I want you to make me a visit.  Sylvia must be pretty tired after her long, busy year and I have been tinkering the house here a little bit so you can both be perfectly comfortable.  It’s not so lonely as you might think, as my farm borders Lake Waupegan, and the young people have gay times.  My niece, Mrs. Bassett, has a cottage on the lake only a minute’s walk from me.  I should like Marian and Sylvia to get acquainted and this will be easy if only you will come up for a couple of weeks.  There are enough old folks around here, Andrew, to keep you and me in countenance.  I inclose a timetable with the best trains marked.  You leave the train at Waupegan Station, and take the steamer across the lake.  I will meet you at any time you say.

So it happened that on a June evening they left the train at Waupegan and crossed the platform to the wheezy little steamer which was waiting just as the timetable had predicted; and soon they were embarked and crossing the lake, which seemed to Sylvia a vast ocean.  Twilight was enfolding the world, and all manner of fairy lights began to twinkle at the far edges of the water and on the dark heights above the lake.  Overhead the stars were slipping into their wonted places.

“You can get an idea of how it is at sea,” said her grandfather, smiling at her long upward gaze.  “Only you can hardly feel the wonder of it all here, or the great loneliness of the ocean at night.”

It was, however, wonder enough, for a girl who had previously looked upon no more impressive waters than those of Fall Creek, Sugar Creek, and White River.  The steamer, with much sputtering and churning and not without excessive trepidation on the part of the captain and his lone deck hand, stopped at many frail docks below the cottages that hung on the bluff above.  Every cottager maintained his own light or combination of lights to facilitate identification by approaching visitors.  They passed a number of sailboats lazily idling in the light wind, and several small power boats shot past with engines beating furiously upon the still waters.

“The Bassetts’ dock is the green light; the red, white, and blue is Mrs. Owen’s,” explained the captain.  “We ain’t stoppin’ at Bassett’s to-night.”

These lights marked the farthest bounds of Lake Waupegan, and were the last points touched by the boat.  Sylvia watched the green light with interest as they passed.  She had thought of Marian often since their meeting at Mrs. Owen’s.  She would doubtless see more of her now:  the green light and the red, white and blue were very close together.

Mrs. Owen called to them cheerily from the dock, and waved a lantern in welcome.  She began talking to her guests before they disembarked.

“Glad to see you, Andrew.  You must be mighty hungry, Sylvia.  Don’t smash my dock to pieces, Captain; it’s only wood.”