e finally
faltered, as the four girls left the dining room to go upstairs, "you
take the letter and read it to us, please do. Positively I haven't the
courage to look at it. I feel almost sure that Aunt Sue will say we
can't go on our houseboat trip."

Lillian put her hand affectionately on Madge's arm, while Phil stood
next to Eleanor.

"My dear Madge," the letter began, "I think your houseboat plan for the
summer a most extraordinary one. I never heard of young girls
attempting such a holiday before. I can not imagine how you happened
to unearth such a peculiar idea."

Madge gave a gasp of despair. She felt that the tone of her Aunt Sue's
letter spelled refusal. But Eleanor read on: "Like a good many of your
unusual ideas, this houseboat scheme seems, after all, to be rather an
interesting one. Your uncle and I have talked over your letter and
Eleanor's. We do not wish you and Eleanor to be separated, and we do
wish you both to have the happiest holiday possible, as we are quite
sure you have earned it. So, if you can find a suitable chaperon, we
are willing to give our consent to your undertaking. We had intended
to pay twenty-five dollars a month board for Eleanor with her cousins
at Charlottesville, so we shall be glad to contribute that sum toward
the provisioning of the house-boat."

There was a dead silence in the room when Eleanor at last finished
reading the letter. For half a minute the four chums were too happy to
speak. Then there was a united sigh of relief.

"Oh, I shall never be able to survive it! It is too much joy for one
day!" cried the irrepressible Madge, dancing around in a circle and
dragging Lillian Seldon, whose arm was linked in hers, with her.

Lillian and Phyllis had received their parents' consent, by letter, the
day before and had already agreed that their respective monthly
allowances should be placed in the general fund.

"Be still, Madge," begged Eleanor. "You are so noisy that you drive
all thought from our heads. The first thing for us to consider is
where we shall find a chaperon."

"No; the first thing to do is to find the house-boat. O Ship of our
Dreams! tell us, dear Ship, where we can find you?" cried Phyllis Alden
longingly. She was looking past her friends with half-closed eyes.
Already she was, in the land of her imagination, in a beautiful white
boat, floating beside an evergreen shore. The little craft was
furnished all in white, with dainty musl