“Yes, but I was visiting and had nothing else to do!”
“Oh, is that it! Well, I’ll tell you what, Flutey! I’ll rent the big house and ask you to visit me all winter. Then you can run about and enjoy the Little Wonders we found at Happy Hills without thinking of your age. If it is your own home that makes you so aged, we will never allow you to return here!” said Uncle Ben.
“You’re all talking a lot of poppy-cock stuff! Flutey has been livelier here at Happy Hills than I ever saw her before,” said Dot Starr, who must have a word in everything.
“Sure! Doesn’t she visit the camp twice a day, and go up and down all the steps to the Nests, to say nothing of going about the Little Farms, and hospital and Refectory. If she can stand that, she can stand a little of New York,” said Don, who felt a great attraction in this sudden idea of a New York Home for Little Wonders!
“Well, we have all summer to plan such an outlandish thing as Uncle Ben just sprang on us, so we will think it over,” said Mr. Richards, who did not think it wise to urge matters further.
“What are we going to do tomorrow, Uncle Ben?” now asked Ned.
“Farmer Jones said he would show us what he does with all the wastage from camp that the Street Cleaning Department wheels to the dump each day,” said Jinks.
“That won’t take all morning—only an hour,” added Ned.
“And after that—what do you want to do?” said Uncle Ben.
“I say, let’s give the Little Citizens a picnic. We can all go in installments in the autos to some other woods or lake and have something to eat, then play games and come back,” suggested Don.