already gained a reputation at Crystal
Bay.

Not one person came in from the bay in dry clothes; in fact, many were
drenched, and naturally the girls showed the effects of the storm more
conspicuously than did the boys. Bess happened to be the one "who got
the worst of it," among the motor girls--perhaps because there was
more of her for the waves to hit.

"You are certainly a beauty," commented Belle, who had been more
fortunate in dodging the water. "You look like a swimming lesson in
the first stage."

"I feel as if I needed artificial respiration," replied Bess,
good-humoredly, "but I want to forget it all--all but this. Isn't this
wonderful?"

"Almost enough to make up for the danger," Belle returned. "But wasn't
Freda splendid? What good training she must have had to be able to
manage that boat. No one else except Cora could have done it, and she
was unfamiliar with the tricks of the bay. I do feel so sorry for
Freda and her mother!" This last was said with a wistful sigh, for all
the members of the Mote were now much attached to the motherly Mrs.
Lewis.

"Cora must have known those men were going to put the 'for sale' sign
on the cottage, when she hurried so to get Freda and her mother over
to our place the other night," went on Bess. "I knew there was
something more important than merely taking care of us."

"Oh, of course, that's just like Cora. Fancy Mrs. Lewis never hearing
a word about it. If she had been in the house when they tacked that
sign on----"

"It must be perfectly awful to lose everything that way; to feel it is
all an injustice, yet not to be able to prove one's own claim," said
Belle. "Tricky business men are worse to watch than spiteful girls,
and we always thought _they_ were about all that we could handle.
There's Ted and Jean. Just look at their boat!"

Among the last of the storm-bound ones to "enter port" were Ted and
Jean, members of "Camp All Alone." They certainly presented a sorry
spectacle, as they came up to the dock.

"How do you feel?" asked Lottie, who was down near the water's edge,
in spite of Cora's admonition.

"I feel like playing a spaghetti obligato on a big hot bowl of soup,"
replied Jean. "That would be the song to reach my heart."

"The sun is clucking, girls," announced Walter. "She may set at any
time. Is there aught to eat at the Mote? Let us thither. We intended
to go to the store before tea."

"After giving you your lunch!" exclaimed Cora, in surpr