"Talk 'bout swell houses!" Tom said one evening when he and Sam were privately inspecting the building. "It's goin' to knock the spots outer everythin' 'round here, an' yet I'm thinkin' Uncle Ben had rather have the old shanty back."
"'Course he had, 'cause he built that himself; but jest wait till he gets the hang of livin' in a place like this, an' then he'll be contented as a kitten."
The kitchen was roomy and pleasant, as Mr. Mansfield had promised, and it really seemed to Sam and Tommy that their labors as cooks were lightened fully one-half by the many conveniences, chief of which was a plan of Deacon Stubbs' for bringing water by pipes direct from the spring into the house.
"It's the biggest thing anywhere 'round these parts," Tommy said in a tone of approbation on a certain evening when the people from Southport had retired to the tent, and the "family" were alone in the new kitchen.
"You could get a big crowd of boys in here, by stowin' 'em snug."
"That's jest it, Tommy, that's jest it," Uncle Ben replied, and his tone was so mournful that the others looked at him in surprise.
"You see I kinder allowed that we'd go slow in pickin' up the family, so's to make certain of gettin' boys that were most in need of a home; but now we've got sich a big house, it stands us in hand to fill it up as soon as the work can be done. I've been thinkin' that I oughter hunt 'round right away to find enough for the rooms—that is, when we've got somethin' in the way of furniture to put in 'em."
"Better go slow an' sure," Mr. Rowe said in a tone of caution. "One or two lads who didn't care whether they stuck by the rules an' regerlations would knock the whole scheme inter a cocked hat."
"That's it, Reuben, that's jest it, an' yet what'er we goin' to do with this big ark of a house?"
"Leave her jest where she is, Uncle Ben," Mr. Rowe replied sagely. "In the first place, even if every room was filled chock-a-block with beds an' chairs you couldn't take care of a raft of boys yet a while. We've got to get settled down inter runnin' shape first. The 'Sally' must earn for us what'll buy provisions for the winter, else the family would go hungry durin' cold weather. I'd say that if we got to goin' by next spring it would be the most any crew could do. Then we'll shove the schooner inter some big port, like Boston or New York, an' I'll guarantee you can take your pick of lads."