There was a heavy tug at the great rope that bound the houseboat to the
little motor tug. The motor boat moved out into the bay, and with
almost no perceptible motion and no noise, except the gentle ripple of
the water purling against the sides of the craft, the houseboat
followed it. The longed-for vacation on the water had begun.




CHAPTER VI

PLEASURE BAY

Just before twilight the boat reached a spot that seemed especially
created for the travelers. For two hours they had been silently
drinking in the beauty of the sun-lit bay and the green earth. They
were not in the main body of the great Chesapeake Bay, but in one of
the long arms of the bay that reaches into the Maryland coast.

"Look ahead of you, girls, to the left," called Phyllis Alden, as they
glided slowly along.

Miss Jones and the three girls looked. There, in a curve of the land,
was a low bank, with great clusters of purple iris growing along it,
among the slender, long, green stems of the "cat-tails." An elm tree
stood close to the edge of the water, spreading its branches out over
the miniature sea. It was so strong, so big and enduring that it gave
the home-seeking girls a sense of protection. The elm's branches could
shelter them from the sun by day, and at night their boat could be tied
to its trunk. Farther up the bank the girls could see a comfortable