anyway, whether they won a canoe race or not."

"There's a crew canoe putting off from the other side now!" announced
Belle Meade.

"That's probably Preston High School," said Laura.

"Have the Preston boys a war canoe, too?" asked one of the girls,
shading her eyes with her hand, and staring hard at the canoe
across the lake, some three quarters of a mile away.

"Someone at the hotel said the Preston boys have a cedar and canvas
canoe," Laura replied.

"That's a birch-bark canoe over yonder," declared the girl who
was studying the distant craft so intently. "I can tell by the
way the sun shines on the wet places along the sides of the canoe."

The other girls were now looking eagerly. "Wait a moment," begged
Clara, and, turning, sped lightly to the boathouse near by. She
returned with a telescope.

"Hurry!" begged Laura Bentley as Clara started to focus the telescope.

"You take it," proposed Clara generously, passing the glass to
Laura.

Laura soon had the telescope focused.

"Hurrah, girls!" she cried. "That's the war canoe from Gridley,