"We won't be long, Ted," his mother assured him, as he reached them, "and you can, if you want to, go over to Norton Duncan's. We will give you a call as we come back, and then we will all go home together. The side door key is in the regular place though, if you would rather go home--" "Oh, no I wouldn't. I'll stay out 'til nine, and Nort and I'll practice drill," proclaimed Ted. "We're going to have a regular test drill soon, and he's my partner." This being a satisfactory arrangement, Ted went to Nort's while Nancy and her mother continued on to the little country hotel, where the Townsends had taken up their abode. "I do hope," murmured Nancy, "that she won't upset our plans. I just can't see, Mother, why you bother about her at all," she complained. "The place is ours for this summer to do as we please with it, Nancy," her mother replied, "but just the same, it is a little business courtesy to show to Miss Townsend. We have the option on the place, and I fully intend to buy it, but the shop was so dear to Miss Townsend's heart, that I feel we ought to, at least, tell her what we plan to do for the month." "You're so, generous, Mother," sighed Nancy. "I wish _I_ were more like you." Her mother smiled and squeezed the young hand that rested so confidently upon her own arm. "Don't worry, dear," she answered. "You know what dear grandma always said when you got into little troubles?" "Yes," replied Nancy, "that my heart was in the right place if my head was a little shaky." "Yes, that's it. And don't we miss grandma? She might just as well come out here with us, but I was afraid of bringing her to the old-fashioned little house. Well, here we are at our hotel," Mrs. Brandon broke off, as they came in sight of the long white building, with its unmistakable hotel piazza. In the row of rockers on the porch sat a row of men on one side and almost a row of women, or "ladies" on the other. Country folks, with a few city interlopers, composed the patronage of the Waterfall House, it was quite evident. Nancy and her mother smiled at the faces and half-greeted them, as they passed into the office, and after asking for Miss Townsend's rooms, followed the boy along the red carpeted hall, and up a stairs carpeted with what once had been red. They journeyed on until they reached a little turn in the second hall. Before this their guide halted and pointed out a door that bore the number twenty-seven. Nancy's heart would have jumped a little apprehensively had it been a less healthy young heart, but as it was, she merely kept very close to her mother until the boy turned on his heel and whistled a returning tune. "Maybe she's sick in bed," Nancy was thinking, just as the door was opened in response to her mother's knock.