“I don’t see where you expect to get the money,” said Ward, coldly. “If we can’t touch those precious old dues, how are you going to have electric lights? Mr. Brewer had them put in his barn last week and it cost more than fifty dollars. He told Daddy so. They didn’t have to run the wires as far as we shall, either.”
“Have we fifty dollars in the bank?” asked Jess, curiously.
“Nowhere near,” Fred informed her. “I guess that knocks out the electric heater idea. The only thing I can see that we can do is to bring hot water bottles with us, when it is cold.”
“We can have an ice hut and crawl inside,” giggled Polly. “The Eskimos manage somehow, and we will, too, I guess.”
“Anyway, it isn’t cold yet, not real cold,” argued Jess. “And when it does snow, it will bank the window and make it warmer. I don’t believe we’ll need any kind of a heater or furnace.”
“It’s going to be dark earlier every time, too,” said Margy, who had a habit of looking ahead. “In December it will be pitch dark long before five o’clock. There’s Mrs. Pepper feeding her hens now. I don’t believe it’s much after four.”
“Here, chick, chick, chick!” they could hear Mrs. Pepper, a neighbor, calling. “Here, chick, chick, chick!”
“You never catch Carrie feeding those hens,” said Jess, peering through the window. “Oh, say, what do you know——” Her voice trailed off without completing the sentence and her dark eyes began to dance.
Polly was ready to ask her what she was thinking, but the boys wanted the meeting adjourned. So in a few minutes they were rushing down the loft ladder, Ward having first carefully locked the clubroom door.
“Remember, everybody come over to our house after school to-morrow,” said Margy, as the group separated at the door, the two Larues to go into their house to supper and the other four to cross the street to the Marley and the Williamson houses, which were next door to each other. “We’ll plan about the Hallowe’en party.”