the outskirts of the clearing to survey the scene.

[Illustration: THEY ROAMED ABOUT THE CLEARING INSPECTING THE TENT
CRITICALLY. _Page 89_

_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._]

"Glad you like it," said Frank, then advancing toward the nearer of the
two tents, he paused, turned, and made a low bow. "Enter, fair damsels,"
he said.

"He thinks he is reading 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,'"
drawled Grace. "However, we will deign to honor you with our presence."
And she swept past him with a queenly air that elicited amused laughter
from the others.

For more than an hour the Outdoor Girls and their friends roamed about
the clearing inspecting the tent critically, inside and out, and picking
flowers in between times. It was Will who first suggested a change.

"Why not take a walk about the country?" he asked. "I guess we have seen
all there is to be seen here. Come on, everybody. I want to get a bigger
appetite for lunch."

"All right; where shall we go?" Betty agreed readily. "Your aunt must
have told you about this part of the world, Mollie. Where can we find
excitement?"

"Well, there is the summer colony at the other end of the island,"
Mollie began doubtfully. "But it is rather a long way off. The steamer
touches there from here."

"Too far to go before lunch," Mrs. Irving said.

The party spent the rest of the time until one o'clock visiting the
wharf and roaming the country in the immediate vicinity of the pretty
bungalow.

True to her promise, Betty turned out at the appointed time a panful of
the most appetizing biscuits, and let it be said here that the boys did
them full justice--to say nothing of the girls.

It was well on toward three o'clock before the girls had changed their
morning middies and skirts for dainty afternoon dresses, and had made
all other necessary preparations for a trip to town. Mrs. Irving
declined to go, saying she wished to write letters.

It was in the best of spirits that the party of young people stood on
the end of the dock, waiting to hail the little steamer as it
chug-chugged its way from the summer colony at the far end of Pine
Island to the mainland.

When finally it did come in sight, the girls and the boys found
themselves convulsed with laughter. If the shabby little craft had
appeared grotesque in the mist of the night before, how much more
forlorn did it look in the full, dazzling glare of the sun! As it came
nearer they saw that the decks w