent for a few moments; when he looked at her across the table
again, he seemed about to speak seriously. His gaze left her face and
then came back.

"Miss Sherrill," he said gravely, "what is, or was, the _Miwaka_? A
ship?"

He made no attempt to put the question casually; rather, he had made it
more evident that it was of concern to him by the change in his manner.

"The _Miwaka_?" Constance said.

"Do you know what it was?"

"Yes; I know; and it was a ship."

"You mean it doesn't exist any more?"

"No; it was lost a long time ago."

"On the lakes here?"

"On Lake Michigan."

"You mean by lost that it was sunk?"

"It was sunk, of course; but no one knows what happened to it--whether
it was wrecked or burned or merely foundered."

The thought of the unknown fate of the ship and crew--of the ship which
had sailed and never reached port and of