The group of girls looked at one another in startled surprise. "Who—what!" Then Dora Robson, glancing over the piazza railing, exclaimed,—
"It's Will Wentworth. He's in the hammock! What do you mean, Willie, by hiding up like that, right under our noses, and listening to our secrets?"
"Hiding up? Well, I like that! I'd been out here for half an hour or more when you girls came to this end of the piazza."
"What in the world have you been doing for an hour in a hammock? I didn't know as you could keep still so long. Oh, you've got a book. Let me see it."
"You wouldn't care anything about it; it's a boy's book."
"Let me see it."
Will held up the book.
"Oh, 'Jack Hall'!"
"Of course, I knew you wouldn't care anything for a book that's full of boy's sports," returned Will.
"I know one girl that does," responded Dora, laughing and nodding her head.