in, Dave his ocarina, and
they sang, and played, and told jokes, until a silver crescent moon
rising over the lake warned them that the hour was growing late. The
feminine visitors then boarded the _Happy Day_ and under the escort
of Dave and Ferdinand to work the boat, the girls and their chaperone
made the run back to Green Knoll Camp, giving the cove where Polly
Jarley had caught the perch a wide berth.

Dave insisted upon going ashore at Green Knoll and searching the camp
"for possible burglars," as he laughingly said.

"Do, _do_ look under my bed, Dave!" squealed Frank, in mock
distraction. "I've always expected to find a man under my bed."

"But it was real nice of him, just the same," admitted Mina Everett,
when the _Happy Day_ had chugged away. "I feel a whole lot better
now that he has beaten up the camp."

On the next morning Grace and Percy were not allowed to lag over the
breakfast dishes till all hours.

"This shall be no lazy girls' camp," declared Mrs. Havel. "The quicker
you all get your tasks done, the better. Then you can have games, and go
fishing, and otherwise enjoy yourselves."

The fish-fry they had enjoyed at Cave-in-the-Wood Camp the evening
before had given them all an appetite for more, and as Polly Jarley
appeared early, according to promise, Wyn began to bustle around and
hunt out the fishing tackle.

There probably wasn't a girl in the crowd who was afraid to put a worm
on a hook, save Mina. She owned up to the fact that they made her
"squirmy" and she hated to see live bait on a hook.

"But that's what we have to use for lake fish--or river fish, either,"
Wyn told her. "You're not going to be much good to this fishing party."

"I know it, Wynnie. And I sha'n't go," said the timid one. "Mrs. Havel
is not going fishing, and I can stay with her."

"You'll have company," snapped Bessie Lavine. "I'm sure _I'm_ not
going," and she said it with such a significant look at Polly Jarley,
who had come ashore, that the boatman's daughter, as well as the other
girls, could not fail to understand _why_ she made the declaration.

"Why, Bess Lavine!" exclaimed Frankie, the outspoken.

Polly's face had flushed deeply, then paled. Bess had avoided her
before; but now she had come out openly with her animosity.

"Is your name Miss Lavine?" asked the boatman's daughter, her voice
quivering with emotion.

"What if it is?" snapped Bess.

"Then I guess I know why you speak to me so----"

"Don