“At least, I believe so. You can do nothing for me. I would be glad if you would right the wrong you did him so long ago; but I do not want you to do that in payment for anything I may have done for Miss Bessie.
“No, sir. Right my father’s wrong because it is a wrong and because you realize it to be such–that you were mistaken—”
“I do not see that,” Mr. Lavine returned, stiffly.
“Then there is nothing more to be said,” declared Polly, and with a quick flirt of her paddle, she drove her birchbark out of the huddle of other canoes and, in half a minute, was out of earshot.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE REGATTA
The late July morning that broke upon the scene of the last preparations for Honotonka regatta promised as fine a day as heart could wish.
There was a good breeze from early morning. This was fine for the catboat races and for the sailing canoes. Yet the breeze was not too strong, and there was not much “sea.” This latter fact made the paddling less difficult.
The camps on Gannet Island and at Green Knoll were deserted soon after breakfast. The Busters took their canoes aboard the Happy Day, while Mr. Lavine’s launch, the Sissy Radcliffe, carried the girls’ canoes as well as the girls themselves.
They were two merry boatloads, and the boats themselves were strung with banners and pennants. As they shot up the sunlit lake they sighted many other craft headed toward Braisely Park, for some contestants had come from as far away as the Forge, at the head of the Wintinooski.