for them than she could at the Forge, which was nearer.

But the squall gathered so fast that she had to put aside the thought of
the run down the lake. The wind would switch about, too, after the
squall. That was a foregone conclusion.

She waited until the blow was past and then saw that it would be quite
impossible to make the park that afternoon and return to the landing in
time for tea. And if she was later her father would be worried.

Mr. Jarley did not like to have his girl go out this way and work all
day; but there seemed nothing else to be done this summer. They owed so
much at the stores at the Forge; and the principal and interest on the
chattel mortgage must be found before New Year or they would lose their
fleet of boats. And as yet few campers had come to the lake who wished
to hire Mr. Jarley's boats.

So by fishing (and none of the old fellows who had fished Honotonka for
years was wiser about the good fishing places than Polly) the girl added
from one to two dollars every favorable day to the family income.
Sometimes she was off by light in one boat or another; but she did not
often come to this northern side of the lake. This cove was at least ten
miles from home.

As the last breath of the squall passed, the wind veered as she had
expected, and Polly, having reeled in her two lines and unjointed the
bamboo poles, stowed everything neatly, raised the anchor, or kedge, and
set a hand's breadth of the big sail.

The canvas filled, and with the sheet in one hand and the other on the
arm of the tiller, the girl steered the catboat out of the cove and into
the rumpus kicked up by the passing squall.

The girls of the Go-Ahead Club would surely have been frightened had
they been aboard the little _Coquette_, as the catboat was named.
She rocked and jumped, and the spume flew over her gunwale in an
intermittent shower. But in this sea, which so easily swamped the
canoes, the catboat was as safe as a house.

Polly was used to much rougher weather than this. In the summer Lake
Honotonka was on its best behavior. At other seasons the tempests tore
down from the north and west and sometimes made the lake so terrible in
appearance that even the hardiest bateau man in those parts would not
risk himself in a boat.

Polly knew, however, that the worst of the squall was over. The lake
would gradually subside to its former calm. And the change in the wind
was favorable now to a quick passage either to the F