"Now, we can't depend upon the Busters to give us any assistance just now. Doubt if we see 'hide nor hair' of them to-day. But we need somebody to make these floors properly. There! Bess has stuck a splinter into her hand already." "Plague take the old board!" snapped Bess, dropping it and sucking on a ragged little wound in her hand. "You see," Wyn said, quickly. "I'm going to get some help. Anybody want to walk over to Jarley's with me?" "Are you going to get that man to come here?" demanded Bess, sharply. "Don't see what else there is to do--do you, Bessie?" "Isn't there anybody else to help us around here? There must be other squatters." "I do not know of any. We chance to know the Jarleys----" "Not I!" cried Bess, shaking her head. "_I_ don't know them--and I won't know them." "All right. You and Grace and Percy take the pails and try for some berries in the woods yonder. I saw some ripe ones this morning. Fresh picked berries will add nicely to our bill-of-fare; isn't that so, Mrs. Havel?" "Quite so, my dear," replied the widow, and buried herself in her book again, for, as she had told the girls, she had not come here to work; they must treat her as a guest. "Are you going to stop with Mrs. Havel, Mina?" continued Wyn. "Then come along with me, Frank. We'll go over and see if the Jarleys bite. Bess is afraid they will!" "She was telling us all about John Jarley," said Wyn's chum, as the two left the camp on the green knoll. "Do you suppose he stole that motor boat and the box of silver statuettes?" * * * * * "I don't _know_ anything about it," said Wyn, briskly. "But I know that he and Polly are very poor, and with a motor boat and five thousand dollars' worth of silver, it looks to me as though they would be very foolish to suffer the privations they do. It's nasty gossip, that's all it is." "Well, Bess says the man stole from her father years ago----" "I don't know much about _that_, either," interrupted Wynifred. "But I think Bess is overstepping the line of exact truth when she says John Jarley stole from her father. They were doing business together, and Mr. Lavine accused Jarley of 'selling him out' in a real estate deal. "I asked my father about it. Father says the whole business was a little misty, at best. If Jarley did all Lavine said, he merely was guilty of being false to his friend and partner. It is doubtful if he made much out of it. But Lavine talked loudly and long; he had lots of friends even then. The talk and all fairly hounded the Jarleys out of town. "And now," said Wyn, warmly, "the Lavines are rich and the Jarleys have always been poor. Mr. Jarley is an exile from his old home and such friends as he had in Denton. It is really a shame, I think--and you'll say so, too, when you see what a splendid girl Polly is."