“Please, please don’t discharge him,” begged Hazel.  “He is such a nice man.”

“And thuch nithe whithkerth,” added Grace Thompson.  “He lookth jutht like an uncle of mine, who——­”

“I agree with the girls, Miss Elting,” interjected Harriet.  “We are able to take care of ourselves.  Perhaps this is simply another crazy man, of whom we shall be rid as soon as we leave the village for the mountains in the morning.  Please don’t dismiss Mr. Grubb.”

“I shall have to think this matter over,” was the guardian’s grave reply.  “We do not care to repeat last summer’s experience.  You remember what came of relying on the assurance of a stranger.”  Miss Elting referred to the manner in which they had been tricked by the man who had charge of her brother’s houseboat the previous summer, and whose treachery had caused them so much annoyance.

None of the Meadow-Brook Girls made reply.  They were as fully puzzled in this respect as was their guardian.  Miss Elting, however, pondered over the mystery all the way to the hotel.  They found the Compton House a very comfortable country hotel, rather more so than some others of which they had had experience during their previous journeys.  Arriving at the hotel, they hurriedly prepared for supper, for they were late and the other guests of the house had eaten and left the dining room before the Meadow-Brook Girls had even entered the hotel.

By the time supper was finished, their luggage had come over from the station.  Janus Grubb, went home, not a little troubled as well as mystified by the occurrences of the evening.  Who the man could possibly be he had not the remotest idea.  He tried to recall who of his acquaintances might be guilty of playing such a joke on him.  To the mind of Janus the incident could have been only a prank, though he questioned the good taste of any such interference between himself and his customers.

On the contrary, Miss Elting and her young charges attached more serious meaning to the performances of the man who had regarded them through green goggles.  They regarded the incident with suspicion and agreed to proceed only with the utmost caution.

None of the readers of this series need an introduction to Harriet Burrell and her three friends, who figured so prominently in “The Meadow-Brook girls under canvas.”  It was in this narrative that the four chums made their first expedition into the Pocono woods and for several happy weeks were members of Camp Wau-Wau, a campfire association of which the girls became loyal members.  At the end of their stay in camp they decided to walk to their home town, sending their camping outfit on ahead.

The story of their journey home on foot was told in the second volume, “The Meadow-Brook girls across country,” in which an Italian and his dancing bear, a campful of gipsies and a band of marauding tramps furnished much of the excitement.  Then, too, the friendly aid and rivalries of a camp of boys known as the Tramp Club furnished many enjoyable situations.