This was the way things stood on the morning that Tom Hallet, accompanied by his friend Bob, presented himself before his uncle, with the request that he would permit them to keep an eye on his English partridges and quails during the ensuing winter—in other words, that he would empower them to act as his game-wardens.
Mr. Hallet was not at all surprised, for the boys had sprung so many "hare-brained schemes" on him, that he was ready for anything; but still he took a few minutes in which to consider the proposition before he made them any reply.
"What in the world put that notion into your heads, anyway?" said Mr. Hallet, continuing the conversation which we have so unceremoniously interrupted. "Is it simply an excuse to get out of school for the winter?"
The boys indignantly denied that they had any idea of such a thing. They liked their school and everything connected with it; but they thought it would be fun to spend a few months in the woods. And since Uncle Hallet would have to employ somebody to act as game-warden, or run the risk of having all his costly birds killed by trespassers, why couldn't he employ them as well as any one else?
"Well, you two do think up the queerest ways for having fun that I even heard of," said Mr. Hallet. "I know something about camp-life, and you don't; and I tell you—"
"Why, Uncle," exclaimed Tom, "haven't we already spent a whole week in camp since Bob came up here?"
"A whole week!" repeated Mr. Hallet. "Yes, and it tired you out, and you were glad enough to get home. I know that 'camping out' looks very well on paper, but I tell you that it is the hardest kind of work, even for a lazy person, to say nothing of a couple of uneasy youngsters, who can't keep still for five minutes at a time to save their lives. Besides, how do I know that you wouldn't shoot some of my blue-headed birds, as Morgan calls them?"
"Don't you suppose that we know a ruffed grouse from an English partridge or quail?" demanded Tom. "We are not so liable to make mistakes in that regard as others might be. Who is Mr. Warren going to hire for his warden?"
"I believe he has gone up to Morgan's to-day to speak to Joe about it."
"I don't know how that will work," said Bob, reflectively. "Joe is all right, but his father and brother are not, and I am afraid they will make trouble for him."