"Can you come now and help us pick out a site for the tent?" asked the youthful colonel. Maud was rather busy that morning, but she closed her ledger, selected a walking-stick, and smiled her willingness to aid them. "It will seem more like real camping-out," said Mr. Jonstone, "if we don't pitch our tent right in the midst of things. Suppose we take a boat and row along the shores of the lake, keeping our eyes peeled." Maud was not averse to going for a row with two handsome and agreeable young men. They selected a guide boat and insisted on helping her in and cautioning her about sitting in the middle. Maud had almost literally been brought up in a guide boat, but she only smiled discreetly. The cousins matched for places. As Maud sat in the stern with a paddle for steering, Colonel Meredith, who won the toss, elected to row stroke. Bob Jonstone climbed with gingerness and melancholy into the bow. Not only was he a long way from that beautiful girl, but Meredith's head and shoulders almost completely blanketed his view of her. "We ought to row English style," he said. "What is English style, and why ought we to row that way?" "In the American shells," explained Jonstone, "the men sit in the middle. In the English shells each man sits as far from his rowlock as possible." "Why?" asked Meredith, who understood his cousin's predicament perfectly. "So's to get more leverage," explained Jonstone darkly. "It's for Miss Darling to say," said Meredith. "Which style do you prefer, Miss Darling, English or American?" "I think the American will be more comfortable for you both and safer for us all," said she. "There!" exclaimed the man of war, "what did I tell you?" "But--" continued Maud. "I could have told you there would be a 'but,'" interrupted Jonstone triumphantly. "But," repeated Maud, "I'm coxswain, and I want to see what every man in my boat is doing." So they rowed English style. "It's like a dinner-party," explained Maud to Colonel Meredith, who appeared slightly discomforted. "Don't you know how annoying it is when there's a tall centrepiece and you can't see who's across the table from you?" "Even if you don't want to look at him when you have found out who he is," agreed Meredith. "Exactly." They came to a bold headland of granite crowned with a half-dozen old pines that leaned waterward. "That's rather a wonderful site, I think," said Maud. "Where?" said the gentlemen, turning to look over their shoulders. Then, "It looks well enough from the water," said Jonstone, "but we ought not to choose wildly." "Let us land," said Colonel Meredith, "and explore." They landed and began at once to find reasons for pitching the tent on the promontory and reasons for not pitching it. "The site is open and airy," said Jonstone. "It is," said Colonel Meredith. "But, in case of a southwest gale, our tent would be blown inside out." A moment later, "How about drinking-water?" asked the experienced military man.