"Me too!" he exclaimed, looking unusually sad.
"What's all this row about, fellows?" demanded Frank, pretending not to understand.
"It's ghastly to have all the good things pass us by, that's what!"
Larry declared.
"Meaning what?" Andy inquired.
"Think of the bully good times you two can have here, playing at camping out. You've even got a stove handy, and a whole outfit of aluminum cooking ware to be carried along with your aeroplane when you go off a long ways. There never was a luckier pair than you two Bird boys, that's what," and Larry groaned again to express the envy that was burning in his boyish soul.
"If you'd only let us bring over our blankets, and sleep here with you, it would lighten things up a heap, I tell you, Frank," said Elephant.
"We wouldn't occupy much room," went on Larry, eagerly, thinking he saw signs of giving in on the other's face. "Why, you could chuck Elephant under the workbench and never find him again. And I'd sling a hammock in a corner. Looky here, if you say no I'll feel like jumping in the lake right away."
Frank and Andy exchanged glances. They were genuinely fond of the strangely mated pair; and besides, there was no longer any reason why these old chums should be longer refused the liberty they had once enjoyed, of entering the workshop as they pleased.
"It's a go, Larry; eh, Andy?" said the taller of the Bird boys.
With that the two favored ones indulged in sundry whoops and leaps to express the joy that Frank's announcement had given; even Stammering Nat grinned, and no doubt wished he had been included in the invitation; though he knew there would be no room for a further increase in the guardians of the shop.