“It was certainly well worth waiting for, Spouter,” came from Jack.
“I don’t see how you managed to keep it a secret,” put in Randy. “I’d have been bustin’ to tell it every minute.”
“Well, I had a job of it, believe me, with you fellows dinging at me all the time,” was Spouter’s answer.
“When do you suppose we can start?” questioned Fred.
“That, of course, will depend a good deal on you and your folks,” answered Spouter. “My folks are already out there, getting the ranch in readiness for visitors. I suppose you’ll want to go home over the Fourth of July, but maybe you’ll be able to start West right after that.”
“I don’t know what could hold us back.”
“Is the ranch house big enough to accommodate such a large crowd?” questioned Jack. “There are a lot of us, remember.”
“I think so. You see the ranch is really a combination of two ranches, the buildings of one ranch were located near the eastern boundary while the buildings of the other ranch were set equally close to the western boundary, and as a result the two sets of buildings are not very far apart. Father and mother didn’t know exactly what they were going to do. They said they would either divide the party between the two ranch houses or otherwise send all the hired help to one of the houses and keep our whole party at the other.”
“It would be nice if we could stick together,” said Randy.
“Oh, it won’t make much difference, because, as I understand it, it’s only a short walk from one set of buildings to the other.”