d supplied these first "goodies" of the
autumn and the members of the club enjoyed them to the full.

"But, thanks be! there will be no more dishes to wash for a while,"
declared Grace Hedges.

"Nor beds to make," agreed her partner, Percy Havel.

"Nor fires to kindle," sighed Bessie Lavine.

"Well!" exclaimed Frank Cameron, "an outing in the woods isn't
_all_ it's cracked up to be, I admit. One might just as well accept
a situation as servant in a very untidy household. It would be about the
same thing. But my! we've had some fun between times."

"And such excitement!" declared Mina Everett. "Think of all that's
happened to us since we paddled up from Denton two months and more ago."

"And happened to the boys, too," said Frank, "I understand that Tubby
Blaisdell has put on ten additional pounds of flesh since yesterday
morning."

"Now, Frank! how could he?" gasped Grace.

"Nobody could be much fatter than Tubby already is," added Bess,
laughing.

"You never know till you try," chided Mina. "You have put on some flesh
yourself, Miss Lavine."

"Bah! they'll soon work it off of me when we're back in school," groaned
Bessie. "That's the worst of a vacation--there's always work at the end
of it."

"Lazy!" cried Percy. "I believe I'll _love_ study when I'm back to
the 'scholastic grind.'"

"You can have my share," grumbled Bess. "But what about Tubby's
additional avoirdupois, Frankie? He's as big as a haystack anyway."

"'All flesh is grass,' the Scriptures say,
So Tubby B.'s a load of hay!"

chuckled Frank. "Is that it? And Tubby is all swelled up now--as big as
a barrel."

"That's an awful fib, Frank," declared Mina. "He couldn't be."

"Well, Ferd says he _looks_ so. The boys found a bumble bees' nest
and Tubby didn't have any paddle to hit them with. So they all went for
poor Tubby and they stung him so that his face is twice as big as
usual--so Ferd says."

"Something is always happening to that boy," said Bess, laughing.
"Hullo! where have _you_ been, Wyn?"

Wyn came up from the shore. "I know where she's been," cried Frank. "She
has been down there gloating!"

"Gloating?" repeated Percy.

"Over the boat. Is it all there, Wyn?"

The girls ran to the brow of the bank. There, floating off their beach,
was a freshly painted motor boat, its brasswork shining, and everything
spick and span about it. A very commodious and handsome craft she was,
with "Go-Ahead" painted on either side of h