"Bless your hearts! I didn't mean tea!" laughed Mrs. Handee. "It is not good for growing boys, unless it's very, very weak, and then it isn't tea. I meant to give you some bread and jam. Do you think you could eat it?"
"Could we?" murmured Sammy.
"Just try us, Mrs. Handee!" exclaimed Frank, and, with another laugh, the lady of the house went out to the kitchen.
"Well, I'm sure I can't thank you boys enough for what you did for me," said Mrs. Blake, after a pause.
"It wasn't anything," replied Bob.
"Oh, yes, it was, too!" she insisted. "I thank you very much, and I want to tell your mothers what nice boys you are. Lots of young folks now-a-days don't think, or care, anything about the old folks. Seems to me, now, that I've often seen you three boys around Fairview together; haven't I?" and she looked at them closely.
"Yes'm, we're generally together," replied Sammy.
"Do you go camping together?" asked Mrs. Blake.
"Oh, yes, often," spoke Frank.
"And once we were all wrecked together on Pine Island," added Bob.