hat is just the trouble. Mrs. Curtis and Tom drove away about a
quarter of an hour ago. I am so sorry, but I did look for you
everywhere; so did Pompey. We called and called you. Mrs. Curtis and
Tom were dreadfully disappointed. They were afraid to wait any longer
for fear they would miss their train. They left a great deal of love
for you. Mrs. Curtis was charmed with 'Forest House.' You may see them
soon again. Mrs. Curtis wants us----"

"Oh, I am so sorry I missed them," lamented Madge. "When does Mrs.
Curtis's train go?"

"At one o'clock," answered Eleanor. "Mother wished them to stay to
luncheon, but they had hired such a slow old horse at the station that
they thought it wisest to leave in time."

"And they have been on the way only a quarter of an hour?" questioned
Madge. "I know what I am going to do: I am going to ride Dixie down to
the station. I know I can overtake Tom and Mrs. Curtis before their
train leaves the station. I may be able to get just a peep at them.
Here, take my book, please, Nellie. Make it all right with Uncle
William and Aunt Sue. I am sure to be late for luncheon." Madge was off
across the fields, running as though her life depended on it.

Readers of "MADGE MORTON, CAPTAIN OF THE 'MERRY MAID'" already know the
story of how four girls, with more enthusiasm than money, found and
transformed a dilapidated old canal boat into the pretty floating
summer home which they christened the "Merry Maid" and launched on a
quiet shore of Chesapeake Bay.

Their subsequent meeting with a Mrs. Curtis and her son, Tom, persons
of wealth and social position, who were summering at one of the
fashionable hotels along the shore of the bay, prepared the way for a
series of eventful happenings in which the crew of the "Merry Maid"
amply proved their mettle.

It was through the efforts of Madge Morton and Phyllis Alden that a
young woman was rescued from the clutches of a family of rough and
uncouth fisher folk, and taken aboard the "Merry Maid," where it
developed that she was none other than the daughter of Mrs. Curtis who
had been lost at sea twelve years previously.

After a succession of happy weeks on the houseboat, the girls repaired
to their various homes to spend the remainder of their vacations with
their families. They had promised Mrs. Curtis, however, that for two
weeks before returning to school they would be her guests on their own
houseboat, which she had arranged to have removed from Plea