By this time they were up on the top floor of the big department store owned by Mr. Whipple, and at one end the twins and Laddie could see a number of persons.
"That's the camp," said Mr. Whipple. "I don't believe you've seen it this year, have you, Laddie?"
"No, Uncle Dan. Is it different from last year?" for the store-owner had the camp set up each Winter.
"Yes, it's a little different. There is a new kind of tent, and the men are different."
Mr. Whipple found a good place for the children to look in on the store camp. As he had said, there were the two tents, and, on some earth and moss between them, a real camp fire was burning, while a man, dressed just as you have seen campers in pictures, was cooking something in a pot over the blaze.
In one tent a table was set for a meal, and while the Bobbsey twins and the others looked on, the two men and a boy, who made up the store camping party, put their food on the table and began to eat.
They acted as though they were in a real camp, and as though they were not being watched by hundreds of eyes. They talked among themselves, washed their dishes after the dinner and then shot at a target with a small rifle, which sent out real bullets.
The boys—Bert, Freddie and Laddie—liked this part very much.
"It certainly looks like the real thing," was Bert's remark. "And the best part of it is, everything is so new and clean."
"It makes me feel hungry to look at 'em eat," was Laddie's comment.