t under her breath. "We ran
out on an ice pier and plumped right into the pond."

"You went down with the car, then?" stammered Mr. McCarthy.

"Right down to the bottom," Tommy informed him.

"That did not amount to much," continued Harriet. "The top was not up.
We had little difficulty in getting out--"

"But Harriet was drowned in getting the trunk free from the rear end,"
declared Jane earnestly.

"Drowned?" exclaimed the contractor.

"Yes, nearly drowned," corrected Miss Elting. "We had a pretty hard
time resuscitating her. I am beginning to think that the Meadow-Brook
Girls bear charmed lives, Mr. McCarthy."

"So am I. But you don't mean to tell me that Harriet really was all
but drowned?"

"Yes."

"It does beat all, it does," reflected Mr. McCarthy, mopping his
forehead again and regarding Harriet with wondering eyes. "It is a
guess as to whether she or Jane can get into the most trouble. They
are a pair hard to beat."

"We do not try to find excitement, Mr. McCarthy," expostulated
Harriet. "We cannot always help it if trouble overtakes us the way it
did when the car went into the ice pond."

"Certainly not. I know you, at least, are wholly to be depended upon,
but Jane isn't always the most prudent girl in the world. Now, will
you dears run along and enjoy yourselves. I have several things to
discuss with Mrs. Livingston, then we will have an afternoon together.
I wish Jane and Harriet to drive down with me and show me the place
where they lost the car later on in the afternoon. You remember you
interrupted our conversation here a short time ago, Jane," reminded
the visitor.

"May I try the car, Dad?" questioned Jane.

"Yes. But look sharp that you don't wreck the thing. I have no fancy
to walk all the way back to Portsmouth this evening," he chuckled.

"Come along, Meadow-Brooks. I can't take any more this trip, but if
Dad's buggy goes all right, I'll take the rest of you out on the
instalment plan."

"I don't want to go," decided Tommy. "I want to thtay here and retht.
I never get any retht at all."

The others were eager to go. Jane already was cranking up the car. Her
companions, with the exception of Grace Thompson, piled in, and a few
moments later the car rolled from the camp, headed for the highway
some little distance from the camp. There was no road leading to the
camp, but the way was reasonably smooth, provided one dodged the
trees, both standing and fallen.

In the meantime th