"Yes, but perhaps they wouldn't like to have us snoopin' 'round. I reckon we'd better stay aboard the 'Sally' when there isn't any work to be done ashore, an' besides, you an' I won't have time to fool very much if we've got to cook for this whole crowd."
"Hello, Uncle Ben!" Mr. Mansfield shouted from a distance. "Send your cooks up to the tent an' let 'em overhaul our stores to get what's needed for supper! I reckon it would be easier for all hands if you brought the cookstove from the 'Sally,' an' did the cookin' under canvas, eh?"
Much to the delight of the cooks, and particularly to little Joey, it was finally decided that this should be done, and during that afternoon Sam and Tommy stood over the stove making clam chowder, and frying cunners as fast as Mr. Rowe could catch them, until it really seemed as if they had prepared food enough to provide every man, woman and child in Southport with at least one hearty meal.
The "Sally" was almost forgotten by the boys in the novelty of the tent; but before another day had passed they were decidedly of the opinion that it was much more easy to perform the duties of cooks in the snug cabin of the schooner, than on shore under canvas.
Next morning the visitors set about their task in earnest, and not only Uncle Ben, but all his family, were astonished to learn that it was the intention of the volunteer carpenters to build a large house, in which should be not less than eight bedrooms in addition to kitchen and sitting-room.
"I'm allowin' that your family is bound to grow mighty fast, as soon as folks get the idee of what you're about, an' so long as we're goin' to put up a new house, it's no more'n common sense to make it big enough to take care of as many as you may adopt," Mr. Mansfield said in reply to Uncle Ben's remonstrance against the erection of what he called a "reg'lar hotel."
"But I shan't have anythin' to put inter the rooms," the old lobster catcher added almost mournfully.
"I'm allowin' the women folks will look after that part of it, Uncle Ben," Mr. Mansfield replied. "Now there's mother, she told me to put up sich a house as would shelter all the homeless youngsters you might pick up for the rest of your life, an' she allowed that the Southport Sewin' Circle had agreed to see you had furniture enough to make it look comfortable. We're goin' to put a cellar under the whole buildin', for we've got rocks in plenty for the wall. Then you must have a wood-shed that'll hold fuel for six months of fires, an' them cooks are to be put inter quarters that'll make their eyes stick out. Sammy Cushing is quite a hand at mixin' up somethin' good to eat, an' I'm kinder anxious to see what sort of a fist he can make of it with everythin' convenient to hand."
It was useless for Uncle Ben to protest. The citizens of Southport had decided what was needed, and accompanied their decision with lumber sufficient to carry it into execution. Mr. Mansfield and Deacon Stubbs had even gone so far as to make rough plans for the new house, and the others were determined these should be adhered to so far as might be possible.
Therefore it was that the visitors worked as had been agreed upon; Tom and Sam were kept busy from morning until night cooking food, and little Joey found it quite as much as he could do to carry to the tent the wood chopped by Mr. Rowe. Uncle Ben hauled the pots and acted as ship-keeper for the "Sally," lying at anchor in the cove, when, as Reuben said, "she oughter be out chasin' mackerel." Every person on the island was busy during all the hours of daylight, save on the Sabbath, from the day the work was begun on the family home until it was so nearly completed that all the meals were served in what Mr. Mansfield had called the sitting-room.