ugh Allen was not as yet admitted to the bar.

"I'll have a chance to practice this summer, getting the boat off a
sand-bar!" he had jokingly said.

And finally trunks were packed, tickets had been purchased, word had
come from Ocean View that the cottage was in readiness, and at last, on
a beautifully sunny June morning, the outdoor girls stood at the
station, ready to take the train.

The boys were there, also, as might have been guessed.

"And when are you coming down in the boat?" asked Betty.

"In about a week," Allen said. "We're having the engine overhauled, a
new magneto put in and some other things done."

"I'm coming in the auto," broke in Percy Falconer. "Father did not want
me to make the boat trip, but the chauffeur will bring me down to the
shore in the car."

"Pity he wouldn't use a feather bed," murmured Roy Anderson.

"Oh, here comes the train!" cried Mollie. "Girls, I'm almost sure I've
forgotten half my things."

"Good-bye, girls!" chorused the boys.

"Good-bye!" came the answer.

"Oh, Grace!" called Will to his sister.

"Yes," she answered.

"That secret of mine."

"Oh, yes. What is it? Do tell me! I haven't a second----"

"I'll tell you--when I come down!" his words floated to her as she was
borne along the platform with her chums to the train that was to take
them to Ocean View.

CHAPTER V

OLD TIN-BACK

"Isn't he provoking!" murmured Grace, sinking into a seat beside Mollie,
as the train slowly pulled out.

"Who?" asked Mollie, leaning toward the window to wave to the boys on
the platform.

"My brother Will. He's up to something--he has a secret and he won't
tell me!"

"Don't let him know you care, and he'll tell you all the quicker. Boys
are that way," declared Mollie, with the accumulated wisdom
of--say--seventeen years.

"Yes, I suppose so," agreed Grace, and then she began a hurried search
among the various articles she had deposited on the seat between herself
and Mollie.

"What is it--lost something?" asked the latter.

"My bag of--oh, here they are," and Grace, with a look of contentment,
began munching some chocolates.

"It is awfully nice of you, Mrs. Nelson, to ask us down for the summer,"
said Amy Blackford to her hostess when they were settled in the speeding
train. "I do so love the seashore."

"Then I think you will like it at Ocean View," remarked Betty's mother.
"And we think Edgemere a pretty place."

"I'm sure it must be from what Bet