Instantly Phil realized that something was the matter with Nellie. Eleanor's face was white and drawn and there were tears in her gentle, brown eyes. Lillian also looked worried and sympathetic, but was evidently trying to appear cheerful. "What is the matter, Eleanor? Has any one hurt your feelings?" asked Phil immediately. Eleanor was the youngest of the girls and always the one to be protected. Phyllis guessed that perhaps some one of the unpleasant acquaintances of Roy Dennis and Mabel Farrar might have been unkind to her. But Eleanor shook her head dumbly. "Nellie has had some bad news from home," answered Lillian, tenderly putting her arm about Eleanor. "Perhaps it isn't so bad as she thinks." Madge overheard Lillian's speech and, lifting Tania from her lap, sprang to her feet. "Nellie, darling, what is it? Tell me at once!" she demanded. "If Uncle and Aunt are ill, we must go to them at once." "It isn't so bad as that, Madge," answered Eleanor, finding her voice; "only Mother has written to tell us that Father has lost a great deal of money. He has had to mortgage dear old 'Forest House,' and if he doesn't get a lot more money by fall, 'Forest House' will have to be sold." Nellie broke down. The thought of having to give up her dear old Virginia home, that had been in their family for five generations, was more than she could bear. Madge kissed Eleanor gently. In the face of great difficulties Madge was not the harum-scarum person she seemed. "Don't worry too much, Nellie," she urged. "If Uncle and Aunt are well, then the loss of the money isn't so dreadful. Somehow, I don't believe we shall have to give up 'Forest House.' It would be too frightful! Perhaps Uncle will find the money in time to save it, or we shall get it in some way. I am nearly grown now. I ought to be able to help. Anyhow, I don't mean to be an expense to Uncle and Aunt any more after this summer." Madge's face clouded, although she tried to conceal her dismay. "Do Uncle and Aunt want us to leave the houseboat and come home at once?" Phil's and Lillian's faces were as long and as gloomy as their other chums' at this suggestion. But Eleanor shook her head firmly. "No; Father says positively that he does not wish us to leave the houseboat until our holiday is over. It is not costing us very much and he wishes us to have a good time this summer, so that we can bear whatever happens next winter." No one had noticed little Tania while the houseboat girls were talking. Her eyes were bigger and blacker than ever, and as Madge turned to go into the cabin she saw that there were tears in them. "What is it, Tania?" putting her arms about the quaint child. "Did you say that you didn't have all the money you wanted?" inquired Tania anxiously. "I didn't know that people like you ever needed money. I thought that all poor people lived in slums and took in washing like old Sal."