s wedding?" he
asked. "You must be tired after your winter's work."

Madge shook her head soberly. "We are not going to be on the houseboat
this year," she whispered. "Going to New York to be bridesmaids is about
as much as four girls can arrange. We haven't even dared to think of the
houseboat."

"I have," interposed Phyllis, who had heard the remark and the reply,
"but we don't wish our families to know. You see, Madge and I are hoping
and planning to go to college next winter, so, of course, we can't afford
another summer holiday," she ended under her breath.

"What's that, Phil?" inquired Dr. Alden from the other end of the table.

Phil blushed. "Nothing important, Father," she answered.

"Oh, then I must have been mistaken," replied Dr. Alden, "for I thought I
caught the magic word, 'houseboat.' No one of you girls has ever spoken
of the 'Merry Maid' as unimportant."

A cloud instantaneously overspread five faces about the luncheon table.
Neither Mrs. Curtis nor Dr. Alden realized that in mentioning the
houseboat they had forced the houseboat passengers to break a vow of
silence. Only the day before the five of them had met in Miss Jenny Ann
Jones's room. There they had solemnly pledged themselves that, since it
was impossible for them to have this year's vacation aboard the "Merry
Maid," they would bear the sorrow in silence. This time there was no
"Miss Betsey" to pay the expenses of the trip. The girls and Miss Jenny
Ann hadn't a dollar to spare. The cost of going to Madeleine Curtis's New
York wedding was appalling to all of the girls except Lillian, whose
parents were in affluent circumstances. But, of course, Madeleine was
almost a houseboat girl herself. Readers of the first houseboat story
will recall how Madeleine's fiance, Judge Hilliard, rescued Madge and
Phyllis from a serious situation and saved Madeleine from a far worse
plight than that in which he found the two girls.

"Mrs. Curtis," remarked Dr. Alden in the midst of the mournful silence,
"Mr. and Mrs. Butler, my wife and I have just been talking things over.
We have decided that it would be a good thing for our girls to spend
several weeks on board their houseboat. But, of course, if they have
decided differently----"

It was a good thing that Mrs. Curtis was not giving a formal luncheon. A
united shriek of delight suddenly arose from four throats. Madge sprang
from the table to hug her uncle, Eleanor blew kisses to her mother from
across