CHAPTER V 



Midsummer Night Alarms 



For many years Billy and the 

 girls and I had been "doing" the sum- 

 mer resorts. Or, rather, the resorts 

 had been "doing" us. In the early 

 days we had been the rounds of the 

 inland lakes. Two weeks was then 

 about the limit of the time I could 

 afford to spend away from work. We 

 slept on hard beds, fought flies and 

 mosquitoes, caught a few pickerel and 

 pond lilies, had an occasional hay- 

 ride, and went back to the city im- 

 agining we had had a wonderful time. 

 These annual dog-day expeditions were 

 gradually extended until we found 

 ourselves at length at distant seashore 

 or mountain summer places, the dis- 

 comforts and expense increasing pro- 



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