ppearance.

"We've been preparing our friends at the Terraces for a different
looking lot of young men," laughed Susie. "We have told them
that a number of high school boy friends of ours were coming
over to dinner and the hop attired in the same clothes they have
been wearing in camp and on the road. Now we must apologize to
them for presenting fashion plates."

The explanation, as Dick presently furnished it to Laura Bentley,
was a simple one. Dick had been handling the funds of the six
boys on this expedition, which had held out much longer than any
of his chums had known. At the time of accepting the invitation
young Prescott had felt sure that an Ashbury clothier would be
able to furnish proper clothes for his party, and his guess had
proved a correct one. Moreover, the treasury of Dick & Co. had
been easily able to endure the drain, for these white clothes
had not been costly.

Mrs. Bentley presently joined the little Gridley group of young
people on the veranda. That good lady noted, with secret pleasure,
the well-groomed appearance of her young guests.

"Rah, rah, rah!" came boisterously up the veranda, as the camp
visitors of the evening before suddenly appeared. "Rah, rah,
rah!"

Then, halting in a compact group midway on the veranda, they shouted
in chorus:

"S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S! Saunders! Saunders! Siss-boom-a-a-ah! Rah,
rah, rah!"

"College boys!" exclaimed Susie Sharp in an impatient undertone.
"College boys, and the worst of their kind. They're noisy nuisances!"

"So far as any other guest has been able to discover they haven't
any manners," Belle added.

Then, espying the girls and their guests the rah-rah-rah boys
came briskly up the veranda.

"Good evening, Miss Meade!" called one of them, lifting his hat.
"Glorious evening, isn't it? How many dances may I have the
honor of claiming at the hop to-night?"

Belle Meade blushed slightly and drew back a step, resenting the
young man's familiarity.

In front of the presumptuous youth stepped Dave Darrin, with eyes
flashing.

"Kindly keep your distance, young man!" Dave advised, in a tone
of dangerous quiet.

"Who asked you to speak?" inquired the rah-rah youth mockingly.

"I am a friend of the young lady, and she finds your presence
an intrusion," replied Darry, controlling himself by a mighty
effort.

"All guests of the hotel are supposed to be acquainted," urged
the rah-rah youth, reddening a trifle.

"These young ladie