[CHAPTER XIII]
A BACK-YARD CLUB-HOUSE
For many years there stood in a city back-yard a shanty in which the boys of the neighborhood gathered after school and during vacation, to hold their club-meetings. Many a pleasant hour was spent within the walls of this little building, and it had to be enlarged year after year to hold the ever-increasing number of members.
If, during the week of school preceding the summer vacation, the boys were seen making plans and talking seriously about something evidently in connection with the house, it might well be imagined that the annual alterations were about to begin. At the close of school the neighbors were made aware of it by the appearance of half a dozen boys upon the roof of the shanty, who, with hammers and hatchets in their hands, were easily recognized as the wrecking crew.
Perhaps the roof was to be raised a foot or given a different pitch, a window changed here or a door placed there, a side extended or a partition built through the centre; but no matter whether the alterations bettered the building or not, they gave the owners a chance to use their ingenuity in working out their schemes, and practice in carpenter work.
The boys' greatest difficulty was found in obtaining large enough material with which to build. The woodshed was the lumber-yard, and as this contained only a few old boards, several packing-cases, and kindling-wood, a great deal of splicing was required and many pounds of nails were necessary to fasten the many small pieces in place.
After remodelling the club-house one year, the members in way of a joke placed a "For Rent" sign upon the door, and were greatly surprised to receive the following mysterious letter:—