At last he came within sight of “The Rocks,” and beheld the girls on the dock watching one of their number whom he could see in a canoe not far away. The yacht could not anywhere be seen, and concluding that it had gone to the camp for his friends, he gave all his attention to the immediate task of landing in the presence of the girls without capsizing.
As he approached he discovered that the beach on one side of the dock was low, and not quite daring to run in alongside the regular landing-place, he sent the canoe straight ashore and succeeded in his attempt with no worse mishap than wetting his feet.
He was eagerly greeted by the girls, and as he took his stand on the dock beside them, one of them said:—
“Have you given up appearing here as you did the first night you came?”
“I hope so,” answered Ben. “I’m going to keep at it till I have got the better of the thing. I practise every day.”
“Are you practising for the races, Mr. Dallett?” inquired one of them.
“What races?”
“Why the regular canoe races next month. Don’t you know about them?”
“Tell me about them.”
“They meet down here not very far away, and have a regatta every summer. They have races with double bat-wings and single bat-wings, and one paddle and two paddles, and I don’t know what all, only it’s perfectly lovely. And the girls wear the colors; and yes, there is a race for the ladies, too. We’re urging Bessie here to go into that. Have you ever seen her in a canoe?”