“There are Mr. Wooden and Mrs. Wooden, with Miss Beauchamp,” exclaimed Gerald, nodding his head vigorously to the group.
Fashionable carriages were not few, filled with ladies in gay colors, who chatted with knickerbockered young men, or asked all sorts of questions of their husbands and brothers and cousins about the two crews.
“Those must be regular parties from the other hotels about here,” said Miss Davidson, “made up expressly to drive over here this morning. Well, well!”
“Yes,” Mr. Marcy assented, “I never expected to see such a general turning out at one of the Ossokosee regattas. Do notice, too, how the shores over there are covered with people, walking and sitting! Bless my heart! I hope that Phil and his friends are—h’m—not going to be so badly beaten, when there are so many hundreds of eyes to see it! Never was such a fuss made over our race before, especially a race so late in the season.”
Mr. Marcy jumped out. They were near the Ossokosee boat-house. After he had seen how the oarsmen who bore the name and credit of his hotel were feeling over their coming struggle he was to get into a good-sized barge with several other gentlemen, one of them being the starter and umpire.
Gerald was looking at him with the full power of his blue eyes as Mr. Marcy stood directing the driver where to station the carriage for Mrs. Davidson and her daughter. The boy’s glance was so eloquent that the proprietor of the Ossokosee House exclaimed:
“Why, Gerald, what was I thinking of? You come along with me if you choose to. That boat is apt to be crowded, but you’re a little fellow and wont add much to the party. I guess I can have you squeezed in.”
So the delighted boy followed his elderly friend through the grass toward the boat-house and the judge’s barge.
“Shall I see Philip?” he asked, as they advanced to the inclosure. A long line of stragglers hung about the gate leading down to the Ossokosees’ quarters. The village constable good-naturedly kept them from entrance.
“Yes; come right along,” Mr. Marcy said, taking Gerald’s hand. They hurried down to the rear door together.