ng after, eight young women were sighted riding along in
a farm wagon, while Dr. and Mrs. Bentley and Mrs. Meade strolled
down one of the paths.

The wagon reached the pier first, just as a launch in charge of
one of the hotel employs came puffing out of a boathouse near
by.

"Come here, boys, and help us unload the wagon," called Susie
Sharp.

Dick & Co. sprang in answer to her summons.

"Why, what on earth have you here?" demanded Dave, opening his
eyes wide as he saw the contents of the wagon.

There were dozens of ears of corn, a sack of new potatoes, cucumbers,
tomatoes, a dozen big watermelons and a bushel of early summer
apples.

"Sh!" warned Laura mysteriously. "Didn't we promise you we'd
rob some farmer for the feast? Did you think that boys are the
only ones who can go foraging for a country picnic?"

"You girls didn't go foraging---did you?" gasped Dick Prescott.

"We surely did," retorted Susie Sharp.

"Didn't we say we would do so? And doesn't all this stuff prove
it?"

"Then you paid the farmer for it," guessed Tom Reade wisely.

"We didn't do any such thing," Miss Sharp insisted. "Did we,
girls?"

Seven other young feminine heads shook in vigorous denial.

"We didn't pay the farmer, and we didn't make any arrangement
with him," said Laura quietly, her eyes twinkling with mischief.
"We simply drove out along the road until we came to the field,
and-----"

"-----Ravaged it," supplemented Belle Meade demurely. "We went
through that field like war, famine and pestilence combined!"

"Hurry!" called Susie peremptorily.

So the boys made haste with the vegetables and fruit, transferring
everything to the bow of the launch, where it was neatly stacked.

"What do you think of that?" Tom demanded of Dick in a whisper
at the first opportunity.

"The girls are chaffing us," Dick answered knowingly. "Stole
the stuff, did they? That is, stole it in earnest? Nonsense!
They're too nice girls for that! But I guess even nice girls,
like some decent fellows, find enjoyment, once in a while, in
making believe they are doing something desperate. Of course
they didn't really steal this stuff."

"If they did," muttered Tom, "they'd be the kind of girls we wouldn't
want to know."

"It's all right," Dick assured him. "Sooner or later the truth
of this joke of theirs will all come out. There are no finer
girls in the country than they."

By this time the older people had joined them. Dr.