r. The girls had been in the habit of leaving all
their belongings open and spread around, with never a thought for
their safety, but now they began putting them away carefully.
They all felt uncomfortable doing it and each one hoped she was
unobserved. There was an air of restraint about the camp that
had never existed before, and it reacted in a general crossness.
The singing in the evening seemed all out of tune and the fire
smoked because the wood was damp and everything had a false note
in it. Nyoda was glad when it was time to blow the bugle.

Even then there was no immediate peace. No sooner were they
settled in bed than from the lake below came the sound of a manly
voice raised in song, accompanied by the strumming of a guitar.
"There's your lover, Gladys," giggled Sahwah, "I recognize his
voice. He plays the guitar, his brother told me so." Gladys hid
her face in the pillow and the girls kept on teasing her.
"Aren't you going to reward your gallant troubadour by tossing
him a flower or a glove, or something?" called Nyoda from the
other tent.

"I'd like to toss him a rock," said Gladys savagely to herself.
Finding his efforts unrecognized, the serenader finally desisted,
and they heard the dipping of his paddle as he departed.

The girls were at work bright and early the next morning, for
they were to be ready to leave for Blueberry Island by nine.
With a great waving of paddles the boys arrived promptly on the
dot and jumped out to help stow the empty baskets for berries and
the full baskets of lunch into the boats, together with the cups
and kettles.

Gladys had been wondering all morning how she should treat Ed
Roberts and stood around so quiet and pensive that Nyoda rallied
her on her lack of spirits. "Are you so anxious to see your
troubadour that you forget to talk?" she asked.

Gladys, suddenly grown weary of all this teasing, said
vehemently, "I don't like Ed Roberts and I wish you would stop
talking about him to me."

"Don't you really like him?" said Nyoda, grown serious in an
instant.

Gladys shook her head. "He thinks I shouldn't talk to any one
but himself, and he's forever trying to get me off into corners
away from the others. All he talks is nonsense; calls me 'kid'
and 'girlie,' and actually tried to hold my hand when we were
going down to the canoes that night. It makes me tired! I wish
I didn't have to go to-day."

Nyoda puckered her brows, but thought best not to trea