give up 'Forest
House.' It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in
time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I
ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don't mean to be an expense to Uncle
and Aunt any more after this summer." Madge's face clouded, although she
tried to conceal her dismay. "Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the
houseboat and come home at once?"

Phil's and Lillian's faces were as long and as gloomy as their other
chums' at this suggestion.

But Eleanor shook her head firmly. "No; Father says positively that he
does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is
not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this
summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter."

No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking.
Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go
into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them.

"What is it, Tania?" putting her arms about the quaint child.

"Did you say that you didn't have all the money you wanted?" inquired
Tania anxiously. "I didn't know that people like you ever needed money. I
thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in washing like old
Sal."

Madge laughed. "I don't suppose the people in the tenements are as poor
as we are sometimes, Tania, because they don't need so many things. But
don't worry your head about me, little Fairy Godmother. I am sure that
you will bring me good luck."

CHAPTER XI

THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE

"Madge, I am afraid that you and the girls are not having as good a time
at Cape May as I had hoped you would have," remarked Mrs. Curtis to the
little captain about a week later as they strolled along the beautiful
ocean boulevard that overlooked the sea. Only the day before Mrs. Curtis
and Tom had returned from Chicago. Just behind them, Lillian, Miss Jenny
Ann, Phyllis, Tom Curtis and Mrs. Curtis's protege, Philip Holt, loitered
along the beach. They were too far away to overhear the conversation of
the two women.

"On the contrary, we are having a perfectly beautiful time," answered
Madge, her face radiant with the pleasure of her surroundings. "I think
Cape May is one of the loveliest places in the whole world! And we girls
have met the most splendid old sea captain. He has the dearest, snuggest
little house up the bay! He was once a deep-sea diver and knows the most
fascinati