"except that we've just solved the problem of what to do with the
rest of the summer."

"And what's that,--lie in hammocks and indulge in ice-cream sodas and
chocolates?" asked Jimsy mockingly.

"No, indeed, you impertinent person; the young lady of the twentieth
century has left all that far behind her," was Jess's Parthian shot,
"for proof I refer you to our adventures on the Great Alkali."

"Hello! what's this?" asked Roy, holding up a dainty cardboard box,
and giving vent to a mischievous smile.

"Chocolates!" cried Jimsy.

"It _was_ chocolates," corrected Peggy reproachfully.

"And yet shall be," declared Jimsy, producing from some mysterious
place in a long auto coat another box, beribboned and decorated like
the first.

"Jimsy, you're an angel!" cried both girls at once.

"So I've been told before," responded the imperturbable Jimsy, "but
I never really believed it till now."

Peggy rewarded him for the compliment by popping a chocolate into his
mouth.

Gravely munching it, Jimsy proceeded to interrogation.