vously. "Of course, you will come to the dance."

"Yes---if you invite us!" Dick took up the challenge thus unexpectedly.

"Then you're surely invited," laughed Susie Sharp. "Aren't they,
Mrs. Bentley?"

"Yes; if they promise to come," agreed the doctor's wife. "And,
perhaps, they would rather dine than lunch with us, and then they
can attend the dance after dinner."

"That would be much better, thank you," Dick replied gratefully.

But the other fellows eyed him askance, in wondering amazement.
What on earth could Dick mean by accepting for himself and chums
a dinner and dance invitation when they had nothing to wear save
their road-worn and travel-stained hiking clothes?

"Dick is getting careless---making such an engagement for us for
to-morrow evening," Tom confided to Hazelton, when the news was
related to him.

"Well, you won't need to mind, anyway," laughed Harry gleefully.
"You, of all fellows, can't kick, Tom, after the way you've been
glorifying life in one's working clothes."

Dr. Bentley was delighted to have such capable young men as Reade
and Hazelton on hand to put on the new tire, for the man of medicine,
though a clever surgeon in some lines, was but little of a machinist.
He worked with finer tools than those that his repair box carried.

Twenty minutes later the new tire was on and had been pumped up.

"All ready!" sang out Tom.

"You might have dallied longer on that job," Dick answered reproachfully.

"Are you anxious to keep us hungry girls away from our luncheon
that much longer?" cried Susie Sharp.

"Well, whose fault is it that you are not having your luncheon,
here and now?" smiled Prescott. "You didn't like our cooking,
though."

"Don't I?" chirped Miss Sharp. "If it weren't for making you
vainer than you are, Dick Prescott, I'd tell you that the trout
luncheon you gave us at the second lake still lingers in our memories."

Regretfully, the boys escorted the high school girls down to the
road, assisting them and Mrs. Bentley into the car.

"To-morrow evening, then!" called Mrs. Bentley. "Be at the hotel
by half-past five o'clock, won't you?"

"Without fail," Dick smiled back, "unless circumstances beyond
our control prevent us."

Good-byes were eagerly called, Dr. Bentley warmly expressing his
thanks to Reade and Hazelton for their assistance. Then, with
a warning honk, the big car started away.

Then all hands turned upon Dick. "Prescott, why on earth did
you