"Oh, how lovely!" cried Alice, clapping her hands in girlish enthusiasm.
"Won't it be fine, Ruth?"

"It sounds enticing."

"To think of steaming along these quiet and mysterious streams, under the
palms," exclaimed Alice. "Oh, I'm so glad I came."

"Huh! Yes. Suppose we get lost, as those two girls are?" demanded Mr.
Sneed, who was the only one, you may be sure, who would make such a
disquieting suggestion.

"Well, if we're all lost together it won't be so bad," declared Alice.
"But I should hate to be lost all alone."

"Don't speak of it!" begged Ruth, with a shudder.

After two or three days of fretting, because the boat he had ordered did
not come, Mr. Pertell finally received word that it was on its way up the
Kissimmee River.

The _Magnolia_, which was the name of the steamer, arrived two days
later. It proved to be an old, comfortable craft, with a wheezy engine,
burning wood. At the stern was a paddle wheel, so placed because of the
character of the waters to be navigated. The boat only drew about a foot,
and could go in very shallow streams.

There were sleeping and cooking quarters aboard, and on the upper deck a
place to promenade, or to sit in the shade of an awning.

"It's like a house-boat!" cried Alice in delight, as she and Ruth
inspected it. "Oh, I'd just like to live aboard this all the while."

"You will be on it a good deal," observed Russ. "We've got a number of
dramas planned, of which the boat is the background."

CHAPTER XIV

UNDER THE PALMS

"Attention, everyone!"

Mr. Pertell stood on the deck of the _Magnolia_, facing his company of
players. At his side was Russ, with the moving picture camera ready for
action.

"The first part of this play takes place aboard here," went on the
manager. "The action is simple, as you can see from the scenarios I have
distributed. Some acts will take place on shore, and when the time comes
for that the boat will be sent over to the bank and be tied up. Now then,
Russ, get ready to film them. Mr. DeVere, you are in this first act; also
Miss Ruth and Miss Dixon. Are you up in your parts?"

"Oh, yes," answered the veteran actor. Indeed it did not take him long to
become letter perfect, for with him to act was not only second, but first
nature.

"I don't just understand how I am to do this part," said Miss Dixon, as
she walked over to Mr. Pertell to point out a certain direction.
Thereupon he explained it carefully to her.

The compan