me. It all sounds rather interesting. At any rate, the ice-covered
walls sound cool. You must admit Spring Beach is a hot place."

"All places are hot in hot weather," observed Beatrice, sapiently;
"when there's an ocean breeze, it's lovely and cool here."

"Yes," agreed Lora, "when there IS. But there 'most generally
ISN'T. To-day, I'm sure the thermometer must be about two
hundred."

"That's your heated imagination," said Jack. "It's really about
eighty-four in the shade."

"Let's move around into the shade, then," said Patty. "This side
of the veranda is getting sunny."

So the young people went round the corner of the house to a cooler
spot, and Nan expressed her intention of going down to the train
to meet Mr. Fairfield.

"You people," began Patty, after Nan had left them, "mustn't talk
as you do about my going away, before my stepmother. You see,
we're going because she wants to go, but it isn't polite to rub it
in!"

"I know it," said Beatrice, "but I forgot it. But, I say, Patty, I
think it's too bad for you to be trailed off there just to please
her."

"Not at all, Bee. She has stayed here three months to please me,