“No!” cried Tom, eagerly. “We fellows can rebuild it ourselves! I know how to handle tools, and I guess lots of the other fellows do, also. We can do it if we try. We haven’t got the money to hire carpenters, so we’ll be carpenters ourselves! We’ll build that grandstand!”
“Hurrah for Carpenter Tom!” cried Dutch Housenlager, doing a Highland fling down the long dormitory corridor.
“I don’t know the difference between a beam and a joist, and a two-by-four is as illuminating to me as a Greek root would be to a baby,” said Kindlings, “but I’m with you, fellows!”
“So am I!” cried Frank Simpson. “I worked in a lumber camp once, and——”
“Say, is there anything you didn’t do?” asked Holly, as he thought of the hazing. “You’re all right, Simpson. You can carry the two-by-fours for Kindlings.”
“Make him carry the beams and joists,” suggested Phil. “He’ll do for that, all right.”
Eagerly talking of the new idea, the boys gathered in the room of our heroes, and such a lively meeting was in progress that Proctor Zane was forced to call an adjournment, though he was very decent about it, and, hearing of the plan announced that he would amend some of the college rules, to enable the amateur carpenters to work at night, by means of powerful arc lights.
“Hurrah!” cried the lads, and Proctor Zane was cheered for one of the few times in his life. He seemed to like it, too.
A meeting of the athletic committee was called for early the next day, and the plan of having the lads do the carpenter work was discussed in all its details. There was some money available for tools, and it developed that, as Tom had said, many of the students were handy with them, some even having done carpenter work in their vacations to earn tuition money.
One of the janitors had once been a builder, and he offered to show the boys how to do the work properly, so that it would be safe.