“Well, I’ve lugged down all his belongings to the tent,” Shad said, rather hopelessly, that night, “and I can’t find out for the life of me what kind of business he’s in.  He had a lot of heavy bundles, and I asked him a few questions about them, but he didn’t seem to take kindly to it, so I let him alone.  There’s one thing though he’s got, and that’s a big photograph in a silver frame of an all-fired handsome woman he says is his wife.  She’s dressed just like a queen, crown and all.”

Helen’s eyes were bright with interest, as she listened, but Kit’s straight, dark brows were drawn together in a frown of perplexity.

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait until we find out,” she said, “but we’ll hope for the best.  Piney says he’s made arrangements to buy eggs and chickens from them, so I see where our paying guests are going to scatter prosperity around the neighborhood.”

Ralph MacRae and Honey arrived the seventeenth of June and took the Turtle Cove tent.  The girls did not see very much of them until after Jean came up from the city, but then Ralph became what Doris called “the unexpected guest,” dropping in at any time.  Helen was the one who suspected a budding romance, but she contented herself with watching Jean meditatively, and investing her with the glamour of all her favorite heroines.

The first fruits of Jean’s efforts to colonize the tents came with a letter from Bab Crane.

“You’re going to have four of the girls from school through July anyway, and August if they like it.  I’ve told them the scenery is perfectly gorgeous and they can pitch their easels anywhere they like, so be sure and give them the tents with the best outlook.  I think it probable that you may catch Miss Emery, too, if Frances writes back approvingly.  She’s awfully odd, and lives all alone in a beautiful old mansion down on Washington Square, but her pictures are splendid, and she’s a member of the N.A.D.”

The next surprise was a letter from Billie.  He could not reach home before the middle of July, as he was going on another trip with Stanley, but there were five of the boys from his class who wanted to come up and camp.

“I’ve told them the fishing is great around there, and they’re going to make the trip from here in Jeff Saunders’ car.  Jeff’s from Georgia, and most of the fellows have never been north.  We’re going to join them later on, so if you’ve got a bunch of tents together, you better save us three.

“Now, Kit, listen here, when I struck Delphi, and landed with all that crowd of girls unexpectedly, you know how well I behaved, just for your sake.  Don’t you get superior and toploftical with the boys when they come, because every last one of them is the right sort, and they’re expecting to find Gilead folks waiting for them with open arms from what I’ve told them.”

“Well, upon my word, I like that,” exclaimed Kit, as she threw the letter down on the table.  “Any one would think that I didn’t know how to treat people.  Just the same, we’ll put them all over in the glen, where they can do just as they please, and not interfere with high art or our mysterious stranger.”