sat quietly and with smiling faces in the boat.

"Well, if ye don't beat all! Good land, Miss Marjorie, whatever
did ye give me such a scare for? Sure I thought ye was drownded,
and I was jest goin' to fish ye up with a boat-hook! My, but you
two are terrors! And how did ye get in now? Through the keyhole, I
suppose."

"Why, no, Carter," exclaimed Marjorie, who was really surprised at
the old man's evident excitement; "we were in a hurry, and the
door was locked, so we just stepped in through the window."

"Stepped in through the window, is it? And if the window had been
locked ye'd have jest stepped in through the chimley! And if the
chimley had been locked, ye'd have stepped into the water, and
ducked under, and come up through the floor! When ye're in a
hurry, ye stop for nothin', Miss Midget."

The old man's relief at finding the children safe was so great
that he was really talking a string of nonsense to hide his
feelings.

But Stella, though she realized the girls were all right, could
not control her own emotions so easily, and was still crying
vociferously.

"For goodness' sake!" exclaimed Molly, "what IS the matter with
Stella? Doesn't she want to go boating?"

"Why--yes," sobbed Stella, "b-but I thought you two were drowned."