“You can talk about Ruth all you like,” he said, “but, just the same, if you have any plans to beat a cruise on the Great Lakes, why—trot ’em out, that’s all. We’ve got to go somewhere this vacation, and I don’t see any better place, though I’ve looked through the whole geography.”
“And the only place you could get to was Bayville,” interrupted Ned. “It’s all right, Stumpy. I agree with you, that it would be a fine trip.”
“How could we make it?” asked Frank.
“Walk, of course,” replied Bart, with a grin. “It’s water all the way.”
“Funny!” answered Frank, poking his sarcastic chum in the ribs. “I mean where could we get a boat?”
“Hire one, I s’pose,” put in Fenn, who had been busy marking an imaginary cruise in lead pencil on the map of the Great Lakes.
“That would be pretty expensive,” said Bart. “We’re not millionaires, though we each have a little money salted away in the bank.”
The boys discussed the proposed cruise for some time longer, but there seemed no way of going on it. To hire a steamer or motorboat for such a long trip was practically out of the question for them, and, with much regret they all admitted it could not be considered.
“Come over to-morrow night,” invited Fenn, when his chums left that evening. “Maybe we can think of something by then.”
The next afternoon Fenn, who had gone to the store for his mother, stopped, on his way back, at the public dock of the Still River, where several vessels were loading with freight for Lake Erie ports. There was much hurrying about and seeming confusion; wagons and trucks backing up and going ahead, and scores, of men wheeling boxes and barrels on board lighters and steamers.