oint. "I think
the 'Merry Maid' is lovely, don't you, Flora?"

"The _boat_? Oh, yes," drawled Flora. Then with a touch of malice she
added, "You told me you made your houseboat from an old canal boat,
didn't you, Miss Morton?"

"Yes," returned the little captain briefly; then, as though unconscious
of any malice aforethought on the part of the other girl, she continued
a laughing conversation with Tom Curtis and Alfred Thornton.

"I should have guessed it," commented Flora Harris, shrugging her
shoulders. She frowned as she noted that Alfred Thornton appeared to be
enjoying himself immensely. Furthermore, no one had paid the slightest
attention to her malicious little thrust. Madge had answered her
without seeming to realize the insult her words contained.

Madge had fully realized, however, the hidden insolence of Flora
Harris's reply, but she would have died rather than allow the other
girl to know it.

"Did you say I didn't dare, Tom?" she exclaimed in answer to a laughing
remark on the part of the young man. "I don't see anything very daring
about your proposal. O Phil!" she turned to Phyllis, "Tom and Mr.
Thornton dare us to row against them in the camp regatta next week.
Will you do it?"

"Of course," agreed Phyllis, who would have cheerfully acquiesced to
almost anything Madge saw fit to propose. "We are likely to come in
last, but never mind a little thing like that. We are out of practice
though. I wonder if we can't persuade a number of other girls to enter
the race too?"

Flora Harris glanced disdainfully at Madge and Phyllis. She and Alice
had lived near salt water all their lives, and had been taught to row
by experts. It was too absurd to think of these two country girls
rowing against them! As for entering a racing contest with boys from
the camp--surely they were joking! But if they meant it seriously, she
and Alice were ready for them.

"Oh, yes, we will enter the race," she answered with a kind of amused
indifference. "I suppose Alice and I can row as well as your other
friends. But we really must be getting back to the Point. Lieutenant
Jimmy, we are sorry to interrupt you, but we have a long trip ahead of
us." Her significant tone caused Phyllis and that young man to flush.

It was quite true that Lieutenant Jimmy had devoted himself exclusively
to Phyllis, and that she had forgotten every one else in listening to
the stories of naval life which he had been relating to her. Still,
Flora H