“What did you want of flour?” asked Ruth. “Goodness, you have enough on your dress, anyhow.”
“I wanted some to rub on my face to make me look pale,” went on Tess.
“To make you look pale! Gracious, Tess! what for?”
“We’re playing doctor and nurse, Dot and I,” Tess explained. “I have to be sick, and sick people are always pale. But I’m so tanned Dot said I didn’t look sick at all, so I tried to scrape some flour off the bottom of the barrel to rub on my face.”
“Well, you have enough now if you brush off what’s on your clothes,” laughed Ruth.
“And be careful about leaning over barrels,” put in Mrs. MacCall. “You might have been hurt.”
“Yes,” agreed Tess, “I might be but I wasn’t. Only my head felt funny and my legs felt queer, too, when I wiggled them.”
They were approaching the end of the stretch of the canal through which they must travel to reach Gentory River. The boat would be “locked” from the canal to the larger stream, and then Neale could have his wish of operating the motor come true.
Toward evening they arrived at the last lock of their trip. Just beyond lay the river, and they would proceed up that to Lake Macopic.
As the Bluebird emerged from the lock and slowly floated on the little basin into which just there the Gentory broadened, the attention of Ruth and Agnes was directed to a small motor boat which was just leaving the vicinity.