CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST TREE FALLS
“Dal, are you sure that we ought to do this?”
Elizabeth Secrest eyed her brother seriously.
“Yes, Beth. I know that you are thinking about the money, and I don’t blame you. You have had a hard enough time to earn our income, and if I slash around and spend all our principal, you’ll be thinking ‘What’s the use?’ But Beth, there is a method in my madness, and if we get a livable house up, next summer you can bring some of the girls, charge them a reasonable price for room, and board, too, or let them cook for themselves. Then I ought to make a little money out of the launch. There’s a little colony only a few miles away, if we don’t get enough people here to pay.”
“It is a pity to spoil our woods with people,” said Beth.
“But we’ll make the camp ourselves,” urged Dalton, “and have only nice folks. How would a girls’ camp strike you, and I might have a few boys somewhere?”
“No, thanks. I get enough of that in school time.”
“Poor Beth! But suppose we manage it so you do not have to teach during the year. If I got some one to play chaperon and run the affairs, would you be hostess and perhaps teach a class of girls in sketching or something in your line?”
“Dal, I’d hate it. Wait till Leslie grows up a little further to try all that. You wouldn’t like it yourself.”
“I’d like anything that took you out of the school room. But I have another plan for that. All right, Beth; but just the same, we’ll go ahead now. There are possibilities here. I promise you to spend as little as possible and to do as much of the work myself as I can.”