The Little Captain let go of the wheel long enough to clap her hands gleefully.
“Great!” she cried. “This gets better every minute. Think of it. A house ready-made for us, and furnished, at that.”
It was the first day of July and the Outdoor Girls, never completely happy unless they were engaged in some outdoor sport, had embarked in their pretty motor boat _Gem_ for a sail down the Argono river. Although the motor boat was really Betty’s property, the Outdoor Girls rather regarded it as their own. And indeed, when it is considered that none of the four ever used it without the other three, it was the same to them as though the ownership were actually theirs. As a matter of fact, what belonged to one of the Outdoor Girls automatically belonged to all of them.
Those who have kept in touch with Betty and her chums will need no introduction to the _Gem_, but for the benefit of those who do not know these Outdoor Girls so well, we will give a brief description of it. For in this story the trim little motor boat plays rather an important part.
First of all, the _Gem_ had been given to Betty by an uncle of hers, a retired sea captain by the name of Amos Marlin. The old fellow had produced the best craft of its size that could be found anywhere. There was a large cockpit in the stern, and a tiny cooking galley. Also the little boat boasted a small trunk cabin and an unusually powerful and efficient motor. Altogether a snappy little craft, well meriting its name of _Gem_.
And now, as the girls putt-putted briskly down the river, the thrill of summer filling them with a fresh eagerness for adventure, it is no wonder that Amy’s suggestion of a summer camp on the banks of Rainbow Lake was greeted with enthusiasm.
So far, having made no plans for the summer months, they had about decided to spend a rather uneventful summer in Deepdale, the thriving and busy little town in which they had been brought up.
It might have been supposed, since Deepdale was situated so pleasantly on the banks of the Argono--the latter emptying some miles below into pretty Rainbow Lake--and since the bustling population of the town itself numbered something like fifteen thousand, that the Outdoor Girls would have been content to spend a summer there.