"And he's the fellow who didn't use to like the girls!" said Tom, with conviction. "Oh, Rome, how art thou fallen!"
"Cut it out!" growled Sid, under his breath.
The four chums had called on their friends and Phil's sister at Fairview Institute, and the result can easily be imagined by the foregoing conversation. There had been jolly talk, a telling of the new chance that had unexpectedly come to Randall, and then the appeal of the girls that the boys must go--not because the girls wanted them to--but because Miss Philock, the head of the co-educational institution, deemed it necessary.
"But we can come again; can't we?" asked Frank, as they paused at the door. Somewhere down the corridor a thin lady, with thin lips, was narrowly watching the group of young people.
"Sure we can come again!" declared Phil. "They can't stop me from seeing my sister."
"Or someone else's," put in Tom, mischievously.
"Tom! Stop it!" cried Madge Tyler. "She'll hear you."
"I don't see how we poor girls can prevent you," said Helen Newton, with a mischievous glance of her eyes.
"Young ladies!" came a warning voice from down the corridor.
"Oh, you really must go!" exclaimed Ruth Clinton.
"All right," agreed Tom. "We'll be back soon. When is the next dance?"
"We'll send you cards," replied Madge Tyler. "Good-bye!"
And the boys moved off, with many backward glances, while the girls lingered in the doorway of the reception hall until Miss Philock advanced to garner them into her charge.
"Young ladies!" she began severely, "if your friends overstay their time again I shall not permit them to see you--even if they are _brothers_!" and she looked at Ruth.
"Horrid thing!" murmured Madge. "I'll be glad when vacation comes."
"Are your folks going to camp on Crest Island again?" asked Ruth, naming the resort in Tonoka Lake.
"I think so. Papa sent a man up to look over the cottage this week, to see if it needed any repairs. And, girls, if we do go, I want you all to spend several weeks with me!" cried Madge Tyler. "We will have a scrumptious time!"
When the boys got back to Randall they found some mild excitement there. Further word had come from the committee of old graduates that they had perfected their arrangements in the matter of supplying Randall with all that was necessary to enter into aquatic sports, and there was a request that the students at once hold a meeting, and decide whether or not they would accept the offer.