But Lefty, whatever he might think about “pups” in private, had been appointed councilor’s aide for Tent One, and as such was camper-leader in charge when Sax McNulty was not in sight. He rose and extended a hand to the newcomer.
“Glad to meet you, Van. My name’s Reardon. I see you’ve got a baseball glove there among your things. We need good fielders on the camp team—some stiff games are coming up. We’ll talk about it later. Yes, this is Tent One. I hear you’ve met Brick Ryan, over here,” he said easily. “The rest of the bunch will be along pretty quick, except for some of the new boys that are hitting camp today.”
“Thanks. We passed a hay-wagon full of young chaps down the road a few miles,” answered Van Horn. “They seemed to be having lunch.”
“They’ll be along later, I guess. Hope we get some good ones for Tent One. Sax McNulty went down to show them the way. He’s our leader—you ought to hear him shake out a tune from that saxophone of his! Then, outside of you and Brick and myself, we’ve got little Joey Fellowes and Slim Yerkes—— But dump your stuff down here on the floor, and after lunch I’ll show you where to stow things.”
Benson, the chauffeur, gladly stacked his load of baggage inside the tent, and returned for the remainder. His young master spread his legs apart and looked over the tent with a patronizing air.
“Nice little place you’ve got here, but it could be fixed up better. I’ve got some pennants and a few pictures in my trunk that we can stick around to make it look quite homelike, I fancy.”
Lefty smiled grimly. “We mostly do our decorating up at the lodge, where there’s plenty of room. With seven fellows and a leader in a tent this size, we have to save space for the things we use every day. You seem to have a lot of junk there—enough to take up a whole tent yourself. After lunch we’ll weed out what you need and the rest can be stored under the lodge.”
“I don’t know about that. A chap wants to be comfortable, doesn’t he? Oh, I guess there are my folks coming to say good-bye! Hello, Mama!”
Brick scornfully watched the approach of the fond parents. The lady, after embracing her boy, looked disdainfully about the tent and its simple furnishings. She did not sniff, but she looked as if she might at any moment.
“Gracious, John, do you really think we should leave Dirk here? I’m glad we thought to bring up his spring cot and mattress—the idea of having a growing boy sleep on plain canvas stretchers like these!”