“Mr. Holwell says he is more interested in getting those fellows here than in any of the rest of us,” Dan remarked, confidentially.
“Oh, that’s something everybody knows!” exclaimed Elmer. “He says we’ve got good homes, and are under the right kind of influence; but Eddie and his crowd live in the slums, as you might say, and their only place at nights is on the street corners or in saloons. It was largely to keep them from temptation that Mr. Holwell first considered this addition to the regular Y. M. C. A.”
“I understand that some of the mill hands are taking a vacation—against their will,” observed Dan. “You see, every summer the company picks out a week or so to clean up, and, of course, lay a part of their force off. Now, like as not the boys have heard of our going off on an outing, and hope to be able to join the crowd.”
“Say, I hope they do!” declared Elmer. “Those three fellows are all right; and for one I’d like to know more of them. Yes, I’d be glad if they could go along.”
“The only trouble,” continued Dan, “would be that it will cost us so much a head to have a week or two in the woods. Some of these fellows need every cent they earn; and that might prevent them from going along.”
“Just leave all that to Mr. Holwell,” replied Elmer, confidently. “He’s the one to think up some scheme to open the way. There come Dick and Leslie. I must say nobody looks extra gay to-night. See how they all fix their eyes on Dick, just as if they expected him to be a magician and haul a camp-site from his bag as the magicians used to pull out rabbits and such things.”
The meeting was soon called to order by Mr. Bartlett, who again put Dick in charge. After the roll had been gone over the regular business was taken up. Plainly every boy was nervous, for all paid less attention to ordinary matters than customary.
“You see, every one wants to get down to that camping business,” whispered Dan to his nearest neighbor on the left, who happened to be the mill hand, Eddie Grant. “They’re hoping Dick has got wind of a place where all of us can go for ten days or so.”
Eddie Grant sighed.
“I reckon it’s going to be too rich a treat for the likes of some of us fellers,” he remarked also in a whisper. Dan could easily catch the shade of bitter disappointment in his manner, showing that the mill boys had been hugging a hope to their hearts that a way might be provided whereby they could accompany the others of the Y. M. C. A. boys on their outing.