l this afternoon?"

"What?" she said, bringing her mind down to every-day things with an
effort. "Oh, the basket! I wouldn't dare tell you that," she added, with
sudden animation. "Boys, boys, if you could only see inside--if you only
could--oh, how your mouths would water!"

"Just think," said Grace, tragically. "Here we have everything that goes
to make up a romantic sail----"

"What, for instance?" Roy demanded. "If you call a leaky old ferryboat
with the weather so damp that you can't touch the rail without feeling
as if you have had a dip in the briny--if that's what you call romantic,
then give me a good open fire and plenty of chicken bones to gnaw."

"Oh," said Betty in sorrow, shaking her head at the depths to which the
boys had fallen. "Frank, I would never have thought it of you. Just the
same," she added, in a stage whisper, "I wouldn't mind having a couple
of them myself."

"Betty, Betty," Allen reproved her. "I thought----"

"Oh, Mollie, look there," cried Betty, pulling her friend towards her
and indicating an indistinct shadowy bulk looming eerily before them.
"Mollie, dear, that's the island, isn't it? I can't wait until I put my
two feet on it."

"Oh, I wish we could see an inch before our noses!" said Grace
impatiently. "I can't make out a single blessed thing."

"Probably going to rain some more," said Frank consolingly. "Never mind,
Grace, whenever your heart begins to fail you, just think of--what,
fellows?"

"Chicken!" they shouted, with one voice.

"You don't know you are going to get any, yet," Betty declared. "If I
remember rightly, Frank is the only one who said anything about it, and
he doesn't know what he is talking about."

"Betty, don't be heartless," Allen implored. "Is there or is there not a
fowl in that basket?"

"There is!" she answered in solemn tones.

"Hoorah!" shouted Will. "Three cheers for the good old bird!"

As he spoke the little steamer scraped against the dock that was almost
invisible to those on deck, then came to a full stop. The shrill whistle
which Roy contemptuously characterized as a joke, broke the misty
stillness with a shriek, that echoed and re-echoed, thrown back upon
itself by some distant cave or hillside on the island.

"Goodness! I wouldn't mind a nice fire myself," said Mollie, shivering
with something a little more than cold. There was something mysterious
about this island, shrouded as it was in the clinging mist--something
that made t