d remarking:

"When you see my dear ones just say everything good to them and say I
said it. Good-bye."

Jim hurried away lest his friend should see the moisture that suddenly
filled his eyes. He "hated good-byes" and could never get used to
partings. So he fairly ran over the road to the gates of Deerhurst and
worked off his troublesome emotion by hoeing every vestige of a weed
from the broad driveways on its grounds. He toiled so swiftly and so
well that old Hans felt himself relieved of the task and quietly went
to sleep in his chair by the lodge door.

Gradually, too, the house-boat idea began to interest him. He had but
a vague notion of what such a craft was like and found himself
thinking about it with considerable pleasure. So that when, at three
o'clock the next afternoon, he stepped down from the train at Union
Station he was his old, eager, good-natured self.

"Hello, Doll!"

"O Jim! The three weeks since I saw you seems an age! Isn't it just
glorious? I'm so glad!"

With that the impulsive girl threw her arms around the lad's neck and
tip-toed upwards to reach his brown cheek with her lips. Only to find
her arms unclasped and herself set down with considerable energy.

"Quit that, girlie. Makes me look like a fool!"

"I should think it did. Your face is as red--as red! Aren't you glad
to see me, again?" demanded Miss Dorothy, folding her arms and
standing firmly before him.

She looked so pretty, so bewitching, that some passers-by smiled, at
which poor Jim's face turned even a deeper crimson and he picked up
his luggage to go forward with the crowd.

"But aren't you glad, Jim?" she again mischievously asked, playfully
obstructing his progress.

"Oh! bother! Course. But boys can be glad without such silly kissin'.
I don't know what ails girls, anyway, likin' so to make a feller look
ridic'lous."

Dorothy laughed and now marched along beside him, contenting herself
by a clasp of his burdened arms.

"Jim, you're a dear. But you're cross. I can always tell when you're
that by your 'relapsing into the vernacular,' as I read in Aunt
Betty's book. Never mind, Jim, I'm in trouble!"

"Shucks! I'd never dream it!"

They had climbed the iron stairway leading to the street above and
were now waiting for a street-car to carry them to Bellvieu. So Jim
set down his heavy telescope and light bag of clothing to rest his
arms, while old Ephraim approached from the rear. He had gone with his
"li'l miss" t