The president rapped sharply on the floor with his foot, and the members of the club settled down to the keenest attention. Anticipation was reflected on each smiling face. Tad instinctively felt that there was something behind all of this that he knew nothing about. But he bided his time.
"What is the pleasure of the meeting?" asked the president.
"I move," said Ned Rector, "that our friend and fellow member, Walter Perkins, now take the floor and outline the plans which I understand he has in mind. I think none of us know what they are, beyoud the fact that some sort of a trip has been planned for us. We are all ears, Mr. Perkins."
Walter rose with great deliberation, a smile playing over his thin, pale features, as he looked quietly from one to the other of his young friends.
"Fellow members," he began.
"Hear, hear!" muttered Ned.
Stacy Brown dug his heel into the floor for order.
"As brother Rector already has said, we are soon to take a trip. The matter has all been arranged. In the first place, our doctor says that I must spend the summer in the open air—that I must rough it, you understand. The rougher the life, the better it will be for me. He didn't say so to me, but I overheard him telling father that I was liable to have consumption, if I did not——"
"You don't mean it?" interrupted Ned with serious face.
"Yes. That's what he said. So they have planned a trip for me and all of you boys are to go along."