For well they know that, spite of locks,
Of rings and staples, bolts and blocks,
Were they inclined to play such prank
He'd find at morn an empty bank.
So now the crafty Brownie crew
Soon brought the bathing-suits to view;
Some, working on the inner side,
The waiting group without supplied.-
'T was busy work, as may be guessed,
Before the band was fully dressed;
Some still had cloth enough to lend,
Though shortened up at either end;
Some ran about to find a pin,

While others rolled, and puckered in,
And made the best of what they found,
However strange it hung around.

A few began from piers to leap
And plunge at once in water deep,
But more to shiver, shrink, and shout
As, step by step, they ventured out;

Then, when a boat was manned with care
To watch for daring swimmers there,-
Lest some should venture, over-bold,
And fall a prey to cramp and cold,-

While others were content to stay In shallow surf, to duck and play Along the lines that people laid To give the weak and timid aid.

CHAPTER XXV.

THOUGH much had been gained by the discovery of Dandy in responsible hands, Kit could not easily forego the satisfaction of taking him home, and saving his uncle much future trouble and loss in recovering his property.

Having abandoned the idea of "stealing" him, Kit began to meditate a different and hardly less audacious plan of accomplishing his purpose without letting Dandy go out of his sight. This he proceeded to put into practice on Eli's return from the village.

Eli was in excellent spirits,—in much better humor, Kit thought, than he would have maintained had he come home to find that his visitor had galloped away on his new horse. He had secured evidence corroborating Kit's story of the presence of the fruit-thieves in the oystersaloon the evening before; all had been identified, and warrants were out for those not already in custody.

Mr. Badger, therefore, appeared well disposed toward one who had done him so important a service, and had been soundly cudgeled by him in the performance of it. So Kit found it easy to

and whispered something in her father's ear. The paternal part of him uttered a gentle growi of assent, and she ran back into the house.

Kit was too deeply absorbed in the horse question to give much heed to her at the time, notwithstanding the significant nod and sweet smile with which she favored him, glancing over her plump shoulder as she retired. He hardly dared utter a word until assured by Eli's movements that Dandy was to be driven that afternoon. Nor did he volunteer any remarks even then, being fearful of betraying his unbounded satisfaction.

He noticed that Mr. Badger put a second seat into the open buggy, as if it were necessary for a man of his bulk to have the forward seat entirely to himself. Kit's eyes took the measure of the broad back, and was carrying it along for comparison with the capacity of the seat, when the meaning of Lydia's secret errand and parting smile suddenly dawned upon him.

His conjecture was confirmed when he saw her presently come out of the house, in hat and mantilla, with a parasol under her arm, and drawing. on a torn kid glove.

"I'm going with you; did you know it?" she said, with a happy glance at Christopher. "I thuppothe you wont object.”

"Why should I?" replied Kit.

He was not, however, supremely delighted with the arrangement; not for any reason personally uncomplimentary to the fair Lydia, but because he deemed it just possible that, if Eli drove Dandy Jim to his uncle's premises, his friend might not have the horse to drive home again. In that case, Miss Badger's presence in the wagon, at the farther end of the journey, might add to Mr. Badger's embarrassment, and prove a fruitful source of un

He would have been glad to say good-bye to Mrs. Badger, who had been kind to him, and for whom, in her down-trodden state, he felt much sympathy. But as he was starting toward the house for that purpose, Eli called him back.

'Sayin' good-bye to her is n't of any consequence," he grumbled, in something like his marital tone of voice. "We must be off. It's a long drive to your place," he added, arranging the reins, as Kit helped Lydia into the buggy.

"Jump in," said Eli, seeing Kit hesitate. "Better take the hind seat with Liddy; there 'll be more room."

"Ith n't it jutht thplendid!" she laughed, opening her parasol as Kit took his seat beside her.

"It suits me!" he replied, with a rather stern smile, thinking of the glory of returning to his uncle's house behind the stolen horse, after all his blunders and tribulations.

Then, as the vineyard was passed, where he had met with his latest mishaps, and the homeward road was struck at a brisk trot, he could hardly keep from laughing at the grouty and unobliging Eli himself being induced to go with him and drive Dandy home to his lawful owner.

Lydia chatted and lisped vivaciously, as they rode along the country highways in the mild September weather. Eli bragged of his new horse, and named extravagant prices for him, increasing his figures as Dandy quickened his paces; the horse appearing to be aware of Kit's presence and of the fact that he was headed for home.

"If a horse could speak," thought Kit, "he might have spoilt my fun by neighing out when he first saw me this morning: 'Hello! Is that you, Kit? Where did you come from?'"

As it was, how little did Eli suspect the familiar acquaintance of boy and horse, or dream of the disagreeable surprise in store for him!

Kit had not, from the first, been quite at ease in his mind regarding the deception he was practicing. And we have seen how Miss Badger's proposal to add her plumpness to the load had cast an equivalent weight upon his conscience. But once on his way home, he silenced his scruples and indulged in jubilant thoughts of his well-earned triumph.

"I am not going home without Dandy Jim, after all! Once there, I'll leave Eli Badger and Uncle Gray to settle the matter of possession. Wont it be fun to stand by and see two such men glare at each other and contradict and fling adjectives over Dandy's back! Uncle 's a match for Eli at that business; and he 'll have the inside track,- his own horse on his own ground, and plenty of witnesses to prove property."

Kit chuckled at his own shrewdness, which he flattered himself was sufficient to atone for many blunders. Instead of the bungling operation of carrying evidence to Southmere and securing Dandy by legal process, here was the horse itself trotting comfortably back to East Adam and the premises where he belonged, from which not even Eli could venture to take him by violence after the owner's claim was duly shown.

Who could say that it was not a justifiable stratagem? Yet the more certain it seemed of success, the more seriously Kit began to consider the other side of the question. If it would have been wrong to ride Dandy off surreptitiously in the morning,

as he had been tempted to do, could the device he was now employing be altogether right?

"Eli will be mad enough to finish what the stick left of me last night," he thought. “And Lydia! What a traitor I shall appear in her eyes; taking advantage of their kindness in this way!"

For he felt that they had been really kind; nor could he pretend that all they were doing for him was justly his due for the blows of the hickory club the night before; remembering that it was quite as much to serve his own purpose as to befriend Eli, that he blundered into the vineyard to his hurt.

"I shall feel better,” he reasoned, “if he will take pay for carrying me now. That would make it seem more like a fair transaction. He can't say then that he walked into my trap simply by way of doing me a favor. If I hire him, there's no favor about it; it's just a matter of business."

He waited for a good chance to introduce the subject; then, putting his hand into his pocket, he remarked:

"You have n't yet told me, Mr. Badger, what I am to pay you for this ride."

"You'll have to let me," said Eli. "What I say I stick to. What I'm doin' for you now, I'm doin' for no money. I'm doin' it coz you did

me a good turn, and coz I've taken a notion to ye."

Kit still insisted, but he found Eli Badger as obstinate in the performance of a friendly action as he had the reputation of being in the more selfish concerns of life. The boy was at length obliged to put up his money, which, however, burned in his pocket, and proved an added burden to his soul.

Was it not, after all, a mean sort of trick he had resorted to, and would not an open, honest course have been better? What a return for Eli's goodnature in carrying him home, to take away his horse when they should arrive there!

"As if the loss of the money he has paid for him would n't be enough," thought Christopher, "without so much extra trouble!"

He was not a boy to regard a matter of this sort very long from an exclusively selfish point of view. He had the spirit to perceive that Eli, too, had a claim, and that there was a medium ground of honor and justice. He was fearful of committing another blunder in the business, which had been too fruitful of blunders already; and yet it seemed to him,