ure Billy Gordon, who had been looking about the deck of
the houseboat, stepped ashore.

"I don't think the hull is damaged at all. One door is smashed in and
things are pretty well soaked up. If you will permit it, we fellows will
clean up. There's a ton or more of sand and gravel in the after cockpit.
Have you a shovel?"

The girls shook their heads.

"We have a dutht pan," Tommy answered.

"We will use that and a pail, if you have one."

The lads started for the boat, having discarded their coats.

"Oh, by the way, have you any matches?" asked Harriet. "We need some
coffee this morning, but we have nothing with which to build a fire."

"Sam, you make a fire."

"The oil stove may work," suggested Miss Elting. They tried it, but
there was still too much water in the tanks, so Sam built a fire on
shore, and shortly after Harriet and Jane were busily engaged in getting
breakfast, while the boys worked steadily in the houseboat. Finding
nails, saw and hammer, they patched up the broken door and hung it back
in place. Then they removed all the supplies that had been left aboard
and began cleaning up. They bailed the remaining water out, also
shoveling out the gravel and the sand, after which they scrubbed the
floor and the walls to a height of about three feet from the floor,
where the water had left a dark line on the white woodwork.

An hour after the visiting boys had begun their work the cabin was ready
for occupancy again, but the quilts, sheets and blankets were still wet.
A larger fire was built. The boys rigged a clothes line about the
campfire and assisted the girls to hang up the wet bedding. By this time
the lads were hungry. They readily accepted the invitation of the
Meadow-Brook Girls to sit down with them to breakfast. The table and
chairs had been brought ashore, and there in the cove, with the trees
and bushes for a background, the Meadow-Brook Girls and the Tramp Club
sat down to breakfast. There was plenty of good cheer, though the faces
of the girls were pale, and Harriet and Jane looked particularly tired.

"I'll tell you what you must do," declared Captain George during
breakfast. "When you wish to shift your position, let us know, and we'll
tow you about. Did your rope break?"

Harriet confessed that she had not looked. The captain said he would
look into the matter after breakfast. The first thing to be done, after
getting the equipment back on board, would be to tow the "Red Rover" off