"Ah, ha, he will do nothing! I play for his concert to-night."

As the boats pulled up to the steps of the house-boat, Jimmie met us
with his two friends, who had come during our absence. We had never seen
them before.

"What do you think, Jimmie?" stammered Bee, stumbling up the steps in
her excitement.

"And Jimmie, he wouldn't take his hat off to the flag!"

"And Jimmie, I wish you had been there, you'd have drowned him!" came
from all of us at once.

"What's that?" cried Jimmie in a rage at once, and:

"What's that?" came from the men behind him. "Wouldn't take off his hat
to the flag? Who wouldn't?"

"That nasty little German!" cried Miss Wemyss.

We were all out of the boats by that time except the unhappy object of
our wrath, whose countenance by this time was working into patterns like
a kaleidoscope.

"Mr. Jimmie," he said, coming to the end of the boat with every
intention of stepping out, "I apologise to you. I am very sorry."

"Get back in that boat!" thundered Jimmie.