"Now, young ladies, are you ready for a tramp? We have to walk to the old village this morning to shop, unless you want to go to the dock and take Frank's ferry. He will take us across for ten cents each, and we need things to eat."

"Oh, do let us walk," begged Bess. "I haven't seen half the things that grow around here."

"Do _you_ grow around here?" asked Belle, maliciously, inferring that the desired walk was needed to "reduce." A withering look was the answer she received from her twin sister. Just the same the walk was decided upon, and a little later the wintergreen path was alive with voices. It was one of the delights of Summer to tramp and ramble; and in spite of the joys of motor boating the girls were not slow to appreciate the pleasures of dry land decked in various shades of foliage green and floral tints.

The mountain laurel was at its best--that little ta.s.selled thing we call "pfingster," but which looks quite aristocratic enough to belong to the orchid family, made bouquets of itself in every appropriate spot, while the glorious rhododendrons put forth a display sufficiently beautiful and courageous to last all Summer.

"Oh, my, look at the style!" Lottie exclaimed as a party of young folks appeared before them. They were evidently coming from the Cliff Hotel, and made the most of that fact.

"There's Hilda Hastings!" Cora said, in surprise. "I didn't know she was down here."

A remarkably pretty girl, light-haired and wearing lilac shades, with a parasol that reflected that becoming tint, was Hilda. She evidently saw, and recognized Cora just as the latter spied her.

"Cora Kimball!" cried Hilda, in the delighted way that usually marks a meeting with a home friend in the midst of vacation time. "Where did you come from?"

"Oh, Hilda!" answered Cora, advancing to meet the girl who almost ran to greet her, "I am so glad to see you. We are stopping at our own little bunk--the Motely Mote--on Pine Shade Way. And where do you put up?"

Introductions followed, and girls from the Mote were plainly delighted to meet the others from a fashionable hotel. The meeting also resulted in a general invitation from the Cliff girls to the Motes to attend a hop to be given the next evening at the hotel.

"And do bring every boy you can sc.r.a.pe up," Hilda enjoined. "We shall be sure to need them."

"What dress?" asked Lottie the Vain.

"Linen or lace, doesn't matter in the least," declared a young girl whom they called Madge. "We will wear whatever we fall into for dinner."

"All right," answered Lottie for all, fluttering at the prospect of a real hotel hop. "We will wear whatever we may find pressable--we have the awfullest time with wrinkles down here."

"Don't mind them," answered Hilda. "Wrinkled clothes are a seaside fad, you know. If you have none you will be suspected of being the Press Club Trust. That's a clothing club--not literary."

With other pleasantries the two sets parted, but not until all sorts of invitations to come and visit had been extended and accepted.

"What nice girls," the timid Marita remarked as the fashionable ones turned into the lane. "Isn't Hilda pretty? Are they from Chelton?"

"She is and they are," answered Cora. "But I do not see how we are going to that hop. The boys were going to take us out in a sail boat, you know."

"Oh, I would be frightened to death in a sail boat," objected Lottie.

"And perfectly safe in a canoe," observed Belle. "Charlotte, that is scarcely understandable."

"Well," said Lottie, turning a deeper shade of pink, "I am afraid of that big pole in a sail boat. It looks as if it would sweep one's head off every time it veers around."

"Just duck," advised Belle. "It's a great teacher of the proper mode of ducking; and that is not to be despised, Lottie, whether one has to duck harsh words, or big poles. But I want to go sailing. I can't see what fun there is in going into a stuffy hotel on a beautiful moonlight evening when we can go out on the water and see something."

"Don't you think we would see something in the Cliff ball room?"

challenged Lottie.

"Peace!" called Cora, good-naturedly. "It looks as if we might have to take a vote on the question. But I can't say that the boys would be willing to accept a negative answer."

"Oh, won't they come?" Lottie asked in surprise.

"I don't believe they will forego the sail," replied Cora. "However, we won't decide until we ask them. If they want to postpone the water sport we may take in the hop."

This was looked upon as a reasonable solution of the problem, and while some of the girls hoped for the sail, perhaps an equal number wished to go to the dance.

It was a delightful morning, and the woods were fairly alive with young folk. It seemed there could be very few mothers or chaperones at Crystal Bay, for even in marketing hours it was always the girls with baskets, or the boys with huge paper bags, who were encountered. On benches along the beach, to be sure, "elders" might be found sunning themselves and ruining their fading sight with alleged art embroideries, but in the matter of housekeeping it was youth that prevailed at the bay.

It was a long walk to the general store at the point, but there was a resting place there, and if one wanted to tarry and felt like dancing, a very accommodating young man sat near the piano ready to play at the shortest notice. Belle and Lottie usually took a twirl while Bess and Cora did the shopping, but to-day having walked instead of coming by motor boat they sank into a seat at the water's edge and watched others try the newest steps.

Around the drug counter a number of men were engaged in earnest conversation with the salesman. Belle needed cold cream and was waiting her turn to tell the clerk so.

"We just about have it," said one man to the man behind the counter.

"There is no question about the legal right; it is only a matter of a lost doc.u.ment. We may get along without it, but we understood you were a life-long resident, knew the people, and thought perhaps you could tell us something about it. Of course we don't want anyone's time for nothing."

The clerk scratched his head and looked over his gla.s.ses. The scale was tipping with white stuff and a customer was waiting.

"That may be so," he replied, slowly, "but I should think, young fellow, that them folks themselves would know more about their own business than anyone else. Why don't you go to them?"

"Do you think for a moment that anyone is going to do themselves out of house and home like that?" asked the taller man, angrily.

"Oh, that's the game; is it? Well, see here! Do you think for one moment that I, Bill Sparks, am going to do a poor widow out of house and home to suit you!"

He had raised his voice to angry tones, a remarkable thing for Bill to do in business hours, but those around who heard had no blame for him.

The strangers left without taking up their cigars or paying for them.

Bill looked after them quizzically.

"That's the way to answer that sort," he remarked to no one in particular. "Too many of them speculators around the bay, lately. Cold cream?" he inquired of Bess.

Cora had seen the men, although she was in the grocery department, and when Bess told her what she had overheard she looked troubled.

"We must not put that off another day," she told Bess. "I am convinced that those men are dishonest, for why should they go sneaking around that way? Why not ask for information from the proper persons?"

Scarcely had she spoken than Mrs. Lewis and Freda appeared in the doorway that led from the boat landing. Freda's face was flushed, and Mrs. Lewis's was pale.

"What is it?" Cora asked, hurrying up to them.

"They have started a mill dam across the creek," replied Freda. "If they turn that water into use for mill purposes the whole sh.o.r.e of the bay will be ruined!"

"Don't go so fast, daughter," urged Mrs. Lewis. "We can stop them; we must get a lawyer at once."

"Of course," answered Cora, "I think they call it an injunction, or restraining papers. Who is your lawyer, Mrs. Lewis?"

"We haven't any," Freda replied for her mother. "We were told if we engaged counsel they would eat up the whole thing. Oh, isn't it dreadful!" and the brave Freda was on the verge of tears.

"I'll see Jack at once," declared Cora, "and if there are not trustworthy lawyers here we will fetch our own down from Chelton. The senior member of the firm would do anything reasonable for our family, and when mother is away she leaves Jack and me full discretion. Let us hurry back before the boys get out on the water. Bess, call Belle and Lottie."

The look of relief that spread over the widow's face was a more eloquent form of thanks than words could have been, so without further delay they all hurried to the motor boat in which Mrs. Lewis and Freda had come over. It was from a bay front hotel and had come over for the eleven o'clock mail.

The boy at the wheel started up as soon as all were seated, and as the launch was a good-sized one the trip across the bay was both comfortable and enjoyable. Of course Belle and Lottie wanted to know more than they could be told about the coming of Freda and Mrs. Lewis, so they had to content themselves with a word and a look from Cora.