rport, and we're lucky to
have her at Central High," said Dorothy, loyally.

"We're supposed to be in training for the boat races, too," said Dora.

The girls got aboard nicely and started across the lake. It was a calm
day and there were scarcely any ripples; therefore there was little
likelihood of the girls getting into any trouble. Half way across they
saw a second motor-boat towing the burned _Duchess_ toward the city. The
fire was out, but the girls saw that poor Purt would have to spend some
of his money in repairing the craft.

The four girls reached the school boathouse and had their canoes drawn
out and put carefully away. Then they separated, for the Lockwood twins
did not live on the same street as Laura and her chum.

The Lockwood cottage was set in a rather large plot of ground, which was
mostly given up to Mr. Lockwood's nursery and hot-houses. The twins'
father was wrapped up in his horticultural experiments, and as they had
no mother the two girls were left much to their own devices. Mrs. Betsey
Spink kept house for the Lockwoods, and had been the twins' nurse when
they were little. She was a gentle, unassuming old lady, who "mothered"
the girls as best she knew how, and shielded absent-minded Mr. Lockwood
from all domestic troubles. The neighbors declared that the Lockwood
household would have been a very shiftless establishment had it not been
for Mrs. Betsey.

Mr. Lockwood seldom knew how the bills were paid, what the girls wore,
or how the house was run. His mind was given wholly to inventing new
forms of plant life. He experimented with white blackberries, thornless
roses, dwarf trees that bore several kinds of fruit on different limbs,
and, of late, had tried to cultivate a seedless watermelon. He was
always expecting to make a fortune out of some of his novel experiments;
but as yet the fortune had not materialized.

But he was a most lovable gentleman, and the twins were as proud of him
as though he was the most successful man in Centerport. Mr. Lockwood had
one cross to bear, however--a thorn in the flesh which troubled him on
occasion very much. This was a certain very practical sister--the twins'
Aunt Dora. Fortunately Aunt Dora lived in another city; but she was apt
to make unexpected visits to her brother, and when she came to the
Lockwood house there was no peace for any of the inmates while she
stayed.

As the twins on this occasion entered the premises by the back gate they
saw c