“I tackled ever so many people during the day, and had two places offered to me, but on conditions we couldn’t think of accepting. One of these, would you believe it, came from a woman who insisted that we build no fires while in camp, as she would do what cooking was necessary.”
At that a shout went up, nor did the chairman attempt to quell it, for he, too, was shaking with laughter, as was also the amused Mr. Bartlett, sitting near by.
“What d’you think of that, now?” cried Dan Fenwick. “Camping out for a whole week, and not allowed to light even one fire to sit around in the evenings! Say, I can see twenty hungry fellows marching up to that woman’s door three times a day for a cold hand-out!”
“She’d get sick of her bargain in no time. She’d find we’d eat her out of house and home,” laughed Peg Fosdick.
“There’s no doubt,” interrupted Dick, seriously, “but the woman thought she was giving us boys a big help, but it only goes to show how little some women know what a boy’s heart hungers for. It takes a man to understand a boy, my mother says. Why, even girls in these days wouldn’t stand for that sort of camping out.”
Several others got up to tell how they had prosecuted an earnest search, but absolutely without success. No one seemed to know of a suitable site for a boys’ camp within a reasonable distance of town.
As the chances grew less encouraging, some of the boys began whispering among themselves. It really looked as though the plan on which they had set their hearts would have to be given up.
Dick was holding the meeting from being adjourned, though Leslie could not see the sense of further discussion, since no one had been able to offer any real hope of success. Still, had any one watched Dick closely, he would have discovered that the acting chairman cast many anxious glances toward the door of the room, and that his nervousness was really taking on the form of keen disappointment.
Then it came to pass that the door was quietly opened and some one slipped into the room. No one but Dick saw him enter, for all were engaged just then in a warm discussion as to whether it might not be wise to accept the kindly meant offer of Mr. Truesdale, and make the best of it.
Dick smiled now, as though a heavy load had been taken from his mind. Certain suspicions he had allowed himself to entertain were evidently in a fair way of becoming actual realities.