chimed in Sheldon. "But still we should like to try a few short races with you, if you don't mind."
"We shall be glad of the chance to see how much we lack of being good canoeists," said Loren, readily. "We'll walk back and go around the foot of the lake—"
"Oh, no," interrupted Joe. "That's too hard work, and besides it would take up too much time. There's my skiff. We can put her into the water and step the mast in a minute, and she'll take you over flying. Come in here; I want to show you something. We three belong to the committee which was appointed to draw up a programme for the meet," added Joe, taking a folded paper from a little writing desk that stood in one corner of the boat-house, "and here's what we shall submit to the club at the next meeting."
Tom Bigden and the Farnsworth boys ran their eyes over the paper, and the only things they found in it that possessed any particular interest for them were the following:
"Portage race. Paddle a quarter of a mile, carry canoe twenty-five yards over a stony
