On the landing stage at the Hotel Pleasant a group of girls stood
on the following Tuesday morning.

"Wouldn't Dick and Dave and the rest of their crowd enjoy this
lake if they were here with their canoe?" asked Laura Bentley.

"Yes," agreed Belle Meade. "And very likely they'd win some more
laurels for Gridley High School, too. Preston High School has
a six-paddle canoe here now, and Trentville High School will send
a canoe crew here in a few days. Oh, how I wish the boys could
manage to get here with their war canoe!"

"It seems too bad, doesn't it," remarked Clara Marshall, "that
some of the nicest boys in our high school are so poor that they
can't do the ordinary things they would like to do?"

"Some of the boys in Dick & Co. won't be poor when they've been
out of school ten years," Laura predicted, with a glowing face.

"I don't believe any of them will be poor by that time," agreed
Clara. "But it must hurt them a good deal, just now, not to have
more money."

"I wish they could be here now," sighed Laura.

"You want to see Gridley High School win more laurels in sports
and athletics?" asked another girl.

"Yes," assented Miss Bentley, "and I'd like to see the boys here,