in reply to a
speech of his companions.

"I was givin' ye half an hour more," said the boy, as they greeted him.
"Ye usually"--

"Don't betray me that way, Benny," interrupted Edna. "I'll have to
confess, though, that this promptness is all owing to Mr. Dunham. He
has pursued and hurried us since eight o'clock."

"I've traveled on my virtuous early rising up to the present moment,"
remarked Dunham; "but now I'll confess that I wasn't so crazy over the
sunrise as I was at it. It was a very unwelcome pageant in my room at 3
A.M."

"Oh, surely!" exclaimed Edna sympathetically. "Those cruelly light
windows."

"Did you ever try a black stocking?" asked Sylvia earnestly.

"Well--occasionally," replied Dunham, regarding his feet.

"I mean on your eyes."

"No. Is that the latest? I'm from the country."

"People talk about sunshine in a shady place," said Sylvia. "I think
shade in a sunny place is quite as important. Always put a black
stocking under your pillow when you go to sleep in a blindless room.
The light wakes you, you draw the stocking across your eyes,--and off
you go again."

"Yes, but supposing the stocking does the same?" objected Dunham.

The girls laughed, much to Benny's disapproval.

"You shouldn't toss around so, then," said Edna.

"That isn't kind," remarked John. "Benny, I trust there is something
black on board to draw across these lunch boxes. It is one hundred in
the refrigerator on this dock."

Benny took the lunch stolidly, and stowed it under cover.

He considered Mr. Dunham an entirely superfluous member of this party.

"He's the freshest lobster ever I see," was his mental comment. "I
wonder which of 'em he's sweet on?"

The passengers jumped aboard.

"Guess I'll save you the trouble of sailing her, eh, Benny?" asked
John.

"You better guess again," drawled the boy, returning to his place and
taking possession of the ropes. "I've got to take care of Miss Edna."

"Oh, Benny," said the girl gently, "you know this is Mr. Dunham's
vacation."

"Hadn't ought to work in his vacation," returned Benny doggedly.

John was standing undecidedly looking down at him. There was an evident
and large thunder cloud across Benny's brow.

"Why the grouch?" asked John _sotto voce_, looking down at Edna. "Is it
chronic?"

"There are monsters in this deep, John, with green eyes," she replied
mysteriously, smiling. "They're tamable when young, though. Sit down a
while."

"He don't know na