"Nothing better than what we're wearing now," Greg replied.

"Come, just the same, anyway," urged Mrs. Bentley. "You boys
are on a rough trip, and you're not expected to have large wardrobes
with you. So I shall expect you all at the Ashbury Terraces by
noon to-morrow."

"And there's to be a dance there to-morrow night," Belle continued,
a trifle mischievously. "Of course, you will come to the dance."

"Yes---if you invite us!" Dick took up the challenge thus unexpectedly.

"Then you're surely invited," laughed Susie Sharp. "Aren't they,
Mrs. Bentley?"

"Yes; if they promise to come," agreed the doctor's wife. "And,
perhaps, they would rather dine than lunch with us, and then they
can attend the dance after dinner."

"That would be much better, thank you," Dick replied gratefully.

But the other fellows eyed him askance, in wondering amazement.
What on earth could Dick mean by accepting for himself and chums
a dinner and dance invitation when they had nothing to wear save
their road-worn and travel-stained hiking clothes?

"Dick is getting careless---making such an engagement for us for
to-morrow evening," Tom confided to Hazelton, when the news was
related to him.