Peggy laughed out into the sunshine. “Not for ages and ages. Three years more—why, that’s almost the same as forever. Katherine,” she changed the subject suddenly, “I wish we had a canoe! Watch those adorable ones on Paradise—see the drops sparkle off that paddle—oh, Kathie, let’s have one, h’mm?”
Katherine was immediately beside herself with joy.
“We can get one second-hand from a girl down at Weldon House,” she said joyously. “I heard about it the other day.”
Peggy demurred. “I don’t want a second-hand one,” she declared decidedly. “I want a new one, that nobody has ever adventured in before us. I don’t know how to paddle though, do you?”
“No, except that the girl at Weldon that wants to sell this one I mentioned took me out in hers and sort of advertised it by letting me experiment with the paddle awhile. I nearly tipped us over and she was so anxious to have me buy the boat she never said a word.”
Within the next few days Peggy and Katherine wrote to Canada to see about the prices of canoes. They labored long and hard in the gymnasium pool and took the swimming tests that were necessary for a college permit for canoe ownership.
And then, sad, and sickening disappointment, they found that freshmen weren’t allowed to own canoes at all!
They left the boat-house with downcast eyes, but the glory of the day soon made them lift their gaze, and the first thing they saw was a joyous crew of their classmates going to sea in a moist-floored row-boat.
In a moment life was as full of promise as ever and the two plunged down the boat-house steps and gave their gymnasium numbers in to charter the first craft of a similar kind that came along.
“The water’s just as—wet, under this,” laughed Peggy as they finally pushed off.