But instead she looked up at the rafters. “What are those great bundles that are hanging up there?” she inquired.
Dan laughed. “Why, those bundles, Dad said, contain the mattress and bedding which he and mother stored away. They are wrapped in canvas and so he expected that we would find them in good condition.”
“But how are we to get them?” Julie wanted to know.
Gerald’s quick eyes found the answer to that.
“Look-it!” he cried, pointing. “There’s a ladder nailed right against the back wall. I’ll skin up that in two jiffs. Give me your knife, Dan. I’ll cut the ropes.”
The boy was soon sliding along a rafter. “Out of the way down below there!” he shouted the warning. “Here they come!”
There was a soft thud, followed by another as the two great bundles fell to the floor. An excellent mattress was in one of them and clean warm blankets in the other.
“Now, I’ll get the sheets from the packing trunk and a pillow case, and in less than no time at all we’ll have a fine bed in our lady’s chamber.”
Dan led Jane to another large comfortable though rustic chair as he said:
“The rest of us are going to pretend that you are a princess today and we are going to wait upon you. By tomorrow, when you have had a long sleep, perhaps you will want to be a mountain girl.”