"Is she speaking to me or at me?" Frank inquired good-humoredly.
"Oh, it is just a general slam at the sex," laughed Allen, who had not taken his eyes from Betty and the pink rose. "We ought to be hardened by this time."
"Yes, you are terribly ill-treated, aren't you?"
Betty sympathized and remarked: "It is truly a case for the S. P. C. A.--I mean the S. P. C. C.," she corrected hastily, while the girls laughed merrily and the boys looked injured.
"That's the worst yet, Betty," Will reproached her. "You needn't make out you didn't mean it, either--we know better."
"Oh, all right," said Betty, her eyes twinkling. "Have it your own way."
"To change the subject," Roy broke in, "what are you girls all togged up for--didn't you get my message?"
"Of course," said Grace. "You nearly put Betty's eyes out with it."
"Sorry," said Roy, with a quick glance at Betty's nearly injured eyes, which had never looked brighter than at that instant. "They look pretty good to me. But that brings me back to my first query--why are you girls all dressed up?"
"Well, you know we could hardly wear our bathing suits down to breakfast. Imagine a lot of sea nymphs boiling eggs and frying bacon!" ejaculated Mollie.
"Besides," Betty argued, "it's just as much trouble to put ugly things on as it is pretty ones----"
"And they don't look as nice," Frank finished.
"Exactly!" said Betty. "And now if you will excuse us we'll put on our suits, and show you boys how to swim. Come on, girls!"
"You can't be too quick to suit me," Allen called after them.
Mollie made a little face at him from the doorway. "Anxious to meet your Water-loo?" she mocked impishly, and before he could answer had followed the girls up the stairway.
The boys raced back to camp to prepare themselves for the swim, and a few minutes later met the girls coming from the house.
"You see you didn't have to wait," said Amy. "We are as anxious as you to get into the water this morning. Oh, I can almost feel it!"
"Let's run," suggested Mollie. "Somehow to-day I can't be sedate. I'll race everybody to the bank."
[Illustration: THEY RAN OUT INTO THE TEPID WATER.
_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._ _Page 158_]
She broke into a run, and the others followed--bringing up at the edge of the water a moment later, breathless but glowing. This time no one hesitated, not even Amy. They ran out into the tepid water, then plunged in, swimming with strong, even, steady strokes.