“We were thinking of moving your cot-bed into the old hut, Verny, but then we decided to wait and see if you would like it,” now suggested Betty.
“You see, we were a bit crowded last night in the tent, and we thought you would like some privacy of your own. Being in the old hut might appeal to your sentimentality,” added Julie.
Another laugh rang out, but this time at Mrs. Vernon’s expense. She sighed and posed as a sentimental maiden might, and simpered her thanks for the scouts’ forethought. Then they laughed again.
“Now all joking aside, girls! I appreciate your thought and will gladly move my hotel-suite to the hut. At least I shall be near the crackers and prunes if I feel hungry at night,” declared Mrs. Vernon.
She then called the girls to assist her in moving her effects from the tent to the hut, and as they went back and forth the Captain could not refrain from again voicing her gratification at the manner in which the scouts finished their first carpentry work.
“If you were fully-fledged scouts of record, you surely would be awarded a badge.”
Behind her back, as she said this, the Captain’s four carpenters again exchanged smiles and knowing winks.
[CHAPTER SEVEN—HEPSY JOINS THE SCOUTS’ UNION]
The next morning, after breakfast dishes were cleared away, the Captain said: “Now we will give a few minutes to reading our Scout Handbook, and then practice some new knots. After that we can choose our recreation.”
“I don’t want to waste any more time on recreation until our new hut is built,” declared Joan.