e did think of it for a
brief instant, for she realized perfectly that her white serge suit would
look anything but smart if she plunged into the river in it. Then, too,
her friends, Captain Jules, and her father might be displeased with her.
But the little lad had given her such an agonized, helpless look of
appeal as he struck the water! And his eyes were so like Tania's!

Captain Jules turned around at the sound of feet running down the dock.
David Brewster and Tom Curtis were side by side. But they both looked
more surprised than frightened. In the water, a few feet from the dock,
Captain Jules espied Madge Morton, her white hat floating off the back of
her head, her face and hair dripping with water. She was smiling in a
half-apologetic and half-nervous way. In one hand she held a small boy
firmly by the collar. "Fish us out, somebody?" she begged. "I am
dreadfully sorry to spoil my clothes, but this little wretch would go and
fall into the water at the very last moment."

Captain Jules and one of his sailors pulled Madge and the small boy
safely onto the wharf again. The captain frowned at her solemnly, while
David and Tom laughed.

"How am I ever going to keep her out of the bottom of the sea?" the
captain inquired sternly. "I don't know that I care for the role of
playing guardian to a mermaid."

Madge could see Mrs. Curtis, Miss Jenny Ann, her chums and her father, as
well as their other friends, hurrying down toward the end of the dock.
She gave one swift glance at them, then she looked ruefully at her own
dripping garments. Tom and David long remembered her as they saw her at
that moment. Her white dress clung to her slender form; the water was
dripping from her clothing, her cheeks were a brilliant crimson from
embarrassment at her plight; her red-brown hair glinted in the bright
sunlight, and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief and dismay. Before any
one had a chance to scold or to reproach her, she had dashed across the
wharf, run aboard the yacht and had shut herself up in her stateroom.

A few minutes later, dressed in a fresh white serge frock, she emerged to
say good-bye. The houseboat girls had made up their minds that not one
tear would any one of them shed when the moment of parting came. Lillian
and Phil stood on either side of Eleanor, for neither of them had much
faith that Nellie could keep her word when it came to the test.

Madge went first to Mr. and Mrs. John Randolph. "Miss Betsey" to