e breakfast."

"We're going out for breakfast," Deering remarked with affected
carelessness. "I accepted an invitation for you last night. A girl up
there at the bungalow asked me; I told her about you, and she seemed
willing to stand for it."

"The thought pleases me! You are certainly doing well, my boy!" Hood
replied, dancing about on one foot as he drew a sock on the other.

He explained that a man should never sit down while dressing; that the
exercise he got in balancing himself was of the greatest value as a
stimulus to the circulation.

"She's a very nice girl, I think," Deering continued, showing his
lathered face at the bathroom door.

He hadn't expected Hood to betray surprise, and he was not disappointed
in the matter-of-course fashion in which his companion received the
invitation.

"Breakfast is the one important meal of the day," Hood averred as he
executed a series of hops in his efforts to land inside his trousers.
"All great adventures should be planned across breakfast tables;
centrepiece of cool fruits; coffee of teasing fragrance, the toast crisp;
an egg perhaps, if the morning labors are to be severe. I know a chap in
Boston who cuts out breakfast altogether. Most melancholy person I ever
knew; peevish till one o'clock, then throws in a heavy lunch that ruins
him for the rest of the day. What did you say the adorable's name was?"

"Pierrette," Deering spluttered from the tub.

"Delightful!" cried Hood, flourishing his hair-brushes. "Then you met the
dancing-girl! I must say----"

"She had hung a moon in a tree! I followed the moon and found the girl!"

"Always the way; it never fails," Hood commented, as though the finding
of the girl had fully justified his philosophy of life. "But we can't
fool away much time at the bungalow; we've got a lot to do to-day."

"Time!" cried Deering, "I'm going to stay forever! You can't expect me to
find a girl whose post-office address is the Little Dipper, and then go
coolly off and forget about her!"

"That's the right spirit, son," Hood remarked cautiously; "but we'll see.
I'll have a look at her and decide what's best for you. My business right
now is to keep you out of trouble. You can't tell about these moon girls;
she may have a wart on her nose when you see her in daylight."

Deering hooted.

"And she probably has parents who may not relish the idea of having two
strange men prowling about the premises looking for breakfast. There are
still