"Here, here, what is all this love-feast about?" demanded Tom Curtis cheerfully. He had come quietly aboard the houseboat, and was standing at the cabin door, smiling cheerfully at the little captain.
"Go away, Tom," returned Madge reproachfully. "I told you we couldn't have any company to-day. I said good-bye to you last night. We are getting things in shape to leave the houseboat. A man who has a boat-house is going to take care of the 'Merry Maid' for us until we come into another fortune and have another holiday."
"What time does your train leave?" inquired Tom coolly, picking up a hammer and preparing to fasten the top on Madge's barrel.
"At four o'clock," sighed Madge. "We are going to Baltimore together, and start home from there."
"It is all right, then," answered Tom Curtis placidly. "I have plenty time to stay to luncheon."
"Tell him he can't, Miss Jenny Ann Jones," declared Madge inhospitably, "we haven't a thing to eat except some crackers and stale bread, and a few odd pieces of cold meat. And I am so dreadfully hungry that I can eat them all myself."
"I am going to stay just the same," asserted Tom. "I am going to be the busiest little worker on the 'Merry Maid'."
The houseboat party would never have finished its packing except for their uninvited visitor. He sat on trunks, fastened locks and doors. At one o'clock "The Merry Maid" was in order to be deserted.
"Let's go up to the farmhouse to get some food," suggested Tom. "I am hungry as a bear, and I know they will give us some milk and bread."
Madge demurred, but the other three girls and Miss Jenny Ann were much too hungry to stand on ceremony.