“Whee! wouldn’t my folks at home stare though, if they could have watched me actually work?” added Phil Harkness, greatly amused. “Why, it’s always been the hardest thing going to coax me to weed a little flower bed up to now.”
“I’m sore, all right,” admitted Fred, candidly; “but it may wear away by morning. Guess Nature didn’t mean me to earn my bread by the sweat of my brow. I think after all I’d better take to the law, as my dad wants me to.”
“Perhaps some of the other fellows may want to change places with you three in the morning,” said Dan, calmly. “My pit is more’n a third completed now, though the worst is still to come, for every shovel of dirt has to be lifted out, and carried away, so as not to excite the suspicions of the beast. Let’s call it off, and meander into camp.”
There was much animated talk around the supper table that night, as Dan and his assistants entered into arguments with some of the others. It ended in three new recruits offering to do their turn in the pit on the following day.
Fred and the two others did not say much, for fear of alarming the volunteers, and causing them to back out. At the same time they might have been observed exchanging significant winks, and the expression on their faces showed satisfaction.
Nothing unusual happened on that night, though some of the boys felt restless. If the prowling animal came around no one saw or heard him; nor was anything missing when morning finally arrived, so far as any one could discover.
“But that means he’ll be with us to-night, never fear,” ventured Dan, with such confidence in his manner that every one knew he did not mean to abandon his pit-digging.
The plans for the day had already been laid out. Dick had concluded to accompany the berry pickers during the morning. He wanted to feel that he had had a hand in helping Eddie, Ban and Cub accumulate a large store of the berries, for they were to be shipped to the market in Cliffwood on the following morning.
Leslie’s father, Mr. Capes, had promised to run up on this day in his car, to see what the boys were doing. He would spend a night in camp, and start back on the following morning. He was also to bring with him receptacles in which such blueberries as had been gathered could be carried back to town.
That was one reason why Dick planned to go out with the three mill boys on this morning, so as to feel that he had helped give them a half holiday. In the afternoon he planned to go fishing with the trio, for Eddie and the others dearly loved all manner of sports, though not able to indulge in them as frequently as some of the other boys, unless, as usually happened, they took Sunday for their outings.