water—twice? Let’s discover new worlds.”
So the majority had its way, as it usually does, and the Slow Poke was slated for a fortnight’s trip up the river and back again.
After dinner every one went down to the landing and inspected the house-boat, Roy murmuring excuses for the untidiness of the rooms. Mrs. Emery, however, declared that everything looked very neat, and that she rather wished she were going, too. Whereupon Chub gallantly offered to sleep on deck.
“What a dear little room!” Harry exclaimed when her room on the boat was shown her. “It’s perfectly lovely!” Her father’s room adjoined it and he, too, was delighted. The three boys “bunked” together in the rear room.
Roy hurried in to summon Dick to his duties as engineer, as the ladies wanted to go for a sail. The Slow Poke meandered up the river for a couple of miles and the guests sat on the upper deck and said all sorts of nice things about her and her crew. Harry was allowed to take the wheel for a while, under Chub’s tutelage, and was highly pleased.
The boys remained at the school two days, dur-
