fun with them."

There was one more Saturday to be spent at school before breaking up for
the term, and the Rovers and their chums had decided to spend that
afternoon with the girls in an outing on the lake.

"Mary and some of the others want to go over to Bluebell Island," said
Fred. "They say there are some very fine ferns to be had there, and they
thought maybe they would have a chance to take some of the ferns home."

"All right, we'll take them wherever they want to go," answered Jack;
and so it was arranged.

Bluebell Island was located a distance down the lake, not far from
Foxtail Island, where the young folks had previously had an outing, as
related in the volume entitled, "The Rover Boys at Colby Hall."

At that time a squall on the lake and an encounter with a log raft had
placed all of the young people in great peril, from which Slugger Brown
and Nappy Martell had refused to rescue them.

It had been decided that the boys should row from Colby Hall down the
lake to the dock at Clearwater Hall and there take the girls on board.
They had three boats, one containing Jack and Fred, another the twins,
and a third Gif and Spouter.

"It's certainly one grand day for this outing," remarked Fred, as they
set off. All were good oarsmen, so the rowboats made rapid progress in
the direction of the girls' school.

"I had the day made to order," sang out Andy. And then he added, with a
grin: "It never rains when I go out unless the water happens to be
coming down."

The cadets had informed Martha and the others when they would arrive,
and when they reached the dock they found six girls waiting for them,
each with a carefully-tied-up shoebox under her arm.

"Yum, yum! I smell something good to eat!" exclaimed Andy, on catching
sight of the boxes.

"Got any mustard pie?" added Randy. "Excuse me, I mean custard pie."

"No, we've got straw pie for you, Mr. Smarty," called out Alice
Strobell.

Jack noticed that Martha and Mary looked rather thoughtful when they got
into the rowboat manned by Spouter and Gif.

"Anything wrong?" he asked anxiously.

"Not much, Jack," answered his sister. "I'll tell you just as soon as we
get to the island and we have a chance."

"Didn't you boys bring anything?" questioned Mary of the other Rovers.

"Sure we did! But that's a surprise," answered Fred. They had brought
fruit and candy.

"We brought two yeast cakes and a fried-onion sandwich," broke in Andy
gaily, and at thi