Frank had a bed to himself, and William Gardiner had another in the same room. William told him there were four in some of the apartments; and that after they came up at night, they could talk till ten o'clock, if they wished, provided they were not noisy; and that they took this time to settle all their plans.
'We have a great many plans,' said William, 'and some of the boys agree to them, and some do not; some are fond of fun, and don't mind a little mischief; and some are cowardly fellows, whom we can't get to undertake anything, unless it is so plain and easy, that there is no fun in it.'
Frank did not exactly understand the drift of this speech, except that he perceived that William called those cowardly boys, who minded doing a little mischief. Frank had always thought the fear of doing wrong, was a praise-worthy feeling; but he had not the resolution to tell William so, lest he should class him at once, with the cowardly boys.
'Now,' said William, 'if you are a boy of spirit, I will tell you a plan we have for to-morrow.'
Frank had omitted to take his talisman out of his trunk that night, as he did not wish to look at it before any one: the image of it, however, was strongly impressed on his mind; and this idea inspired him with resolution, not to join in any plan, he thought wrong.
'I do not know what you call spirit,' said Frank; 'but I am not afraid of doing any thing, because it is difficult or dangerous, if it is not wrong.' These remarks made William hesitate to communicate his plan to Frank. At last he said, 'Will you promise not to tell, if you don't choose to join? you must know we all hate tell-tales; and a boy would have no comfort here, who told.'
'I shall never be a tell-tale,' said Frank; 'I dislike them myself; they are mean fellows. I promise not tell,' added he, his curiosity much excited.
'You know,' said William, 'we are all, (that is, a great many of us) going into the woods to get evergreens to make arbours of, and to set out in our play ground; we do this very often, and some of the trees take root; there are six alive, which was set out last fall.'
'That may be,' said Frank; 'for fall is the best time to set out trees.'
'I believe it is not for evergreens,' said William; 'but that is no matter, for if they do not live, we have the pleasure of getting them, which is the thing we care most for. Well, we are going off early, soon after breakfast, and stay till sunset. We are to take some cakes, crackers, and cheese, for our dinner. Mrs. Reed, who you must know, if you have not found it out already, is kindness itself, has provided them for us, on condition that we will not buy nuts or raisins, or such things at the store, because some of the boys have been made sick by them. We have promised her we would not buy any thing, but oranges; and when we make Mrs. Reed a promise, we always keep it through thick and thin.'