The Ethels had learned to row at Chautauqua the summer before, so they occupied one seat.
The three boys each took one of the other seats, each rowing a single oar. Helen sat on the seat with Tom, Margaret with Roger, and Dorothy with James.
Mrs. Morton and Dicky sat in the stern, and Della played look-out in the bow.
It was a charming pull between shores beautiful by nature and gay with boat houses from which merry parties were establishing themselves in boats and barges and canoes. The rowers found the trip not too hard upon the muscles, even the Ethels saying that they were not at all tired, when The Lilacs came in sight.
The car met them at the Club House because they had to go back to the hotel and pack their bags in order to catch the train for home. The chauffeur had brought up with him a man from the boat house, to take the barge back where it belonged.
They returned over different streets to the city so that they felt that they had a good idea of the geography of the town.
“I’ve had a perfectly stunning time, Mrs. Morton,” said Tom, as he bade her “Good-bye” on the train and thanked her for her care. “It has been splendid fun, and my only grief is that I am afraid Helen may have fatigued her brain, remembering all that history!”
Helen wrinkled her nose at him, but she laughed good-naturedly and agreed with him that the trip had been great fun.
CHAPTER XI
LIGHTS AND A FALL
It was not often that Ethel Blue took a violent fancy to any one. Although she had something of the temperament that artists claim to have, she also had great reserve, and she found the companionship of her cousins, Ethel Brown and Dorothy, quite sufficient for her.