re pronounced, too, when the visitors from
Denton, in the _Sissy Radcliffe_, came to Green Knoll Camp.

The _Sissy_ was a big motor launch, and there was a good-sized
party aboard. When the ladies had once seen how the girls and Mrs. Havel
lived, they were glad to take advantage of the tent Mr. Lavine brought.
The gentlemen slept aboard the launch, which was anchored at night off
Green Knoll Camp.

There were indeed gay times, for instead of acting as "wet-blankets" to
the young folks' fun, the visitors entered into the spirit of the outing
and, with the Busters and Professor Skillings from Gannet Island, made a
holiday of the occasion.

Both the girls and boys "showed off" in their canoes in the shallow
water under the bank, and in their bathing suits. They showed the more
or less anxious parents just how skillful they were in the management of
the tricky craft.

When the canoes were overturned, the girls and boys were able to right
them, bail them out, and scramble aboard again. They could all swim and
dive like ducks--save Bessie and Tubby. But Bessie was improving every
day, and Tubby never _could_ really sink, they all declared, unless
he swallowed so much of the lake for ballast that he would be able to
wade ashore from the middle.

It was now the height of the camping season and the Busters and
Go-Aheads, with their friends, were not the only parties along the
shores of Lake Honotonka. The Jarleys were doing a good business, almost
all their craft being in use most of the time. A battalion of Boy Scouts
went into camp about ten miles to the west of Gannet Island and Dave and
his mates had some friends among them.

Several small steamboats plied the waters of the lake with excursion
parties. The people at Braisely Park often came down to Gannet Island
and the neighborhood of Green Knoll in their boats. Altogether there was
considerable intimacy among the campers and between them and the
residents of Braisely Park.

This pleasant condition of affairs brought about the idea of the
regatta, or boating sports. Some of the wealthy men at the west end of
the lake arranged the events, put up the prizes for certain classes of
boat trials and other aquatic sports, had the necessary printing and
advertising done, and

HONOTONKA REGATTA DAY

became emblazoned on the billboards along the neighboring highways and
railroad lines.

The events were entirely amateur and were confined to those