“The sum total of childish happiness!” laughed Betty “Do, Grace, if you have any left, relieve this suspense.”

Some candy was forthcoming, and then, with more of it spread on their faces than had entered their chubby mouths, the twins toddled off content.

“Girls, what do you say to a little row on the river?” asked Mollie, when they had been refreshed by cakes and tea.  “My boat will hold us all, and we can float down and talk of our coming trip.”

“Float down—­and—­row back,” remarked Grace, with emphasis.

“The exercise will do you good.  We must get in—­training, I believe the proper word is—­in training for our hike.”

“Hike?” queried Betty.

“Suffragist lingo for walk,” explained Mollie.  “Come on.”

The Argono river ran but a short distance from Mollie’s home, and soon the four girls were in an old-fashioned, but safely constructed, barge, half drifting and half rowing down the picturesque stream.

The afternoon sun was waning behind a bank of clouds, screened from the girls by a fringe of trees.  And as they floated on they talked at intervals of Amy’s secret, and of the coming fun they expected to have.

“Let’s get farther out in the middle,” suggested Betty, when they came to a wide part of the river.  “It’s more pleasant there, and the air is fresher.  It is very warm.”

“Yes, I think we will have another storm,” agreed Grace.  “If it rains now it isn’t so likely to when we start.”

She was pulling on one pair of oars and Mollie on a second, the others relieving them occasionally.  Soon the boat was in the middle of the stream.  They had gone on for perhaps half a mile, when Betty, who was sitting comfortably in the stern, toying with the rudder ropes, uttered an exclamation.

“Oh!” she cried.  “My feet are wet!  Mollie, the boat is leaking!”

“Leaking?”

“Yes!  See, the water is fairly pouring in!”

Mollie made a hasty examination under the bottom boards of her craft.

“Girls!” she cried, in tragic tones, “there’s a hole in the boat!”

“Don’t say that!” begged Amy, standing up.

“Sit down!” sternly ordered Betty.  “There is no danger!  Sit down or you’ll fall overboard!”

“Oh, but see the water!” cried the nervous Amy.  “It is coming in faster!”

And indeed it was.

“It is those twins!” declared Mollie.  “I told them not to get in my boat, but they must have, and they’ve loosened the drain plug so that it came out a moment ago.  Quick!  See if you can find it!”

There was a frightened search for the plug that fitted in a hole in the bottom of the boat, through which aperture the water could be drained out when the craft was on shore.

“It isn’t here!” cried Grace.  “Oh, Mollie!”

“Keep quiet!  It must be here!” insisted the owner of the boat.  “It couldn’t get out.  Look for it!  Find it!  Or, if you can’t, we’ll stuff a handkerchief in the hole!”