"What a beauty!" she exclaimed. "Is it yours?" Peter shook his head. "No, I found it over in our barn and I asked Mr. Blunt if I could use it. He didn't think much of the idea, but he said if I could make it watertight I could have it and welcome. A summer boarder left it here a couple of years ago. Here you go; let me help you in. Sorry I haven't any pillows," he apologized. Janet looked up at him and laughed. "What under the sun would I do with a pillow?" she exclaimed. "Stick it behind your back, of course. It makes it lots easier. That is, most girls tuck 'em in all around, and they seem to like it." Peter sometimes gave Janet a feeling that he was years and years older than she by the way he talked of things, people and places. "How do you know?" she inquired as she settled herself gingerly on the floor of the canoe. "Seen them, by the dozens." "Where!" "Any place where there are canoes and girls,"--Peter grinned. "Dad and I always paddled wherever and whenever we could, and we used to laugh sometimes." "What at?" Janet was making no effort to hide her curiosity. Peter was busy turning the canoe around and did not answer at once. Janet watched him, fascinated. He paddled so softly and yet with so much strength that they skimmed along over the water as though they were flying. Once out into the bay and headed for the mouth of a small creek, where Peter decided was the place to fish, he returned to the subject. "When I said just now we laughed," he explained, "I was thinking of last summer. Dad and I took a trip up the Delaware River and of course we passed lots of summer places on the way, and we'd see fellows, about eighteen, out with girls all dressed up and sitting all packed in with pillows. They looked all right, but I would hate to have had them with us in some of the storms we pulled through and some of the rocks we had to pass." "I see,"--Janet laughed, then she said hurriedly, "Peter, what an exciting life you have had. I wish you'd tell me some more about it." Peter shrugged his shoulders. "Not so very," he said; "you see there was only Dad and me, and Dad was a civil engineer and he had to be on the go most of the time. Wherever there was a bridge being built or a railroad put through or a dam built he was always there, and so naturally I was too. That is, I shouldn't say naturally, because lots of people, especially women, thought it was very strange, but Dad said I was all he had left and he wasn't going to have me shut up in a school where he could never see me, so along I went, and I tell you I had some grand old times. But it's all over now and I guess I'll go to work." "Where!" Janet asked softly. "Out West, I guess. I like it out there, and Dad knew a lot of ranch men that would give me a job. Dad always wanted me to be an engineer, but that was before--" In spite of himself his voice broke a little, and he paddled with extra zeal.