a picture at home of two little girls waiting--for their--father."

The boys noticed Nellie's manner, and knew why she hesitated. Surely
it would be real for her to be a fisherman's daughter, waiting for her
father!

"Oh, good!" said Dorothy. "I've got that picture in a book, and we
can copy it exactly. You and I can be in a boat alone. I can row."

"You had better have a line to my boat," suggested Harry. "It would
be safer in the crowd."

It had already been decided that Flossie, Freddie, and Nan should go
in the Minturn launch, that was made up to look like a Venetian
gondola. Mrs. Bobbsey and Aunt Emily and Aunt Sarah were to be
Italian ladies, not that they cared to be in the boat parade, but
because Aunt Emily, being one of the cottagers, felt obliged to
encourage the social features of the little colony.

It was quite extraordinary how quickly and how well Dorothy managed to
get up her costume and Nellie's. Of course, the boys were wonderful
Indians, and Harry a splendid Frenchman; Mrs. Bobbsey, Aunt Sarah, and
Aunt Emily only had to add lace headpieces to their brightest dinner
gowns to be like the showy Italians, while Freddie looked like a
little prince in his black velvet suit, with Flossie's red sash tied
from shoulder to waist, in gay court fashion. Flossie wore the pink
slip that belonged under her lace dress, and on her head was a silk
handkerchief pinned up at the ends, in that square quaint fashion of
little ladies of Venice.