“Don’t Betty!” cried Cathalina, “you give me the shivers and it’s too glorious this afternoon. Did Mickey say we couldn’t go out beyond the breakwater?” “Yes; and it’s on the printed rules, too.” “All right. Back we go, then.” Cathalina carefully turned the boat and started shoreward. “Strike up, Lil, do!” Lilian, who had her guitar, strummed a few chords, feeling for an easy key, then led off in pathetic tones:— O, I wish I were a mermaid, With scales instead of clo’es, I’d float upon the billows, Where no one ever goes! I’d comb my hair and sing of love, And bat my sea-green eyes,— O,—I wish I were a mermaid Beneath the blue lake skies! Mermaid! Mermaid! Slipp’ry, fishy mermaid! O,— I wish I were a mermaid, Beneath the blue lake skies! O, I wish I were a mermaid, I’d never read a book, But hold a pretty mirror And at my beauty look! I’d rest me in a coral cave, Or swim where Neptune rides,— O,—I wish I were a mermaid To cleave the foaming tides! Mermaid! Mermaid! Slipp’ry, fishy mermaid!— O,— I wish I were a mermaid, Beneath the blue lake skies. “That awful minor tune, Lil,” laughed Betty. “Did you make up the words, too?” Lilian only nodded assent, having no other means of reply with fingers and voice both engaged. Betty joined with the rest, earnestly wishing to be mermaids, and in fine style they glided up to the little dock where watchful Mickey helped them out and tied up the boat. CHAPTER XIX THE GHOST PARTY Greycliff “mysteries” had long since ceased to interest our girls. Isabel had lost her concern about the “Woman in Black” and the “mysterious” girl had been swallowed up with the rest into the busy life of the school. Her name had proved simple enough. “Miss Louise Holley, O, isn’t she jolly?” rhymed Betty, rather satirically; but the new girl had laid aside her attitude of distance and tried to make herself agreeable to the other girls. Like Cathalina, she recited irregularly with the Academy and Collegiate girls, was in Cathalina’s class in literature, recited in Senior Academy Latin with Lilian and belonged to the bird club which included both Hilary and Cathalina. The girls wondered about her age, as girls do, and Cathalina occasionally caught the resemblance to “somebody” which had puzzled her from the first. “It isn’t connected with a pleasant feeling, girls, but I can’t tell why and I’m sure it isn’t fair to this nice girl to think of it.” “She was probably sore over things at first,” said Isabel.