e the picnic first," he said, shipping his oars. "I can't row
when I'm so hungry. This morning air gives a fellow an appetite."

"It does so," agreed Marjorie; "and we girls have been out 'most an hour.
I'm 'bout starved."

So they held a very merry picnic breakfast, while the boat drifted along
with the current, and the cold chicken and biscuits rapidly disappeared.

"Now, where do you girls want to go?" asked King, as, the last crumb
finished, Kitty carefully packed the napkins and glasses back in the
basket.

"Oh, let's go to Blossom Banks," said Marjorie, "that is, if there's time
enough."

"We'll go down that way, anyhow," said King, "and if it gets late we'll
come back before we get there. Anybody got a watch?"

Nobody had, but all agreed they wouldn't stay out very long, so on they
went, propelled by King's long, strong strokes down toward Blossom Banks.

It was a delightful sensation, because it was such a novel one. To row on
the river at six o'clock in the morning was a very different proposition
from rowing later in the day. Molly and Marjorie sat together in the
stern, and Kitty lay curled up in the bow, with her hands behind her
head, dreamily gazing into the morning sky.

"Do you remember, Molly," said Midget, "how we went out with Carter one
day, and he scolded us so because we bobbed about and paddled our hands
in the water?"

"Yes, I remember," and Molly laughed at the recollection. "Let's dabble
our hands now. May we, King?"

"Sure! I guess I can keep this boat right side up if you girls do trail
your hands in the water."

And so the two merry maidens dabbled their hands in the water, and
growing frolicsome, shook a spray over each other, and even flirted drops
into King's face. The boy laughed good-naturedly, and retaliated by
splashing a few drops on them with the tip end of his oar.

King was fond of rowing, and was clever at it, and being a large,
strong boy, it tired him not at all. Moreover, the boat was a light,
round-bottomed affair that rowed easily, and was not at all hard to
manage.

King's foolery roused the spirit of mischief in the two girls, and faster
and faster flew the drops of water from one to another of the
merrymakers.

"No fair splashing!" cried King. "Just a spray of drops goes."

"All right," agreed Marjorie, who was also a stickler for fair play, and
though she dashed the water rapidly, she sent merely a flying spray, and
not a drenching handful. But Molly w