g whether _this_ can be my future bride!"
and he held at arm's length by the coat collar the laughing, squirming
figure of George Foster.

It was unanimously agreed that George did not have the appearance of a
bride, and then they went back to the hall to bob for apples. Roger
spread a rubber blanket on the floor and drew the tub from its hiding
place in the corner where it had been waiting its turn in the games.

While the boys were making these arrangements Dorothy and Helen were
busily trying to dispose of the two ends of the same string which
stretched from one mouth to the other with a tempting raisin tied in the
middle to encourage them to effort. It was forbidden to use the hands
and tongues proved not always reliable. Now Dorothy seemed ahead, now
Helen. Finally the victory seemed about to be Helen's, when she laughed
and lost several inches of string and Dorothy triumphantly devoured the
prize.

When the girls turned to see what the boys were doing, Gregory and
James were already bobbing for apples. One knelt at one side of the tub
and the other at the other, and each had his eye, when it was not full
of water, fixed on one of the apples that were bouncing busily about on
the waves caused by their own motions.

"I speak for the red one," gasped Gregory.

"All right! I'll go for the greening," agreed James, and they puffed and
sputtered, and were quite unable to fix their teeth in the sides of the
slippery fruit until James drove his head right down to the bottom of
the tub where he fastened upon the apple and came up dripping, but
triumphant.

Stimulated by the applause that greeted James, Tom and Roger tossed in
two apples and began a new contest.

"This isn't a girls' game is it?" murmured Helen as Tom won his apple by
the same means that James had used.

"Not unless you're willing to forget your hair," replied Dr. Watkins.

"You can't forget it when it takes so long to dry it," Helen answered.
"I'm content to let the boys have this entirely to themselves."

While the half drowned boys went up to Roger's room to dry their faces
the girls prepared nut boats to set sail upon the same ocean that had
floated the apples. They had cracked English walnuts carefully so that
the two halves fell apart neatly, and in place of the meats they had
packed a candle end tightly into each.

"We have the comfort of the apple even when we're defeated," said
Gregory, coming down stairs, eating the fruit that he had n