your hotel," said Edna.

"Going to take me home to supper? Good work," he returned.

"Yes, and we shan't let you go back to that room full of sunrise,
either."

"That sounds great"--began Dunham eagerly. "But I can't trouble you,"
he added. "Miss Sylvia has told me how to banish the light. What do you
suppose Miss Martha would say if I asked her to lend me a black
stocking?"

"Better not risk it," returned Edna, smiling. "Sylvia is going to stay
with me a week. With the addition of yourself we shall compose a very
select house party."

"I came over here to stay an hour," said Sylvia.

"So did I," added Dunham.

"Well," replied Edna, "we'll sail to the Tide Mill to-morrow and get
you a few belongings."

"I trust you haven't had a moment's hope that I'd refuse," said John.

"It's too lovely for anything!" exclaimed Sylvia, taking one hand from
her precious pail to squeeze her friend's arm.

She had been longing for a few days here to make her experiment. There
was a promontory visible from the Fir Ledges--

They neared the cottage. "Now listen," said Edna merrily; "Miss Lacey
has probably seen us. In a minute she'll come out on the piazza, and
say, 'The supper isn't fit to be eaten. I should think, Edna,' and so
forth, and so forth."

The words had scarcely left the girl's lips when Miss Martha bustled
into view. "Here you are at last, you children," she said. "The supper
isn't fit to be eaten. I _should_ think, Edna, with your experience in
the length of time it always takes to get home"--

The wind-blown, disheveled trio began to laugh. "Look at this peace
offering, Miss Martha," said John, holding up the pails. "Have you the
heart to do anything but fall on our necks? If you had seen the drops
on my brow as I stooped over those miserable little bushes."

"Yes, if anybody had seen them!" exclaimed Edna scornfully. "Go right
up to the same room you had last night, John, and bathe that brow, and
be down here in five minutes, if you want Miss Lacey ever to smile on
you again."

Miss Martha was very proud of her dining-room at Anemone Cottage. She
was wont to say at home that one of the best features of her vacation
was not having to consider the cost of providing for the little
household; and to-night the immaculate table, with its ferns and wild
roses in the centre, was laden with good things for the wanderers who
gathered about it hungrily.

"When I think how I labored to procure those berries," repe