e getting into his dotage!
Of course, girlie, I don't mean that fully, but isn't it a queer
notion? What in the world can you, could you, do with a house-boat?"

"Live in it, sail in it, have the jolliest time in it! Why not,
Auntie, darling?"

Dorothy's face was shining with eagerness and she ran to clasp Mrs.
Calvert with coaxing arms. "Why not, indeed, Aunt Betty? You've been
shut up in this hot city all summer long; you haven't had a bit of an
outing, anywhere; it would do you lots of good to go sailing about on
the river or bay; and--and--do say 'yes,' please, to dear Mr. Seth's
offer! Oh! do!"

The old lady kissed the uplifted face, merrily exclaiming:

"Don't pretend it's for my benefit, little wheedler! The idea of such
a thing is preposterous--simply preposterous! Run away and write the
silly man that we've no use for house-boats, but if he does happen to
have an elephant on hand, a white elephant, we might consider
accepting it as a gift! We could have it kept at the park Zoo, maybe,
and some city youngsters might like that."

Dorothy's face clouded. She had become accustomed to receiving rich
gifts, during her Summer on a Ranch, as the guest of the wealthy
Fords, and now to have a house-boat offered her was only one more of
the wonderful things life brought to her.

Going back to her seat beside the open window she pushed her own
letters aside, for the moment, to re-read that of her old teacher
and guardian, during her life on the mountain by the Hudson. She had
always believed Mr. Winters to be the wisest of men, justly entitled
to his nickname of the "Learned Blacksmith." He wasn't one to do
anything without a good reason and, of course, Aunt Betty's remarks
about him had been only in jest. That both of them understood; and
Dorothy now searched for the reason of this surprising gift. This was
the letter:

"Dear Cousin Betty:

"Mr. Blank has failed in business, just as you warned me he
would, and all I can recover of the money I loaned him is
what is tied up in a house-boat, one of his many
extravagances--though, in this case, not a great one.

"Of course, I have no use for such a floating structure on
top of a mountain and I want to give it to our little
Dorothy. As she has now become a shareholder in a mine with
a small income of her own, she can afford to accept the boat
and I know she will enjoy it. I have forwarded the deed of
gift to m