rham told me once she thought
every last one of us had very intelligent faces, but now we know we are
budding geniuses. Of course, Dorrie, you and I haven't budded very much so
far, but with an artist and a prima donna in a family, we'll have to begin
our song of triumph pretty soon. I'll bet a cookie she'll go up there in
the pasture every day and do her vocal practicing out of hearing of the
'cello, and Helenita will perch on the nearest rock and play echo."

CHAPTER XXVIII

STANLEY PAYS AN OLD SCORE

The first week in August, Jean, who had acted as treasurer of the tent
fund, announced that it had proved a solid financial success. Every tent
was full and booked up to the middle of September. The girls from the Art
School had persuaded two more batches to find the trail to Gilead, and
Billie's boy friends had turned their tents into headquarters for the club
they belonged to at school.

Jeff Saunders had used his car back and forth until Kit declared it made
her think of the fox, goose and bag of corn story.

"Jeff skips down to Richmond and takes back a couple of boys, lays off
himself for a couple of weeks, and lo, and behold, the car comes back with
three new ones, but I must say that they're the best behaved lot of boys I
ever saw. You'd hardly know they were around at all, except for the
twanging of ukuleles and guitars at night. And they certainly have kept us
supplied with fish ever since they came. I think it's done Dad a world of
good going away with them and kind of turning into a boy again. Stanley
said the other day they were going out fishing all night just as soon as
the bass were running."

Mrs. Gorham was setting the table for lunch and stopped at the last words,
one hand on her ample hip, and a look of anxiety in her eyes.

"They ain't calculatin' to fish over there beyond the dam, are they?
That's where the Gaskell boy come near drowning a year ago, when his boat
upset. It's just full of sunken snags for half a mile up the river above
the island."

"I guess that's where they're going just the same. Billie Ellis thinks
that he knows every foot of space on that upper lake and river just
because he's poled around on it for years with that old leaky,
flat-bottomed boat of his."

"Well, it's all right in the daytime," Mrs. Gorham rejoined, "but I
wouldn't give two cents for their safety fishing for bass on a dark night
among those snags."

It happened that the very next day Kit decided