shading her eyes with her hand and gazing
eagerly out toward the speck that was growing larger every minute. "Oh,
wouldn't it be wonderful?"

"But we're not a bit sure it's the boys," Connie reminded her. "Lots of
motor boats come here in the summer."

"Oh, stop being a kill-joy," Laura commanded, giving her a little shake.
"I just feel it in my bones that the boys are in that boat. Where will
they land, Connie?"

"At the dock, of course," Connie answered, in a tone which said very
plainly: "You ought to have known that without asking."

"Well, let's run around there then," cried Billie, her cheeks red with
excitement. "They won't know what to do if nobody's there to meet them."

As always with Billie, to think a thing was to do it, and before the
girls had a chance to say anything she was off, fleet-footed, down the
sand in the direction of the dock.

The girls stared for a minute, then Laura started in pursuit.

"Come on," she cried. "She's crazy, of course, but we've got to follow
her, I suppose."

Billie had almost reached the dock before they caught up with her. Then
Laura reached out a hand and jerked her to stop.

"Billie," she gasped, "be sensible for just a minute, please. Suppose it
isn't the boys? Then we won't want to be waiting around as though we
wanted somebody to speak to us!"

"Well, but I'm sure it is the boys. You said so yourself," retorted
Billie impatiently, her eyes fixed on the mysterious spot dancing and
bobbing on the glistening water. "And they certainly won't know what to
do if there isn't a soul here to meet them."

"But we don't want to meet them in our bathing suits," said Vi, who, with
Connie, had just come pantingly up. "It wouldn't be just proper, would
it?"

Billie looked at her doubtfully a moment, then reluctantly shook her
head.

"No, I don't suppose it would," she admitted, adding with a stamp of her
foot. "But I did want to be here to meet them."

"Well, we can be, if we rush," broke in Connie. "The boat won't reach the
dock for fifteen or twenty minutes anyway, because it's still a long way
off. We may be able to throw some clothes on and be back by that time."

"'Throw' is right," Laura said skeptically, but Billie was already racing
off again in the direction of the cottage. With a helpless little laugh,
the girls followed.

The boys would have declared it could not be done. But the girls proved
that it could. They were panting when they reached the house, s