Several small steamboats plied the waters of the lake with excursion parties. The people at Braisely Park often came down to Gannet Island and the neighborhood of Green Knoll in their boats. Altogether there was considerable intimacy among the campers and between them and the residents of Braisely Park. This pleasant condition of affairs brought about the idea of the regatta, or boating sports. Some of the wealthy men at the west end of the lake arranged the events, put up the prizes for certain classes of boat trials and other aquatic sports, had the necessary printing and advertising done, and HONOTONKA REGATTA DAY became emblazoned on the billboards along the neighboring highways and railroad lines. The events were entirely amateur and were confined to those actually camping on, or living on, the shores of the lake. Arrangements went ahead with a rush, the date being set so close that most of the parents and friends who had come up with Mr. Lavine from Denton were encouraged to stay over. Some of the Busters were going to enter for the canoeing events, and there was a girls' contest, too, that interested our friends. Bessie Lavine could paddle a canoe as well as anybody, and she was eager to take part in one or two of the races. So she got out early one morning, with Wyn and Grace, and Mr. Lavine for referee, and they did some good work. They chanced to get well over toward the Jarley boat landing and suddenly Wyn set up a shout: "Polly! Polly Jolly! I never knew you had a canoe. Come on over here!" She had caught sight of the boatman's daughter paddling near the shore in an Indian canoe. It was of birchbark and Polly shot it along under the stroke of her paddle as though it had the weight of a feather. And, indeed, it was not so heavy by a good deal as the cedar boats of the Go-Ahead girls. Polly waved her hand and turned the canoe's prow toward Wyn. Not until she was right among the other canoes did she realize that in one of them sat Bessie Lavine. "We are very glad to see you, Polly," declared Wyn. "Are you going to enter for the girls' races?" "Good-morning, Polly," cried Grace, equally cordial. "What a pretty boat you have!" Polly stammered some words of welcome and then looked from Bessie to Mr. Lavine. Evidently the boatman's daughter suspected who the gentleman was. Mr. Lavine was a pleasant enough man to meet socially. It is true that both he and his daughter were impulsive and perhaps prided themselves on being "good haters." This does not mean that they were haters of that which was good; but that if they considered anybody their enemy the enmity was not allowed to die out. "I am glad to see you again, Polly," Bess said, driving her canoe close to that of the boatman's daughter. "Won't you speak to me at all?" "Oh, Miss Lavine! I would not be so rude as to refuse to speak to you," Polly replied. "But--but it doesn't do any good----"