There was a roaring fire in the open fireplace of the little living room into which they were ushered, and the mellow glow of a big lamp added to the comfort of the scene. Nelson backed up to the flames, stretched himself, and grinned like the Cheshire cat.
“This is simply great!” he said with a sigh.
The host brought a little bright-faced woman and introduced her as Mrs. Cozzens, and Bob introduced Nelson and Dan and Tom with ludicrous formality considering the fact that they were all dripping wet.
“You’ll want to get your things off and dry yourselves,” said Mrs. Cozzens. “So you go right upstairs to the guest room, and Mr. Cozzens will look after you.”
Will, who had been propped up in a big armchair before the fire, began to show signs of returning animation. He lifted his head and looked about the room.
“Hello,” said Nelson. “Feeling better?”
“I guess so,” was the faint answer.
“He’d better go right to bed,” said the woman. “You carry him up, John.”
Nelson assisted, and Will was put to bed. Their host returned presently with something hot in a cup and made Will sip it. After that, in spite of the fact the others were changing their wet garments for all the clothes, old and new, that Mr. Cozzens could find and making a lot of noise about it, Will went sound asleep on his cot. When the Four were finally ready to return to the living room they were a strange-looking quartette. Mr. Cozzens’s garments were much too large for even Bob, and sleeves and legs had to be turned up generously. Tom was a striking figure in a pair of old white tennis trousers and a red sweater, while Bob in a brown canvas shooting jacket, Dan in a pair of duck trousers and a Tuxedo coat, and Nelson in a suit of blue serge that could have gone around him twice were not far behind in point of picturesqueness. They went downstairs laughing merrily to find Mr. Cozzens with a tray containing cups of steaming coffee in his hands.
“I was just going to take this up to you, boys. Here, sit down by the fire and put this down. It’ll do you good. There’s cream in it, and the sugar’s in the bowl. Hello! No spoons? Jennie, what did you think they were going to stir with? Their fingers?”